With drastic weather changes across the country, HVAC and plumbing services are more essential than ever. Your business assists numerous homes in your community to maintain their air conditioners, heaters, and pipes. Broken air conditioner during a sweat-inducing heat wave? You’re at the front door. Faulty heater in the middle of a freezing snowstorm? You’ll be there in a jiffy. Clogged drains leading to a mini, lukewarm flood? Your clients know who to turn to.
As you accumulate more clients, you’re also looking to expand your business. In this case, you’ll need an expansion plan. Expansion plans map out who your company is, where it’s going, and why it plans to move in that direction. Plans also help you stay ahead of the competition because, not only does it reveal what needs improving, but pushes you to analyze the competition. With an expansion plan, you’ll be able to strategically move from one step to another, gradually expanding your business each time.
When you create your expansion plan, you’ll want to address the following points:
- Executive summary
- Company description
- Products and services
- Marketing Analysis
- Marketing Strategy
- Organization and Management
- Daily Operations
- Finances History
- Financial Plans and Projects
Let’s get into detail with each step and how you can apply these elements to your expansion plan.
Executive Summary
The Summary outlines the intention of the business plan and helps you keep your objectives in mind. It should be short and simple.
Company Description
The Company Description condenses what your company does, who its clientele is, and your intended service area. This is the “elevator pitch” of your business, or what you’d say to describe your company if you’re given less than two minutes to speak. When writing your description, identify how your company is set apart from other HVAC or plumbing services in your area. For instance, do you offer free quotes, payment plans, 24-hour service, or take credit card payments? These details help to set you apart and tell the customer about your company’s standards.
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Products and Services
Identify what your company offers the public now and what you would like to offer in the future. This is a great way to check if your company is doing what it wants to do without spreading itself too thin. You may benefit from narrowing your focus to higher-profit HVAC or plumbing services. Be specific. Do you want to do residential or commercial work, or both? Do you want to focus more on installs or on repairs and maintenance?
Marketing Analysis
Now it’s time to check out the landscape. Do your research on the number of potential clients, regions, the size of the local market, and the seasons of business growth and downturn. Check out the competition, too. How are other HVAC/plumbing companies marketing to their customers? Is it mainly Google Ads or social media? Gathering statistics will help guide your marketing strategy, which is key to expansion.
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Marketing Strategy
Brainstorm potential marketing ideas that can lead to further growth. Consider multiple ways to connect with your prospects. Google Ads is very effective to reach most types of customers, but running Google Ads can be complicated. A marketing agency can help ensure that the money you spend on Google Ads is well spent. A strong social media strategy can also be great to reach a targeted audience. Use the marketing analysis in the previous section as a guide with these calls to action. In designing your ads and campaigns, keep in mind the ways your company is set apart from the competition that you identified in the Company Description above.
Organization and Management
Evaluate your business’ structure and how you want it to be in the future. Look to other HVAC/plumbing businesses for inspiration on what formation is smoother and more efficient. You should also analyze “pain points” for your business, or the departments that are lacking and need improvement. Here, you can look at ramping up your hiring process or providing training for your existing staff.
Daily Operations
On an average day, is your business performing with quality and efficiency in mind? Look over your customers’ feedback on review sites, and follow up with clients a few days after a completed service. Ensuring that day-to-day operations move along smoothly equates to customer satisfaction.
Financial History
Take a walk down “money lane” and analyze when your business’ funding spiked and dropped. What campaigns worked towards gains? What are the reasons for losses? How have budget cuts affected your overall profit? Similar to analyzing your marketing, analyze your finances, too!
Financial Plan and Projects
The key aspect to any business expansion is funding. Now that you have a holistic sense of your financial history, what’s the next step? This is where you can outline a three-year plan on increasing profit and cutting costs. Are your technicians racking up too much travel time because they’re heading to far-away clients? You might be able to reduce your service area to reduce travel time if more effective marketing can still generate enough customers. Cutting out some clients may seem like the opposite of expanding, but actually, the more effort you put into a particular customer base, the higher the return.
HVAC and plumbing services are essential to any type of residential or commercial building. With an expansion plan, your mid-size business will retain the clarity and direction it needs to increase its reach. Contact Sigma Star Marketing today for strategic marketing tools that will not only help develop your plan, but expand your business, too!
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