Idea for a service, would plumbers be interested?

[cgodfrey]

Hi,
I'm doing a course in management and business at my college at the moment, and we've had to come up with an idea for a business, and part of this involves doing research about it.

The idea is a service that provides plumbers, electricians, builders and other sole traders with a remote assistant who handles all of the scheduling/invoicing/ordering parts/day to day tasks that noone really wants to do, with the aim of giving the worker more time to get on with the stuff they do best i.e the plumbing.
Obviously it's impractical to hire a full time assistant just for yourself, so the idea would be that each assistant (as they are working remotely) could serve multiple different professionals.
Would there be any interest in such a scheme or am I barking up the wrong tree?

Thanks,

CG

 

[SimonG]

Welcome to the forum, but yes you are barking up the wrong tree.

Why would i want to spend time communicating to a third party what i need when i can use that time for free to sort it myself.

If i was looking for this type of service then i would be looking at a retired plumber with years of experience in the trade. A thirty second conversation with somebody like that would probably be the same as a two hour conversation with yourself. If your not from a plumbing and heating background then you have no chance.

Also, say somebody does think that its a good idea, what will you do when it all goes breasts up due to an error you have made?

Im atlfraid you wont get rich on the back of hard working plumbers. Back to the drawing board.

 

[PlumbBobBob]

as simon says plenty of opportunity for mistakes, wrong stuff ordered delivered to wrong customer, incorrect invoices etc. sorry but back to the drawing board i'm afraid.

 

[MOSSEP]

Nice idea for a college project, but as others have said, it would not work in the real world.

 

[Ray Stafford]

Mrs S did something similar to this about 20 years ago. She needed to work from home, and so offered a telephone answering service, quote typing up, and invoicing service.

She found that about 4 or 5 clients - all local tradesmen - was enough to keep her busy.

Having said that, mobile phones were not as common or cheap as they are now, and most tradesmen probably didn't own a computer, werent on email and certainly wouldn't have had the understanding of IT that we all take for granted now.

Ordering of materials is a definite no-no, and with respect to the OP, only someone from outside the industry would even suggest it. Thats a job for the MOST experienced person on the firm, not the least experienced.

 

[cgodfrey]

Thanks for all your feedback, and yes, as Ray indicated, I'm very much outside the industry, so it's really useful to be able to have a forum to speak to people who actually know what their talking about!

I have a few questions about the day to day life of a plumber if you'd be willing to answer them:

1. How do you get the parts you need for a job? One thing I heard from another ex-plumber was that one of the difficulties of the job was scheduling jobs such that they fit around depot trips, he seemed to imply he spent a lot of his time driving too and from depots.

2. How rapidly do you need the parts for a job? Do you go and visit a house, see what's up, and then come back a week or so later when the part arrives, or do you ever end up driving to the depot straight away and getting what you need. Kind of part b) of the first question.

3. What is involved in invoicing somebody?
4. How do you schedule your time?

The idea was inspired by a lumberjack friend of mine, who said that he spent a lot of time doing invoicing and cost estimates, and he was looking for a way to automate it. Another inspiration was the fact that lots of freelance plumbers/electricians in my local area back home can be pretty hopeless from an organisational standpoint, taking months to send an invoice, and when it does arrive, you can't even remember what it was for, and other things like that.

Thanks for your insights

 

[jtsplumbing]

O my god, not someone else thinking they can make a fortune of the backs of Plumbers, isn't there enough doing it already ?

 

[A1P]

I do schedule my work because I have some idea of how long a job might take.However this often changes as the actual timing alters things or you get an emergency call or a customer changes the time/day.My schedule at the startof a week often looks nothing like what I have done by the end of the week.
As regards parts,to order these you would need as much knowledge as the tradesman.Anyway my trips to the merchant are generally quite relaxing,a bit of banter,a bit of barter,special offers,refreshments,the occasional job.So no ,a non-starter.

