Chad and Amy Hart are the husband and wife team behind Continental Plumbing in New Port Richey, FL. Together, they have built their home services business from the ground up to the strong, eight-truck fleet it is today. They share how an internal theft pushed them to reset their whole business, define their values, and transform their culture. 

Up for the Challenge

Chad, a master plumber with 25 years of experience, got started in plumbing by helping out a friend’s family plumbing business. He relished the challenge and expertise it required, and soon set off to build Continental Plumbing. In the early years, Chad was a one man show. But after he developed epilepsy, Amy left her job as an elementary school teacher to drive his truck for him while he continued servicing homes. Today, she jokes that running a small business and running a classroom are not too different. 

Working Together

Chad and Amy share how working with your significant other is both a strength and a struggle. Setting boundaries is key to finding a healthy work/life balance.

“It came to the point where we realized that all we were doing was talking about work and we weren’t working on our family or ourselves… so we had to make that decision where we said ‘Okay, we’re stopping at a certain time and if we need to talk about something let’s write it down, email it to one another, and we’ll deal with it later.” - Chad

Chad also emphasizes the importance of hiring employees who you trust will do their job. This gives you freedom outside of the office to focus on your other priorities, like family.

Hiring Intentionally

At Continental Plumbing, they use DiSC, a personality assessment tool, for hiring. This helps them gain a better understanding of their applicants’ personalities when they are reviewing their resume. If they seem like they would be a good fit, they are then invited into the office for a few face-to-face interviews. Amy looks for individuals with these traits:

• Altruism
• Work ethic
• Respect for property
• Desire to learn/preferred methods of learning
• Communication

Chad highlights that over time, they have learned that it’s more about finding the right person, than the right set of skills.

Total Business Reset

A few years ago, Chad and Amy had an employee theft inside the business. Looking back, they see how this experience gave them a wake up call and a chance to reset their business. They fired nearly everyone on their team, and started rebuilding with more intentional hires. Bringing in a business coach to guide them during this time was a big turning point, and helped them define their company values. Today, these values help them navigate every decision and hiring choice:

• Family
• Trust
• Reliability
• Consistency
• Happiness

Holistic Training 

At Continental Plumbing, all employees spend time understanding both sides of the job: from the office where they take client phone calls to the field, where they provide their expert plumbing services. Pairing different age ranges together has also proved fruitful. Chad has older techs teach young techs the ropes, and young techs teach older techs how to navigate the more technological side of the job. Most importantly, Chad and Amy focus on letting their team know they really care about them and their families. 

“As a teacher, you know, you get this fresh batch of kids going into the school year and they’re basically yours. It’s like your own little family during the day. You have to have house rules, classroom rules, you know, there’s procedures, and you have to care about them... I guess I kind of look at it the same way. We have people in our care. We have people that depend on us for their livelihoods and their families, just like those kids in my classroom were dependent on me to take care of them and teach them.” - Amy

You can learn more about Chad and Amy’s business at Continental Plumbing. Tune in for Part 2 with Chad and Amy next week.