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A successful small business is built on a foundation of strong leadership and adaptability. Successful small businesses are proactive in embracing change, whether through adopting new technologies, adjusting to market trends or responding to customer feedback. Innovation, combined with dedication, customer focus, and a strong work ethic, enables small businesses to not only survive but thrive in competitive markets.

Plumb Works Inc., located in Atlanta, is the perfect example of a successful, family-owned plumbing contracting business. Owner Jerome Sabol is a master plumber who focuses on customer experience as well as team building and employee training. He is well respected among his community, peers, and recognized as a leader in the industry.

Plumb Works is known in its community for its long-standing customer relationships, strong work ethic and deep-rooted commitment to quality service, which is why the contracting company has earned accolades as Plumbing & Mechanical’s 2024 Residential Contractor of the Year.

A FAMILY BUSINESS

Plumb Works was founded in 1989 by Jim Sabol.

“My older brother is 10 years older than myself,” Jerome Sabol says. “He started the company with his partner at the time. He’s the one who really got me into it. I’m originally from upstate New York, and he asked me to come down here and work for him for the summer of my sophomore year in high school. That’s how I got my feet wet.”

When his brother retired in 2018, Jerome Sabol took over the company, fulfilling a lifelong dream of becoming a business owner.

“I remember sitting in high school doodling on a notebook when I was bored in class, making logos or dreaming what the name of my company would be,” he says. “Back then, it seemed like a little bit of a pipe dream. After high school, I did go to technical college for plumbing and heating. Then, as soon as I graduated, probably within six months, I came back down here, and pretty much have been here ever since.”

When his brother’s partner retired after five years, Jerome Sabol bought in on some of his shares. “I became part owner in 1994 — I owned 25% at that time. And my brother and I continued on. Our building at the time was in midtown Atlanta — and though we’ve moved, that’s really still our bread and butter area. But we’ve expanded into the suburbs and grown over the years.”

Plumb Works eventually outgrew that downtown Atlanta location and ended up purchasing its current location about 20 miles outside of the city in 2018. “That was a busy year — we bought our new building and my brother retired all within six months,” Jerome Sabol notes.

Though Plumb Works started as a small company with only three vehicles and five employees, today, the company has grown to 10 service trucks and 20 employees. The company does 95% of its business in service work, with 80% of it in residential service and 20% in commercial service.

Jerome Sabol’s wife, Sue Sabol, decided to join the company as the finance manager in 2022 after leaving her previous position as a corporate recruiter for AT&T.

“It has been a big change for me to join our company,” Sue Sabol says. “We had always intended that I would at some point, and what happened is that year my sister-in-law had been working for the company that my brother-in-law started, and she had decided to retire. We figured after she retired, I would take over the bookkeeping and help out. And the timing was just right. I was ready to make a move. It's worked out really well, and my role with the company has grown quite a bit. I've taken on not only the bookkeeping responsibilities, but our recruiting and employee engagement, and I'm also helping out with our marketing.”

Sue Sabol is an admitted rule follower who likes to have things planned out. She’s enjoyed her expanding role in the family business. “Things are different every day, and you don’t necessarily know what to expect. You don't know how many phone calls you're going to get. And it's been a lot of fun just working with Jerome, our office manager and our service managers to figure out how to motivate the employees and keep everybody happy and engaged.”

Jim and Jerome Sabol’s nephew, Josh Czerniak, is Plumb Works’ service manager. Much like Jerome Sabol, Czerniak started working for the company during the summer at age 15.

“I would dig ditches, clean up the yard — I was a plumber’s helper,” he says. “I did that for three or four years. Every year, I would say I wasn’t coming back because it was hard work, but every year, I came back. Then I went off to school and took plumbing and HVAC classes. I decided to come back and start my career as a plumbing apprentice with them in 2002.”

Czerniak decided to pursue that route because he doesn’t like being inside all day long.

