- The electrical industry is growing fast—now is the time to scale your business.
- A strong business plan helps you stay ahead of competitors and boost profits.
- Smart marketing attracts high-value clients and builds brand trust.
- Hiring skilled electricians ensures top-quality service and repeat business.
- Using tech and automation streamlines operations and drives rapid growth.
Starting your own electrical business after working as a qualified electrician can seem pretty rewarding. Whether professionally or financially, it benefits you with higher metrics and quality of life, which seems like the best decision you have ever made. Undoubtedly, it comes with many challenges and critical decision-making situations. However, the lucrative opportunities and benefits you can avail yourself are incomparable.
Being your own boss and the key decision-maker of your electrical company is the goal most electricians aim for. Providing quality electrical services, managing business processes and customer relationships, attracting potential customers, and deciding on the branding and marketing strategy – are some advantages you get to experience. The United States is a hub of electrical service business, with California, Florida, and Texas topping the chart with the highest number of electrical businesses.
If you just started your electrical contracting business and are looking for ways to scale your company, you have come to the right place! In this blog post, we will discuss how to create an effective business plan to grow your electrical company and, in turn, increase brand awareness, improve customer experience, build a loyal customer base, and provide a competitive edge with your pricing strategy.
Table of Contents
Starting Your Own Electrical Business
In 2023, the number of electrician jobs in the U.S. rose to 762,600, with an expected projection of 6% for 2022 to 2032. This means there is an enormous growth scope for aspiring electricians to commence their journey in the electrical industry and build a robust future for themselves.
Building a successful electrical business in today’s time means you will get plenty of qualified electricians to join your electrical company, which will help you grow significantly and improve your cash flow. As of 2023, there are 237,911 electrical businesses in the U.S., with a 2% potential increase rate each year.
Prepare A Business Growth Plan
Managing your own electrical contracting business is not just challenging but requires persistence, patience, and commitment to take your business in the direction you want it to. For that, you need a robust plan to strategically target the areas lacking. If you’re just starting out, there is a high chance that you are probably handling a small electrical business. It’s always advisable to start streamlining your processes while your business is in its earlier stages to avoid chaos and unsystematic order, which can dilute the standards and quality of your vendibles.
As electrical business owners, starting a new electrical business can be overwhelming. There are various areas that you need to focus on to get your business above your competitors’ level.
Focused marketing efforts such as building a professional website, utilizing search engine optimization, leveraging social media platforms, and measuring business success using analytics.
Managing your business operations using software programs such as accounting software and electrical contracting software to manage electrical work and administrative redundant tasks.
Building a team of skilled technicians adept at electrical jobs and electrical systems such as electrical installation, security systems, commercial electrical work, residential electrical services, handling electrical equipment, etc.
Searching for licensed electrical contractors that can contribute towards getting larger projects, provide a wide range of professional services, and expand your service area outside of your local area.
Fix pricing for electrical supplies and determine equipment costs.
We’ll cover these areas in more detail moving forward.
Do Your Research Well!
Before you start implementing any strategies to boost your business, you must conduct thorough research that can provide you with a better perspective on how to go about improving your business processes. To create an effective electrical business plan for growth, base your research on the following parameters:
Target Market Analysis
Determine the market in which you want to sell your services—your residential, commercial, industrial, or local government market. Your entire planning is based on this, as the services and branding required to target these markets are varied. For instance, commercial electrical work has a different target market and target customers than residential electrical work.
Target Customers
You need to create your strategies based on your target customers. Conduct meticulous research on them concerning their demographics, such as age bracket, income level, challenges, pain points, service requirements, on-demand electrical services, etc. This will provide you with a broader picture of how you can attract potential customers, build a loyal client base, and cater to their needs to enable customer satisfaction.
Marketing Strategies
Marketing is one of the most important factors to consider when scaling your business and spreading the word about it quickly. Having a targeted marketing strategy is vital as it can bring you potential leads that can convert to long-term clients, helping you increase your revenue and build a robust brand to showcase your clients.
Competitor Analysis
This is another crucial aspect of research that you need to do to stay relevant and give your competitors an edge. You need to give your customers a reason to choose you over other businesses. And for that, you need to understand their vendibles and strategy. Another reason for you to consider competitor analysis is that other electrical businesses, unlike your new business, have been in the market for a longer time than you. This is why looking at their strategies can help you take some references, such as what worked for them, how they are aligning their marketing strategies with their offerings, how they are creating their website, the kind of discount offers they provide, etc.
Also, you need a USP for your business—a unique selling point that can differentiate you from other electrical businesses. Conducting a competitive analysis greatly aids you in getting a clear idea of your competitors’ offerings and determining how you can offer something different and unique, compelling your customers to prefer you over other electrical service businesses.
