About a year or so ago I had 2 astounding revelations⊠the first came one afternoon as I was working tirelessly for one of my awesome customers, when the thought hit me that Iâm not the only one who could do this task⊠I know that shouldâve been obvious but, please realize when you take a profession like plumbing as serious as I do, itâs easy to start believing that youâre the only one whoâs actually providing plumbing excellence⊠Now it wasnât that I suddenly depreciated my value, thinking that Half Moon wasnât any better than the next company but, rather that I could actually teach/train someone else and thereby start the process of duplication then multiplication in essence lengthening my arms so that I could reach more customers with the same service and skillâŠ
The second came shortly after when I suddenly realized that after 5 years in business, I actually didnât know very much about business⊠I mean beyond the basics of course: honesty, integrity, hard work, and money management all of which had served me well in my first 5 years but, if I was actually going to grow beyond myself, my truck, and my tools then I would need some help! So I immediately started searching the web for some sort of business training specific to my field but, I came up dry⊠I really just wanted to attend a conference where I could learn from those who had already achieved success and get some ideas, develop a network and take offâŠ
Ok so now I can explain the title âall show and no ponyâ ⊠As only through Godâs providence, I received a call from a plumbing franchise company only a few days into my search and it just so happened that their annual national conference was just a few weeks away⊠The recruiter offered me a free trip to the conference where he said I would be able to sit down with other franchise owners and pick their brains concerning successful business plans with no strings attached⊠This was exactly what I was looking for, and was for me an easy decision to accept the offer⊠I should state here that from the beginning I was very clear that I really had no intention of dissolving Half Moon Plumbing into a national franchise but, that I simply wanted some advice on how to grow my business⊠AS I spoke with multiple franchise owners who all had larger companies than myself, I found several things to be consistent: most all of them were excited about the growth, the profits, the training, and the network that was available to them⊠They were all about being clean, polite, and professional but, as I would quiz them on actual plumbing methods and materials there was not as much interest or consistency⊠This in the end was the real problem for me since my journey began with a heart to duplicate both service and skill, I didnât want to be part of an organization where there wasnât a standard of plumbing excellence in the area of skill⊠Hence the term âall show and no ponyâ
My hope is that as Half Moon Plumbing grows we will never sacrifice skill for service so that we might always have a pony in the show!