“My dad owns a machine shop and my brother took that over,” he says. “I don’t like being inside a building all day in a shop — I wanted to get out and see new people. With plumbing, I was working with the crews and techs on different job sites every week, sometimes every day. I like that part. I like going to see people and helping them fix their problems and make them happy.”

One day down the road when Jerome and Sue Sabol retire, Czerniak plans to take on the leadership role as the next-generation owner of Plumb Works.

STRIVING FOR EXCELLENCE

Plumb Works’ core values consists of one word: “Strive.”

“Strive stands for: service excellence; trustworthy; responsibility; integrity; value; and empathy,” Jerome Sabol explains. “We redid this about five years ago as a whole company and came up with it as a team. We talk about this all the time. We want to always strive to do our best. Some days, it’s harder than others. I have a 13-year-old son, and we’ve been telling him this year, we just want to see the effort. If he gets a ‘B,’ but he still puts in great effort, that’s great. Because we see when he puts in that effort, he does well. So we’ve all got to keep pushing every day. I'm always telling the guys, especially right now where most people know in the industry, it's not crazy busy out there. It's just about being consistent, doing your best every day and treating people the right way. And you'll be fine in business and in your personal life. But it's easier said than done.”

The Sabols promote teamwork and helping each other out. They also have an open door policy for employees.

“We want them to come talk to us,” Jerome Sabol says. “We just did a company survey a couple months ago that asked a lot of the typical questions, but basically, ‘What can we do to improve?’ We’re trying to get more engagement. We’ve always done company meetings and outings, but we’re doing more of those and not only for the employees, but getting their spouses and families involved to try and get to know them more. We’re not a huge company. It's a pretty close-knit company where everybody knows each other pretty well. And we're not perfect, like every family, but it's going pretty good right now.”

Though Plumb Works is a small company, Sue Sabol explains they recently put together a leadership team.

“Jerome, myself, our office manager, our service manager and nephew, Josh, and our underground manager make up the five positions on our leadership team,” she says. “We meet once a week — we’ve cultivated a great team that is willing to say what’s on their mind. They are able to speak up on any issues that might be happening. We have a very diverse team from many aspects across the board. We’re really proud of that, and it seems to be really working.”

Czerniak describes the company as a good team atmosphere.

“We all care about each other — we’re a solid team and we all have each other’s back,” he says.

Spencer Sarjeant, Plumb Works’ underground manager, has been with the company since 2014.

“I was a landscaper looking for a trade to get into and Plumb Works was looking for somebody to drive tractors and dig holes for them,” he says. “I ended up getting hired for that and they taught me everything I needed to know from there on. One of the things I like most is being outside in the sun and playing in the dirt!”

Sarjeant notes the company is very family-oriented. “Jerome is very easy to talk to — it’s a good environment. He and Josh are always available at all times — even on the weekends when we don’t need plumbing help, they’re there for you. It feels like a second family. It doesn’t feel like I’m coming to work every day, it feels like I’m going to my cousin’s house and helping him do a little work around the house. It’s an all around good company.”

Shontae Gillus, Plumb Works’ office manager and last member of the leadership team, started with the company seven years ago as a dispatcher and worked her way up.

“My background is in dispatching — I used to work for a lottery company, so it was just a transition into plumbing,” she says. “I interviewed for the position, and just walking through the door felt like home — I tell all the new hires this during trainings. Everybody is down to Earth and very welcoming. I knew immediately this is a place I could see myself, and seven years later, I feel the exact same way. Because of that home feeling, you feel committed to wanting to do this and wanting to help people. And in the plumbing industry, every day you're getting calls from people who just want your help. They want their home to work properly, and you get a call and you're assisting them, and most times, they appreciate it. Doing something where I know I'm helping somebody gives me that gratitude to be able to come to work every day.”

Gillus notes that everybody at Plumb Works is upfront, honest and purpose-driven to help customers.

