Are you about starting a water restoration company? If YES, here is a complete sample water restoration business plan template & feasibility report you can use for FREE. Okay, so we have considered all the requirements for starting a water restoration business.
We also took it further by analyzing and drafting a sample water restoration business marketing plan template backed up by actionable guerrilla marketing ideas for water restoration businesses. So let’s proceed to the business planning section.
Why Start a Water Restoration Business?
According to reports, there have been over 200 climate and weather disasters across the U.S within the past 36 years. These events have cost over 1 billion dollars and have boosted the restoration industry. Every region in the united states faces different types of damage.
The southeast has a prevalence of tropical cyclones while winter storms are most agonizing in all of the east coast states and along the Gulf Coast. Flooding also is a danger in most states — especially Texas and the lower Mississippi Valley.
When starting this business, you need to consider whether there is enough need in your area to sustain a growing water restoration business. It’s advisable that you do some research into the number of storms and natural disasters in your area in the last several years.
You should also check out the number of existing restoration companies around. Try to find out if they are very busy or if they struggle with slow business. You also need to understand that creating an identity in the industry can be very daunting, that is why you need to begin by getting your certifications.
Analyzing and remediating damage are specific skills you have to learn. When handling mould for example, there are safety protocols you must follow for your crew and the homeowner. Like any other construction business, restoration is based on projects.
It’s important you decide what type of projects you will work on even before you start building your business. Fire and water restoration and mould remediation all need different skills and equipment. If you are completely new to this industry, you may want to start with a narrow focus — water restoration, for example — and then add other services from there.
Another factor you should consider when starting this business is the issue of location. If you are in the northeast, focusing solely on fire restoration may not provide enough work for you.
The weather conditions in the southeast are likely to promote mould remediation work, while in the coastal area, water restoration from flooding could be your main business focus. Focusing your business on one aspect of restoration will make it easy to promote your services to your target audience.
A Sample Water Restoration Business Plan Template
1. Industry Overview
Reports have it that the American restoration industry has grown to a magnificent $210 billion annual market and because of many factors, including aging American homes and infrastructure, the worsening severity of storms, the influx of wildfires and frequent flooding.
These points toward a skyrocketing market for home and commercial restoration in the coming years. No one can tell exactly when a disaster will occur. It can strike at any moment, but one thing is certain, disasters happen often. Note that with the increasing water damage, there is always the danger of mould growth. They can occur no matter when a home or commercial property was built.
Moulds can also grow without water damage occurring at all, making unsuspecting home and property owners vulnerable, especially if they live in modern, and eco-friendly homes. The price of getting rid of mould is between $1,111 and $3,211, with high costs approaching $6,000.
Although water damage and mould growth are both far more common, experts believe homeowners should expect more property damage as the result of climate change. In 2016, the Environmental Protection Agency reported $6 billion in property damage from severe storms, a number that has remained constant since 2008.
Flooding on its own is becoming a big problem, especially in the American Southeast, where millions live along the coasts. Fire and smoke damage also costs home and property owners, as well as insurance companies, billions of dollars every year. Report has it that homeowners spend anywhere from $2,586 to $12,993, with the highest amount being more than $60,000 to restore a home.
2. Executive Summary
Aquarius is an Austin-based water restoration and plumbing company that will focus on serving the needs of residential homes in Austin, Texas. Today, the restoration industry as a whole is worth about $210 billion, and this figure according to statistics is expected to grow even more in the coming years.
This is attributed to several factors, including the increasing intensity of natural disasters, aging homes and infrastructure in the United States, as well as commonly occurring wildfires and flooding.
We at Aquarius are dedicated to offer our expertise to the people of Austin in their time of need. By concentrating on a specific segment of the market, we will be able to rapidly gain market share demonstrating our proficiency and professionalism in serving a specific market niche.
One of our key objectives at Aquarius is to establish a company whose primary goal is to exceed customer’s expectations. We plan to leverage our competitive advantages of professionalism and quality by properly training all our employees.
We at Aquarius understand that name recognition is an important part of marketing because people like to hire a company they are familiar with. These are emotional times in people’s lives and they will lean towards the familiar.
