TRADE UP / WHO THIS IS FOR / 04 — PLUMBING

Every hour is inventory. Stop giving it away.

For service plumbers and remodel shops — flat-rate pricing that respects the license, dispatch that keeps techs billing, and a brand homeowners trust at the door.

04SERVICE · REMODEL · NEW CONSTRUCTION

A plumbing company sells hours it can never restock. The difference between 50% and 70% billable efficiency is the whole profit margin.

Service plumbing is a logistics business with a wrench in its hand. The money is lost between the jobs — windshield time, parts runs, callbacks, and the unbilled “quick look” that turns into an hour. Meanwhile the phone gets answered when it gets answered, and the schedule lives on a whiteboard only one person understands.

We rebuild the day around billable efficiency: flat-rate pricing built on your real cost per tech-hour, dispatch that routes tight, trucks stocked so parts runs die, and a callback log that finds the patterns. On the brand side — a website, reviews, and a truck that close the job before the tech rings the bell.

What we see

Where plumbing businesses leak.

Sound familiar? It should — these are the patterns in nearly every plumbing shop we talk to. None of them are craft problems. All of them are fixable.

01

Windshield bleed

Techs spending a third of the day driving, and none of it billed to anyone.

02

Hourly-rate guilt

Rates set by what feels defensible on an invoice, not what a tech-hour actually costs.

03

Parts-run roulette

Trucks stocked by habit, so every second job includes a supply-house round trip.

04

One-brain dispatch

The schedule works only because one person holds it all — and they can never be sick.

What we install

Built for plumbing, not adapted to it.

Real artifacts installed in your business over a 90-day engagement — plus brand and marketing bolt-ons that can run on their own.

i

True Cost Per Tech-Hour

The real number — truck, tools, insurance, non-billable time included — under every price.

ii

Flat-Rate Price Book

Task pricing the customer approves up front, that protects margin without an awkward invoice.

iii

Dispatch & Routing Rhythm

A schedule anyone in the office can run — zoned routing, real windows, fewer dead miles.

iv

Truck Stock System

Stocked to the work you actually do, audited monthly — parts runs become the exception.

v

Trust-at-the-Door Brand

A clean truck, a real uniform, and a review profile that makes the price easier to say yes to.

vi

Service-Area Visibility

GMB and a website that wins “plumber near me” in your zip codes — not the private-equity shop’s.

How healthy is your business, really?

Ten questions, two minutes, an honest grade — plus where to focus first. Free, no email required.

Take the Business Health Scorecard
Asked by plumbing owners

Fair questions.

Flat-rate or time-and-materials?
For service work, flat-rate almost always wins — customers approve a price instead of auditing your hours, and efficient techs stop being penalized for being fast. The catch is it only works when it is built on your true cost per tech-hour, which is the first thing we calculate.
We can’t find licensed techs. Can you fix hiring?
We cannot mint licenses, but we can make you the shop licensed techs want — clear pay bands, a real truck, no chaos dispatch — and build an apprentice pipeline so you grow your own. The shops that never struggle to hire are recruiting all year, not just when someone quits.
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Start here

Build a plumbing business worth running.

Book a 30-minute discovery call. We’ll talk through what’s working, what isn’t, and whether an engagement makes sense. No pitch deck. No pressure.

TRADE UP · BY TESSERA BUILD CO. BASED IN SOUTHEASTERN MASSACHUSETTS SERVING U.S. & CANADA REMOTELY