Going self-employed as a plumber usually means cutting ties with any contacts gained while working for an employer overnight. With plumbers often working for firms with established relationships with builders and contractors, working alone has the advantage of starting from fresh, but the disadvantage of having to rebuild the same relationships from scratch. This is one of those overlooked aspects of being self-employed that many plumbers miss when thinking about their options, as a surprising amount of work plumbers do while employed comes via relationships which they have no direct stake in. This article looks at some practical advice for building a fresh set of construction industry contacts as a self-employed plumber.
Start With Contacts You Can Legitimately Carry Over
Before building anything from scratch, it's worth considering which of the relationships you had while employed which you are able to carry over into being self-employed and maintaining. If you had a good connection with a particular builder or other trade, or working with them was not a direct result of the relationship between one of your past employers and them, there's rarely anything wrong with being able to continue working with that individual.
This is, of course, a matter of judgement. Simply poaching clients from a past employer in a way that puts the two businesses at odds is not likely to be a good way to start being self-employed, and can lead to significant difficulties in the future if not approached carefully. But a builder who personally recommended your work and wishes to continue to use you now you're independent is an entirely different matter, and most employers understand that personal relationships are not necessarily owned by the business that initiated them.
Merchants Are an Easier Starting Point Than You Might Expect
Having a trade account set up at a local merchant is not only one of the first practical steps most self-employed plumbers should take, but an excellent way to begin building contacts. Merchant staff deal with a variety of trades throughout the day and will often have general awareness of who is working locally. Being a known face, rather than a regular visitor who only turns up in passing, helps to build a familiarity which is occasionally enough to get a mention from a local builder asking if someone knows of a reliable plumber.
It's worth being up front about this and letting the branch staff know you're newly self-employed and need to build up your local work to get started, which is a cost-free message to send and occasionally gets a surprising response.
Trade Associations Offer Structure for Someone Starting Fresh
Joining one of the larger bodies like APHC or CIPHE is not only helpful in terms of the credibility it gives with clients, but offers a number of local events, training or regional days aimed specifically at forging connections with others in similar trades, which can be very useful for a newly self-employed plumber who has little existing network to rely upon. Attending a few of these (which are more awkward than anything else when you're first starting), is more beneficial than simply waiting for contacts to materialist.
Membership in an association is also something that can give a newly self-employed plumber something to put forward when approaching a builder or contractor cold, by virtue of demonstrating a level of professionalism which is harder to claim outright.
Building a Presence Online From the Start
Plumbers who find themselves newly self-employed and with no track record or lengthy list of completed jobs to point to particularly benefit from having an active online presence in order to give potential contacts something to find about them before establishing any personal relationship. Setting up a profile early (and a modest amount of work to hand) is preferable to waiting before one has a significant portfolio to show off.
Construction networking for plumbers through a dedicated platform is particularly useful in this regard as it puts a newly self-employed plumber before a list of contractors who are actively looking for someone, rather than on the back foot waiting to be discovered from word of mouth, which is often more difficult to get started when one is new to being independent. Completing a profile with clear specialisms, availability, any relevant qualifications, gives contractors a reason to contact the new plumber even before a direct relationship is made.
Other Trades Are Often More Approachable Than Builders Directly
Self-employed plumbers without a strong reputation yet can find that reaching out to other trades, electricians, tilers, kitchen fitters are more receptive to a new contact than builders are. Other trades are often more willing to have a conversation, particularly if it's seen as a mutual benefit rather than a builder taking on an unknown subcontractor for a particular scheduled project which they have little reason to trust.
Building these relationships first and asking whether they would be willing to mention you if a builder they work with needs a plumber is more likely to bear fruit than trying to win the trust of a builder without existing contacts to begin with.
Being Patient With How Long This Takes
It's worth being honest that building construction industry contacts from scratch takes time, and results in the first few months of self-employment are often slower than expected. Plumbers who have previously relied on a steady flow of work being provided to them by an employer sometimes fail to understand just how much of that came through existing relationships which could be cut now they're employed independently. Rebuilding that network, whether it's through merchants, associations, other trades or online platforms, tends to be a slow compounding process rather than an instantaneous burst of results.
Reading more broadly about how these relationships tend to build across the industry can help to set realistic expectations for how long this process usually takes. A resource such as Professional Construction Networking explains how contractor and trade relationships tend to form and grow, which is a useful read for plumbers starting largely from zero.
Keeping Track of New Contacts as They Build Up
When being newly self-employed, it's easy to forget who you've spoken to, what was said, and who is worth contacting to build a further relationship with. Keeping even a basic record of names, how you met and what work they do is useful for knowing how to follow up properly rather than having to rely on memory as the number of contacts grows.
Building Steadily From a Standing Start
Finding construction industry contacts as a newly self-employed plumber rarely happens quickly, but it does happen reliably if approached deliberately: staying in touch with any legitimate contacts from previous work, building rapport with local merchants, joining a trade association and having an active presence on a platform such as to be found by contractors who don't yet know you exist. Focus on a couple of these at once rather than trying everything at once, and let the network grow as each relationship proves itself through actual work.
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