Steve Stone
Contributing Writer
ShuBee® Owner

This is the seventh installment of how Steve Stone, Master Plumber and ShuBee® CEO, propelled his own plumbing company to success. 

We focused on pricing which gave us the money to market our company and services properly. We used sight to gain attention products like shoe covers, surface protection and marketing materials. Shoe covers were a huge hit! Once the client saw them, they loved them. Our techs wouldn’t run a call without them because of the added attention they garnered. We also prided ourselves with having well-trained, well-groomed technicians. The arrived looking professional, which is incredibly important. People remember what they don’t expect, whether it’s good or bad. We realized as a company that a good first impression is extremely important.

About 4 years after joining C2000, I met Steve Andrews. His business specialized in Plumbing, HVAC and Electrical. He had over 100 trucks running at the time. Upon meeting him, we immediately clicked. I had some ideas for him and he had plenty for me as well. He taught me how to expand into the HVAC business. After the expansion, my company eventually grew to 32 trucks. l was told that my average ticket was well above the industry average at the time. I had no idea!

In the late 90’s there began a movement towards consolidated utility services. There were talks in Congress about deregulating the power companies and C2000 realized this very early on. Utility companies started to fear that they were going to lose their client base so they came up with an idea to bundle services: Plumbing, HVAC and Electrical. These services could be offered to customers at an affordable rate which would allow the companies to keep their current clients. Sure enough, power companies began buying up service companies left and right. If you were a member of a success group you had a huge advantage.