Competition

plumbingpro

Newbie here to the site.

Plumbing contractor in business for almost 20 years (mostly one man show). I have a question that has plagued me for several years.

How do you decipher/decide if your region is absolutely saturated with your particular trade?

Small mom and pop shop here. In the 20 years we've been at this, we've never been able to grow beyond just a couple of trucks (currently it's just me). I suspect it's complete saturation of the region, of plumbing contractors.

I do realize that times are real tight in the construction industry these days, we've weathered em before, numerous times. But it seems these days we are loosing FAR more bids than we win, and it's absolutely astounding how low some of the bids are that beat ours.

Any input?

threaderman

I was talking to my wife yesterday about this.I truly believe this.Look around your AVERAGE neighborhood.Growing up very poor on the south east side of Chicago I was always told "we may be poor but that doesn't mean we have to live dirty".You had low income homes but people still took care of thier property as well as possible,you figure you will be in the house forever so every improvement is done for the life of the home.Folks now-a-days don't stay in one place as much,and certainly don't care about the condition of thier home.They move in,use up a place and then move to the next one.Any repairs they do are simply just enough to get out of trouble.Thier are many tradesman[?] who gobble-up this type of work,happy to do as little as possible and earn peanuts,and if this is the average mind-set of the american homeowner,then thier work is plentiful while the rest of us adhere to our standards of operation,and consequently the hacks are staying busy.I will not work with-out permits and I lose jobs all the time over that.Those folks are the reason your business and mine has slowed.All I can do is know the demographics I want for my company and keep focusing on that area.

kevjob

I also believe that no matter how much competiton there is you can set your self apart from them. In Denver there are 1,000 remodel company not to mention 10,000 handyman companys that are willing to do everythin at 1/2 my costs. Re-evaluate your marketing material, your sales pitch etc.. good luck.

__________________
Kevin
Basement Finishing Highlands Ranch Colorado
Littleton Colorado, Basement Remodeling
Kitchen Remodeling Denver

threaderman

I agree 110%.

plumbingpro

Thanks for the replies.

I'm actually the mom of the *mom and pop* shop.

I handle the behind the scenes stuff. Work closely with my husband.

It's been a given in the 20 years (almost) that we've been at this. We're well aware that there will always be some hack that'll do the work unlicensed, uninsured, etc. ..... and a homeowner/business owner all too ready to accept same. That's been the case all along.

I guess the trouble is that, ....... in our local region, there have been NUMEROUS layoffs in the trade. And it's becoming pretty obvious that anybody w/a pickup truck and some knowledge, has begun to just run a fly-by-night. And there are scads of them doing so. Local code enforcement (we hear thru the grapevine) doing what they can to squelch it, but .....

We've always suspected the area to be too saturated with our particular trade. At last count (not accurate numbers to the "t"), there are approximately 1 million folks in this region, and 375 legitimate/bonafide plumbing contractors. Determining whether that is too high a ratio, I don't know.

Just seems these days, ........ first off, the contractors we did have (we do mostly contracted work, light commercial, residential remodel ....... that *has been* our forte, thru the years), ....... we've had a few of them go belly up. That has left only a few more who are still viable, and they themselves are scrounging for jobs. So you market yourself, try your level best to get your foot in the door w/other new contacts. Give a bid, and it's absolutely astounding what the low bid is. You wonder how in the world, as you put pencil to paper and try and look at your numbers again. How in the world they are even doing the work for that price, at all? We're seasoned veterans at the *can't win em all* theory, just move on to the next one. But it seems these days we loose FAR more than we win.

Will keep on keepin on.