• Sign In
  • Create Account
  • Sign Out
  • My Account
  • NEWS
  • PRODUCTS
  • CONTRACTORS
  • ENGINEERS
  • RADIANT & HYDRONICS
  • INSIGHTS
  • MEDIA
  • RESOURCES
  • EMAGAZINE
  • SIGN UP!
cart
facebook instagram twitter linkedin youtube
  • PRODUCTS
  • FEATURED PRODUCTS
  • CONTRACTORS
  • BATH & KITCHEN PRO
  • BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
  • HIGH EFFICIENCY HOMES
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • WATER TREATMENT
  • PMC COLUMNS
  • PMC COLUMNS
  • Dave Yates: Contractor’s Corner
  • John Siegenthaler: Hydronics Workshop
  • Kenny Chapman: The Blue Collar Coach
  • Matt Michel: Service Plumbing Pros
  • Scott Secor: Heating Perceptions
  • ENGINEERS
  • CONTINUING EDUCATION
  • DECARBONIZATION | ELECTRIFICATION
  • FIRE PROTECTION
  • GEOTHERMAL | SOLAR THERMAL
  • PIPING | PLUMBING | PVF
  • PME COLUMNS
  • PME COLUMNS
  • Christoph Lohr: Strategic Plumbing Insights
  • David Dexter: Plumbing Talking Points
  • James Dipping: Engineer Viewpoints
  • John Seigenthaler: Renewable Heating Design
  • Lowell Manalo: Plumbing Essentials
  • Misty Guard: Guard on Compliance
  • RADIANT & HYDRONICS
  • RADIANT COMFORT REPORT
  • THE GLITCH & THE FIX
  • INSIGHTS
  • CODES
  • GREEN PLUMBING & MECHANICAL
  • PROJECT PROFILES
  • COLUMNS
  • SPONSOR INSIGHTS
  • COLUMNS
  • Codes Corner
  • Natalie Forster: Editorial Opinion
  • Guest Editorial
  • MEDIA
  • EBOOKS
  • PODCASTS
  • VIDEOS
  • WEBINARS
  • RESOURCES
  • INDUSTRY CALENDAR
  • DIRECTORIES
  • PM BOOKSTORE
  • CE CENTER
  • MARKET RESEARCH
  • CLASSIFIEDS
  • EMAGAZINE
  • EMAGAZINE
  • ARCHIVE ISSUES
  • CONTACT
  • ADVERTISE
  • PME EMAGAZINE ARCHIVES
search
cart
facebook instagram twitter linkedin youtube
  • Sign In
  • Create Account
  • Sign Out
  • My Account
  • NEWS
  • PRODUCTS
    • FEATURED PRODUCTS
  • CONTRACTORS
    • BATH & KITCHEN PRO
    • BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
    • HIGH EFFICIENCY HOMES
    • TECHNOLOGY
    • WATER TREATMENT
    • PMC COLUMNS
      • Dave Yates: Contractor’s Corner
      • John Siegenthaler: Hydronics Workshop
      • Kenny Chapman: The Blue Collar Coach
      • Matt Michel: Service Plumbing Pros
      • Scott Secor: Heating Perceptions
  • ENGINEERS
    • CONTINUING EDUCATION
    • DECARBONIZATION | ELECTRIFICATION
    • FIRE PROTECTION
    • GEOTHERMAL | SOLAR THERMAL
    • PIPING | PLUMBING | PVF
    • PME COLUMNS
      • Christoph Lohr: Strategic Plumbing Insights
      • David Dexter: Plumbing Talking Points
      • James Dipping: Engineer Viewpoints
      • John Seigenthaler: Renewable Heating Design
      • Lowell Manalo: Plumbing Essentials
      • Misty Guard: Guard on Compliance
  • RADIANT & HYDRONICS
    • RADIANT COMFORT REPORT
    • THE GLITCH & THE FIX
  • INSIGHTS
    • CODES
    • GREEN PLUMBING & MECHANICAL
    • PROJECT PROFILES
    • COLUMNS
      • Codes Corner
      • Natalie Forster: Editorial Opinion
      • Guest Editorial
    • SPONSOR INSIGHTS
  • MEDIA
    • EBOOKS
    • PODCASTS
    • VIDEOS
    • WEBINARS
  • RESOURCES
    • INDUSTRY CALENDAR
    • DIRECTORIES
    • PM BOOKSTORE
    • CE CENTER
    • MARKET RESEARCH
    • CLASSIFIEDS
  • EMAGAZINE
    • EMAGAZINE
    • ARCHIVE ISSUES
    • CONTACT
    • ADVERTISE
    • PME EMAGAZINE ARCHIVES
  • SIGN UP!
Columns

Spring Cleaning or Spring Fever?

