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Learning From the Struggles of Growing a Business

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I think there are a few things a new or young business owner should know about the struggles of growing a business. I often say that I think I’ve made every mistake in the book, and if you can find someone with that kind of experience, you can avoid making the same mistakes.

The People You Hire

One key component of a successful business is the people. Are you getting the right people that fit into the culture of your business? Are they competent, do they have good character, and are they talented? What skills do they have, and are those skills well-matched with the role they are supposed to fill? When a new business owner is just starting out, it can be challenging to put together a great team. The owner might just hire whoever comes along, or they might hire a good friend. Hiring someone who doesn’t know what they are doing—oftentimes out of desperation—is one of the worst things a business owner can do. Instead, develop a process to hire people, know who you’re looking for, and then go out and find that person. Do not compromise in this area, because I promise that if you find the right person, your life will be so much easier.

Longevity is Key

Once you have the right people, you have to take care of them, and taking care of people is expensive. It can be very daunting for any business owner, no matter whether they’re just starting out or they’ve been in business for many years. Business owners often say, “I don’t think we can afford that.” What you cannot afford is losing the right people who make up your team. You have to take care of them and keep them with you.

Grow With A Plan

Next, make sure you don’t get too aggressive and grow faster than what’s feasible for your business. Generally speaking, for every 10% of growth you’ll take away 1% of profit. That’s just because of the learning curve necessary for growth. When a company grows rapidly, they tend to find themselves losing money, which can be very problematic for the sustainability of the company.

Delegate When Necessary

It’s also very common for business owners and key managers in a company to be overwhelmed, especially due to the span of control. This is something we worked hard to improve within our business over the last several years. People can be very effective, efficient, and knowledgeable. But at the end of the day, we’re all human—nobody is superhuman—and we can all only do so much. When somebody is trying to control too much, somewhere someone is probably making a sacrifice for that control-minded individual. Be careful of that, and make sure you’re honed in on knowing what can realistically get done. Stick to that and delegate the rest.

Find Time to Grow Your Business

Finally, understand that it’s very hard to grow a business if you’re working in the business and not on the business. You have to give yourself enough time to develop strategies, systems, and processes so that the business can grow. If you’re always taking care of clients or doing the day-to-day work, it’s very hard to focus on growth.

If you have any questions about plumbing or HVAC, contact us online or give us a call at 540-483-9382.

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The Diamond Club is a very special program we have within Wisler Plumbing. We’re extremely proud of the great service we provide to members on an annual basis. Diamond Club members can get a total of 3 free visits every year, including one annual visit for plumbing and two visits for HVAC. These visits are significant when it comes to keeping your home in good working order.

 

For the plumbing visit, we do maintenance of the water heater, which includes flushing the heater and checking its safety devices. We also have a checklist with about 175 points, which involves going around the entire house, working the valves, making sure everything is working properly, and dye testing the toilets to make sure you’re not wasting any water. If there happens to be something like a leak under the sink that you don’t know about, we’ll catch it and let you know. We call this plumbing visit our maintenance and safety inspection, and it’s invaluable in making sure that we’ll detect any potential problems before they turn into a sudden emergency that surprises you out of nowhere.

 

For the two HVAC visits, you’ll get a heat check or a cool check, depending on the time of year.  (During the cooler months you’ll get the heat check, and during the summer months you’ll get the cool check. We do charge for any maintenance that might need to be done.) In each HVAC visit, we’ll check the levels and see how the HVAC system is working. Our checklist has about 100 points, depending on how many systems you have.

 

Another key benefit that Diamond Club Members receive is preferred service. Sometimes an extremely urgent situation will come up when you least expect it. It might happen during a time when it seems like everyone else has a need as well. If a Diamond Club member calls in to our company with a need—even if we’re fully booked—we’ll bump non-members back in the schedule to provide our Diamond Club members with priority service.

 

Members also receive a much longer warranty on most repairs. If we repair a toilet, for instance, and we replace the fuel valve, it normally comes with a 1 year warranty. As a Diamond Club member, you’ll get a 2 year warranty instead. If we replace a fixture (like a toilet, faucet, sink, etc.) and you’re a current member, you’ll get a lifetime warranty on the component as long as you keep your Diamond Club membership active. This is a huge benefit for someone who buys a fixture like a toilet because it means that you’ll never have to worry about it again as long as you’re an active member.

 

Diamond Club members also get discounts, including a 10% discount on service and repairs done in your home. As a member, you’ll have this discount applied even if you get a replacement. Depending on what kind of work we do, you’ll probably get back somewhere from 10 to 15 times the value of what you paid for the program within one year of membership. It’s kind of a no-brainer for homeowners who are concerned about their home and its longevity.

 

It’s easy to sign up for the Diamond Club. You can do it right over the phone without even having anyone come over to your house. However, if you do have a service call set up, whoever comes to your home would be happy to sign you up. If you have any questions, contact us online or give us a call at 540-483-9382.

 

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How hard could it be to remove a toilet, really? After all, don’t you just pull it right up? It might not be as simple as you think. Here are 3 things not to do while removing a toilet. (For today’s purpose, we’re not going to get into putting the toilet back on.)

1. Turn off the Water.

I have literally seen people not turn off/disconnect the water from the toilet before removing it from the floor. Luckily, most people do get this part taken care of. However, when you remove a toilet, you also need to empty the water from the tank and bowl. Otherwise, when you pull the toilet up, it’s going to pour all that water all over the floor. Always remember, don’t leave any water in the toilet.