Electrical Contracting Business Software
Starting an electrical business does not just mean providing services and getting paid for them. There are plenty of administrative tasks that you need to deal with on a daily basis. These include creating and sending quotes, scheduling technicians, drafting invoices, collecting payments, etc. If performed manually, these redundant tasks can waste hours of your valuable time, which could yield profits if invested in revenue-generating business operations.
To tackle this issue, you need to deploy electrical contracting business software that can help you manage your jobs in one place and reduce the time required to process client billing. Various software solutions available in the market can help you do your job efficiently and reduce paperwork to a significant level.
Steps To Scale Your Electrical Service Business
Once you are done with your research process, it’s time to put it to use. You need to take strategized steps based on your research to propel your business in the right direction.
Build A Quality Team
When hiring and building your team of skilled electricians, it is imperative to focus on quality instead of quantity. It’s true that the more the number of electricians, the more projects you can take on and, in turn, increase your revenue. Focus on hiring electricians based on their skill set and expertise level. You should focus on quality more than quantity because you need to establish a reliable image for your brand. The key component of your electrical business is your electricians. And hiring quality electricians will showcase the effectiveness of your business. Customers will have more faith in your services than others, which is exactly how you need to attract them and provide them with nothing but the best.
Deciding On Your Pricing Strategy
Having your own electrical business means you are your own boss. This also means you can set the prices for your vendible as you wish. As an electrician, you will also be dealing with electrical tools and equipment. Your research on competitors and target customer data will reveal useful insights into how you can set your prices. The trick is to strike the perfect balance between the standard rate of services and the profit margin you want to keep.
Develop An Effective Marketing Strategy
Your marketing efforts are crucial if your priority is to get word of your business out in the market. Without marketing your electrician business and services effectively, you cannot expect people to be aware of your existence.
Some recommended marketing tips to increase your brand awareness and build your brand:
Create a professional website showcasing your services, tools, offerings, discounts, etc. Make sure to keep the content and multimedia relevant to your target customers to ensure that you are there to provide exactly what they require. Building a professional website is not a matter of a day but requires constant updation to align with the ever-changing industry trends.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is integral to marketing, helping you rank your business online in search engines. If a potential client searches the Internet for electrical services near him, you need to ensure that your business is included in the list, preferably in the top positions. This is where SEO comes in handy. It optimizes your business website and marketing collaterals to rank online, making it easy for potential customers to look for you and avail of your services.
In this age, social media is the most incredible tool you can use to get your brand out there. It can also help you build a brand by enabling you to craft your brand image and message. There are various kinds of social media platforms out there, among which you need to decide which ones to be active on, depending on where you can find and target potential clients better.
Regularly check your marketing analytics, such as your blogs or campaigns. This can help you gain insights into your target audience’s preferences and create collateral or advertisements based on that.
Invest In Your Business
When starting a new business, it is imperative to invest in the right direction. Investing in your business contributes to its sustainability and long-term success.
General areas you should consider investing in:
tools and equipment
training and certifications
marketing and branding
insurance coverage
workforce professional development
inventory management
business management software
customer relationships
van to run a mobile business
If you’re a small business owner, you might need financial support to invest, especially in the initial phases. There are many options available that can help you get adequate financing for your electrical business. You can always ask your friends and family to invest in your business. Other ways to secure funding for your business could be by applying for a business grant through your local government. If not, you can also get a small business loan from your bank.
Run Your Business From Anywhere
Plenty of field service business management software allows you to run your electrical business from anywhere. There are accounting software like QuickBooks that allow you to manage your transactions and finances on the go. You can also purchase an electrician van to help you do multiple jobs consecutively without returning to your base location each time.
Conclusion
Growing your electrical contracting business is not an overnight process. Consistent efforts over a long period of time are required to help you establish your brand, create a positive brand image, and market your offerings effectively. So, keep at it even if you face challenges. If not tomorrow, then someday, for sure, you will yield the benefits of your investments.
On an additional note, being a highly skilled electrician does not necessarily mean that one can operate a business and manage its processes. Apart from technical skills, one also needs to have adequate knowledge of finances, insurance, and business operations. Otherwise, it can get really challenging for one single person to train themselves while running a full-fledged business simultaneously.
If you’re excited to streamline the operations of your electrical contracting business, we have something for you! Our electrical business management software, ZenElectrical, will be there with you every step of the way. From sending quotes to processing invoices and payments – ZenElectrical automates every process so that you can focus on where it actually matters. Gone are the days of incessant paperwork that takes half your day and leaves you tired with no substantial work done.
If you are curious about how to automate your business and streamline your processes efficiently, book a personalized demo today with ZenElectrical and enjoy 4x more revenue in the next six months!
Get Insights Delivered Straight
To Your Inbox!
Related Reading
Why Your Field Software Management Software Needs QuickBooks Integration
ZenTrades Why Your Field Service Management Software Needs QuickBooks Integration Read More Request Demo...
Read More
ZenTrades How To Manage Electrical Service Agreements Like...
Read More
ZenTrades The Best 5 Jobber Alternatives In 2023...
Read More