I have received numerous letters more or less along the same lines, but none as eloquent as what you are about to read. Please excuse it’s length, but it is the heart-felt story of a plumber’s career and he deserves to be heard. It requires no further commentary from me. It speaks for itself.
Dear Mr. Blau,
I am writing to you in hope that maybe my screams into the night may be heard. People say that a letter should be direct and to the point but I won’t be able to do that. You have probably heard this story a thousand times, but if you could hear it one more time and possibly end with some of your famous advice it would be greatly appreciated.
First, I have become an admirer of yours through your articles in the Buzz. Every one of your articles rings the bell of truth, but so many plumbers are deaf and cannot hear it.
My history has been [...]

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For 20 years I traveled all over this country attempting to stamp the message of profitability into the lives of the wonderful people in this great industry, and teach them self-respect for the indispensable work they do. It has been a burning passion of mine.
At various times I tried to enlighten, cajole, embarrass or do whatever else it takes to get the message across. I made numerous friends along the way – as well as a few enemies. What is frustrating to me, however, is knowing that my articles and seminars are not enough. If a seminar was all it took for a contractor to turn his or her life around, you would find me presenting them every week of the year. A seminar helps, but it takes more.
Think about it. What is more demanding than single-handedly taking an existing PHC business that has under-performed for years, with an underpaid and demoralized work force, and turning that business into a [...]

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As many of you know, Bio-Clean® is one of the best add-on sales products available to service plumbing contractors. This environmentally friendly biological drain cleaner, which comes in powdered form, is a trade exclusive sold directly to plumbing contractors. You won’t find it in any home centers or even on wholesaler shelves. This little gem is key to upping your average ticket and showing your clients that you do more than just install and repair.
Getting Techs To Sell It: How do you get your service techs to sell it? The answer is that you begin by having everyone learn the fundamentals of salesmanship. Most contractors are not good marketers. First, they don’t charge enough for their work, and therefore they don’t have the time or money needed to train their people.
There are no natural born salesmen. Yet everyone who deals with customers, whether a dispatcher, customer service rep or service tech, is a salesperson. It is the contractor’s responsibility to [...]

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Recruiting and keeping good employees, especially service techs, is the most difficult thing I know of in the PHC service business. I’m sure that Blau Sudden Services has a better track record than most firms in the industry, simply because we offer one of the best compensation and benefits packages to be found anywhere. Our service technicians have been here an average of seven years, with two at the 23-year mark in tenure. Office personnel average five years of service, with a couple in the 10-year range.
But our track record of employee retention is hardly ideal. I remember when we lost a service tech that had been with us for close to 20 years. That was an eye-opener to me.
Let me admit that I do not regard myself as the epitome of enlightened management. Regrettably, I’ve done my share of ranting and raving at employees over the years. Most people tell me that I’ve mellowed considerably since I removed myself [...]

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For the industry’s thousands of postwar baby boomers, it’s no long morning. The oldest among you have already turned 60, and the looming question is not when you will retire, but whether you can ever afford to retire.
Based on many hours of conversation with contractors through my seminars and phone contacts, I’ve learned that upwards of 90% do not have profit sharing plans in place for retirement for themselves or their faithful associates. Here we have an industry filled with hard-working, highly skilled people protecting public health, safety and comfort, but without providing for their own old age. I think this is a human tragedy in the making.
If this trend continues, most of you will have to work well beyond the traditional retirement age of 65, maybe for the rest of your life. In a sense one could say that you are destined to work yourself to death.
Scant Savings: according to a recent USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll, only four in [...]

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Frank Blau
Contributing Author
Blau Plumbing
 
I don’t know if one of my students made a New Year’s resolution or not but the proof of what he’s accomplished since 2007 is apparent in the profit and loss statements shown on the attached excel sheet. It compares the last five years from a former student. Here’s what he wrote me:
“It has only been two years since my first Blau seminar, a quick 24 months. What a difference that time has made in my life and all those around me. I’ve put together a consolidated version of the last three profit & loss statements (’07 - ’09) since I attended your seminar. As you can see, I was in the “can” before we met, but wanted to stress to you and your followers how bad off we really were.”
Since then I’ve included two additional statements from Jan ’10 and ‘11. This company offers dramatic evidence of how quickly PHC service contractors can turn their life [...]

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At one of my recent seminars, a young contractor asked me if it was possible to make a good living as a one-truck operator; “I don’t want the headaches of being an employer,” he said. “But I want to operate professionally and generate a respectable salary for myself and one other employee – just like a doctor or a lawyer.”
There is no question in my mind that you can enjoy a wonderful standard of living as a one-truck operation, as long as you adhere to sound business principles. In order to do so, you must dispel the myth that it costs significantly less to run a one-man shop than it does a multi-truck operation.
True, your costs of doing business are going to be much lower in total dollars. However, the one-truck operator is severely limited in the amount of time he can spend turning wrenches in the field to recoup those dollars – i.e., “productive labor.” This limiting factor means [...]

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Sooner or later it happens to everyone in the business. A disgruntled customer notices the prices of parts and merchandise sold at the retail stores and complains about the big markups charged by the contractor. This is a bigger problem for time and material firms, whose prices are itemized for all to see at a glance. However, even we flat raters face it from time to time. Continue Reading »

In my on “The Cost of Not Knowing Your Costs,” I challenged contractors to prove that they could make money and provide decent income and benefits for employees at the PHC service industry’s prevailing labor rates of $50-55 an hour. I got no takers, although Paul Swan sent me an interesting letter pointing out that many contractors who charge extra for travel time are billing for more labor hours than they actually put in. Continue Reading »

Fringe benefits represent a huge investment that employers make in their employees. As a PHC union employing contractor, my present day fringe benefit package amounts to 43 percent of gross hourly wages. Our service technician fringe benefit package includes the cost of contributions made into the Blau Profits Sharing Plan as well a the union pension plan, while non-signatory employees participate in both the Blau Profit Sharing Plan and Money Purchase Plan. This is a considerable amount of money. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, fringe benefit costs throughout the economy average around 40 percent payroll. Because of our aging population, it’s been estimated that by the time the year 2000 rolls around, many of us could be looking at fringe costs approaching 50 percent of payroll. Continue Reading »