By Paul Ridilla
June 1, 2000
For as long as I can remember April marked spring cleaning time. The entire house — from top to bottom, from inside to out, and from nook to cranny — was scrubbed, dusted and vacuumed to sterile hospital room standards.

This spring cleaning philosophy can also be applied to your business. It’s better than succumbing to the listlessness of spring fever, that other springtime tradition where you just sit back and merely wish for something good to happen.

But I’m not so concerned about your physical office and buildings since most of you already have either a full-time maintenance employee or a maintenance service. I’m referring more to the “contents” of your business:

1. Spring is a good time to review each employee’s performance record and pay scale. Are you getting what you pay for? Are they being rewarded fairly for what they do? Is that scorecard complete and accurate?

2. Your fiscal year is ended which should give you enough data to analyze this year’s marketing strategies. Which type of job made you the most money and why?

3. Your year-end statement should also reflect your productivity and jobsite efficiency, or lack of.

4. You should review the inventory in your warehouse and yard. Be certain that you do not have mixed bins or boxes of expensive mixed fittings. Your employees would have to waste valuable hours searching for items that may not even be in stock. Likewise, they’ll buy new items when what they needed was in that pile on the floor.

5. Anyone who owns equipment such as backhoes, welding machines, forklifts, tampers, etc., should have an ongoing maintenance program. But spring is a good time to give everything a thorough “once over.”

6. Spring is also a good time to review last year’s rental costs to see what you should have purchased rather than leased.

7. Review the efficiency of your home office and job trailer offices. Do you have the most efficient computers, software, telephones, fax machines, copy machines, etc.? Is your office layout conducive to efficiency, productivity and effective communication. Would changing offices or adding a partition eliminate congestion or confusion?

8. Are your company trucks and company cars being properly maintained? Do you need all those vehicles? Should some of them be replaced? Or junked? Would a fresh coat of paint brighten up the company image?

9. Review last year’s accidents and safety inspection records. Are you following the basic rules that you initiated? Are there updated MSDS sheets in each truck or on each job? Are the tool box talks properly documented? Who is personally responsible to make all of this happen?

10. Would a new coat of paint brighten up your offices? Maybe a new floor, a brighter light fixture, or some additional shelving could make those long days a little more enjoyable and productive.

Since each of you have your own individual situations, some of these suggestions may not apply, but you can probably come up with at least a dozen more that do. Your best bet is to create a written checklist for any of those yearly spring cleaning tasks that you feel warrant your attention. Be sure to add “by whom” and “by when” to each item to guarantee that they will get done.

“Shot-In-The-Arm:” Spring cleaning in no way ever indicated that our homes were dirty or not taken care of properly. Everything was kept neat and clean throughout the entire year; spring cleaning just added that “shot-in-the-arm” to start out each year with a clean slate. Likewise for our business. I especially recommend concentrating on three items:

1. Over half of the contractors profess the value of a yearly review for their employees, but still procrastinate performing it. Some employees will wait two or three years and finally have to confront their boss for a raise. Unfortunately, a larger percentage of those whose boss broke his or her promise joined those migrators we wrote about last year and found another job.

The saddest part of these yearly reviews is the lack of recorded performance. You all know about “convenient memories.” People only remember all of the good things and the extra effort they gave you last year; naturally, you can remember only the bad. After all, every one of their mistakes costs you money!

This yearly review should be a review of their written performance record only! If it’s not in their file, it never happened and nothing should ever be documented until it is discussed with that employee. Some of you will be amazingly pleased with the results of doing it right.

