Businesses don’t succeed in a vacuum — and that is true in all industries, including plumbing, HVAC and electrical contracting businesses. Thankfully, contracting business owners are not on their own and don’t have to learn to “reinvent the wheel.” There are a number of industry associations and best practice organizations available to help.

Plumbers and their customers are living in a digital age, which means more potential clients are finding a plumber online via Google searches. If more customers are finding plumbers on Google, then it is important that you take the right steps to ensure you are the plumber they find. 

Leave behinds are low-cost items that you give to customers to promote your brand following service calls or that you give away during home shows and other events. Oftentimes, plumbers stumble with leave behinds because they select things they might like instead of what the customer values. Here are 17 great leave behinds that will build brand recall with consumers.

How much money do you have in the bank? I’m talking about your business primarily, but your personal cash reserves can become an important tool to temporarily support your business.

The Lovely Christy and I have had the great fortune of walking many piers in our time together. One of our favorites is in Huntington Beach, California. The energy of a pier is great, with many different types of people, all doing what they came for.

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, the world drastically changed as businesses shut down and employees moved to work-from-home settings. Once used mostly by the tech industry, video chat software companies such as Zoom, Go To Meeting and Microsoft Teams saw huge increases in demand as people began using these services for work, school and even to stay in touch with family members. Even doctor’s visits became virtual.

Let’s be honest. The trades are the inventors of 'remote work.' For decades, we’ve been dispatching remotely while technicians are awarded company vehicles to drive home each evening. They begin their mornings from the comfort of their own homes by receiving their work log for the day through walkie-talkie, text, email, slack, pager… remember those? Shoot, we’re awesome — others should take note!

The federal gift and estate tax exemption is currently the highest it has been since the tax was enacted over 100 years ago.

Legendary football coach Vince Lombardi used to start off his training camps by holding up a football and stating, “Gentlemen, this is a football.” 

We’ve all been taught that the most important things we can do in business are taking the best possible care of our customers and running the business operations as efficiently as possible, right?