Like most industry sectors, the plumbing and heating space is facing a tough time at present, but it continues to benefit from increased demand in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
Certainly, the demand for tradespeople as a whole increased by 50% in just two years according to data released in 2024, while bathroom fitters and plumbers are set to be among the five most in-demand trades going forward.
However, the overall plumbing and heating industry has observed a 10% decline in revenue during the same period, suggesting that people are having less expensive work carried out. But is this trend about to change, particularly as homeowners look to make their properties more energy efficient? Let’s find out!
How to Expand Your Plumbing Venture in 2024
With the rate of inflation in the UK having reached 10.7% in November, the cost-of-living has continued to soar at a disproportionate rate to earnings.
The rise in wholesale gas prices has been central to this, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. As a result, households are desperate to reduce consumption and their monthly energy bills, and those with disposable income are potentially willing to invest in boiler upgrades and services to achieve this objective.
But how can you capitalise on this trend as a homeowner? Here are some steps to keep in mind:
1. Increase the Ranges of Services that you Offer
If you find that there’s a significant increase in demand for plumbing and heating upgrades (particularly new combi boilers or heat pumps), you could look to incorporate this into the full range of services that you offer. This could increase your potential client base in real-time, while in the current climate, we’d also recommend offering lower cost heat retention services such as installation.
Once you achieve success in residential plumbing, you can venture into commercial plumbing services. Expanding into commercial plumbing from residential services offers new opportunities but also challenges. It involves adhering to stricter regulations, handling more extensive and more complex projects, and acquiring specialized skills and equipment. Building relationships, offering 24/7 service, mastering project management, and maintaining quality and reliability are crucial for success in the commercial sector. Click here to learn more about commercial plumbing services for skyrise buildings.
2. Consider Your Marketing Efforts
Marketing is also key to your company’s success, even if you don’t have significant resources with which to invest in creating lavish and integrated campaigns. When looking to market your plumbing business online, setting up a website and social media pages are crucial, while ensuring you have consistent online content such as blog posts and social media posts to engage potential customers.
Similarly, word of mouth can be particularly effective for your business, especially if you look to work within a local catchment area and can leverage your reputation and portfolio of work to engage others.
You should also consider outdoor advertising such as traditional billboards, which are surprisingly affordable and great when promoting your services in specific locations. This could also include giving out flyers, or sponsoring local events to increase the awareness and image of your brand in your local area.
3. Be Sure to Manage Your Finances
As your business starts to scale and expand, you may find that the cost of operating and providing certain services also rises markedly. This can cause significant short-term issues, especially at a time when the cost of living and borrowing remains high.
Remember, profitability is key at all times when looking to maintain a prosperous and growing business, so tight financial management and willingness to reduce costs is imperative.
Analyzing Your Results
In order to stay competitive and ensure success in the plumbing business, it is important to continually evaluate your performance. To effectively assess how well you are doing, take the time to analyze your business results.
Data can provide an invaluable insight into how successful you are and where improvement needs to be made. It can also provide invaluable feedback on customer’s preferences and needs. Analyzing key metrics is essential for understanding how your business is performing.
When assessing the performance of your plumbing business, there are a few key elements to look at: customers, services and revenue. Carefully review the data related to them, paying attention to particular trends or patterns that may emerge over time.
This analysis can help you determine what areas of the business need improvement and which strategies are having a positive impact on its growth.
It can also point out any underlying issues that have been causing a decrease in sales or an increase in complaints from customers. By thoroughly reviewing this data regularly, you will be able to tailor operations so they are more effective in delivering results that positively affect both profitability and customer satisfaction levels.
Establishing Your Brand
When trying to establish your plumbing business in the competitive industry, creating a strong brand is one of the key elements to a successful marketing strategy. Branding encompasses all aspects of your business, from your logo to your messaging and even how you present yourself to potential clients.
Establishing a successful brand starts with developing and understanding the core values that make up your business. People feel more drawn to purchases when they have an emotional connection with what they’re buying, and if they believe they can trust you, they will be more likely to do business with you.
Your brand should also include elements such as design aesthetics that provide customers with visual cues about who you are. Consistently using branded colors, fonts and patterns can help send strong messages about your company’s core values and mission statement even before potential customers hear from you directly.
You should also think about creating content that reflects those same values — it should help educate customers on why they should work with you since trust is essential for any successful plumbing business. Make sure everything is up-to-date so people don’t get the impression that your skills or methods are outdated or irrelevant; this could hurt overall customer engagement in the long run.
Creating a well-defined online presence is also an important part of staying competitive in the market today. Having an optimized website not only allows for people looking for services closer to them to see what area codes you cover but can also give potential clients insight into who you are as a company – from reading customer reviews and working with social media agendas – visibility through search engines will only add value to your overall branding efforts as well as give users information on how their investments into repairs or remodeling might benefit them long term costs wise!
