Research the trade, find out what qualifications you need, and speak to somebody doing it<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Decide whether an apprenticeship or private course is suitable for you<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n As well as training, you may need to spend money on tools<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n A course will probably not prepare you for running a business<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n When first starting as a tradesperson, you may need to supplement your income<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n If a job is beyond your capabilities, call in support<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Public liability is a must, and an accountant can be worth their weight in gold<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Plumbing offers a lot of variety<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Customers are becoming increasingly cost-conscious<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Think very carefully before offering an emergency service<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n As your business grows, look at whether employing people will benefit you<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Your reputation is your livelihood, especially on social media<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n As you get older, you may want to take a more backroom role<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n You must be adaptable, perseverant and likeable<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n You need to enjoy problem-solving<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Plumbing is a tough gig but very rewarding<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n In the beginning, you could save a lot of money by handling your finances<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Rob, tell us, how did you end up going from the law to plumbing? That\u2019s a massive jump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Give us the backstory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I started as a barristers\u2019 clerk when I was 17, right at the bottom as a junior clerk, doing a lot of running around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At around 25 or 26, I became a senior clerk, which I was relatively young for. It was all good, and I was enjoying the job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But over time, the job was changing beyond recognition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Legal Aid was dying. It was becoming much more admin and tender based.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I could see that where it was going was not where I wanted to be. I just disliked it more and more every day. I was coming home every night and moaning, \u201cI can\u2019t do this anymore. The job is not what I signed up for.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I decided to do something about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I looked around. Plumbing wasn\u2019t my first choice, and I looked to other industries first. But because I earned a certain amount of money and had a family, I couldn\u2019t afford to drop too much in money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve always been handy and did things around the house. Then plumbing came up in a random conversation with a friend of mine, so I investigated it a little more, realised I could make the jump, and did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What research did you do? How did you find out how much a plumber can make in a year?<\/p>\n\n\n\n You said you didn\u2019t want to take a massive pay cut, as you\u2019ve got a family. How did you do the research?<\/p>\n\n\n\n We had a plumber that was doing our stuff, and I made friends with him. I said, \u201cAre you happy for me to come out with you and carry your tools? I don\u2019t want any money. I\u2019ll do it unpaid.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a tradesman, he was more than happy to have me on board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I think I took about three or four days off work, just to follow him to see if I\u2019d like it. Unpaid, just to carry his tools and go to jobs with him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I realised that I loved it, and my friend said he\u2019d help me along the way. It was a case of finding out how to get my qualifications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I researched and found this City and Guilds level 2 course, which could take anything between six months and two years, depending on how fast you could do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because I had a job at the time, it took me 18 months because I couldn\u2019t afford to stop work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I had to do it alongside my job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I also had this other plumber that I\u2019d go out with and learn from again on weekends. I would finish work at six in the city, come home, and go straight out again with him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You just pick things up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Over the 18 months, I had to pass several one-week exams. In the end, I had my qualification and made the jump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I knew financially it would be challenging for the first year, but I just had to do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Did you have to have any basic qualifications before?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you need to have maths, or can you start with a blank slate?<\/p>\n\n\n\n I started with a blank slate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019re young enough, it\u2019s ideal and preferential to go to college and get an apprenticeship. If you\u2019re somebody of my age or older and have a family, the apprenticeship might not work for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I couldn\u2019t afford to do it this way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I imagine most people who will make the jump like me can\u2019t afford to not work for one year with an apprenticeship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, you can do private courses where you get the same qualification, but it\u2019s very much on you. You have to do the work. It\u2019s all paperwork.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are books you have to read, and then you have exams you send via email. If you don\u2019t pass them, you don\u2019t get to the next level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was very work-intensive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was lucky. Every lunchtime for over a year, I would go downstairs for my lunch break and say I\u2019d go to a conference room, shut it and study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How expensive are these courses?