The old saying goes, “it’s an ill wind that doesn’t blow some good.” In the current economic and social situation some good news, any good news, is always welcome. There is plenty of gloom and doom out there to go around, but many in the trades are choosing to forge ahead, as opposed to curling into the fetal position and sucking their thumbs.
While many of the articles in this and other trade publications are pressing the adoption of new technologies to streamline and take advantage of the new paradigms, sometimes good, old fashioned luck comes in to play. By the way, my definition of “luck” = 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration.
The folks who are going to make it through the current problems are those who never stop trying to move ahead. Whether that is by utilizing new digital technology to save time and increase profits, or by just doing what they have always done: working harder and recognizing opportunity when it is knocking. Those of you who will weather this particular storm will have done so because of your own efforts.
Lunch, with the journeyman/master plumber son of an old contractor friend of mine, brought to light exactly what I am referring to. The young man in question did not take over his dad’s business (for various reasons that are not germane to this story), but instead went out on his own about ten years ago.
His business was, primarily, service, repair and remodel. He was a three-man shop and doing okay when this virus shut down the economy and dried up a good portion of his work. While he maintained his equilibrium, and his two other guys, his workload and margins began to drop. He was contemplating laying off one of his people to help stop the bleeding. Then, an opportunity presented itself that changed everything for him and his company. For the sake of this article, I’m going to call my friend “Jim.” The following is Jim’s story;
In addition to being a third generation master plumber, Jim is also an avid SCUBA diver and a dive master. One of his best friends, also a dive master, is executive vice president of a large commercial-industrial general contracting firm. Jim would occasionally do small service work for his friend’s company, but, due to the size and dollar volume of their projects, never did any subcontracting with them.
That was about to change. About a month ago, Jim got a call from his friend... a business call. It seems that his friend’s company was building a large municipal project and the plumber under contract on it went belly up. Since the project required bonding, the bonding company was left holding the bag.
The problem his friend told him was, they needed a new plumbing contractor to complete the project. The plumbing contract was for a little over four million dollars ($4,000,000) and was still over 90 percent incomplete. The general contractor was in danger of defaulting over the delays being caused by the lack of a plumbing contractor and they needed someone “yesterday!” His friend knew that Jim had the requisite knowledge and ability to do the work. Jim agreed, but he did not have the infrastructure or financial resources (or employees) to do the job.
Jim told his friend that with his small crew he could not possibly perform on a project of the size and scope they were talking about. That’s when things took a bizarre turn. Jim’s friend told him that the original contractor had left his entire crew in the lurch, and that they would be happy to go to work for Jim if he took the contract. Jim told his friend that he could not possibly cover payroll of that size, insure, bond and do all of the necessary things to work on that job, but his friend would not be dissuaded.
This was the offer Jim got: the general contractor would advance Jim the money to pay his “new” crew of eight additional people, and continue to pay his labor costs, including overhead and profit, on a biweekly basis. Further, they would establish an account at the supply house for the job and guarantee the supplier payment! Since the supplier was already on the hook for a substantial amount of material that had been pre-ordered by the previous contractor, they readily agreed to this arrangement.
The bonding company was picking up the tab, and the prospect of delay penalties against the general contractor were looming. What could he do? What would you do? He agreed and picked up a set of drawings that afternoon! He started work two days later.
So far, according to Jim, everyone has been performing as agreed and his new “crew,” after a slight adjustment period, is working out just fine. In short, Jim’s company has gone from a $350,000 a year service shop to a $4,350,000 a year commercial/residential service/industrial shop overnight!
Now, to be clear, the previous plumbing contractor did not go bust because of the COVID 19 shut down. He had already bid the project and had begun work on it. He had underbid the job, and his foreman (who was related to the previous owner and left when he went belly up) was not capable of handling a project of that size. A bad combination in any economy.
Jim, then, became the recipient of a serendipitous occurrence that took him from a low volume service shop to a medium sized commercial subcontractor overnight!
While this situation is truly unique, it illustrates my previous point about taking advantage of every opportunity, no matter how unlikely. Pressing ahead is all any of us can do, and making the most out of every single break that comes your way is one answer to making it in this business.
I should mention that Jim’s reputation for performance, honesty and integrity were key factors in his being offered the project when other contractors of greater stature and financial resources might have been approached. That also goes to my analogy about luck. Luck is a real thing, but we usually make our own.
The Brooklyn, N.Y.-born author is a third-generation master plumber. He founded Sunflower Plumbing & Heating in Shirley, N.Y., in 1975 and A Professional Commercial Plumbing Inc. in Phoenix in 1980. He holds residential, commercial, industrial and solar plumbing licenses and is certified in welding, clean rooms, polypropylene gas fusion and medical gas piping. He can be reached at [email protected].