Nobody sits you down and says, “Hey. So. You’re about to run a plumbing company. Here’s what that’s really like.”
They should. It would save a lot of time.
L.A. Reedy Plumbing was started by AJ’s grandfather in 1964. That’s about 62 years of people calling the Reedy name when water is going somewhere it shouldn’t.
No pressure. None at all.
So since nobody gave us the talk, I’ll give it to you.
1. Nobody calls when things are going well.
Nobody has ever called a plumber to say, “Just wanted to let you know my water heater is doing great today.”
By the time the phone rings, somebody is already having a day. Maybe a bad one. Maybe a wet one. Usually both.
So the job isn’t just fixing pipes. It’s showing up for people while they’re stressed and being the calm one in the room.
I did not expect to be part plumber, part therapist. And yet here we are.
2. Pipes do not care what day it is.
Not a holiday. Not Sunday. Not the exact moment you sat down to dinner.
Case in point.
About four years ago, we were sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner when the phone rang. It was a plumbing company four hours north of us. They were working on a well system they could not make sense of.
They had called several people. Somehow, they ended up connected to AJ’s dad. We call him Pops.
So Pops spent half an hour of Thanksgiving dinner walking total strangers through how to service a well system. Over the phone. With turkey getting cold.
And because AJ comes from a family of plumbers, we had AJ, Pops, and Uncle J all sitting at our table for them to talk to at once.
Three plumbers. One holiday. Zero complaints.
I’d like to say that was unusual. It wasn’t.
That’s also why we have a 24-hour emergency line. Running this business means your life has a second heartbeat. Always on. Always listening. Always a little bit ready.
Is it exhausting sometimes? Yes.
Is it also the reason people trust us? Also yes.
3. The business is people, not pipes.
I know. You thought this was going to be about pipes.
Pipes are the easy part. They do what physics says.
People are the part that takes real work. The customers who need patience. The techs who need to know somebody has their back. The schedule that has to somehow fit approximately 900 things into eight hours.
If you take care of the people, the pipes mostly take care of themselves. That’s not a saying. I just made it up. But I stand by it.
4. Yes, I know what a P-trap is.
Let’s address this now, because it comes up.
I know what a P-trap is. I can tell you why it’s shaped like that. I can explain it at a dinner party whether you asked or not.
Do I know everything about plumbing? No. That’s what we have a team for, and I’m not shy about saying so. I married into a family of plumbers. Knowing who to ask is a skill, too. Honestly, it’s one of my best ones.
5. Sixty years to build a name. About sixty seconds to lose it.
A name that’s been around since 1964 means a lot of families have a story about us. Most of them are good. AJ and I both work hard to keep it that way.
But you feel it. Every call, every truck, every job. You’re not just running a business. You’re looking after something somebody else spent a lifetime building.
That’s a good kind of heavy. It’s still heavy.
6. You will never be fully caught up.
There is always one more email. One more call. One more thing to order, schedule, fix, or follow up on.
We used to think there was a finish line where it would all feel done.
There isn’t.
There’s just a better system, a better team, and getting a little more okay with “good enough for today.”
7. Management would like a word.
Job titles: Owner and Owner.
Actual job: Everything. Both of us.
Performance review: Found severely lacking in time, snacks, and sleep.
Corrective action: Currently working on it.
So why do it?
Because there is nothing quite like walking into somebody’s home on their worst day and leaving it a little better than we found it.
It’s not glamorous. It’s not always fun. Sometimes it’s just a hard day with a wrench in it.
But it matters. And so far, we can’t think of anything we’d rather be in charge of.
If you run a business, work in the trades, or just married into one, what’s the thing you wish somebody had told you? Tell me in the comments. I want to hear it.
— Chanda
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