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eight years ago, it was about under five grand, so a bit of an investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And with that \u00a35,000, you\u2019d get the chance, not the guarantee, of this level 2 City and Guilds, which is the one below the gas qualification, which you have the option to do afterwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s probably a bit more expensive now. You can\u2019t just decide you want to be a plumber. You have to invest. And then you\u2019re going to have to invest in a van and tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the first four or five months after I passed, I didn\u2019t have a van. I just used my car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A van is necessary at some point. But when you first start, don\u2019t put yourself under too much pressure to get a van. Just get the jobs, do them right, and start building up a name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s the first thing you do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You need tools. You may spend around \u00a31,500 to \u00a32,000 on basic tools such as your drill, drill bits, and hand tools, as well as specific plumbing equipment. It\u2019ll add up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Everyone\u2019s going to have different budgets. But I would say to begin with you\u2019ve got to pay for your course, which will be somewhere between \u00a35,000 and \u00a37,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You have to have a bit of money put aside for your tools. In total, about \u00a310,000 is not unrealistic. You\u2019d have to think of getting a van at some point, but I wouldn\u2019t go crazy on that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When you pass, it\u2019s a whole new challenge. You\u2019ve got the qualification, but now you have to build a business from it, which is a whole different skill set.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do they teach you some of that when you\u2019re doing your City and Guilds, or do you have to learn all of that on the job?<\/p>\n\n\n\n No. That\u2019s the scary part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The course was purely based on the practical, science and plumbing side. They don\u2019t teach you anything about running a business or getting work. That\u2019s down to you, and that\u2019s the hardest part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I handed in my notice and said, \u201cIt\u2019s now or never\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I then had three months to start putting myself out there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I relied on friends and family first. You tell everyone that you\u2019re a plumber. It\u2019s not even about the money. You ask people if you can do something for them, such as fix a leak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That gives you a little bit of trust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I did get a part-time job to supplement my income working in an office three days a week, so the pressure wasn\u2019t terrible. I planned to do those three days a week to earn something, and then two days trying to fill my diary as much as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That was difficult because plumbing is reactive. If somebody has a leak or blockage, they need you now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But I managed it, and it took the pressure off slightly. If you make a jump like this cold turkey and need to fill up five days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What I did was ring estate agents and asked if they were looking for people, which worked. I picked up two estate agents that I\u2019m still working for today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I then joined a networking group, which initially served me well. That\u2019s another investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019re strapped for cash, it can be a little bit difficult. But it\u2019s just layers. You do a good job for one person then, and then in the world of social media, you will get put forward very quickly with somebody else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Everyone needs to know a good plumber. And if you\u2019re good, people won\u2019t want to lose you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you can build up your client book over time, you know there\u2019ll always be repeat business, and they\u2019ll recommend you to their friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s just how long you survive while your reputation gets out there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So how long did it take you before you could move to five days a week or even possibly seven days a week, plumbing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n It didn\u2019t take me that long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In my head, I was going to work the office job for about six months. But I think after about three months, I found myself filling three days. And then I was almost filling four days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Especially at the beginning, it\u2019s not so much about being good because you\u2019ve got so much to learn with plumbing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s about being honest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I had jobs where I must have gone back four, five, six times sometimes because I didn\u2019t have the experience to know the problem at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n People respect the fact that you are new at it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you don\u2019t charge every time you go back, there is a certain amount of leeway that people will give you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And then your reputation grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the beginning, you\u2019ve got to say to yourself, \u201cI\u2019m going to make mistakes. I am going to have to go back on jobs three or four times, and financially, it\u2019s going to be very, very difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you can get your head around that, your reputation will grow, and people will like you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And then, after a year out there, you are becoming good and better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The other trick is, especially at the beginning, is to know your limits and limitations. I\u2019ve seen some plumbers make an awful mess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, in the beginning, I was careful about what I took and what I didn\u2019t take and only concentrated on the small jobs\u2014such as toilets, sinks and blockages. There was only so much you could do with that, so I turned down a lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There were a lot of jobs that I turned down because of the risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One job I remember, there was a toilet, and I just could not get it to stop leaking. I must\u2019ve gone back six or seven times at least.