26 FEATURE
A plumbing business with business skills at the core
By
Eamonn Ryan
A plumbing business is primarily a business . While technical skills are essential , meeting the challenges of an event as devastating as the pandemic requires considerable business aplomb . A rare plumber with an MBA , Lior Solomons , shares his Covid-19 business survival strategy and how he developed these critical thinking abilities .
Solomons has spent much of his life to-date learning . He inculcates those learnings into his Morningside Plumbers business ; by encouraging continuous training among staff ; and in the overall running of his paperless maintenance plumbing business .
Solomons was a qualified plumber before he received his education : the fact that he didn ’ t go to university straight after school was a reflection of his maturity at that time , he says , and after some international travel he was offered the opportunity to both train as a plumber and go into business for himself almost immediately .
“ While learning the trade I was simultaneously studying a BCom ( Marketing ) degree .” He took a hiatus from plumbing to study fulltime and thereafter went straight into a fulltime MBA ( Master ’ s in Business Administration ) degree , taking two years off plumbing .
“ I believe in formal education and am equally a firm believer in self-development through informal learning . I read a great deal and spend a lot of time educating myself . It also depends on what type of ambition one has in life ,” he adds . Whereas many plumbers ’ offices are cluttered with discarded plumbing parts and tools , Solomons ’ is surrounded by bookshelves of business and other tomes .
Solomons says frankly , that with two degrees to his name as well as the trade , he was ready for bigger things in the plumbing profession and approached the large corporates , only to be disappointed to discover that he was now overqualified and affirmative action was a key barrier . He decided to create his own future . In 2013 he bought Morningside Plumbers , an existing business , and set about expanding it . Since then , he has grown his staff complement from one plumber ( himself ) and one assistant , to six plumbers and five assistants offering domestic and commercial plumbing installation and maintenance services in the greater Johannesburg and Pretoria areas .
He did so , not only by being on the road plumbing , but through business management tools : stretching margins , costings , marketing , building and implementing systems .
Dean Chait , also a qualified plumber , is his operations manager . “ Although I can do anything in the plumbing field , my contribution to the business rather lies in managing efficiencies .”
Coronavirus cash flow management Chait explains the experience of the lockdown : “ Before lockdown , we were continuing to run a decent business . As an essential services business , Morningside Plumbers was allowed to operate , but we took a knock from the lack of corporate business – which is about 20 to 30 % of our business – the rest being residential .”
For the first week to 10 days after lockdown , Morningside Plumbers went into survival mode . Before lockdown , Morningside Plumbers averaged between 12 and 20 jobs a day . In the first week of lockdown , this dropped to two jobs a day .
Eamonn Ryan
Operations Manager , Dean Chait ( left ) with Lior Solomons in their nerve centre .
“ We had to make tough decisions , we had to become more safety conscious , and we had to become harder on our customers when it came to payment . We investigated all support options that were available to small businesses through the government and the banks and cut costs wherever we could ,” says Solomons .
www . plumbingafrica . co . za @ plumbingonline @ plumbingonline @ PlumbingAfricaOnline November 2020 Volume 26 I Number 09