 

[Killy Bing]

Thanks for all your feedback, and yes, as Ray indicated, I'm very much outside the industry, so it's really useful to be able to have a forum to speak to people who actually know what their talking about!

I have a few questions about the day to day life of a plumber if you'd be willing to answer them:

1. How do you get the parts you need for a job? One thing I heard from another ex-plumber was that one of the difficulties of the job was scheduling jobs such that they fit around depot trips, he seemed to imply he spent a lot of his time driving too and from depots.

2. How rapidly do you need the parts for a job? Do you go and visit a house, see what's up, and then come back a week or so later when the part arrives, or do you ever end up driving to the depot straight away and getting what you need. Kind of part b) of the first question.

3. What is involved in invoicing somebody?
4. How do you schedule your time?

The idea was inspired by a lumberjack friend of mine, who said that he spent a lot of time doing invoicing and cost estimates, and he was looking for a way to automate it. Another inspiration was the fact that lots of freelance plumbers/electricians in my local area back home can be pretty hopeless from an organisational standpoint, taking months to send an invoice, and when it does arrive, you can't even remember what it was for, and other things like that.

Thanks for your insights

1. Keep stock in van, defer jobs till next day if need be, take photos and write a list there and then. Over order too.
2. This mainly happens with boiler spares and not common fittings, we carry pumps, valves and fittings usually. With boiler spares its next day delivery quite often.
3. Smaller jobs you can write one out there and then with a cashbook.
larger ones require a quote or estimate first. A quote is a final value payment unless extras are added and agreed on. An estimate is a ballpark figure on the final cost but could run higher or lower depending, you're not tied to the estimate value.
This is a huge part and also a complicated one for plumbing/heating as our jobs vary so much, it isn't a case of a job always costing x amount. As such you need experience in the job to do it without being babysat.
4. Around job urgency and areas.

good concept for a project and maybe even for a business BUT

it would be poorly applied to this trade.
take a look at
Plumbing Supplies | BES Gas & Plumbing Fittings
We know pretty much what everything in that website does, is needed for and when to use it.
i might add thats scratching the surface.

Your concept is more suited to a labour only or one that uses limited materials.
Scaffolders, plasterers, tree surgeons and such.

heres a little homework.

I want to change a heat only boiler and vented cylinder to an unvented cylinder + sealed system boiler.
the system boiler will be moved to the loft above the unvented cylinder so it will have a vertical flue.
The cylinder is replacing the old one so the same location.
the central heating system will be split into 3 zones so i'll need everything for an s plan +
Can you give a rough list of materials to do this?

 

[SimonG]

1. Keep stock in van, defer jobs till next day if need be, take photos and write a list there and then. Over order too.
2. This mainly happens with boiler spares and not common fittings, we carry pumps, valves and fittings usually. With boiler spares its next day delivery quite often.
3. Smaller jobs you can write one out there and then with a cashbook.
larger ones require a quote or estimate first. A quote is a final value payment unless extras are added and agreed on. An estimate is a ballpark figure on the final cost but could run higher or lower depending, you're not tied to the estimate value.
This is a huge part and also a complicated one for plumbing/heating as our jobs vary so much, it isn't a case of a job always costing x amount. As such you need experience in the job to do it without being babysat.
4. Around job urgency and areas.

good concept for a project and maybe even for a business BUT

it would be poorly applied to this trade.
take a look at
Plumbing Supplies | BES Gas & Plumbing Fittings
We know pretty much what everything in that website does, is needed for and when to use it.
i might add thats scratching the surface.

Your concept is more suited to a labour only or one that uses limited materials.
Scaffolders, plasterers, tree surgeons and such.

heres a little homework.

I want to change a heat only boiler and vented cylinder to an unvented cylinder + sealed system boiler.
the system boiler will be moved to the loft above the unvented cylinder so it will have a vertical flue.
The cylinder is replacing the old one so the same location.
the central heating system will be split into 3 zones so i'll need everything for an s plan +
Can you give a rough list of materials to do this?

Yes