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the end, it was the simplest thing, and I know what the problem is now. I must\u2019ve done 300 of them since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I remember coming home and sitting with the missus, saying, \u201cI can\u2019t do this. It\u2019s not for me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019ve just got to be able to get it done and crack on. Now I can do these toilets with my eyes closed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The other trick is making friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are a lot of people in our industry. And at the beginning, I made friends with two or three people that I knew had much more experience than me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If I was struggling on a job, I\u2019d phone them up and would pay them. Plumbers don\u2019t do anything for free\u2014even my friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The client\u2019s happy, and you\u2019re out of pocket, but it doesn\u2019t matter initially. You\u2019re just building up a clientele. There are a few times I called out people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They would come and help you out, but they would get the money from the client, and you would just forego everything? Smart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And you\u2019ve learned how to do something, so it\u2019s like training?<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s like driving a car. You learn to pass the test, but then you\u2019ve got to learn to drive, which is a big thing. You qualify, but there is so much to know about plumbing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anyone who wants to make this jump must remember that you\u2019re not a plumber once you\u2019ve got your qualification. You will spend the next couple of years building up as much information as possible, making as many friends as you can, and just learning as much as you can on the job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I made a few good plumber friends I\u2019d met along the way. They knew they weren\u2019t coming to help me out as a freebie. They were going to get it rewarded financially.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was challenging and is going to be hard. But it\u2019s worth it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You said that the scary bit was building the business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What did you do first? Did you create a business plan<\/a>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Did you get an accountant?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Were you learning all of that at the same time as trying to get new clients in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m not the best example, as I didn\u2019t write a business plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I went in headfirst, and I suggest that\u2019s probably not the best way of doing it. I think if you get a business plan in place, it\u2019s better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But for me, I was going to do it now, or I\u2019d never do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But what I did was get an excellent accountant<\/a>. That\u2019s another expense, but they\u2019re worth their weight in gold<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s so much to know about running a business, with tax and the things you buy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you have the time, then you should learn about taxes. I didn\u2019t at the time because I was changing careers and managing a family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve got friends of mine who do all their books, and that\u2019s fine. I don\u2019t because I\u2019d rather use an accountant. You lose the costs within the business, and he does everything for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first thing you need to do is protect yourself, so the public liability is an absolute must for anyone who\u2019s thinking of making the jump, and it\u2019s their first day of trading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Touch wood, I\u2019ve never had to use it, but you need it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019re going to need an accountant, and you need to know how to do invoices. I\u2019ve done all my invoices<\/a> for the last seven years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve only just passed that over to somebody else purely to save time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You need to have a good way of doing invoices with a good header sheet and wording. Because when you do quotes as well, it\u2019s good to be organised and professional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I think signed uniforms always look good, and I see many people who don\u2019t wear them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s all about first impressions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You turn up looking smart, whether you\u2019re a plumber, decorator, or plasterer, and they trust you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then you\u2019ve just got to put yourself out there and say yes to pretty much everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You said that when you first spent a few days with that plumber, and when you were thinking about becoming a plumber yourself, you said you enjoyed it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So tell me what you love about the job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I remember it clearly, like yesterday. I spent the first few days with him, and maybe I got lucky\u2014every job was different, and I loved that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first day started with a leaky bath, and the second job was a leak in a loft with a tank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And then the third job was something different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I remember thinking to myself, \u201cI go to work every day, and I could do it blindfolded. It\u2019s boring. I hate the people that I work with.