We at Aquarius have developed a sales and marketing plan that will give our company a family approach to services which will attract our target market and make them trust us. Our aim is to restore peace-of-mind and put people’s lives back together quickly when water damage issues arise.
Indeed helping people gives a good feeling and we also hope to run a business that meets or exceeds its profit goals. We at Aquarius have set realistic goals for our business to help us turn a profit and keep providing necessary services for the people in our community.
3. Our Products and Services
Aquarius will provide water restoration and plumbing services such as, plumbing repairs, as well as mould remediation, water damage restoration, reconstruction and bio hazard material removal. We believe that our services promote a healthier workplace and living environment, thus promoting better general health. We will also offer the finest in residential home plumbing construction.
We at Aquarius are dedicated to serve residents and local businesses. We plan to establish a business that will be the leading choice in restoring homes and properties damaged by water, mould and outside elements. We believe that by providing customers with quality water damage restoration services, we will be fulfilling the needs of residents in Austin, Texas.
4. Our Mission and Vision Statement
- Our vision at Aquarius is to provide an unmatched service experience quickly, professionally, ethically and with compassion, resulting in peace of mind for all concerned.
- Our mission at Aquarius is to provide the finest water restoration services and house plumbing installation.
- We believe that our company exists to attract and maintain customers and exceed the expectations of our customers.
Our Business Structure
We all know that it will be difficult to run Aquarius without any employees. Our founder Max Jefferson, although a seasoned entrepreneur, cannot do all the marketing, estimating, remediation and reconstruction on his own. That is why we have decided to let him do what he does best while we hire employees to help do the rest.
We understand that in this line of business, knowing how many jobs you can accept in the same timeframe can be difficult at first and will depend on the size of your staff. We have decided to start with the portfolios listed below but hire more people as our workload increases.
We strongly believe that our business is an exciting business opportunity that settles a huge need in the city of Austin. We believe that these distinct services will have benchmarked customer service, something that the industry is not known for having. We will be led by a seasoned management team, whom have extensive industry experience to push us to the top. The portfolios include:
- Chief Executive Officer
- Service Supervisor
- Human Resources and Admin Manager
- Sales and Marketing Executive
- Cashier
- Water restoration technicians
- Client Service Executive
5. Job Roles and Responsibilities
Chief Executive Officer
- Increases management’s effectiveness by recruiting, selecting, orienting, training, coaching, counselling, and disciplining managers; communicating values, strategies, and objectives; assigning accountabilities; planning, monitoring, and appraising job results
- In charge of providing direction for the business
- Creating, communicating, and implementing the organization’s vision, mission, and overall direction – i.e. leading the development and implementation of the overall organization’s strategy.
- In charge of signing checks and documents on behalf of the company
- Evaluates the success of the organization
Service Supervisor
- Serve as project manager of the organization; works directly with employees
- Develops strategic plans by studying new restoration services
- Accomplishes subsidiary objectives by establishing plans, budgets, and results measurements; allocating resources; reviewing progress; making mid-course corrections.
- Builds company image by collaborating with customers, government, community organizations, and employees; enforcing ethical business practices.
- Maintains quality service by establishing and enforcing organization standards.
- Maintains professional and technical knowledge by attending educational workshops; reviewing professional publications; establishing personal networks; benchmarking state-of-the-art practices; participating in professional societies.
- Make sure that the organization works in line with international best practices.
Human Resources and Admin Manager
- In charge of overseeing the smooth running of HR and administrative tasks for the organization
- Defining job positions for recruitment and managing interviewing process
- Carrying out induction for new team members
- In charge of training, evaluation and assessment of employees
- In charge of arranging travel, meetings and appointments
- Oversee the smooth running of the daily office activities.
Sales and Marketing Manager
- Manage external research and coordinate all the internal sources of information to retain the organizations’ best customers and attract new ones
- Model demographic information and analyse the volumes of transactional data generated by customer
- Identifies development opportunities; follows up on development leads and contacts
- Create new markets cum businesses for the organization
- Empower and motivates the sales team to meet and surpass agreed targets
Cashier
- In charge of preparing financial reports, budgets, and financial statements for the organization
- Provides managements with financial analyses, development budgets, and accounting reports
- In charge of financial forecasting and risks analysis.