“We always try to make sure whenever we're going to job sites that we leave it better than when we showed up,” she says. “We’re not just fixing your problem, but cleaning up behind ourselves, making sure we're listening and hearing what the actual issues are. Digging deeper, going the extra step to make sure that we're satisfying our customers so that they don't just call the cheapest company, but the ones who are going to have the expertise and that they're going to make them feel like we care about them. We’re not just here to get money from you. So we always say we don't sell to our customers, but we're here to help our customers.”

Plumb Works also believes in giving back to the community that has supported the business throughout the years. As such, the company has regularly partnered with organizations such as AMPLIFY who supports The Decatur Cooperative Ministry. This organization assists homeless families in need. Plumb Works also supports local schools throughout the area with sports and academic needs. Emory University is in Jerome and Sue Sabol's neighborhood, so they have supported its cancer institute from time to time, as well as other local charities.

AN EMPHASIS ON RECRUITING AND TRAINING

When hiring employees, Plumb Works looks for friendly professionals who have a good attitude and a desire to make customers happy no matter the situation. Everyone on the Plumb Works team is committed to going above and beyond when it comes to the health and safety of customers’ homes.

“We haven’t been really looking at traditional backgrounds,” Sue Sabol says. “The people we’ve brought into the company pretty recently are pretty our helper or apprentice roles. I think our latest hire was from the restaurant industry, but he had a little bit of a mechanical background, and so far, he's working out really well. He's been here a couple of months now. We have another gentleman who is an apprentice, and he's been here since January. And he actually has a masters in theology, but he also had a mechanical background. He's really taken off and is looking forward to a career in plumbing. I think we're trying to look for those diamonds in the rough, I guess you would say.”

Sue Sabol took over the company recruiting from her husband.

“That’s really not my forte, and she’s just so much better at it,” Jerome Sabol says. “We’ve really tried to change our thinking, and like Sue says, we’re hiring more on character. If they have a technical ability, that’s great. Lately, knock on wood, but the past couple of years, we’ve picked some good ones and I think our culture has been the best its ever been because of that. The team is just really good. Everybody is good together. When you have some bad apples, it's just not fun.”

As engaged members of the Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors Association (PHCC), both National Association and the Georgia Chapter (Jerome Sabol is a past president of the state chapter), Plumb Works makes use of PHCC’s Apprenticeship Program curriculum to train its new employees.

“We use their online program — I have four or five apprentices in it right now,” Jerome Sabol says. “It’s being going really well. We usually meet once a week and go over what they’re learning.”

Plumb Works has had about 10 employees go through the PHCC program in the last six years.

And while teaching new employees the skills they need to master a career in plumbing is important, so is continuous training with existing employees.

“Every Tuesday, we have a tech meeting first thing in the morning,” Jerome Sabol says. “We will have all types of training or any licensing updates needed. It seems like we’re always having somebody studying to take their plumbing exam. So we’re always on top of that — we do a group code class and we will all train together. Even the guys who already have their licenses will chime in and give advice.”

Again, the Sabols often make use of PHCC educational classes, but they also take advantage of vendor trainings. “Our Navien tankless water heater rep company recently did a training — we sent one of our guys to an all-day training there. We’re also members of Quality Service Contractors (QSC), and we do a lot of training there as well. We just sent Spencer, our underground manager, to a manager peer group visit. There might be 10 companies in his peer group and they meet for monthly zoom meetings, but once a year, they meet up at somebody’s company. He can see how it’s ran and what the company does, and hopefully pick up some good tips and training. And he did — he came back and let us know a few suggestions. We’ve got two of our managers in those different peer groups, we’re doing a dispatch peer group, and we hold a management meeting. We have a lot of different training opportunities.” Jerome Sabol says.

And Plumb Works is not only committed to training its employees but also the general public with its “Plumb Works Academy.” The series of YouTube videos is hosted on the company website, and focuses on teaching the basics of plumbing “that your granddad knew.” Topics range from clearing clogged toilets and sinks to emergency preparedness and preventing frozen pipes.

“Plumb Works Academy does bring in customers, but it’s like doing a billboard or TV ad, where it’s something you can’t track as much,” Jerome Sabol explains. “Every once in a while I will think, ‘I don’t know if this is really working that well,’ then somebody mentions it.”