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And there\u2019s nothing there\u2014like I was coming home dead. It was boring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And with plumbing, every day was different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Overall all the clients were happy to see you. It\u2019s a nice feeling, especially when you leave a job and something\u2019s working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I remember coming out of those days buzzing. I knew this was for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I could see myself doing a variety of jobs, interacting with clients, and I liked that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some people think I\u2019m nuts, but it\u2019s satisfying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I don\u2019t do gas, but I do pretty much everything else. The variation is huge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I can have a day of five or six jobs, and each one is different. The satisfaction I get from unblocking a drain full of mess and seeing it all go away\u2014magic, I love it. It\u2019s quality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like a couple of days ago, I had an old lady who had a bathtub she hadn\u2019t been able to use for months, and it wasn\u2019t a tough job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I did it, and she was so lovely. Bless her. She gave me a pound on the way out. It\u2019s things like that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s just that there was none of that in my previous life as a barristers\u2019 clerk. It was a very cut-throat, everyone there for themselves kind of environment. Plumbing is very different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019re a key worker. So were you out and about, even when the whole world was locked down? Because you\u2019re an emergency service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the beginning, for the first few months, I stayed at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I felt pretty bad about that, as I was getting calls quite a lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But I went to work for two reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One\u2014the home schooling was killing me, and I had to get out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And two, as you said, we were allowed and almost encouraged as plumbers to carry on as usual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I never really stopped through both lockdowns. My days were similar to what they were usually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I bet with a lot of people who were isolating or elderly, you might\u2019ve been the only person they\u2019d speak to that day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That must have been interesting. You\u2019re a plumber, but you\u2019re could also be a counsellor or loneliness prevention officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yeah. It was fascinating how people dealt with it differently. I remember going into one house, which made me laugh because, and I\u2019m certainly not making light of people\u2019s nervousness because they had the right to be nervous due to coronavirus, but it was almost like I\u2019d walked into a crime scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They\u2019d laid out sheets for me to walk on and covered everything up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It went from one extreme to the other, where I\u2019d go into some houses, and they didn\u2019t care. Everyone had very different levels of tolerance, so that was interesting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But overall, it was nice because people were more grateful than they were usually. It was a strange time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve asked you what you love about your job, but I want to know what you hate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I thought it was going to be something to do with sewage. But you told me you loved unblocking a pipe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So what do you dislike?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Honestly, it doesn\u2019t bother me. What do I dislike?<\/p>\n\n\n\n OK, so the most challenging thing now is, and I find this more and more now, is that many clients are getting very cost-conscious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nine times out of 10, I\u2019d go and pick them up a decent tap. Not an expensive tap, but a tap that I know is a reputable brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A lot of people now are buying taps off the internet, and the quality is poor. So, when you go to fit it, three weeks later, you\u2019re getting a callback. I\u2019m having that more and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The client says, \u201cWell, I\u2019ve got to pay you to come back again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And I reply, well yes, because I didn\u2019t supply the tap. The tap is from China. It\u2019s pretty rubbish.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fitting rubbish stuff is a problem on my end. I\u2019m a bit snobby. Shower pumps are expensive, and I will only fit a specific shower pump. I won\u2019t fit any others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve lost jobs on the back of that because I know I will get called back with a problematic pump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Clients can be demanding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I suppose the nature of plumbing is that you don\u2019t know how long a specific job will take. You can organise your diary to the best of your ability, but you can get a job that should take you 20 minutes, and you\u2019re there for four hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s just plumbing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You fix one pipe, and depending on the age of the pipes, the other pipe down there goes wrong. And then, all of a sudden, you\u2019ve got to phone around and tell people you\u2019re going to run late.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some people get it, and some don\u2019t. That\u2019s not easy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I suppose I\u2019m working harder now than I\u2019ve ever worked before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, anyone who thinks being self-employed is a dream\u2014I promise you it is brilliant, but you will work harder than you will ever have worked in your office job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That can sometimes be tiresome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How do you manage your hours?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because you can make so much more money as a plumber, I hear, if you do emergency jobs, because you can charge a lot more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But then that means you must be picking up the phone at two in the morning or Sunday night, for example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you do that, or do you have specific slots of time where you say, \u201cI\u2019m free for emergency work?