2. I hope your bookkeeping system separates your diversified activities into divisions or profit centers. It is nice to know that your company made a nice profit last year, but it is even nicer to know which activities were the most profitable. If you have a fully stocked warehouse, you should weigh what you have invested against what it returned. Is that convenience worth as much as it costs? Should you expand or shut it down? You need to carefully analyze the entire picture before you make a rash decision.

The same goes for your service department. Are you only providing a service for your customer or is that where you should be expanding? How many service contractors are you selling? How much additional service do your techs sell? How much is repeat business or referrals from satisfied customers?

Are you more profitable on your multiresidential or with custom homes. Should you continue bidding government projects or stick with private industry? Do you want more remodeling? How about your design-build turnkey projects? Should you continue doing site work and utility lines?

3. Reviewing and analyzing items 1 and 2 should provide you a pretty clear picture of jobsite efficiency and productivity. If you visited each job once a week and documented any performance above or below expectations, your spring cleaning task will be quite simple.

I hope you can use this evaluation to prevent repeating any costly blunders and fire up your troops to find that better way.

Share This Story

Looking for a reprint of this article?
From high-res PDFs to custom plaques, order your copy today!

Ridilla

Questions? Need help? Call Paul at 407/699-8515, on his cell at 407/467-4916 or e-mail him (reference Plumbing & Mechanical magazine).

Recommended Content

JOIN TODAY
to unlock your recommendations.

Already have an account? Sign In

  • Worker using the Milwaukee Tool SWITCH PACK drain cleaner

    Pipeline profits: Drain cleaning, pipe inspection create opportunities

    Drain cleaning and inspection services offer lucrative...
    Green Plumbing and Mechanical
    By: Nicole Krawcke
  • Uponor employee, Arturo Moreno

    The reinvestment in American manufacturing and training

    Plumbing & Mechanical Chief Editor Nicole Krawcke and...
    Plumbing News
    By: Nicole Krawcke and Natalie Forster
  • March 2024 Women in Plumbing hero image of woman engineer overlayed by circle of hexagon shapes with numbers from 1 to 10

    Celebrating 10 Influential Women in the Plumbing Industry

    Celebrating Women's History Month and Women in...
    Plumbing News
    By: Nicole Krawcke
close

1 COMPLIMENTARY ARTICLE(S) LEFT

Loader

Already a Registered User? Sign in now.

Manage My Account
  • eNewsletters
  • Online Registration
  • Subscription Customer Service
  • eMagazine
  • Manage My Preferences

IPEX celebrates grand opening of new Florida distribution center

IPEX celebrates grand opening of new Florida distribution center

Bell & Gossett Illustrates Path to Net-zero at AHR Expo

Bell & Gossett Illustrates Path to Net-zero at AHR Expo

NIBCO Press Solutions

NIBCO Press Solutions

AI can boost efficiency and profitability for plumbing, HVAC contractors

AI can boost efficiency and profitability for plumbing, HVAC contractors

More Videos

Sponsored Content

Sponsored Content is a special paid section where industry companies provide high quality, objective, non-commercial content around topics of interest to the Plumbing & Mechanical audience. All Sponsored Content is supplied by the advertising company and any opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily reflect the views of Plumbing & Mechanical or its parent company, BNP Media. Interested in participating in our Sponsored Content section? Contact your local rep!

close
  • J.J. Keller CMV vehicles on road
    Sponsored byJ. J. Keller & Associates, Inc.

    The dash cam game-changer for small business safety

Popular Stories

Integrate a heat pump with a boiler mounted on a brick wall.

How to integrate a heat pump with a boiler for dual temperature hydronic heating and cooling

Plumber using the DEWALT 20V MAX* Plastic Tubing Cutter to cut a white tube.

Making tough jobs easier: Most-used tools by plumbers in 2025

RCR Spring2025 Geothermal JHJ manifold-2

Geothermal and radiant: An energy-efficient powerhouse

Nominations for Plumbing & Mechanical's NextGen ALL-Stars are now open. Submit your nomination TODAY!

PM Aalberts August 14 Free Webinar: Precision Under Pressure: Optimizing System Performance Through Balancing and Air Removal

Events

November 13, 2024

Future Proofing MEP: Navigating the 2026 High Efficiency Water Heating Standards

Join our deep dive into DOE’s new standards so you can future-proof your MEP practice.