2. Cutting the Caulk .

I’ve seen someone pull the toilet up and caulk that’s still stuck to the linoleum or laminate floor will actually pull the floor covering right off with the toilet itself. If it’s old, it can also crack and ruin the floor covering. Always make sure to get the caulk completely loose from the floor.

3.  Inspect the flange.

Any time you pull a toilet, you should take the wax off of the flange, remove the old bolts, make sure the toilet flange is in good working order, and make sure it’s at the correct height before setting the toilet back. One of the most common mistakes people make is they pull the toilet up, do work like installing a new floor, and then set the toilet right back—without replacing the wax or bolts, and without adjusting the height of the flange. This often happens with flooring contractors who are not plumbers and are just worried about getting the new floor installed. They just put the toilet right back, which is a big no-no because sewer gas can get into the house and leaks can rot the floor right around the flange.

In these kinds of situations, it might be a wise idea to get a professional to take a look before the toilet gets put back. If someone has the right tools and experience, they might be able to remove a toilet by themselves. Otherwise, it’s probably a good idea to reach out to someone like the team at Wisler Plumbing. Contact us online or give us a call at 540-483-9382.

 

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Winterize

Let’s take a look at some of the steps homeowners can take to prepare their houses for safety this winter. Most of these are going to be plumbing-oriented, especially when it comes to preventing frozen pipes, but I’ll also throw in a couple of things you can do pertaining to heating systems.

Drain the Pipes

Starting with plumbing, it’s a good idea to make sure all the outside plumbing is protected. If you have an outside shower, sink, or outdoor piping, it needs to be winterized. This basically means the water needs to be removed so that it doesn’t freeze and burst. Any outdoor hose faucets should be turned off and drained. For any freeze-proof hydrants make sure the hoses are disconnected so that they don’t freeze.

Close the Secure the Openings

Next, make sure that the covers over well casings, crawlspace doors, and anywhere else on your home or plumbing are secure and tight. Crawlspaces have ventilation holes/vents which should be closed in the winter and opened back up in the summer. In outdoor buildings with insulation, sometimes the insulation might get wet. If it needs to be replaced, it’s a smart idea to do so before we get into longer periods of freezing temperatures.

Check Your Heating System

On the HVAC side, probably the best thing to do is get your heating system checked. It’s definitely working the hardest during the coldest days of the season, and you don’t want it to give out when you need it most. It’s a good idea to get the system checked when the weather is still more mild. Make sure it’s operating properly, the filters are clean, and the components are working efficiently. Once it gets really cold, you’ll be secure knowing the heating system will be able to keep your home warm and comfortable.

If you have any questions about prepping your house for a safe winter this year, reach out to the team at Wisler Plumbing and Air. Contact us online or give us a call at 540-483-9382.

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Exciting News

We have some very exciting news involving how our organization will change starting in 2020: We’re going to be offering HVAC services to all of our clients and the community at large! Right now we’re extremely busy at work to recruit competent people who fit into our organization and allow us to bring the HVAC trade onboard. Once we ramp up all of our systems and procedures, residential owner-occupied homes can come to us as a one-stop shop for water treatment, plumbing, drain cleaning, and HVAC as well.

Our Goals

One of the areas we’ll be working on over the next four to six months is our installs (both plumbing and HVAC) to make sure we do a better job with lead times for our clients. For instance, if one of our plumbers goes out for a leaky pipe and they find that all the pipes are in rough shape, they may recommend a re-pipe of the home. Sometimes the job might take 3 to 5 days to complete, in addition to getting put on a schedule with a wait time of two or even three weeks. We want to be able to shorten that lead time so we’re more responsive for these kinds of larger projects.

Continuing to Grow

This is a huge change for 2020, and we’re definitely going to continue to grow. We anticipate 15% growth next year, and along with that growth comes more new people and more business. We’re on track to run our first HVAC calls at the end of this year, so by the time January rolls around we should be well in the groove of things.

 

If you have any questions about HVAC or plumbing, contact us online or give us a call at 540-483-9382.

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We all have the usual things that we’re thankful for, so instead of just listing them out I want to share a little bit about why I’m thankful for them.

 

First off, I’m thankful for God—I’m thankful for His grace in my life and in my church family as well. We run a business with a team of employees and lots of customers. The reason I’m thankful for God is because we need some sort of moral compass guiding us to do the right thing and setting the example for how to treat people, whether that’s our clients or our employees. We receive this truth from our background of faith, which comes from an ongoing relationship with a church. It helps in all areas of my life just to make sure that I’m grounded in a moral path.

 

Next, I’m thankful for our community. Our families live in this community and our clients have supported me, my family, and this organization in so many different ways. That includes the service members in military, police officers, and all other public service officials. We live in an outstanding community and we greatly appreciate our clients in the area we serve. They’ve been kind and loyal to us, so we definitely give them our gratitude.

 

We have an awesome team within our organization, so I’m thankful for each and every team member, their contributions, and how well they serve the clients that make up our community. But sometimes we forget to mention the families who sometimes might miss our team members and would want them at home while they’re out serving the community. Those families make sacrifices for our team members, and we’re definitely thankful for their support.

 

Thanks, Dad. You’re a big part of who we are—in terms of this organization and with me and my background. When someone asks why I say, “Thanks, Dad,” The most obvious thing is that he raised me, gave me the opportunity within his business, and taught me a trade. But I would really be doing a disservice if I didn’t bring both of my parents into this. I learned a lot from both of them, obtained had a lot of opportunities from both of them, and they have done very well as parents.

 

Even though these might be some of the usual things we’re thankful for, I hope you have a little bit more insight as to why they mean so much to me.

 

To reach out to the team at Wisler Plumbing and Air, contact us online or give us a call at 540-483-9382.

 

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