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yeah, some plumbers do that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I don\u2019t put myself out there as an emergency plumber. You must be very careful when you do that because I\u2019m on my own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you set yourself as an emergency plumber and you\u2019re not available, then it\u2019s a problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I tend to work from seven or even earlier in the morning, and sometimes I don\u2019t get home until eight or nine. I don\u2019t work weekends, and once I\u2019m home, I\u2019m home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Don\u2019t get me wrong. If the phone goes and it\u2019s a client that I know and is local, then nine times out of 10, if I can, and the wife\u2019s OK, I\u2019ll go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But with young families, it\u2019s not always easy to do that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most of the emergency plumbers you\u2019ll find are part of a bigger company, so they can do shift work as they know they\u2019re on call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With your average one-person band, it\u2019s slightly harder to put yourself out there as an emergency plumber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Are you still a one-person band?<\/p>\n\n\n\n And do you intend to stay that way, or would you like to grow your business and take on more plumbers?<\/p>\n\n\n\n What are your ambitions?<\/p>\n\n\n\n I don\u2019t want to be changing toilets until I\u2019m 65. So, the goal is to have somebody, or a few vans, working within a proper business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I am lucky that I have a few people now with me. We don\u2019t employ, but we subcontract out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m booked up until the end of November, purely on bathrooms. Within that group, I subcontract two or three guys regularly. They\u2019re not plumbers, but tilers, carpenters, and painters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the plumbing front, the plan is at some point to employ someone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Employ someone who\u2019s already trained or an apprentice?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes. Well, I\u2019m still toying with that. It\u2019s a difficult one. I\u2019ve had so many conversations with friends of mine about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The problem with having an apprentice is that it will take three or four years to get them to a certain point, and there\u2019s no guarantee they will then stay with you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If I can find someone who\u2019s qualified and almost a carbon copy of myself, who has done four or five years and is trustworthy enough to put in people\u2019s houses\u2014that\u2019s the other problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You must find someone you trust as much as you trust yourself because you\u2019re leaving these people in houses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My reputation is excellent. But with the power of social media, if you have somebody with an RJA Plumbing Solutions shirt on who doesn\u2019t live up to my standards, then it\u2019s difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I am toying towards making an investment and employing somebody with a bit of experience. Then suddenly, I\u2019ve got two vans on the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because you\u2019ve got your name above the door, there\u2019s nowhere to hide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you thrive off that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n I think you must, because if you don\u2019t, then it\u2019s a challenging ride for you. I think it\u2019s the same for all self-employed people. It\u2019s your name. I keep arching back to social media\u2014I get a lot of work from Facebook and neighbourhood groups. Purely recommendations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For me, it works well. But I\u2019ve also seen it in Facebook groups where clients are ripping apart people that haven\u2019t turned up, or they\u2019ve done this, and they\u2019ve done that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That drives you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You want to do a good job, but the fear of being tarnished also drives you. When you\u2019re self-employed, your name is who you are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When you said you don\u2019t want to be unblocking toilets at 65, would you retire and just be the major shareholder in the business?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Or would you be more office-based? What role would you move into?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ideally, I\u2019d love to go around looking at the jobs and pricing them\u2014more backroom stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019d have two or three guys who would go out while I\u2019d go out and price them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I could still see myself being on the tools when I\u2019m 65 because I\u2019m pretty active and can\u2019t imagine not working. But I certainly don\u2019t want to be working as physically hard as I am now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s the other thing with plumbing. It is very physically demanding. You could be out at a block of flats, and you\u2019ve got to carry your toolbox. It\u2019s, physically, very full-on. I\u2019m in my early 40s. In the next five years, I want to have somebody employed to share the load.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If that goes to plan, you can get another van. And then, all of a sudden, you\u2019ve got a real business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Who would make a good plumber? You\u2019ve said they must be physically fit. You can\u2019t be shying away from walking up 15 flights of stairs with your toolbox.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But in terms of attributes and characteristics, what would people need to be a good plumber?<\/p>\n\n\n\n So for me, there are two layers to this question. You\u2019ve got the practical side of it and the personality side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On a practical front, you\u2019ve got to be just incredibly adaptive and perseverant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Plumbing can be rough. You must persevere, persevere, persevere. You must have that in you to not give up on things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I think you must be very likeable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A lot of plumbers, especially with older ones, personal skills can be lacking if I\u2019m honest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The new breed is slightly more likeable and interactive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You must be very organised. The one skill I took from my previous life in law was organisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My diary is probably my most important tool. Every phone call you take, you make a note of their name, phone number and address.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You give out time estimates to jobs as best you can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you are running late on a job, you think, \u201cRight. You make five calls to customers or how many you\u2019ve got in the day. You say, \u201cLook, I\u2019m running behind.