What I Wish I Had Known: A Beginner's Guide to Managing a Service Company
0:00
Scaling a Plumbing Business
8:47
Building a Strong Community in Plumbing
15:01
Empowering Women in the Trades
How does one go from aspiring English professor to thriving plumbing business owner? Join us as we sit down with Jessica Young from Young Plumbing, who shares her extraordinary journey into a career she never expected. Marrying into a family business, Jessica found herself immersed in the world of plumbing, navigating challenges such as shifting from new construction to service work during the pandemic and mastering the art of juggling homeschooling five kids with business demands. Her experiences offer invaluable lessons on adaptability and resilience, crucial traits for anyone looking to make their mark in the trades.
Jessica's story also highlights the power of community and the impact of empowered women in the trades. She recounts the thrill of addressing a supportive audience for the first time and the collaborative spirit that defines industry gatherings. From learning the ropes of customer relationship management to advocating for a strong female presence in plumbing, Jessica's insights underscore the evolution of trades education and the opportunities it offers. We celebrate organizations like Women in Plumbing and Piping (WIPP) that are making waves, encouraging more women to join the ranks and dismantling outdated stereotypes, paving the way for a more inclusive industry.
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Speaker 1: 0:00
What's up, Lemonheads? Welcome back to another episode of From the Yellow Chair. I'm Emily and I'm coming to you live from Service World Expo here in Orlando, Florida, and I have a new friend with me, Jessica Young from Young Plumbing. Hi, Jessica, Hi, Emily, Thanks for having me. Yes, I got to attend her breakout session and it was phenomenal, and so I cannot wait to dive in and chat with you some more. So, without further ado, let's sip some lemonade.
Speaker 2: 0:38
All right. Well, hi Jessica, hi Emily, how are you? I'm pumped. Good, it's been a good day, it's been a good conference.
Speaker 1: 0:45
Good conference, yes, lots of things happening here at Service World and I don't know about you, but I was very skeptical. I didn't know if this show would even make from the hurricane. I was terrified they were going to cancel it.
Speaker 2: 0:54
Yes, I have been preparing all year, why?
Speaker 1: 0:57
Oh, I know, and I was going to feel so bad because for well over a year and to come down to like the last few days and have to cancel, that would have been heartbreaking. But we're here, tons of people here, tons of great vendors Jessica was a speaker at a breakout session is absolutely fantastic, so I want to dive into that a little bit more. So tell me about kind of your background and your history. Like how'd you even wind up here?
Speaker 2: 1:18
So, as far as plumbing, well, um, I started off in college as an English major. I was going to teach English, Okay and very quickly realized that I do not like other people's children enough to teach them.
Speaker 1: 1:30
Oh, good point. Love them to cuddle them.
Speaker 2: 1:31
Good point, can't teach them, don't want to do that. So I decided I was going to get my PhD, okay, and I was going to be a college professor, because these students are paying to be there. Obviously, right, they should be better, better equipped and a higher level. So then I met my husband, who was an amazing plumber, and we got married the week after I graduated with my degree Okay, had a family pretty early, um, so my plans completely changed in the best way and, um, in 2017, we got married. In 2007, 2017, he opened his own plumbing company and was like, okay, cool, we can do that. And then in 2020, we started off in 2017 doing new construction. Okay, and he was kind of a one-man show. In 2020, when COVID hit, we're like, of course, nobody's going to build houses in the middle of a pandemic. Yeah, we were wrong.
Speaker 1: 2:20
Those good interest rates happened right there.
Speaker 2: 2:23
Yeah, exactly. But he said he wanted to do more service, but he was struggling to answer the phone and you know I had no idea what was involved. So I was like, sure I can answer the phone, how hard can it be exactly? Um, and it just kind of snowballed from there. Um, we started learning more about the business itself and what was involved getting involved in organizations such as this, and and it really just blew up. I never thought in a million years that I would be passionate about the trades, never thought I would be here. I joked and put in my introduction that I found myself unexpectedly into the trades, and a good friend of mine likes to talk specifically for women that we're either born into it or we fall into it. Yes, and that's kind of how it was. I had absolutely no interest in doing this when he started a plumbing company, but now I couldn't imagine my life without all these amazing people.
Speaker 1: 3:11
Absolutely. I know I talked to so many women in the trades and they either call themselves like a quick book swipe you know, like I inadvertently had to learn how to do the books for my husband's business or, yeah, answering the phone. So, um, yeah, answering the phones. So another little nugget that you shared is you were answering phones, but also while doing it, while homeschooling your five children, right, yes, absolutely, oh my gosh, can we talk about superwoman right here?
