Female Plumber Starting Own Business although she might regret her landrover rant.

[Ch4 plumbing]

Re: Female Plumber Starting Own Business

Ok Croppie, I will try

Don't worry yourself though, I'm very good at CPR and you'll be pleased to know i don't look like a bloke ! lol

I'll try to behave

Me neither, I'm more Marilyn Monroe.

 

[AWheating]

Re: Female Plumber Starting Own Business

never known a compression nut or end feed fitting ask me whats between my legs.

 

[Toggles]

Re: Female Plumber Starting Own Business

Its a shame that this is asked, we are supposed to be in a modern equal society

Ho Dancinplumba

Although I am grateful for your support, my post really isn't about the equality war and I don't want to start or be involved in the battle of it. I do plumbing because I love it and am good at it, I've earned my stripes so to speak. I only posted this as I am interested to hear the advice fellow trades people have to offer me, they are the experts after all in our field. I would'nt go into a ladies fashion shop and ask them the question of starting a plumbing business would I ? Relax, its all good

 

[missplumb]

Re: Female Plumber Starting Own Business

When we started Miss Plumb, it was my mrs who started the business sfter walking away from her job in local authority. She is time served, worked in all teh different areas as yourself, and is now a building services design engineer. The thing that she found, and this goes against what people are saying, was that she didnt need to go for the stereotypical single mums or older people, she had a knack of being able to sell herself well to the customers and on average got 75% of the jobs that she priced. Her big downfall came when she did alot of work for a builder who had a contract to refurb council properties. She did 6 full systems and he paid on the dot, then she did another 10 and he paid in dribs and drabs, £100 her and £100 there. This meant she couldnt pay her merchants and had reached her limits for getting gear so as a word of warning, be careful who you work for (obviously this happens to everyone, not just female plumbers), id hate to see you fall foul as she did. Everything has worked out for the best and now she works with me designing ans specing biomass district heating systems and plantrooms.

 

[Toggles]

Re: Female Plumber Starting Own Business

When we started Miss Plumb, it was my mrs who started the business sfter walking away from her job in local authority. She is time served, worked in all teh different areas as yourself, and is now a building services design engineer. The thing that she found, and this goes against what people are saying, was that she didnt need to go for the stereotypical single mums or older people, she had a knack of being able to sell herself well to the customers and on average got 75% of the jobs that she priced. Her big downfall came when she did alot of work for a builder who had a contract to refurb council properties. She did 6 full systems and he paid on the dot, then she did another 10 and he paid in dribs and drabs, £100 her and £100 there. This meant she couldnt pay her merchants and had reached her limits for getting gear so as a word of warning, be careful who you work for (obviously this happens to everyone, not just female plumbers), id hate to see you fall foul as she did. Everything has worked out for the best and now she works with me designing ans specing biomass district heating systems and plantrooms.

Hi Missplumb,
Thanks for the great advice and warnings, I shall take that on board Make em pay after each install/ leave a few snags until payment received maybe?? hehe. Am sorry it happened though, like you say it can happen to anyone and any business. Glad to hear you are both doing so well now
Thanks again

 

[Ch4 plumbing]

Re: Female Plumber Starting Own Business

When we started Miss Plumb, it was my mrs who started the business sfter walking away from her job in local authority. She is time served, worked in all teh different areas as yourself, and is now a building services design engineer. The thing that she found, and this goes against what people are saying, was that she didnt need to go for the stereotypical single mums or older people, she had a knack of being able to sell herself well to the customers and on average got 75% of the jobs that she priced. Her big downfall came when she did alot of work for a builder who had a contract to refurb council properties. She did 6 full systems and he paid on the dot, then she did another 10 and he paid in dribs and drabs, £100 her and £100 there. This meant she couldnt pay her merchants and had reached her limits for getting gear so as a word of warning, be careful who you work for (obviously this happens to everyone, not just female plumbers), id hate to see you fall foul as she did. Everything has worked out for the best and now she works with me designing ans specing biomass district heating systems and plantrooms.

