Newbie success stories

[Donny2Sugars]

Hi All,

It seems quiet depressing from someone new thinking of getting into the plumbing trade after not following this career as a school leaver. Is there anyone out there who has done a fast track course and currently doing well working for an employer or self employed. Come on chaps and give us some positive stories or am I being too enthusiastic>

 

[migoplumber]

there was a woman in my local pub a while back, very proud of herself for completing her fasttrack plumbing course. (i just sat back and listened)
couple of weeks after she was back in the pub proudly touting for business, which see got.
shortly after, i heard her telling her friend how pleased she was with herself for doing an entire central heating job "in this great new grey plastic pipe, i cant remember what its called" terraced house only took her 4 days on her own and she only had 3 leaks.
i stayed quietly in the corner keeping myself to myself. a small grin had appeared on me tho.
shes still about, plumbing, making quite a good name for herself

shaun

 

[traineedrip]

One of my first few customers asked me to install a new rad and replace 2 others. Flow and return was taken through the wall. customer didnt want plastics or compression.
i expected to complete in a day but ran into problems and by 4pm Im ringing the customer asking if its ok to leave CH off overnight as id left a few open ends... im ready to go round and cap but customers ok about it.

Left the job tierd and with a bit of a cloud over me.

Next day i got it all together. Filled up and no leaks.
Went off home hoping the customer would be ok with the job and happy. But at the same time doubted he`d have me back or reccomend me on.

Next morning i got an email from a delighted customer thanking me for my effort and determination of seeing the niggles through. would certainly use me again , and would reccomend me to anyone needing a good plumber!

Customers wont all be like him but right now after months of concern and being buried in books, that email is pure gold.

 

[helpsy]

Good on you.Just completed my first large job(for me anyway)and the woman is very pleased showing all her neighbours.When I had the room ripped right apart it didn't even look like a bathroom and I wondered if it would again!!!
So when she was showing neighbours I did feel like I did a thorough job and got job satisfaction

 

[Plumbstar Tom]

Encourage people and your self to take before and after pictures as they are priceless in my eyes

Seeing what you had to work with and what you turned it in to is great

It can be a portfolio for your self to show potential customer, for your website or for your own pleasure of a job well done

If the customer takes before phots they can get more of that 'wow' factor hen they show their neighbours and increase the recommendation factor for you

 

[Flanners]

They cant possibly know the gas safe regs, best practice installation etc in a few weeks.

I the title of thread is success stories, but im sure you would learn more from negative feedback so you know what to avoid and do differently.

 

[garn2134]

Hey,

This is just the kind of plumbing work im thinking of getting into. I was wondering if any of you "newbie success stories" people would be willing to tell me how you got where you did! Its all looking fairly confusing right now and im concerned about how to gain experience while playing about with NVQ's!

Thanks in advance!!

 

[Chris W]

And we wonder why its so hard to find a "good" plumber (or any other trade for that matter)

 

[mark.brazenor@b]

Good on you.Just completed my first large job(for me anyway)and the woman is very pleased showing all her neighbours.When I had the room ripped right apart it didn't even look like a bathroom and I wondered if it would again!!!
So when she was showing neighbours I did feel like I did a thorough job and got job satisfaction

Well done, word of mouth is priceless. I have one road that thanks to one happy customer I now have virtually the whole street ringing me for bathrooms and boiler refits, servicing and repairs.

When ever I go to the road I spend ages chatting to everyone. Love going there as even though some of the jobs were ages ago I still get told how happy they still are = real feel good factor.

 

[WHPES]

I have one village where a lady called me out for a broken down boiler last Wednesday which someone had been out and supposedly sorted a few days earlier. I was ages tinkering around trying to coax it back into life and I finally found the problem and she was really happy. Anyway I get a phone call from her asking if I can do her bathroom, plus three more jobs in the village from her recommend.

 

[kay-jay]

i trained with btsc.
got nvq's
no job so self employed, advertising starting to reap rewards.
last week one customer runs a small cleaning company and she has given my cards to all her clients, got another rad/towel rail swap as a result already. this morning a happy client said she would reccomend me after replacing 2 taps and servicing 2 others. last night went to a blokes house replaced his diaphragm flush mechanism in downstairs w/c. he was made up and then showed me his en-suite which wants a full new suite and shower tray installing and a new massive sink (insurance job) in the main bathroom both jobs he had not previously mentioned.

just goes to show that as long as you are conscientious and do a good neat job no matter how small or basic in can become 'the gift that keeps on giving'

i'm certainly not getting rich anytime soon....but the snowball is starting to gather momentum!


KJ

 

[PlumbBobBob]

thats good kay-jaj my father-in-law is having a new boiler fitted and he mentioned that i was a plumber and now they want some of my cards because the chap they used to pass jobs onto when they were too busy has taken time out to travel. so i'll wait to see where this goes looks promising.

steve

 

[dontknowitall]

I keep doing taps and WCs and one day today's taps will be tomorrow's boiler (happened already with one or two customers).