Speaker 2: 3:30
Absolutely Well and the problem was is, honestly, I wasn't doing either job all that well. We tried for two years to continue homeschooling because I didn't want to give it up and do this, but as the business took off and we grew and my job became more and more and more demanding, I realized that I was going to have to make a choice. And I was lucky enough to be in a place where my older children were very interested in attending high school and we have a great, amazing local high school near us that I was comfortable with and my younger children also had an interest in being in a more of a school environment, and so they we put them in a private Christian school near us, right near the office, literally six minutes away. Okay, so it made my mama nerves feel a lot better to have my little babies really close.
Speaker 2: 4:18
Yes, so we were just really fortunate to be in a great place to make that transition and to also be in a position and, honestly, being in an industry like this, an industry that can afford us so much freedom, gave me the freedom to make the best decision at the time for my family, because it was very difficult to give up what I felt was my mission at the time. As far as being a homeschooling mom, I was on the board of our local homeschooling association. I directed a co-op, I was all in. So to move from that to being like, okay, this is the best decision for my family now and my kids are in great places, that's fantastic.
Speaker 1: 4:54
It really worked out Well. You know, and everyone's family. There's no right or wrong, 100% this path. You just have to make it work for your family, what best works for you guys. So, um, it sounds like y'all made a couple different pivots in your company. So maybe first starting out as new commercial and then pivoting to be more service work and residential, um, and then you had to make some more pivots and, okay, I can't do both of these things. So what was maybe another key or pivotal moment that you realized, hey, to really grow or scale this thing, we're gonna have this. Like what do you think some other people might be struggling similarly with?
Speaker 2: 5:26
So when we first started doing a lot of service, um, I was running the company out of a three room binder at our kitchen table. That didn't last. Yeah, right, like paper, notebook paper, I'm a.
Speaker 1: 5:37
I was a paper girl all day long you had that from the homeschooling section you know, like old school.
Speaker 2: 5:43
Well, we really quickly realized that I needed like an office space and five kids there's no room in our house, so we purchased. No, there's like literally nothing, so we purchased like a 14 by 40 building to turn into an office space and that worked really well for about six months. Then we had a customer who, honestly, through no fault of us, was just very angry with his situation and wanted to come to the office.
Speaker 1: 6:08
Oh, that's never a good sign.
Speaker 2: 6:10
We don't want people coming to the office, exactly. But we realized in that moment that we need a brick and mortar place that we can interact with customers at. We had really very rapidly outgrown. Kind of like running it out of our house.
Speaker 2: 6:22
Yes, yeah, very rapidly outgrown, kind of like running it out of our house. Yes, yeah, so in 2021, we rented a small office space because at the time we really just needed like office. Yeah, now we're in a large I think it's like 8,000 square foot building that we can house all five trucks in, have inventory, we have a kitchen, all the things. But that moment of realizing that we're going from this, we're no longer this one man show, one guy in the truck. People know our name. We're very quickly becoming a more reputable company and we need to live that life and look it so it was really that moment of like what if a customer wants to come to my house and he's not too happy at all? My kids are here.
Speaker 1: 7:01
Yeah.
Speaker 2: 7:02
So yeah.
Speaker 1: 7:03
Well, so yeah, getting the office, that one like kind of like legitimizes your business, like, hey, they're not just out of their home, but then also all the things like google and how it gives authority to you, having an actual physical address, things like that. But probably beyond that there's lots of operational moves that you had to make and so like, hey, we can do it this way with just me and my husband on notebook paper. But then, as you're going to grow and hire more people, there's probably lots of operational and HR adaptions that you guys had to make.
Speaker 2: 7:29
There are. So in my session I talked a lot about the things that I wish I had known when we started. Yes, and when you're running a one man show, very simple company, you don't think about things like having processes and having procedures, because it's all in our head, it's just right up here.
Speaker 2: 7:47
Exactly so as we grew and we started to hire people and then start to hit some of those road bumps that I talked about, like having employees, that the relationship ends badly or for whatever reason, you've got all you've got to go through these difficulties and we didn't know to have people to sign certain documentation right, to write things down. And so those processes and understanding that we do need these things we need to write down not only, like you know, somebody falls a twisted ankle obviously we need to document that but things of like what does that process look like? And all the way down to. We heard a company, um, last year they talked about they had a process for how to take the trash out. They had a process for how to make coffee, which is, like, honestly the most important process.
Speaker 1: 8:35
Let's be real here.
Speaker 2: 8:37
But yeah, it's difficult because you do you go from such a small one man. Show you know, I'm just answering the the phone. I really don't have a clue what's going on to. Having more of a commanding knowledge of this is really what this industry was built on, and these are the things that people are dealing with every day, and to be in a room with so many people who really just wanted to hear what I have to say is humbling and amazing, so I'm super excited.