Spot on advice, you sell your business not your gender, or Creed! Custards know what your about as soon as you step through the door and start talking and offering advice, get out there and start quoting see how you go.

 

[IND_Nick]

Re: Female Plumber Starting Own Business

The fundamentals for succeeding in business are the same for everyone. Make sure you provide a quality service, at competitive rate and people will continue to use and recommend you.
The number of jobs I get simply because I sent a price over when I said I would, turned up when I said I would and take an interest in the home or work required keeps me busy. I am never the cheapest but always do as I have quoted and make sure I respect the customers home. I'm not trying to preach but these simply basics have kept me in business over the last five years with no advertising and just word of mouth referrals, and business has never been so good for the last six months.
Good luck and don't give up, also make sure you have a good bottle of red at home for the days that don't go quite to plan!

 

[REDSAW]

Re: Female Plumber Starting Own Business

Oi Numbnuts, if you're going to try to be a smarty pants, know what your talking about haha.....Sanitary towels are not hung on 'rails'! Or at least not normally
Thanks for the advice on netmums though

they have been in some of the houses i have been in, perhaps there the reusable ones.lol

 

[REDSAW]

Re: Female Plumber Starting Own Business

anyone tried these?.lol

wouldnt mind a case like that...in black

 

[Ray Stafford]

Re: Female Plumber Starting Own Business

Hi all,

Hi Toggles. I would say welcome to the forum, but I see you have been a member for a while.

Little info for you beforehand; Fully time served apprenticeship, plumbing/ gas both domestic and commercial, variety of systems covered. General breakdowns, servicing, maintenance, refurbs on a daily basis in early years. Later some management and other professional experience along way ( Not the call girl type! lol) Been in industry 12 years to date..........

Thats an excellent start

Whats your general opinion/ advice on female plumber starting own business?
Is there a market for female plumber ?
Do you think she can earn a living at it?
What do you think the chances of success are as a female out there are ?

From reading the rest of the thread, I'm not sure whether you are intending to

a) run a plumbing business. As a complete non-sequitur, you happen to be female or
b) you plan to run a plumbing business, specifically marketing and promoting yourself as female, and hoping to gain competitive advantage from the latter.

If its the former, then you probably have some minor perception issues to overcome, and no doubt there will be a few thumbless flipwits who think they can increase their standing by belittling you, but nothing you wouldn't get in any of the male dominated fields.

If its the latter, I think that there are probably some great opportunities in areas where there are a large number of relatively well off, single women. I can see it working in (for example) south west London, but not so much in less affluent areas. With a bit of inventive PR, I bet you could get some free marketing from local press.

What do you think the risks/ pitfalls are ?

Notwithstanding the above, its the same pitfalls as every new start plumbing business:

1) Failing to understand the overhead of running a business and therefore underpricing work
2) Giving credit to people who you shouldn't give credit to, and being surprised when they don't pay
3) Not keeping on top of the paperwork - particularly invoicing and credit control
4) Not understanding the difference between cashflow and profit

I reckon 99% of all the bad debts we have ever taken come down to a combination of these factors.

They are the four horseman of the self employed businesspersons apocalypse.

Would you use her to sub certain work out/ recommend her to others?

Only if the quality of work was at least as high as my own.

Any other thoughts and general advice would be greatly appreciated from all you wise people!

Never eat yellow snow.
And if you have false teeth, dont sneeze when standing at a urinal. Although this one is probably of limited value to you.

Thanks

You're welcome.

