You’ve certainly heard all the cliché statements around taking a “30,000-foot view” of the business or your department. How taking this view can help you see things you weren’t able to see “from the ground” when it comes to process, procedure and daily activities.

We often get consumer needs and wants confused. When water’s flowing where it should not, when the shower is cold, when the toilet does not flush, the need is obvious. Solving needs brings relief, but it does not bring loyalty. Addressing consumer wants is what leads a consumer to proclaim, “So and so is my plumber.”

As a driven leader in a blue-collar industry, I’m sure you’re no stranger to making mistakes. If you’re at all like me, you’ve made some big mistakes throughout your career. These are not just to be expected, but I’m here to help you remember that they are absolutely necessary for your continued growth and evolution as a driven leader.

As business leaders, we often make assumptions about what our field service personnel know. In addition, they make their own assumptions about us. The result is they know less than we think, and think they know more than they do. Here are seven things your service plumbers should know about their profession.

Whether you’ve been in business for a week, a year or a decade, you have undoubtedly experienced more than just a few setbacks. We’ve all had major setbacks in our lives and businesses, and we generally respond to setbacks with our world-conditioned responses involving pain. We have pain, we have trauma, and we have turmoil, challenges, etc.

On New Year’s Eve, 2020, many plumbers toasted the end to the unpredictable year. Everyone looked forward to a return to normality in 2021. Uh, yeah. So, what about 2022? Here are 11 predictions for the next year.

As you are well aware, our incredible industry has been experiencing massive growth for the last couple of years. We have been seeing contractors post record months for both sales and profitability at unprecedented levels. It seems there has finally even been a shift from how this industry is viewed from the outside.

The pandemic has disrupted the world and how business today is done. Even in the construction industry, things have been disrupted and modified. 

The biggest problem most plumbers face is finding personnel. A plumber’s ability to grow is limited to his ability to put people in the field.

A lot of folks hate the idea of “problems.” A lot of people see this as something to be overcome or fixed, but as leaders, we’re missing out on a huge opportunity here if this is the mindset we take.