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And that is priceless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019ve got to do that now. People will wait for you if they\u2019re expecting you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And if you don\u2019t turn up, it always amazes me when you hear clients say, \u201cI waited in for a plumber, or \u201cA plumber never gave me a quote.\u201d To me, that\u2019s alien.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you think you need to be a problem solver? Because you must be someone that sees something as broken and likes to fix things?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Or can that be just learned, even if it\u2019s not innate?<\/p>\n\n\n\n I do think you need to have a problem-solving brain. You learn the basics and the science.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But once you\u2019re on the job, there can be 10 or 20 different ways to overcome a problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The number of times you\u2019re at a job thinking that the techniques from the books you have read or somebody has taught you aren\u2019t going to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019ve got to remember that every house is different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Every house has been built at a different time, by a different person, from different countries, and in different ways. You can get to a house where the plumbing is alien, and nothing makes sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You try and pick it out bit by bit and work out what you can do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s the fun part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Don\u2019t get me wrong. It can also drive you nuts. But there must be an ability to problem solve and enjoy it within you. There may be so many different angles to come from, and you may have to try five of them before the sixth one works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s the other thing. You must be able to say to yourself, \u201cI\u2019m not going to leave this house until this is done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Or phone a friend\u2014one of the two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I don\u2019t do gas, and I\u2019ve got a very good friend who does nothing but gas. He does all the boilers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When you decide to make the jump, you must work out what kind of plumber you\u2019re going to be. That\u2019s important because you\u2019ve got so many different types of plumber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019ve got the gas plumber who will only do gas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I could do my gas qualification in about four weeks. Because I\u2019ve got my level 2, I could become gas-safe if I wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The reality is, I wouldn\u2019t have a clue how to fix a boiler. These guys have trained and looked at boilers for 10 years. I\u2019d have a whole lot more to learn, to do it properly and safely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For me, that\u2019s not an option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the gas guys don\u2019t want to come and change taps and unblock sinks. They wouldn\u2019t have a clue what to do with shower valves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And that\u2019s OK because that\u2019s not their thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some plumbers just lay pipes on new builds. Not for me, because I couldn\u2019t do it on a building site. Too many people would drive me nuts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Work out where you want to be, and that\u2019s half the battle. Don\u2019t try and do it all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And do you think that, for anyone listening looking to retrain, that plumbing is a great trade to choose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is it very competitive? Are there other trades where there\u2019s a lot more demand and not enough supply?<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019d say it\u2019s as competitive as any other trade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But I would say it\u2019s probably more rewarding than any other trade. I think it\u2019s probably one of the hardest trades\u2014many people do not stay in plumbing for that very reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You got to be prepared to put it in. It\u2019s not an easy trade, but it\u2019s an incredibly rewarding one. I love it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How do you set your pricing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n With a plumber, you\u2019re not paying them for what they\u2019re doing. You\u2019re paying them for what they know like that family, where you save them about \u00a31,000 because you knew how to change this cartridge. It\u2019s not even how long you\u2019re there. It\u2019s the fact that you knew what to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So how do you go about pricing yourself?<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s precisely that, and not everyone does get that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have an hourly rate which is, I think, a competitive one. It\u2019s slightly below what you\u2019d expect to pay a gas engineer because I\u2019m not competing with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But it\u2019s bang on, I think, what you\u2019d expect to pay a plumber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On some jobs, especially with blocked drains, I have a set price. If it\u2019s an outside drain, I have a set price and say, \u201cRight, this is what it\u2019s going to cost for the first hour, and then after that, that\u2019s what it\u2019s going to cost for the second hour.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n If I can\u2019t do it within two hours, then you\u2019re going to need the big trucks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That doesn\u2019t happen very often, but I say that I don\u2019t charge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m unusual in that respect. If I can\u2019t fix something, I\u2019ve been to your house, and for whatever reason, you need the next level up, I will take it on the chin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I won\u2019t charge you, and I\u2019ll move on because I just think that makes me feel more comfortable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not everyone does that, and nor should they, but that\u2019s just the way I do things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are good clients, and if I\u2019ve been around there and it\u2019s a first or second job, I won\u2019t bill in the whole hourly rate. I\u2019ll just say, \u201cRight, this is what it is.\u201d You must be able to feel the situation at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What do you wish you\u2019d known before you made the jump?