Plumber's top job was learning to build a company

As Matt Morse's marker squeaked out financial calculations across a white board, his three-man audience across the conference table leaned back in their chairs. Morse paused for confirmation.

Three nods, and the man in the middle spoke up.

"It makes total sense," said plumber Jim Leipart, 28, of Joliet. "You've got to make profit or you ain't going to go nowhere."

Morse holds meetings like this several times a year for his new employees at Precision Plumbing Services Inc., a Lombard company that serves the Northwest and Southwest suburbs. The sessions make sure plumbers understand the company's financial and historical background as well as the importance of quality service.

It all might sound like dealings from the top floor of a shiny glass skyscraper, but you don't find many corporate busybodies digging ditches and cleaning sewers.

From a self-employed plumber to the employer of 24 plumbers and 11 office workers, Morse has fought to learn the secrets of business without the aid of a college degree. The result, customers say, is professional service.

"We had a plumbing nightmare and they got us though it," said Mariana Johnson, 75, of Medinah. "They're just a little high price, but when you want service, you pay. If I had called another company, I would not have gotten the service I got."

Having someone dig through your floor to fix an eroded iron pipe leaking septic gases is not fun, no matter who does it, Johnson said. But she said it helps when the plumber has expertise and high-tech gadgets and is personable and up-front about options. The men she knows from Precision, Johnson said, are plumbers she trusts.

Substantial revenues, which climbed to $3.9 million as of Sept. 30, enable Precision to treat its customers right and research how to improve its services, Morse says. If a job goes wrong, the company can fix it. If the company doesn't make it to a priority service call the same day, it can offer a $100 restaurant gift card.

Long ago Morse got sick of learning business management from trial and error. Precision has since turned to the experts -- consultants, lawyers, accountants and trade associations -- to help create strategies for expansion, advertising, budgeting, training and communication with employees and customers.

"As I grow, my goal is that we have a system for everything," Morse said.

Since May 2006, the number of employees has jumped from 19 to 35, and Morse is looking to open a northern satellite office next year.

Morse, 37, started plumbing for a contractor in high school. He went to college with dreams of becoming a sportscaster but dropped out after two years before ever taking a journalism class.

When the plumbing contractor he worked for went out of business, Morse and another man from the defunct company decided to start from scratch in 1992 as a two-man team working out of a garage. The work was easy, Morse said. But learning to run a business was not.

Morse bought out his partner 10 years ago. The company changed direction in 2005 when Morse decided he wanted Precision to go from 80 percent new construction to 100 percent service jobs.

It didn't go over well with many employees, who preferred the more regular hours and cleaner work in new construction. But Morse went ahead.

"I didn't have a future in new construction," he said. "I wanted a business where it was just me and the customer and room for growth."

Morse lost employees and revenues dropped 13 percent to $3.1 million from 2004 to 2005. He blames his own management hiccups during the first month of adjustment.

But after the transition, revenues turned around, climbing to $4.2 million in 2006. Morse said the goal for 2007 is $5.2 million, and the company was three-quarters of the way there in the first nine months of the year.

Precision moved into a bigger facility in January. Morse said his planned satellite in the North suburbs may be followed by one to the south of Lombard, and maybe someday he'll even establish an Arizona branch in Phoenix where his parents live.

It's still a struggle to make sure revenues exceed expenses, Morse told his new employees at their meeting. He warned them working productive hours, not sales of expensive parts, brings in profit, a focus reflected in the garage with towering charts of individual plumber's productivity.

"It's a big-time eye opener," plumber Jim Leipart said after the new-employee meeting. "You don't see this at other plumbing companies."

Business profile

Name: Precision Plumbing Services Inc.

Owner: Matt Morse

Headquarters: Lombard

Founded: 1992

Business: Plumbing services

Employees: 35

20006 revenues: $4.2 million

Web site: www.precisionplumbers.com