 

[stevetheplumber]

Re: Female Plumber Starting Own Business

Made me LOL really Croppie! Unfortunately for those ***** wives with lesbian tendencies, I am straight as an arrow and would likely clobber them with a spanner if they tried their luck on me!!! lol. I have come across those wives that are all dressed up kinky and such waiting for a hunk of a male plumber just to find little ole me at the door instead, if looks could kill Id have been a dead un I dont know how many times! haha

any repeat buisness from those types ill work for mates rates

 

[hammers4spanner]

Re: Female Plumber Starting Own Business

Hey, play nice hammers4spanner, I've done both, yes tough work but does it matter so long as i could do it? Besides I've seen blokes on site that are so slight they couldnt lift a pair of 36FF boobies without the help of a forklift!!
Now don't be a spanner ok

Apologies if that came across as derogatory was meant as a joke ,

I dragged my bird out to fit some rads few months back after endless remarks about how easy my job was and the bird done well.

As i said already a woman here advertising woman plumber so must be scope for it .

Cant imagine how it would go down if someone advertised male plumber tho

 

[dean.diy]

Re: Female Plumber Starting Own Business

hello Toggles, I liked your sense of humour coming through in your replies to the regulars.Good luck with new venture.

 

[gasmanrob]

Re: Female Plumber Starting Own Business

Why wouldn't you market it though? It's not a weakness it's a strength so to speak.

 

[Dotty]

Re: Female Plumber Starting Own Business

Ok Croppie, I will try

Don't worry yourself though, I'm very good at CPR and you'll be pleased to know i don't look like a bloke ! lol

I'll try to behave

Here! I just cottoned on you're offering me mouth to mouth.....


That's a first on this forum!

























**BOD doesn't count. .....

 

[IDCHAPPY]

Re: Female Plumber Starting Own Business

Giving Crops CPR is beyond my comprehension :lol:

 

[REDSAW]

Re: Female Plumber Starting Own Business

Giving Crops CPR is beyond my comprehension :lol:

thats just lowered the quality of the thread now!

 

[Destroyer2813]

Re: Female Plumber Starting Own Business

Reading this reminds me haven't seen Mrs tp for a while

 

[Masood]

Re: Female Plumber Starting Own Business

Here! I just cottoned on you're offering me mouth to mouth.....


That's a first on this forum!

AFTER giving you heart attack first, mind...

 

[Masood]

Re: Female Plumber Starting Own Business

Toggles, as other have already said, it should not matter a jot whether you're male or female; if you're good at your job and offer a quality service then there is a market for you.

If you choose to market yourself as offering something out of the ordinary by virtue of being a woman, then there is definitely a sizeable niche for you. Lone women, women who have had bad experiences with male tradesmen who have left them feeling intimidated, and don't forget, in that vein, the LGBT sector of society. I have a quite a large number of gay customers, male and female, as I did a job for one gay couple who found my complete lack of prejudice unusual (sad in this day and age, but that's their experience) who then passed my number on.

On the flip side, be prepared for prejudice from some sectors of society. I'm ashamed to admit that some members of my own community (Muslim) would find it hard to accept a woman working in the house. I understand some of the more traditional African people have similar views.

Basically - go for it. Be clever with your marketing and don't pigeonhole yourself. Use your gender as an advantage where you can but don't let it define or limit you.

Personally I wish you the very best - the more equality in the workplace the better as far as I'm concerned. Unless you're in East London in which case forget it, the market's saturated and all the customers are misogynists, even the women...

 

[hammers4spanner]

Re: Female Plumber Starting Own Business

maybe a stupid question masood whats LGBT?

 

[Ray Stafford]

Re: Female Plumber Starting Own Business

maybe a stupid question masood whats LGBT?

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual?

 

[Masood]

Re: Female Plumber Starting Own Business

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual?

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender...

That is the preferred term now as it is considered to refer more to biological and psychological imperatives rather than preferences.

 

[hammers4spanner]

Re: Female Plumber Starting Own Business

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual?

was thinking Londons gay brigade troop lol

 

[Dotty]

Re: Female Plumber Starting Own Business

I was going to threaten you all until I read your posts properly.

I'm about to get a snog. I've even used mouth wash...