Speaker 1: 9:04
You did a fantastic job. She shared at the beginning of her session that this was the first time she had ever presented. I said you fooled me because you could. You did command the room very well. You're very knowledgeable, um, so that's fantastic.
Speaker 2: 9:16
I appreciate it. It was a lot of fun, yeah, and it was interesting to see. So there was a lot of people that came that I've met through um, in events like this, through service nation and stuff, and honestly, um, there's a guy here who hooked me up with the company. He no longer even works for that company, it's here with a different company. But he remembered me and he was like I'm going to come to your session. He's never going to run a plumbing company, but to know that I've got people like that around me, that care, that wanted to be there, it just I couldn't help but feel pumped and super excited and, like every, there's people in this room that truly love me. So it was so much fun.
Speaker 1: 9:50
For sure I'm not from this industry either. But when I got here, I like to say I got here as soon as I could. I wasn't born into it, but I got here as soon as I could. But what I have found is a community of people that are very generous. They're very willing to share. Like hey, I also had that similar struggle. Here's how I came through it. And so, um, I know, now you lead an AB group advisory board 56. Yes, is that right? Okay, and so I love the advisory boards because it's just all about that Like, how can I share, how can I pour into people, further develop them? And it's kind of paying back what people did for you, right?
Speaker 2: 10:23
Absolutely so. My whole point of my presentation was these this is the framework, this is the skeleton I wish I had when we started, because, honestly, that's what I was trying to provide is a very basic. These are the eight to ten things you need to have in place, and how you do them may be different, because there's a million different ways to do it. Yes, but this is the items that you need to have in place. I didn't know any of that Like, for example, I shared the fact that I didn't know that a customer relationship management software like service fusion or service Titan or any of those, even existed. I didn't know that thing.
Speaker 2: 10:57
So, and I shared the story of my husband went to a training session for Navy and water heaters Navy and Navient I'm not sure how they actually say it, but um, and he got laughed at because of our pricing. We were literally our pricing process was yeah, this sounds good, sure, it was based in nothing. Yeah, no reality. So he kind of got laughed at and they were like he was like what do you charge for this? He's like I don't know 100 bucks and like they got laughed out of the room.
Speaker 2: 11:23
So they introduced him to service round table which left us, led us to actually service world in Louisville, and all of a sudden, I was in this environment and they were talking about the trades being an industry and being a community, and I had both of us really had zero idea that that existed. And so I went from literally buying books like accounting for dummies and trying to figure stuff out by myself, to being tossed into an AB group with none other than the Bikila plant. Oh man, so what a gift. Absolutely, and you wouldn't believe how jealous people are when they hear that, and I'm like yeah, that's right she was my mentor, like I didn't even have to work for that, it was great.
Speaker 2: 12:04
But to have people like her and Jim Henshaw and Chris Michelle and other contractors I could probably name 20 of them that I could reach to and say, hey, how did you deal with this process? Or how do do this? Or I have this problem and everybody is so generous and giving and you don't find that, at least in my. I can't speak for everybody, but you don't find that with my competitors at home. And even if I did have like a super close friendship with them, there's still certain things that you just don't share with your direct competition. Yeah for sure doesn't make sense.
Speaker 2: 12:38
Yeah, but I can reach out to you know plumbing companies across the nation and be like, hey, I'm dealing with this HR issue, I have a customer that has this problem, or we really want to offer this service. How do you do that? And there's such a feeling of community and generosity and love that you find at stuff like this. Oh, a hundred percent. Yeah, and it's amazing, and it's honestly true for the vendors too, because we see you guys at every one and we're like, oh, look, there's the ladies in the yellow coats, that's us Yep, and we see each other all the time, right and honestly, I see people more at these events than I see my own friends.
Speaker 1: 13:16
Oh, I say that like, definitely, during show season, like I see my friends from Minnesota more than I see my friends down the road, exactly, but it is something very special, you know, and I think that's why it's service nation, because it is literally all across the nation, but you can have that sharing of processes, ideas, struggles, and it not be with your direct competitor.
Speaker 2: 13:35
Absolutely and you can talk to people who are living your life every day Absolutely. And you can talk to people who are living your life every day Absolutely and because there's something special about being able to go to somebody who is, who can absolutely understand the intricacies of everything that you're dealing with. And while I love my friends and my personal life who are still basically homeschooling moms, love them to pieces and they are amazing people, they can't relate to what I do every day. Yeah, so it's. It's a different kind of community and understanding when you're making these connections and this is our fourth service world and we walked in this time not feeling like the baby company, not knowing anybody and being a little bit kind of apprehensive to now walking through these halls and through this expo, you know, knowing people's first names and being like hey how are you?
