A Complete Guide: How to Start Plumbing Business in 2022

Have you been thinking of opening a plumbing business? Do you like working with tools and Technology? I believe we can help you answer the inevitable question – how to start a plumbing business? We believe if you are passionate about something and if it’s coming about nicely, why not try to bring home the bacon.

Plumbing is a promising career. The shortage of tradesmen has led to an increase in the demand for plumbers. According to IBIS World Industry reports, the industry has grown to $ 107 Billion in total revenue. There are over 6,00,000 estimated jobs coming up in this industry.

If you wish to jump on the bandwagon, here’s all that you need to know on how to start a plumbing business.

Shalooka business guides acknowledge your needs and interest and present you a guide on what to know before starting a plumbing business.

Pros And Cons Of A Plumbing Business

What to know before starting a plumbing business? First and foremost is to be well aware of the pros and cons of the business you are planning to invest capital in!

Pros of a Plumbing Business

The demand for skilled and reliable plumbers is ever-increasing. There has been a massive demand for repair, renovation, and maintenance. It is expected that the demand for plumbing will increase by 12% in the next decade.
The business is scalable and there are a lot of growth and advancement opportunities in this business.
The job of a plumber is financially rewarding. One can make decent money by efficiently and effectively doing the job.
Plumbing involves a lot of physical activity which helps create physical and mental awareness.
It is a promising career and has a good level of income potential in developed countries.

Cons of a Plumbing Business

There are occupational risks since the work is prone to many hazards and injuries. One might hurt himself while doing the job and get severe injuries.
If you are a clock watcher, then this work isn’t for you.it demands working for long and irregular hours.
The work requires one to be physically present at the site where the work is to be done.
The work can be physically demanding since it involves lifting heavy pieces of equipment crawling bending and hunting to complete the job
Plumbing can also involve dealing with gross stuff.
You might have to deal with impatient and rude clients.
Your mistakes can ruin your reputation and your business might have to suffer losses.

What tools do you need to start a plumbing business?

To answer the question, how to start a plumbing business, we will first have to be accustomed to the most essential requirements of this business. To become a professional plumber, one needs to be well equipped with the advanced technical skills required. One can always enroll himself into a complete technical plumbing course to learn the same. Other basic skills are problem-solving skills, safety skills, physical skills, and people skills.

Tools are the essentials a plumber will require to complete the tasks and render the services. Plumbing is a skilled business; you need to invest in some essential tools that will cost around $5000.

Pipe Wrenches, spanners and Faucet Keys
Tools for pipework such as pliers, sealing tape pipes and tubes.
Drain and Sink cleaners
Radiator and associated piping tools
Screwdriver, silicon and other sealers, and fittings
Gloves, goggles, and heat shields for safety

Before you get started with building a business plan, you first need to decide on being an individual contractor for opening a pump plumbing company i.e either a Limited Liability Company or a corporation. The next step requires you to register your company and form a legal entity.

For being a professional plumber, you will have to get proper licenses and permits accordingly and get a tax identification number to proceed further.

What are the basic setup costs of a Plumbing business?

Whilst we will be covering everything you need to know how to start a plumbing business. But first, there shouldn’t be any doubts in your mind about why a plumbing business.

Fact that plumbing is a very promising career, the basic setup cost of a plumbing business is not that high.

You might have worked as an apprentice for a contractor for any other plumber. Owning a plumbing business will give you the freedom to work independently and build up your future.

Being a very demanding and rewarding business, since not everyone knows the art of fixing plumbing systems commercially and residentially.
The basic setup cost of a plumbing business is moderate because requirements are quite less. You will need a vehicle to travel, equipment for around $5000, uniform and business license { $800-6000} a year.

Overall, the back-of-the-envelope calculation of basic setup costs is about $10,000.

How do you prepare for launching a plumbing business?

As your doubts regarding how much it costs to start a plumbing business have been cleared in the previous section. Progressing further, we would like to throw some light on how to launch a plumbing business.

To make a business successful, deriving a business plan is paramount. Creating a plan will help you outline your thoughts and ideas regarding the business.

A proper business plan will detail a representation of how you will operate the business and render the services to your customers. Clear statements on what you have to offer to your customers and how you will do it should be enclosed within the plan.

This section also contains step-wise details on how to start a plumbing business. Here’s all that you need to know-

1. Market Research

Conducting market research is a very important part of how to start a plumbing business. You need to Get identified with how the plumbing industry works. To get an Insight into the Actual industry you need to get in touch with people who are a part of it and know the ins and outs.

2. Business name and logo

The business name will provide a unique identification to your plumbing business. Get on your creative nerves and choose the name that fits your purpose. Your brand name will help increase business value in the market. This also helps in attracting more customers your way.

A logo is just not a symbolic representation of what you have to offer to your customers. It is the trademark that will help legalize your business entity. It will be the visual that will help you attract customers to the business.

3. Niche Selection

Selecting a niche in which you specialize and will be rendering services to the customers is the next step of how to start a plumbing business. Starting a business is not a plum job. You will have to look out for various factors before choosing your niche market.

Doing some research is important to look out for different plumbing services and choose one that you would like to offer rendering services to your customers. You need to keep in mind that you have to choose a niche or a specialization which you will be able to handle well.

Your budget, expertise, size of equipment are important factors in niche selection.

You may also have to choose between commercial plumbing and household plumbing. Remember, both differ fundamentally and will form the base for your niche selection.

Choosing your specialization will decide the fate and success rate of your plumbing business.

Some of the popular Niche you need to know about are-

Plumbing technician
Steam fitting
Pipe fitting
Gas Service
Pipelayers
Radiator Service

4. Target Market

A plumbing business owner needs to understand the target audience has been rooting for. The key to understanding his target market is to know the needs and motivations.

