Insights

Lessons from a plumber

But no ordinary plumber. He’s a millionaire plumber. He went from being a North London street urchin to owning London’s biggest independent plumbing firm, which he built himself from scratch.

I had the pleasure of hearing Charlie Mullins, the owner of Pimlico Plumbers, speak to an audience of business people.

Pimlico Plumbers turn over more than £30 million a year, employing 330 people, and they’re still growing. 20% of his plumbers are women, with many female customers specifically asking for a female plumber. The country’s best plumbers and heating engineers queue up to work for him. They are the plumbers of choice for London’s high society – movie stars and celebrities of all kinds. He’s mates with David Cameron, George Osborne and Boris Johnson and has a chauffeur-driven beautiful metallic blue Bentley which I drooled over.

His lessons and observations on business were fascinating and I want to share a few of the nuggets that struck me. Some are obvious but worth reiterating.

Delegate: you can’t grow a business trying to do it all yourself.

Resilience: Charlie was a boxer in his early days “If you go down, you’ve got to get back up” Business can be tough, we have to be resilient.

Be different to your competitors: As an apprentice and in his early career as a plumber he looked at what annoyed customers and he did the opposite. Turn up on time, do a good job, clean up after yourself…..

Quality: “It’s all about service and quality” He tells his customers “If you’re not happy, don’t pay”. If that happens then Charlie doesn’t pay the plumber! The team soon learn what the standards are.

Price. Pimlico Plumbers certainly isn’t the cheapest. Charlie said “The cheapest is the dearest”

Not surprisingly 80% of his business comes from repeat customers. Where’s your business coming from?

If you want to know more, read Charlie’s book: Bog standard business