Speaker 2: 14:27
How's your kid?
Speaker 1: 14:28
So I'm curious, now that you've accidentally found yourself in this world but sounds like you're loving it. Um, what do you see as like the future for the trades, and maybe from like two different folds, like, maybe like women earning their spot in the trades, be able to stay there and, you know, keep their spot at the table. But maybe even also like the next generation, like you know I know education is very important to you and homeschooling your kids, Like do you see your kids going into the trades? Would you even want that for your kids? You know what are, kind of your thoughts on the future of the trades?
Speaker 2: 14:53
So I can only really speak to plumbing. Um, I think plumbing and HVAC and electrical are all very similar but, I, don't know enough to speak about them. As far as my own children, my oldest is actually 21. He's my senior service technician so he works with us.
Speaker 2: 15:07
He grew up on job sites with his dad. That's right. My husband spent a lot of his time during our marriage in law enforcement. But when we first met he worked with his uncle. His uncle's a general contractor building homes, so he spent time on those job sites. And then there was times throughout our marriage that he would work, even if it was just on the side, kind of helping out. So my oldest got to be on new construction job sites from the time he was little and then as homeschooling allowed us the opportunity where he could take him to work pretty much anytime he wanted to.
Speaker 1: 15:34
That's some of the best education right there you know absolutely.
Speaker 2: 15:37
You can't learn that in a classroom.
Speaker 2: 15:39
And a lot of the schools and again, I don't I don't go to school in the country, so I can't speak to it but in our area the schools, like they're offering welding that's huge but there's nobody offering um, actually, just one school near us just started offering plumbing, but they're not really offering trades education. So we always hear that that tradesmen are dying out. We're very proud to have several young people that work with us, um, you know, one of them obviously being my oldest, but, um, we have several people that are in their twenties. My oldest, best friend, works with us. They went to school together.
Speaker 2: 16:13
So we're trying to foster that of bringing in young people, because it is kind of of, everybody's pushed towards more tech jobs and, you know, because, like we know, technology's taking over but they're forgetting how important the trades are in a lot of ways. So we're trying very hard to foster that and I'd love to see all five of our children work with us. I don't know that that's realistic, yeah, um, but my 17 year old works with us every summer. He got super excited when he upsold a customer to a pressure regulating valve.
Speaker 1: 16:44
Oh, look at him, look at him. That's awesome.
Speaker 2: 16:48
So it's fun to see.
Speaker 1: 16:49
Well, I think slowly the world is evolving. You know like when I was graduating high school, it was like you had to go to college and get a degree or you will be a failure, but I think we're slowly starting to get it right.
Speaker 1: 17:05
You can have a real career, graduate without tons of debts from a trade school or something like that and really make an impact in your community and, like I hope, it's getting more and more to where it's a very respectable career and a fantastic option for a lot of people that love working with their hands, love being problem solvers Yep.
Speaker 2: 17:18
And you know, I think it it is. I don't think you see that when we first started and we didn't know about this community, we didn't see that. Yeah, um, my husband actually came to me when he first started and he looked at me and he said, would you be embarrassed to be married to a plumber? And because we only saw one side of it, sure right, and I was just like absolutely not, why would I be, why would I not be? But at the time it was just like absolutely not. Why would I be, why would I not be?
Speaker 1: 17:41
But at the time it was just a plumber or like the butt crack plumber, you know and like had that nasty stigma, but that's the stereotype.
Speaker 2: 17:49
But then you get involved in something like this and you realize that it is so much more than just unclogging toilets. There's so much that goes into it, and I couldn't be more proud to be married to a master plumber. That's awesome. Who is amazing?
Speaker 1: 18:01
at what he does.
Speaker 2: 18:02
Yes, and I couldn't be more proud to be in this industry. So shameless plug. I am a advisor and state and South Carolina state lead for women in plumbing and piping Awesome, I would love to see, I feel like so women were in it. But we're in the office. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. It is almost every CSR, every dispatcher all them by majority, that I've met are women. We are expected Now I do not have the skill set to be out in the field. It would end terribly for everybody, but I would love to see more women in the field and we're trying to foster that and encourage that as well. So they say that it's a male dominated industry, but I think it was Carol Longacre that said earlier that's like. I don't think that's true anymore. I think we're more and more even and I see that a lot and I'm super excited about it.