- Performs cash management, general ledger accounting, and financial reporting for one or more properties.
- In charge of developing and managing financial systems and policies
- In charge of administering payrolls
- Ensuring compliance with taxation legislation
- Handles all financial transactions for the business
- Serves as internal auditor for the business
Water restoration technicians
- Perform field restoration activities including demolition, cleaning, emergency flood service, restorative drying, fire and smoke damage cleaning and deodorization, content cleaning, pack out and storage and other specialized cleaning.
- Ensure proper set-up and monitoring of equipment used to address the property’s restoration needs.
- Perform field-remodelling activities including interior and exterior painting and finishing, light repairs and cleaning as needed.
- Complete measurements and drawings, takes photographs and completes folder documentation
- May interact with homeowners, property managers or other individuals while carrying out job responsibilities. Interactions should be conducted in a courteous and professional manner that reflects the customer service philosophy of ARS Restoration Services.
- Respond to emergency situations in homes and businesses caused by water, flood, soot, storm, mould, trauma and other emergency situations.
- In charge of producing good quality restoration by meeting or exceeding accepted industry standards.
Client Service Executive
- Welcomes clients and potential clients by greeting them in person or on the telephone; answering or directing inquiries.
- Makes sure that all contacts with clients (e-mail, walk-In centre, SMS or phone) provides the client with a personalized customer service experience of the highest level
- Through interaction with clients on the phone, uses every opportunity to build client’s interest in the company’s products and services
- Manages administrative duties assigned by the supervisor or CEO in an effective and timely manner
- Consistently stays abreast of any new information on the organizations’ products, promotional campaigns etc.
- Make sure accurate and helpful information is supplied to clients when they make enquiries
6. SWOT Analysis
Aquarius will offer water restoration and plumbing services for residential houses in our business community. Our business location is ideal as it provides us with a unique market and a growing economy. Austin is the capital of the U.S. state of Texas and the seat of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties.
This city is the 11th-most populous city in the United States and the 4th-most populous city in Texas. It is also the fastest growing large city in the United States, the second most populous state capital after Phoenix, Arizona, and the southernmost state capital in the contiguous United States.
It provides us with a great proportion of target market as Texas is known to be prone to floods and water damage. We at Aquarius have made adequate plans to leverage this need and provide solution to the menace of water and flooding, that is why we contacted Silicon Business Consultants to do our SWOT Analysis for us.
Silicon Business Consultants are known for the experience and agility they possess in terms of business consulting and analysis. They were very thorough with their dealings and outlined below is a summary of the SWOT Analysis they conducted for us:
- Strength
According to our SWOT Analysis, our strength in this industry rests on our plans and dedication to provide our customers with a fair price and outstanding service. We also boast of a strong workforce that understand the restoration industry in and out.
These individuals have been in the industry and they understand the changing trends and the quality of innovation needed to stay relevant in the industry. They’ve also been put through specialized trainings that will boost their approach to service and how they treat clients.
- Weakness
According to our SWOT analysis, the right equipment and a trained group of employees will make our restoration company competitive, but we still need to get the jobs to grow our business.
It went further to explain that new businesses in this industry often struggle with letting people in the area know that they exist and what services they offer because when starting up there are no satisfied customers who can spread the word about our work. We’ve looked into this and we’ve come up with a good sales and marketing plan that will help us manoeuvre through this weakness.
- Opportunities
According to industry reports, more than 14,000 people experience water damage every single day, and damage from “water leaks and frozen pipes cost consumers and insurers more than $10 billion every year in the U.S.”
Report also has it that the average costs to repair water damage in the United States ranges from $1,038 to $3,607, and can approach over $6,000 if the damage is severe. Statistics has it that the average age of a home is nearly 40 years old, so this type of damage is expected to continue.