Person profiles should be created by gathering data from the market and analyzing what represents the target market. Creating an ideal client profile will help to give direction to your goals and choose wisely.

There are some main person profiles you need to know.

Homeowners
Residential contractors
Small business owners
Business parks and Industrial/Retail sector/Hospitality sector
Sub-contracting to bigger companies.
Commercial contractors

5. Skillset

Plumbing is a skilled business. Being professionally trained in plumbing is a necessity for starting a plumbing business. Another important factor is that you need to decide whether you want to be an independent contractor to open a plumbing company.

No prior experience? No problem. Now if you wish to be an independent contractor you will have to get yourself schooled under a big contractor and work as an apprentice to gain training and experience.

If you already have had the basic training and you have decided to open up a plumbing company you will have to hire plumbers that are professionally trained and have the set of required skills.

Now as we already listed the basic skills required to become a plumber. Here are the specific skills you need to become a professional plumber.

Electrical basic skills
Knowledge of water heating systems
Pipe cutting and soldering skills
Draining and venting skills
Local plumbing
Local/regional laws and regulation regards water supply and sewage.

6.How to source raw materials?

It will be very inappropriate to pen a guide on how to start a plumbing business without drawing attention to the most important prerequisite of the business. After acquiring the training required to become a professional plumber, you will be requiring your set of tools to do the job planned!

Plumbing tools such as wrenches, pipes, screwdrivers, faucet keys, gloves, and goggles too since safety is of primary concern are the basic tools every plumber will not go without.

As a plumber, you need to contact drainage/plumbing stores in the market, compare the prices and build up your own set of tools before you begin your business.

For example, in the UK below are good suppliers of general tools and stuff.

Screwfix
Toolstaion

7.How to set up your price structure?

What to know Before starting a plumbing business is how to set up your prize structure. For a budding entrepreneur who has been planning to open a business in plumbing, knowing how to set a price structure will help him lay the base for profits and success in his business.

An intense study of the market prices and competitors will assist in building up your own price structure. A very common structure is to present your services at an appropriate hourly rate.

Another is to offer a per job quote to the customers which would cover end to end cost of whole thing.

Remember to cover your own cost and margins while you give good competition to your competitors in the market in the area of price structures.

8. Do you need an office?

A business requires an office to function efficiently and so does a plumbing business!

It depends on the business owner to open an office at home or rent a workplace. Finding a location will be quite time-consuming since you will have to look for one in a residential area or a commercial one depending upon your business type.

If you plan to set up your office at home the decision may come with some tax benefits.

And you know what’s icing on the cake? This will help reduce overheads too and make way for positive cash flow in the business.

Albeit, if you wish to open up a plumbing company, then you may contact a commercial or real estate agent for an office space.

9. Financial arrangement

Finances are one of the most basic requirements of any business. Any business owner will be requiring finance to start and run a business. Albeit, the setup cost of a plumbing business is moderate and does not require a lot of funds. “how to open a plumbing business without money” might be still a hurdle for those with any cent to their names.

Be that as it may, finance can be arranged through public and private sources.

A formidable business plan should be formulated to make an impact on the investors who might be interested in your business. You never know what strategy may work out for you and you are able to source a good amount of funding for the plumbing business.

10. Do You Need To Hire?

Hiring employees will depend upon the type of your business- are you going to run it single-handedly or open a company. If you are professionally trained and self-dependent to run your business, you don’t need to hire employees to run it.

Trained personnel will be a need for those who are going to run a company sending one person cannot handle the entire business.

Both the employer and the employees should have adept knowledge and training invert the specialize. Your skills are a living testament to the service you will provide.

What could be the possible hurdles in a plumbing business?

Undeniable is the fact that there won’t be any hurdles while you start a new venture. It is always said, “It is possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary.”

Albeit, the guide provides a blow-by-blow account of how to start a plumbing business, it is impossible for an entrepreneur to abstain from facing hurdles.

While the guide can only serve you well on what to know before starting a plumbing business, one is advised to not do it by halves.

The biggest hurdle you will have to cross is the societal misconceptions about plumbing as a business. People are afraid of starting a plumbing business because of society or else of the thinking that it might be a hard nut to crack.
Some people believe in going the whole Hog or not doing it at all. To attain success one has to hammer away at his work.
Having no or limited access to startup capital can be another hurdle that can keep you at one’s wit’s end to run the business or not.
You might not even get paid on time since you run a small business.
The business also involves dealing with gross stuff. But for ones who do it with aplomb, nothing will be impossible.

Conclusion: how to start a plumbing business in 2021

The guide contains step by step procedures to climb the ladder of how to start a plumbing business in 2021. Like every other business plumbing also requires time and effort, sometimes the hurdles might become time-consuming. Consistent effort will be required to battle it out and taste the first sip of success.

The amount of hard work and investment you put in will give you great income potential since plumbing is a growing industry. An average Salary of a qualified plumber is $50000 a year.

The first and foremost thing in the guide on how to start a plumbing business is to get training to become a professional plumber. The next step is to write down a business plan, get the business registered and do market research. Moving up the ladder, you need to find out the target market and the needs of the consumers you will be serving, look for an office, and arrange the finances.

Following the guide step by step, you will get to know how to run a successful plumbing business. Burning the candle from both ends will be required to taste the pie.

FAQs

1. Does the plumbing business carry enough income potential?

Yes, the plumbing business carries enough income potential since it is a growing country.

2. How much does it cost to start a plumbing business?

It costs around $10000 to start a plumbing business.