EARN: 0.1 ASPE CEU; 1 AIA LU/HSW; 0.1 IACET CEU*; 1 PDH

August 14, 2025

Precision Under Pressure: Optimizing System Performance Through Balancing and Air Removal

We’ll cover how proper air separation and hydronic balancing help maximize operational efficiency, reduce maintenance and minimize downtime.

View All Submit An Event

Poll

Will business be up or down in 2025?

Do you anticipate business in 2025 to be up or down in comparison to 2024?
View Results Poll Archive

Products

The Water Came To A Stop

The Water Came To A Stop

See More Products

2025 Bath & Kitchen Pro eBook

Related Articles

  • Truck Of The Month: Time For Spring Cleaning with Maurici The Clean Plumbers, Tampa Bay, Fla.

    See More
  • Dwyer Group's Women In Trades Program To Be Offered In Spring

    See More
  • March 13, 2007 - I=B=R School Spring Sessions Announced

    See More

Related Products

See More Products
  • M:\General Shared\__AEC Store Katie Z\AEC Store\Images\Plumbing\new sites\Plumbing_technology.gif

    Plumbing Technology, Design & Installation

See More Products
×

Keep your content unclogged with our newsletters!

Stay in the know on the latest plumbing & piping industry trends.

JOIN TODAY!
  • RESOURCES
    • Advertise
    • Contact Us
    • Directories
    • Store
    • Want More
    • Supply House Times
  • SIGN UP TODAY
    • Create Account
    • eMagazine
    • eNewsletter
    • Customer Service
    • Manage Preferences
  • SERVICES
    • Marketing Services
    • Reprints
    • Market Research
    • List Rental
    • Survey/Respondent Access
  • STAY CONNECTED
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • YouTube
    • X (Twitter)
  • PRIVACY
    • PRIVACY POLICY
    • TERMS & CONDITIONS
    • DO NOT SELL MY PERSONAL INFORMATION
    • PRIVACY REQUEST
    • ACCESSIBILITY

Copyright ©2025. All Rights Reserved BNP Media.

Design, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing

search
cart
facebook instagram twitter linkedin youtube
  • Sign In
  • Create Account
  • Sign Out
  • My Account
  • NEWS
  • PRODUCTS
    • FEATURED PRODUCTS
  • CONTRACTORS
    • BATH & KITCHEN PRO
    • BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
    • HIGH EFFICIENCY HOMES
    • TECHNOLOGY
    • WATER TREATMENT
    • PMC COLUMNS
      • Dave Yates: Contractor’s Corner
      • John Siegenthaler: Hydronics Workshop
      • Kenny Chapman: The Blue Collar Coach
      • Matt Michel: Service Plumbing Pros
      • Scott Secor: Heating Perceptions
  • ENGINEERS
    • CONTINUING EDUCATION
    • DECARBONIZATION | ELECTRIFICATION
    • FIRE PROTECTION
    • GEOTHERMAL | SOLAR THERMAL
    • PIPING | PLUMBING | PVF
    • PME COLUMNS
      • Christoph Lohr: Strategic Plumbing Insights
      • David Dexter: Plumbing Talking Points
      • James Dipping: Engineer Viewpoints
      • John Seigenthaler: Renewable Heating Design
      • Lowell Manalo: Plumbing Essentials
      • Misty Guard: Guard on Compliance
  • RADIANT & HYDRONICS
    • RADIANT COMFORT REPORT
    • THE GLITCH & THE FIX
  • INSIGHTS
    • CODES
    • GREEN PLUMBING & MECHANICAL
    • PROJECT PROFILES
    • COLUMNS
      • Codes Corner
      • Natalie Forster: Editorial Opinion
      • Guest Editorial
    • SPONSOR INSIGHTS
  • MEDIA
    • EBOOKS
    • PODCASTS
    • VIDEOS
    • WEBINARS
  • RESOURCES
    • INDUSTRY CALENDAR
    • DIRECTORIES
    • PM BOOKSTORE
    • CE CENTER
    • MARKET RESEARCH
    • CLASSIFIEDS
  • EMAGAZINE
    • EMAGAZINE
    • ARCHIVE ISSUES
    • CONTACT
    • ADVERTISE
    • PME EMAGAZINE ARCHIVES
  • SIGN UP!