- Threat
Our SWOT Analysis noted that just like any other business, one of the key threats we at Aquarius are likely going to face is economic downturn. This is because economic downturn affects purchasing / spending power. Another threat that may likely confront us is the arrival of a new restoration company in same location where our target market exist and who may want to adopt same Business model like us.
7. MARKET ANALYSIS
- Market Trend
Aside natural disasters, reports have it that one of the leading drivers of demand in our line of business is the presence of mould in homes. Indeed new and energy-efficient homes are more likely to experience mould because of the way they restrict airflow.
But experts believe that new and advanced technologies have made it far easier for even homeowners and professionals to detect mould in homes and commercial properties. Therefore, they are going to create a greater demand for the services of mould restoration professionals.
Natural disasters in their own right are also a driving demand for fire and water damage restoration professionals. The Environmental Protection Agency reported in 2016 that severe storms led to about $6 billion in property damage. Indeed this is a huge and almost unfathomable figure, but it is one that has been relatively stable since 2008.
It’s also important to state that most experts in this industry believe that Hurricane Katrina marked a significant shift in restoration industry trends when it hit New Orleans in 2005. Before that time, the restoration industry operated with few standards, and there were few proven practices when it came to billing, paperwork and navigating the regulatory environment.
But all these have changed now. As natural disasters like wildfires, hurricanes and flooding have swept across the country; the demand for restoration professionals has grown massively. Note that the standards with which restoration professionals work and the proven practices they use have improved, too. The industry as a whole is better organized and better ready to respond in the aftermath of a natural disaster.
8. Our Target Market
Our target market strategy at Aquarius is to become the number one choice for people who are looking for exceptional water restoration and plumbing services in Austin, Texas. Anyone can seek for our expertise as long as they have water damage issues.
Water damage can originate from a broken dishwasher hose, a washing machine overflow, a dishwasher leakage, broken/leaking pipes, flood waters and clogged toilets. Report has it that 13.7% of all water used in the home today can be attributed to plumbing leaks.
That is approximately 10,000 gallons of water per year wasted by leaks for each US home. A tiny, 1/8-inch crack in a pipe can release up to 250 gallons of water a day. This goes to explain how huge our target market in the niche we chose is and how they can’t be segmented.
Our competitive advantage
Our plan at Aquarius is to first grow our business visibility through networking activities. Once we’ve developed visibility, we can then highlight our competitive advantages of professionalism and trim quality with a test project for our client. We will be able to win over contracts after our initial display of workmanship. Our competitive advantage in this business is further explained below:
- Professionalism
Due to the lack of government regulations in this industry, anyone can decide to start this business. Now the industry is filled with unprofessional workers who claim to be technicians. We at Aquarius plan to exhibit our professionalism in all aspects of customer interaction as well as job performance.
All our employees at Aquarius will be indoctrinated into this customer-centric culture, ensuring that all interactions with anyone from our company will be a positive experience.
- Trim Quality
This is the part of the job that is seen by customers as opposed to the bulk of the work that is hidden behind cabinets and walls. There are not a lot of restoration and plumbing companies that have consistently good trim quality. We at Aquarius believe this is one way we can easily stand out among our competitors.
Having high trim quality is also an easy way to impress home builders since they will have to fix any issues that are unsatisfying to home-buyers, so sloppy trim work will usually have to be remedied at some point, usually when it is inconvenient.
9. SALES AND MARKETING STRATEGY
- Sources of Income
Just like was stated above, we at Aquarius will provide water restoration and plumbing services like water removal, as well as mould remediation, water damage restoration, reconstruction and bio hazarded material removal. We believe that our services will promote a healthier workplace and living environment, thus promoting better general health.
We will also offer the finest in residential home plumbing construction as well as custom new home construction. We chose residential construction because it is straight forward and clean. Estimates are far more accurate and the company is dealing with a few contractors and diverse home owners.
10. Sales Forecast
We at Aquarius believe that our first month will be used to set up our business, while our second month will be used to train our employee as well as to undertake several jobs. We will use the third month to train three more employees as well as do a few other jobs.
But by our fourth month, we must have established a reliable alliance with a real estate company to help promote our services to their clients. Month six will mark the development and continuous partnership with other real estate businesses and contractors.
