The plumbing industry, like many parts of the overall housing and real estate industry, operates in pockets. Some pockets of the U.S. are roaring. Other pockets are stagnant or declining. But plumbing industry business growth specialist Gregg Towsley reports that the economy has recovered in regards to the housing industry, though not in all places. Places like Detroit and certain bankrupt cities in California aren’t cranking out growth.
But many cities across the U.S. are experiencing a real estate boom. This is an opportunity for new plumbing companies to be able to make some mistakes and still stay in business because the overall industry is in such demand. It’s also an opportunity for longtime businesses who may have been stagnant to start growing again.
Towsley says, “We’re seeing tremendous expansion in real estate markets across the country. There’s lots of building and construction going on. This means high demand for plumbing services both commercial and residential. I’ve been in the industry over a decade working with over 50 different plumbing companies as clients. One of my big questions was, ‘What is their biggest problem?’ So I decided to do a poll.”
The poll included some big concerns that cut across most industries. Things like paying bills and collections, finding customers, hiring quality employees, and project management. Towsley says, “I was a bit surprised that plumbing companies’ biggest problem was hiring skilled, quality technicians. 46% of our survey respondents said this was their biggest problem. Finding customers came in a distant second at 26%, roughly half of the technician problem. With so much demand out there I’m seeing 3-week and longer wait times on projects. A big contributor is these companies just don’t have enough plumbing techs they’re confident in to get to jobs sooner. There’s a definite shortage in the supply of skilled, reliable and professional plumbers.”
While there are challenges in the plumbing industry, overall Towsley was optimistic. It’s good for Americans to have some optimism with all the negativity on the news. So despite the doomsayers it seems like from the ground there’s lots of reason to be optimistic about the housing industry going forward.
Towsley’s final point, “Our job is to make our clients’ phones ring more. But not just random phone calls but the quality type of prospects each individual client is looking for. To do this I have to keep my finger on the pulse of the industry. So I like to conduct research and polls from time to time to give my clients the competitive intelligence they need to dominate. And so far, it’s been very successful. We’ve had clients that started with just the owner and 2 trucks. We helped them grow to the $10 million-$15 million range and over 50 trucks. So if you own a plumbing company stay informed and know that you’re in a Greenfield industry with lots of opportunity.”
You can find out more about Gregg Towsley at: http://GrowPlumbing.com.