From May Edition of Professional Builder 2014
From the article About Jeff Culkin of Culkin Plumbing and Heating;
Down South, London plumber Jeff Culkin of Culkin Plumbing and Heating encountered similar time management issues to Simon, but for a different reason. His problem wasn't distance, it was traffic. “When I started working for myself I was taking whatever work came up, travelling all over the place. I’d often go to Wimbledon and East London, which is not far, but in terms of time it was a lot. Wimbledon to home can be up to two hours. You can literally spend almost half your time on the road”. While up in the rural north Simon decided to avoid jobs that looked in anyway speculative, in job-rich London Jeff ‘s solution was to narrow his horizons. Implementing his ‘local only’ plan, Jeff contacted all the local Residents’ Associations in his closest postcodes, sourcing work from recommendation through them, and he joined MyBuilder.com, where he put the custom-made work area map to good use, picking off the jobs and leads that were close to home. This local only policy has increased the number of jobs he hears about and gets, so much so that he now employs three people: two full-time plumbers, and an electrician. It also pays dividends on overheads. Less travelling means more time to work, a better service for the customer and less petrol, and he can offer competitive prices (around 20% lower than before) because the jobs are close to home.
