Dan Dowdy is the Founder of Built for the Trades and former General Manager of his family’s second-generation plumbing company S & D Plumbing. He shares how his passion for servant leadership and building relationships has led him to launch his new business to support home services business owners. 

Built for the Trades

After learning the ropes from his father, Dan ran his own service truck for a decade before stepping into a leadership role for another decade at S & D Plumbing. During this time, he learned what true leadership looks like and how the right network of relationships can help you create a healthy, profitable work-life balance. 

This inspired him to create Built for the Trades, a network of business coaches and vendors specializing in various niches of the home services industry. 

Lessons Learned

Dan highlights the fact that as a business owner, it can be lonely and overwhelming in the weeds, making it difficult to accomplish your goals. 

“When you hire a great business coach, you have that relationship, somebody who can come in and look at your business, give you an outside perspective, and hold you accountable to your vision, accountable your goals, and really just encourage you along the way.” 

From his own personal experience working with coaches, Dan was inspired to become one himself and signed up for John Maxwell’s training program.

“It’s really just taking action. And so I’ve made a lot of big life changes in my life, I’ve taken a lot of risks to build Built for the Trades. But I truly believe in it.”

Dan shares that working with others who have built trade-specific businesses is important to him because of the unique set of values that comes with this industry and he looks forward to serving others.

Transformation and Creating a Vision

Dan didn’t always have a servant’s heart. He says it took him a while to realize he had created a toxic culture in his company and needed to change. He traded his pride for humility, took real interest in his employees, and saw his business transform. 

“Really having a vision as a business owner is looking out five or ten years and being able to write that into one or two sentences to where when your team sees that, they see kind of the destination of where the company is going.” 

Vision is where you and your team are going. Mission is why you show up to work. Values are a reflection of you and your company’s character. As a coach, Dan helps owners define these core pillars within their own companies, follow through on them, and learn how to communicate them to their team effectively. Having these foundational principles clearly defined is crucial for success.

Shaping Future Leaders

Dan emphasizes that leadership is about relationships. Owners need to balance a giving heart with a backbone, meaning: hold your employees accountable to the job they are doing with scorecards and clear responsibilities. 

It’s also important to remember that just because someone is a top performer does not mean they will make a great leader. 

“Who is willing to go above and beyond selflessly to help with some training on younger technicians or to help stop by a job late in the evening and help finish a job for another technician and not even asking for pay in return, just doing it out of a servant’s heart, I think that’s where you start to see your leaders grow in your company.”

Dan’s Advice

1. Lead where you are. No matter what position or role you are in, leading is about serving and building relationships. 
2. Ditch the shallow relationships and spend time getting to know your team. Understand who their family is and what their goals and dreams are. It’s important to listen and let them know they are appreciated. 
3. Keep your vision at the forefront of every day. Speak it loud and clear and act it out. 

Learn more about Dan’s new venture at Built for the Trades.