Speaker 1: 18:45
We're getting that. So I want to learn a little bit more about whip. So I serve on the lady Titans board and actually just last week we hosted a mutual party with lady Titans and women in HVACR and whip, women types and plumbing and so um fantastic organizations again where you can just find that community, find those people to share your struggles with, get help from, seek advisory from. So tell us more about whip.
Speaker 2: 19:08
So yesterday here I don't know if you were here during the opening session they did a um opening session on finding your tribe. So it was all about finding people that you connect with and that's what whip is for women. Um, I'm not an HVAC but I am ridiculously jealous of the women in HVAC AR. Hey, I mean, we welcome plumbing ladies. You know, I'm so like. It just seems like an amazing organization. So I was really excited to learn at last year's service world that um, women in plumbing piping and got started. So I jumped in. I was like, let me help, let me do, let me do whatever um.
Speaker 2: 19:43
So it does, it gives us that same place and we're starting off small but I'm hoping to see it grow. But it gives us that place to kind of foster again another type of community to encourage women to be in the trades, because I do feel very blessed and very lucky to be in a place like this and to understand and to have connections inside service nation and to be at events like this. But not everybody has that right. So this is just another place where they can create those connections and create a community. So we're we'd love to have more members. So anybody out there like reach out, I'm happy to give my my contact information. I'd love to have you. We've just we've seen it grow.
Speaker 2: 20:16
So I'm actually leading a book club with them. Oh wow, and it's been the most fun I'm. We just get in there and I sent everybody these little pink coffee mugs, like I mailed them out, so fun. And we sit there with our little mugs over Zoom and it just feels like we're all in the same room and I've never met any of these ladies in person, except for one Met her here. But we feel like we get to hang out every week and we end up talking about so much more than just the book.
Speaker 1: 20:44
Oh, for sure.
Speaker 2: 20:51
So what book are y'all currently going through? We're just about to start, it's 101 essays to change the way you think we just finished lean in.
Speaker 1: 20:54
Okay, so we've we've had a great time. That's awesome. Well, I know whip has some fantastic leadership. I know Lori Scholl, angie snow. I got to work a lot with Julia, who's actually like a staff member there at whip, and fantastic, I know you guys she was in there as well, another awesome rock star woman in the trades.
Speaker 1: 21:09
And so, um, I know whip is very up and coming and so I'm excited to see what you guys do next. And, um, yeah, I mean that's fantastic, awesome. Yeah, it's so good show. So, um, how can people get in contact with you if they want to just maybe ask you some questions or maybe learn some more about WIPP? How can they get in contact with you?
Speaker 2: 21:28
So WIPP does have a website. Okay, honestly, I don't know the website off the top of my head, but they can Google it. They can Google it. Google works For me. My email is really simple. It's just Jessica at youngplumbingservicescom. Very good, so they can always reach out. Our website is youngplumbingservicescom. They can reach me through there. Um, and I have a LinkedIn and I'm happy to. Uh, I, what I can do is send you all that information, emily, so you guys can post it wherever you need to. Awesome, um, I've had felt very blessed after this cause. I've had several women and a couple of men walk up to me and say, hey, I need help with this. Can you? How do you do this? Or can I send somebody to you? And I was that person four years ago that knew nothing. So now to have people come up and be like, hey, I'd love to get your advice, that's amazing to me, like I couldn't imagine anything better.
Speaker 1: 22:12
No, that's for sure. Okay, so how about we end this off? What would be the one piece of advice you'd give to, maybe, a woman who was how you started off back in 2017? What would be the one piece of advice you'd give her?
Speaker 2: 22:22
Ooh that's a hard one. I would say jump all in. Jump all in. Like I did feel very ill-equipped in a lot of ways and there was a lot of days that were full of tears and full of stress and just the unknown of being an entrepreneur and starting your own company and then all of a sudden we're responsible for these other families and their paychecks. It's a lot for sure. But once you jump all in and you realize you don't have to be a master of business, it helps, it definitely helps, but you don't have to be an expert in all things. If you surround yourself with the right people, that's right. So jump all in. Find your community, lean on other people. Don't try to do it all. That's awesome. Well, jump all in.
Speaker 1: 23:06
find your community, lean on other people Don't try to do it all. That's awesome. Well, Jessica, thank you so much for chatting with me. I've really enjoyed this. You have a phenomenal story and I know you're looking to empower and unite women all across the trades and help them grow up.
Speaker 2: 23:18
So thank you so much. Thank you, emily, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: 23:19
All right. Thank you for listening to this episode of From the Yellow Chair. We would love to have a review. You can follow us on all the social medias. We're there Also. Follow along Jessica. Wealth of knowledge and very willing to help and share with everyone. So thanks for listening. We'll see you next time.