About four years ago while working with a marketing company, the idea for Plumb Works Academy was born.

“It’s obviously been done before, and we talked about it, but then it just kept evolving and we decided to give it a try. We shot five or six initial videos and started airing them,” Jerome Sabol says. “It was funny, the first six months or a year, myself and my manager went to lunch one day. And a young woman behind the counter looked up and says, ‘I just watched your video!’ It was pretty crazy, but I was like, ‘Well, it’s working because people are watching.’ It’s just a neat thing that hopefully is helping some people. For us, those are small, easy fixes. We still do them all the time, but if people want to be handy and try it out, it can save a little money.”

Plumb Works takes pride in educating customers.

“Currently, we’re seeing that customers are a little more apprehensive about what they're spending,” Gillus notes. “We're not seeing as much as luxury spending in remodeling or just replacing a faucet that really doesn't need to be replaced. We try to make sure that they see the value — there’s no need to try to put a Band-Aid on an issue that's only going to get worse. We educate our customers on what's going to be best for them in the long run.

“Training is a big focus for us over the past several years,” she adds. “We try to make sure that management is always getting training so that we're up-to-date on the newest technology, as well as some of the tactics that are being used out there to make sure customers are understanding the changes. But then we're also educating our office staff on making sure that they have that empathy, making sure that they understand the ins and outs of the same technology that we've learned about to be able to express that to our customers when they're calling us.”

EMBRACING CHANGE

One of the biggest changes to Plumb Works over the years has been the type of services it offers, notes Jerome Sabol.

“When we started out, like a lot of contracting companies, my brother and his partner started working for other contractors doing new construction or renovations because it’s easier that way than going out and advertising to homeowners for service work,” he says. “Back at that time, we were probably 90% remodel work and a little bit of new home work, and 10% service, because we just didn't know any better. And like I said, that was the easiest way. Then, really from joining the PHCC and the QSC, we started learning how to run a better business. Over the years, we have switched where we're 95%+ service work. We do a little bit of remodel work only for people we know, a good customer of ours or a contractor, two or three that we know, otherwise, we don't go after that work.”

This change is what has allowed Plumb Works to grow and be a more profitable company, which in turn, has allowed it to offer better benefits to employees, Jerome Sabol notes.

Technology has been another source of change in the business. Plumb Works has been testing Artificial Intelligence (AI) software in its customer service and dispatching centers.

“We did a couple of demos, and I called in for a service call acting as a customer — AI took the call, and it was pretty good,” Jerome Sabol says. “There were still a couple of glitches, but it’s getting better. We’re tweaking it. Eventually, we’ll be using it full-time for after-hour calls. Instead of an answering service, AI will answer. We’ll also use it during the day when we’re busy and can’t answer the phone.”

Plumb Works uses its association memberships and the trade media to stay up to date on the latest technologies in the plumbing industry.

“We offer pipe relining, patch relining and some larger relines — trenchless sewer repair has been a game changer in the last 10 years or so,” Czerniak notes. “It’s like heart surgery or fixing a clogged artery and putting a stent in — it’s pretty cool. We just got some leak detection equipment a few months ago, so we’re doing that on our own now. Spencer, our underground manager is trained on it, so he heads that up. It’s been great, so we’re not just guessing where the leak is at in the yard, we can actually pinpoint it.”

WHAT’S NEXT

The Sabols have a succession plan in place with Czerniak’s wish to eventually take over the family business.

“I’m only 54, so not retirement age yet,” Jerome Sabol notes. “Eventually, he will take over and run everything if we can keep it going in that manner. Every day is different and I like coming into work. Right now, my role is to focus on building the company into a better company, and looking to the future in terms of growth and marketing. It’s challenging, but fun at the same time. I just love what I do.”

“We all love what we do and working for Plumb Works,” Czerniak adds. “It's a really good atmosphere from Jerome all the way down to the apprentices we have. Everybody's solid. That's what we like to hire on — good character.”