Pipe Dreams

Business Challenge

Fifteen years ago, Brendan Dover had lost everything in a relationship breakup. He was left with his car and a pipe-cleaning machine; he lived in a small flat in Ringwood. There were days when he only had enough money to feed his young son but not himself. Now his business, The Drain Man, has 21 staff and he plans to expand nationally in 2012. There have been many lessons learnt along the way:

• Working with a business coach and mentor
  
• Learning how work on a business, not in the business
  
• Increasing the conversion rate of enquiry calls to sales
  
• Managing the work-life balance
  
• Using a company structure v. a franchising model

Business Response

• Focus
  
  Brendan Dover loved clearing drains and sewers but hated having to lug around all the other paraphernalia needed for plumbing work: tap fittings, copper piping and the rest. He also knew that most plumbers don't know what they doing when they ream out a clogged drain ("it's beer money for them"); three months later, customers can be calling back with the same problem. Brendan decided to specialise in drain clearing, enabling him to develop a new business model. "Most plumbers want to spend whole days at one location fitting out a bathroom; we have one speciality and can move from job to job with the right equipment for the job."
  
• Business coach
  
  Brendan credits much of his success in the past five years to finding and actively using a business coach - Stefan Kazakis. Stefan visits the business three times a week and works with its different units: one session with the external team (who do the drain clearing); one session with the internal team (focusing on operations, customer loyalty, finance and estimating), and one session with Brendan.
  
  Brendan says: "Stefan helps me in my own headspace; he helps me to become a more positive thinker. When you want to change things, you have to look inside yourself first." Brendan and Stefan discuss everything from how the past week has been to strategies for expanding the business nationally. Stefan has helped establish and implement the systems for running the business, monitoring customers' experience, training staff to a high standard, and sharing insights and learnings among the staff teams.
  
• Accountability for sales
  
  "As a plumber, your instinct is to be a tradesman, not a businessman. I ran my business in terms of getting customers to call me back. But, really, you need to understand the numbers that drive your business such as how many enquiries you are converting to sales.
  
  "Business is an intellectual sport. If you don't keep a scorecard of numbers, you aren't in the game. For example, we were receiving about 30 calls a day but only converting 10. Why? What process was wrong? Tracking such numbers keeps you accountable for improving them."
  
• Sales conversion
  
  Why were so few enquiries turned into sales? By focusing on the issue, Brendan narrowed it down to three main areas: pricing, how customers were handled on the phone, and people's understanding of the business. "There is not much we can do about pricing - we are competitive for the service we offer - but we could change the customer's experience of ringing us." Now, 55% of The Drain Man's business is from new customers, which helps explain the triple digit growth over the past three years.
  
• Feedback from customers to staff
  
  Brendan closely monitors the positive and negative feedback from customers. "Tradesmen shine when their good work is noticed by the boss and celebrated among the staff. But you also need understand the source of any negative feedback. For example, one of our staff didn't use the drain camera on eight jobs, resulting in three return visits. In the old days, I used to point fingers and yell; now it tells me there is a procedure to be fixed or more training required."
  
• Work-life balance
  
  Brendan prefers to call it work-life "harmony" not balance. He says that after a relationship ended 15 years ago, he had no balance at all. "My 19-year-old son reminds me regularly of his memories of coming to my place on weekends and sitting in the truck watching me clear drains. However, he has become a plumber, so it can't have been all bad."
  
  In the past five years, Brendan has cut down his hours, leaving the office at 6pm or sometimes 5pm compared with 8­-9pm in the past. He has just returned from a three-week vacation with his wife and three kids (with one more on the way). "My business systems and processes have made the difference. Without those, I would probably still have my nose to the grindstone and still be single."
  
• Advertising
  
  Brendan used to spend about $30,000 on Yellow Pages ads but was dissatisfied with the meagre returns. He switched to radio advertising and has been very pleased with the results from 3AW and Triple M, which helped develop an ad for him. "We ran one ad, 10 mornings a month on Triple M but people remember it as constantly being played. It was very effective." He has scaled back his radio advertising until the business is ramped up further to meet the demand.
  
• Franchising versus company structure
  
  To franchise - or not - is an issue for Brendan in considering further expansion. From one perspective, his business has all the attributes of a good franchising prospect: well-established and tested management and sales systems, an easily defined offering (drain clearing), proven advertising strategies and the possibility of carving his metropolitan markets in distinct territories.
  
  The lure of others' capital is also attractive - he says: "All my money is tied up in the business" - but there are downsides. Brendan likes the company structure because of the control it gives him over staff development and training (and therefore the customer experience of his business). He also likes the flexibility it gives him to meet variable demands in what might otherwise be specific territories. "I can send a guy from Werribee [in western Melbourne] to Brighton [in eastern Melbourne] in the same day. That would be harder if the city was divided into specific territories."
  
• Business awards
  
  The Drain Man was a finalist in the Telstra Panasonic Medium Business Award for 2011. Brendan is ambivalent about the process. "It was useful to know that we are on the right track but if it was up to me, it would not have happened. My business coach nominated us and the staff really got behind the application. I prefer to get accolades by performance. I'm more interested in training our people and delivering unequalled service."