From month six on there should be a steady increase in sales activity. However, our sales projections reflects the professional opinion of our sales and marketing team who believe that how much we make will depend solely on the following assumptions:
- The volume of clients our starting workforce can attract from their previous companies.
- The outcome of planned promotions and word-of-mouth marketing.
- Current prices and costs of doing business.
- The types of restoration and jobs that will occur in every month.
- Marketing Strategy and Sales Strategy
Our goal at Aquarius is to become the local leader in water restoration and plumbing services all over Texas. Our marketing and sales strategy will be based on both networking as well as advertising.
- Networking
This particular sales strategy will focus on Max Jefferson calling and meeting with all those he has worked with in time past, as well as others in the industry. He will relate and chat with them and let them know about his current venture and request a trial build to prove himself.
We believe this industry runs and survives on proper business networking and whenever he runs into someone he will mention his new company. This will spread the word rather fast as contractors tend to bump into each other all over town.
- Advertising
We at Aquarius plan to leverage local real estate journals. We believe that this publication is a printed resource that Home owners will typically consult when they are in need of a contractor for a specific service in their house.
Because the readership is targeted and so closely interconnected, advertisements will be quite effective. We also plan to place our advertisement in the Yellow Pages, however we believe that the advertisements in the trade journal will be more effective due to the closer demographics and behaviour factors of the readership group.
11. Publicity and Advertising Strategy
Our publicity and advertising strategy at Aquarius will take the form of flyers, direct mailers, price discounts, and advertisements in newspapers and yellow pages. Although we do not intend to spend a large amount on marketing until the firm is ready to expand either into new facilities or open up new ones. We believe this will occur sometime after year five, but we will leverage some approaches to boost our brand awareness and they are;
- Place adverts on both print (newspapers and magazines) and electronic media platforms
- Leverage on the internet and social media platforms like; Instagram, Facebook , twitter, YouTube, Google + et al to promote our services
- Install our billboards in strategic locations all around Austin, Texas
- Engage in roadshows from time to time in targeted neighbourhoods
- Distribute our fliers and handbills in target areas
- Contact corporate organizations by calling them up and informing them of Aquarius and the services we offer
- List our auto repair, servicing and maintenance business in local directories / yellow pages
- Advertise our auto repair, servicing and maintenance business in our official website and employ strategies that will help us pull traffic to the site.
- Ensure that all our staff members wear our branded shirts and all our vehicles are well branded with our company logo et al.
12. Our Pricing Strategy
Although our business industry has no strict government regulations, yet it is still a purely competitive environment where each business must be a price taker. It simply means that a business that has no ability to affect the market price of its services, regardless of how many restoration jobs it does is destined for a crash.
From our detailed research, we were able to find out that the average costs to repair water damage in the United States ranges from $1,038 to $3,607, and can approach well over $6,000 if the damage is severe, while the price of getting rid of mould is between $1,111 and $3,211, with high costs approaching $6,000.
We at Aquarius have analysed every possible market in this industry and we hope to strive or look to charge our clients at the market price (or lower).
- Payment Options
Our job in this business is to provide our clients with fast and reliable solutions at the point of their needs. This also includes providing them with payment options that will make things easier for them. Providing different payment options for our clients will also endear them to our business and make them want to align with us at the point of their needs.
- Payment by via bank transfer
- Payment via POS machine
- Payment via online bank transfer
- Payment via mobile money
- Payment with cash
To provide all these outstanding services, we have partnered with a renowned bank in the country and we hope to make use of that relationship. Our bank account numbers will be made available on our website and promotional materials so that it will be easier for clients to make payments when necessary.
13. Startup Expenditure (Budget)
We at Aquarius will be focusing on a specific niche in the restoration and plumbing market, residential homes. We believe that through a combination of networking activities and advertisements, we will increase our visibility among home owners thus allowing us to gain market share.
We have researched our industry extensively and we believe we can achieve our business goals. We have analysed the market and have decided on how we plan to spend our start up fund. These are the key areas where we will spend our startup capital on;
- Business incorporating fees in the United States of America will cost – $750.
