Quick question — do you actually know what you need to charge per hour to make real money? Not guess. Know. Most plumbers don't. They price off what the last guy charged, or what "feels fair," and wonder months later why they're flat out busy and still broke. I just dropped the Hourly Rate & Charge-Out Calculator in the classroom. Free for all members. Download it here! You plug in: 🔧 Your real vehicle & tool costs 🔧 Your overheads (insurance, licensing, software, the lot) 🔧 What you actually want to PAY yourself 🔧 Your real billable hours (not just hours worked — travel and admin eat more than you think) It spits out: ✅ Your break-even rate — what you need just to survive ✅ Your recommended charge-out rate — break-even plus real profit ✅ A straight answer on whether your current rate is too low No fluff. No guessing. Just your numbers, in black and white. Go grab it from the classroom and run your numbers tonight. Drop your "aha" (or your "oh no") in the comments — let's talk about what you find. Follow the Yellow Pipe. 🔑

Ossie, you've been in the industry for 35 years and have seen plumbers at every stage of their journey. If you could sit down with a plumber who's just starting their own business today, what's the one piece of advice you'd give them that could save them years of mistakes? I'd love to hear your perspective, and I'm sure others in the community would benefit from it too.

Question for everyone... What's the biggest frustration you've had with a plumber(tradesman)? Plumbers:Don't defend the industry just yet. Read the answers first. Customers:Be honest. What annoyed you? Late arrivals?No communication?Unexpected invoices?Something else? Let's hear both sides.

Picking up from the discussion the other day… A lot of the frustrations mentioned around tradespeople had very little to do with actual plumbing skill. It kept coming back to things like: - Communication - Reliability - Expectations - How the business is run Which got me thinking… For the plumbers here just starting out on your own (or thinking about it): Don’t just aim to become a good plumber. Aim to become a plumber who runs a solid business. That’s the difference between being busy… and being in control of your work, your time, and your income. This is why I put together the Blueprint in this community. Not as “a course to sell you something”… But as a simple structure you can plug your own business into, adapt, and build on as you go. If you’re early in your journey, you don’t need to figure everything out alone. Use it, break it, adapt it, make it your own—and we build from there together. What’s the one part of running a plumbing business you wish someone had explained properly when you started?

New members start here. Welcome to Plumbing Business Skool. This community is built primarily for plumbers who want more than just another job. Whether you're: - Thinking about starting out on your own - Recently self-employed - Looking to improve an existing plumbing business - Trying to get more control of your time, income, and future You're in the right place. The Blueprint is not a rigid formula. Download Blueprint It's a framework based largely on the maintenance plumbing model that helped me build my business. Use it. Question it. Adapt it. Make it fit your own situation. The goal isn't to create copies of my business. The goal is to help you build your business. Take a look through the Blueprint and then introduce yourself: 🔧 Where are you from? 🔧 Are you employed, self-employed, or planning to start? 🔧 What's your biggest challenge right now? Let's build it together.