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Was there any extra course you wish you\u2019d done or anything that you wish you\u2019d understood better before you made the leap and started your company?<\/p>\n\n\n\n I would have been more prepared if I realised just how hard it was and how long the hours would be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The hours are harder if you want to make a decent living.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Where I was working before at my cushy little desk, it was nine to five. Also, the time you have to allow getting to places, I would have considered that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I can\u2019t think of anything significant or different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I think any advice I\u2019d give my younger self would be around learning more about the tax and everything else that goes into it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I think I spent a lot of money ignoring that and getting the accountant to do it all, especially at the beginning. That\u2019s fine, but I think if you have the time, work out your finances because you can save a fortune.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve got friends of mine who do all their books. They\u2019re not that difficult, and if you could do that, it\u2019s probably preferable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What\u2019s your catchment area? Because you said travel. You\u2019re in north London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you stick to the north, or do you go south of the river? How do you set your area?<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m not too precious, to be honest with you. I tend to work mainly in north London because that\u2019s where my reputation is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I did a lot in central London before coronavirus hit, so I got rid of my old van and invested in an electric van.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unfortunately, I lost the biggest contract I had with this American student housing place because none came over. So that was a massive blow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As it turns out, the electric van\u2019s good and I\u2019m still going to town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I quite enjoy going into central London. I tend not to go south of the river, unless it\u2019s a very attractive job, because, unless I\u2019m doing a bathroom, most of my jobs are one or two hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If it takes me an hour or two hours to get there, it\u2019s just not worth it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But having said that, I have quoted for bathrooms in Hammersmith before because it can be worth it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I thought I\u2019d ask that question because I have a feeling that anyone listening, who needs a plumber, is going to listen to your voice, listen to your approach on plumbing and say, \u201cI want that man.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n So now you know where he is. You know how far he travels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wherever you\u2019re listening or watching, subscribe to Sound Advice on Apple iTunes<\/a> here.<\/p>\n\n\n\nMaking the jump to plumbing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Rob Abrahams:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Research the trade, find out what qualifications you need, and speak to somebody doing it<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Rob Abrahams:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Decide whether an apprenticeship or private course is suitable for you<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Rob Abrahams:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
As well as training, you may need to spend money on tools<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Rob Abrahams:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
A course will probably not prepare you for running a business<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Rob Abrahams:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
When first starting as a tradesperson, you may need to supplement your income<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Rob Abrahams:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
If a job is beyond your capabilities, call in support<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Rob Abrahams:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Public liability is a must, and an accountant can be worth their weight in gold<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Rob Abrahams:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Plumbing offers a lot of variety<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Rob Abrahams:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Rob Abrahams:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Rob Abrahams:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Customers are becoming increasingly cost-conscious<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Rob Abrahams:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Think very carefully before offering an emergency service<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Rob Abrahams:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
As your business grows, look at whether employing people will benefit you<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Rob Abrahams:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Rob Abrahams:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Your reputation is your livelihood, especially on social media<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Rob Abrahams:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
As you get older, you may want to take a more backroom role<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Rob Abrahams:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
You must be adaptable, perseverant and likeable<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Rob Abrahams:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
You need to enjoy problem-solving<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Rob Abrahams:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Plumbing is a tough gig but very rewarding<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Rob Abrahams:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Rob Abrahams:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
In the beginning, you could save a lot of money by handling your own finances<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Rob Abrahams:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Rob Abrahams:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Bex Burn-Callander:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Are you thinking of getting into the construction trade?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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