- The budget for Liability insurance, permits and license will cost – $3,500
- Acquiring our business office for at least 6 months (Re – Construction of the facility inclusive) will cost – $100,000.
- The amount required to purchase the needed tool box and repair equipment – $250,000
- Equipping the office (computers, printers, projectors, markers, servers / internet facility, furniture, telephones, filing cabinets, and electronics) will cost – $30,000
- Amount required to purchase the needed software applications to run our business – $ 3,500
- Launching an official Website will cost – $500
- Amount need to pay bills and staff members for at least 2 to 3 months – $70,000
- Additional Expenditure such as Business cards, Signage, Adverts and Promotions will cost – $5,000
From our detailed cost analysis above, we will need approximately five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000) to start Aquarius.
Generating Funding/Startup Capital
Aquarius is an Austin-based water restoration and plumbing company that will focus on serving the needs of residential homes in Austin, Texas. Aquarius was founded and will be managed by Max Jefferson. He has been able to raise the required funds needed to start Aquarius from personal savings.
Max Jefferson, a veteran in the plumbing and restoration business plans to build a business that will take over the market completely while also giving customers what they want. His objectives is to make sure sales revenues increase steadily through year three and also to institute a program of superior customer service through rigorous evaluation of service experience.
14. Sustainability and Expansion Strategy
We at Aquarius understand that setting profit goals and checking net profit are ways to make sure our company is profitable. Although we have noted that within our first year, the profits will be small because we will be purchasing new equipment and getting our business set up. But after that we expect our profits to grow steadily.
We plan to buy our supplies in bulk because it will help us reduce cost. We will always ensure that we purchase quality equipment to save on repair and replacement costs. It is sometimes inevitable not to hire subcontractors in this line of business and we acknowledge that anytime we hire a subcontractor, we lose a little control over the job and the budget.
That is why we plan to make sure we develop the ability to handle work in-house, so we don’t need subcontractors. But anytime we have no options but to work with subcontractors, we will pay them by the job instead of by the hour. This way, we are not paying extra if the work takes longer than they initially estimated. We will also create trustworthy relationships with the subcontractors we need frequently.
We also plan to treat small expenditures with as much attention as big ones, because they can add up quickly. We have also put plans in place to track every dollar we spend. We will make sure it is attributed to the right job and claimed as a tax write-off when appropriate. We believe that tracking purchase and inventory carefully will keep us from wasting money on excess inventory.
We also understand that jobs with higher profit margins increase our net profit, so we plan to focus on getting more of those types of jobs. We will starting by figuring out the type of job that brings us the highest profit margin and concentrate on getting those jobs. We will set monthly targets for our team so everyone knows what their priorities are.
Everyone in our company who interacts with customers will be fitted with a business card. We believe business cards are a handy way to be sure our company name and contact information is getting out to the public. Also since our business relies on getting customers in a certain geographic area, networking with local organizations is very crucial. We plan to connect with realtors and insurance agents about introducing our company to their clients.
Checklist/Milestone
- Business Name Availability Check:>Completed
- Business Incorporation: Completed
- Opening of Corporate Bank Accounts: Completed
- Opening Online Payment Platforms: Completed
- Application and Obtaining Tax Payer’s ID: In Progress
- Application for business license and permit: Completed
- Purchase of Insurance for the Business: Completed
- Conducting feasibility studies: Completed
- Leasing, renovating and equipping our facility: Completed
- Generating part of the startup capital from the founder: Completed
- Applications for Loan from our Bankers: In Progress
- Writing of Business Plan: Completed
- Drafting of Employee’s Handbook: Completed
- Drafting of Contract Documents: In Progress
- Design of The Company’s Logo: Completed
- Printing of Promotional Materials: Completed
- Recruitment of employees: In Progress
- Purchase of software applications, furniture, office equipment, electronic appliances and facility facelift: In progress
- Creating Official Website for the Company: In Progress
- Creating Awareness for the business (Business PR): In Progress
- Health and Safety and Fire Safety Arrangement: In Progress
- Establishing business relationship with key players in the industry: In Progress