The outlook for electricians is great. Recent research shows high demand for electrical services in the UK, and an electrical industry brimming with opportunity and growth.
Does your electrical company reflect that? Is your business growing steadily or have you hit a plateau? It’s a common issue for electrical business owners, whether you’re starting a new business or need to boost an existing one.
Here, I’ll share some tried and tested ways to grow your electrical business. I’ll help you to identify and seize opportunities to drive business success.
Electrical business growth: how and why
First things first, what does business growth look like to you? For one business owner it means securing new customers, whereas another may want to expand their services to capture new revenue streams or a different local market.
Ultimately, sustainable business growth is your key to long term success. If your business isn’t evolving and growing, it’ll stagnate. That’s when your competitors are likely to forge ahead.
Power up your business with an effective business plan. I’ll take you through the important areas below:
- Business plan
- Target audience
- Marketing strategies
- Sales process
- Business operations
By the way, you can follow my template for an electrician’s business plan to make your life simpler!
How effective is your business plan?
You could be running a start up or a well-established electrical business. Either way, your first step to business growth and success is writing a business plan. As a business owner, you probably have loads of ideas swimming around your head. It’s so important to get them out of your head and written into a plan of action.
A business plan spells out what you want to do with your small business, how you’ll do it, and what you expect to happen. And it’s going to change along the way too. Make sure to evolve and adapt your business plan as your business and its environment changes.
What’s your target market?
Let’s start with the basics:
What are you selling?: Define your electrical services. Is it domestic or commercial work?
Who are you selling to?: Is it homeowners, business owners or service providers for example?
Where are you selling?: As a local electrical service business, it’s important to specify the areas that you work in.
You need to figure out these key concepts in order to plan your next steps. When you understand your target audience, you can tailor your marketing and sales activity to reach them. It’ll save you a lot of wasted time, effort and money on targeting people that aren’t your potential clients.
What marketing strategies can help expand my small electrical business?
I’ve worked with many experienced electricians who’ve gone on to set up their own electrical business. They tend to know a lot about the electrician business, but their knowledge of sales and marketing is limited. It’s important to be strategic with your marketing activity or you could end up spending a whole heap of cash without getting the results you want. I advise making a marketing plan which will give you a roadmap to follow to reach your goals. And an important part of your electrical marketing plan is a strong focus on digital marketing.
When you’re looking for a tradesperson, what do you do? Chances are that you’ll search online – either via a search engine (like Google), a social media platform (like Facebook) or maybe you ask your smart speaker or AI chatbot. If you want your business to be found by any of those searches, you need a strong online presence.
Website
When potential customers visit your website for the first time, what impression will they get? Does it work well and present your business as providing professional and trusted electrical work? If it doesn’t, they’ll soon click away and look for someone else.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a vital part of your digital marketing strategy as it helps your potential customers to find, and engage with, your website. SEO spans both technical and content aspects of your website. Done well, it establishes authority and builds trust with both customers and search engines.
Use your website to show that you can be trusted. Display testimonials, project photos and any certifications that you may hold (eg NICEIC or ELECSA). Share your expertise in videos and blog posts to show you know what you’re talking about.
Social media platforms
Work out where your potential customers spend time. You may find more local, domestic customers on Facebook. LinkedIn may be better for commercial clients. Show off photos and videos of completed projects (before and after photos and videos tend to work well).
Remember that social media is a two-way conversation. Encourage your customers to leave positive reviews and testimonials. Word of mouth is a powerful referral technique. Potential customers can be reassured by positive reviews. It can be enough to convert them from potential to new customers.
Google Business Profile
Don’t neglect your Google Business Profile. It’s a simple tool, but powerful. Make sure you provide details like your business name, address, website url, social channels and phone number. Importantly, it displays customer reviews and ratings. People often look here and will be influenced by comments about good, or poor, customer experiences.
You should also try to get guaranteed by Google. When you pass their screening and verification process, you can earn a Google Guarantee badge. What does that mean? If a customer comes to you via Google Local Services Ads, and isn’t satisfied with your work, Google may ‘in its absolute and sole discretion’ reimburse them. I know an electrical business owner who tripled his turnover in 12 months after gaining a Google Guarantee and improving his site’s SEO.
Local business networking
Not everything has to be online. Face-to-face still works wonders too. When you want to drum up more trade in your area, connecting with other local businesses can be beneficial. For example, you could speak to estate agents, property managers and developers to secure new business from them.
Both commercial and domestic electricians may benefit from joining local business networking groups like BNI, the Chamber of Commerce or Grafters. My group business coaching sessions can also be a great way to connect with other local businesses, swap business cards and share experiences.
Stand out from your competition
Importantly, think about why a potential customer should choose you rather than another electrical business. What’s your USP (unique selling proposition)?
So many tradespeople say that their business is ‘professional and family-run.’ Say something different. Stand out from the competition and show your points of difference. Think of a business name and/or tagline that emphasises your USP and resonates with your target audience.
What’s your sales process?
Don’t underestimate the power of an effective sales process. I believe a good sales process is absolutely crucial for business success. What does it involve? 7 repeatable steps from prospecting to follow up calls and emails.
It doesn’t have to be you, the business owner, who does this. Often, it’s best left to sales professionals. But you need to make sure that your sales process has been clearly defined, communicated to your salespeople and is followed consistently.
I worked with Vicente Romano of EMS Electrical to grow his electrical business. Establishing a sales process played a key part in his business’ transformation.
“I had to understand what is a lead, conversion rate, customer acquisition…I can’t even believe it. Now I’m using a sales system. That was a big change.” Vicente Romano, Owner EMS Electrical.
Watch the success story in full
Look at your business operations
An issue that I see time and time again is business owners getting too involved in the day-to-day tasks. Remember, you’re your own boss now and you need to prioritise your time to work on the important tasks that’ll grow your electrical business.
You’re no longer on the tools, so you need to have the right team on them instead. That might mean hiring specialist electrical contractors. Expanding the electrical services that your business offers can be a good way of driving business growth. Hire the best people for your team by not only reviewing their credentials, but asking the right interview questions too.
Admin tasks can suck up a lot of your time. Find an appropriate team member that you can delegate them to. You could outsource to a virtual assistant, or hire an in-house team member. Focus your time on business growth and customer relationships.
Know your numbers and review them regularly. Understand your cashflow. Streamline processes like invoicing and payroll. Keep tabs on your profit margins to inform your pricing structure. Review this regularly.
Let me help you to grow your electrical business
There are so many tabs to keep open when you’re running an electrical contracting business. You don’t have to go it alone. I’m an experienced business coach who’s helped many electricians and trade business owners.
If you’re a start up writing a business plan or marketing strategy for the first time, I’m here to help. Actually, I’m here to help if you’re a well-established electrical contracting business owner looking to change things up and drive business growth too. I can provide you with a handy template to follow, and useful tips and advice to make it easier. We’ll develop plans and I’ll make sure you stick to them and achieve your business goals. Get in touch to find out more
