It hasn’t always been easy being Chad Shears, founder and owner of Shears Premium Drain Cleaning. As a child and teenager, the successful south Indiana businessman experienced “an uphill fight every day at school” because of learning disabilities.
It wasn’t an IQ problem, certainly, nor did he let it develop into an “I quit” attitude. Shears persevered, didn’t lose faith in himself and a dozen years ago became a tradesman where “figuring things out with your hands, solving real problems and seeing results right in front of you” has translated into a successful career.
Unlike other members of his extended family, most of whom are in the HVAC trade, Shears is working for himself as a drain and sewer cleaning specialist. He began as a plumbing company employee, though his long-term goal was always to be self-employed. To that end, he began accumulating tools “so that when I made the decision to start a company, I would have what I needed.” The former Eagle Scout obviously learned from his scouting days to “be prepared.”
Three years ago, the foresight paid off when the 36-year-old finally decided to go out on his own. Why drain cleaning? It filled a market need in the area, Shears says.
“A lot of companies around me don’t do drain cleaning,” he says. “They don’t want to have to insert a camera and look for the problem. I found a niche market.”
Because Shears enjoyed rapport with numerous plumbing colleagues as an employee, today he has a steady stream of drain cleaning referrals from old friends who have gone on to own companies.
“I’m doing the drain work for about 25 plumbing companies in the area. I’m the guy they call. In return, if a job ever turns into sewer replacement, I give it back to the plumbers.”
Staying busy
Shears works in and around Floyds Knobs on the southern border of Indiana, a handful of miles north of the Ohio River separating Indiana from Kentucky. Louisville is just across the river. His service calls are in Floyds Knobs and surrounding Indiana towns like New Albany, Jeffersonville and his hometown of Clarksville. Shears travels as far as an hour away in response to customer appeals, including crossing busy bridges into Kentucky for Louisville service calls.
His workload is about a 50/50 split between commercial and residential, with the former including restaurants, fire departments on both sides of the river — the departments’ work is contracted — as well as a couple of distribution centers. Consequently, the Shears customer base is varied and not dependent upon one segment, making it less vulnerable to swings in the economy.
The company’s main service van — a standby vehicle that carries additional equipment — is eye-catching. It is mostly bright yellow with blue streams of “water” streaking it and an arms-folded waterdrop character grinning at passersby. The imaginative vehicle treatment was mostly Shears’ design and was dreamed up to set him apart visually from unimaginative competitors’ vans.
“In this area, nearly every plumbing van is white,” Shears says. “I needed something to distinguish myself from them.”
The wrapped van is a key part of his approach to advertising his services. That and word-of-mouth — satisfied customers spreading the news. And, of course, the network of colleagues in the local industry is feeding him work. In short, the company is staying busy without much of an advertising budget, methodically responding to emergencies to unclog lines and making contracted preventive maintenance calls.
Underground infrastruc-ture in the area ranges from good to problematic, according to Shears. The older neighborhoods in New Albany (founded in 1813) and Clarksville contain a lot of clay pipe as does the Louisville metro area across the river. The venerable pipe is, of course, susceptible to invasive roots, which typically are the problem Shears encounters in his camera inspections.
Behind the camera
Shears started his equipment collection with Milwaukee-branded tools, including a snake and a camera. They get plenty of use. His current camera is a Milwaukee M18 with a 325-foot inspection reel. Shears offers camera inspections on every job. It is an easy sale, he says.
“I tell them that we can come and treat the symptoms, but that we really don’t know what is happening unless we can get a camera in the line to learn just what is the problem,” he says.
Often, customers see the logic and concur.
When there is blockage, Shears has a couple of cable machines with cutting heads to clear it: a General Pipe Cleaners Root 66 sectional cable unit with four cable options and the Milwaukee M18 sectional machine with two cable diameters.
Shears’ typical call is to snake a line, getting it open and flowing, then sending in a camera for a diagnosis of the issue and talking to the customer about how to prevent a recurrence. That is mostly all that constitutes his sales spiel, which he says separates his company from rival ones.
“Other drain cleaning companies in the area will get their foot in the door and try to sell something extra. A lot will do that,” Shears says. “I’m up front. Some things are just not in every budget. If we can get a camera in and find options that will get them by for a year, that’s good enough for many customers. I don’t push them to do more.”
Shears will jet a line if a customer can afford that (more expensive) treatment, calling upon a General Pipe Cleaners JM-1000-X or a JM-2900 to blast apart an obstruction. Shears also promotes the periodic auxiliary use of Bio-Clean / Supply enzyme for getting a drain flowing and keeping it open. One-size solutions don’t fit all his customers and he says he knows it.
As a one-man company — this will change soon — Shears takes on tasks that he can manage, in-and-out jobs that don’t tie him down. On a couple of occasions, circumstances led him to replace sewer lines rather than refer the jobs to plumbing friends. He rented excavation equipment for those jobs and recently began to partner with an excavation crew, subbing out such work about once a month.
“I would like to get into it more,” he says.
Getting some help
One-person businesses — like one-man bands — can ably carry a tune. But bringing in supporting players makes for a more complete experience as talents are blended to the fuller satisfaction of listeners (customers). Shears says he is ready to hire some backup players.
In the three years since founding his company, Shears has grown a customer base that he now is almost unable to satisfy on his own.
“I frankly am not able to quickly service all the calls that are coming in,” he says. “When your customers have to wait a couple of days for a response or you are having to work on a Saturday or Sunday, those are good signs that you need more help. I have a helper that works part time, but I would like to take on someone else.”
The footprint of his business is also a factor. He responds not only to calls in Floyds Knobs and surrounding towns in southern Indiana but also crosses the Ohio River to clean drains in the Louisville metro area. Consequently, the service area is too large for one person to continue to cover as the volume of service calls grows.
Because Shears has mastered the craft sufficiently during the 15 years since entering the plumbing industry, he is open to hiring and managing either an experienced technician or a rookie. While “a veteran would be nice, no training involved, I have no problem with hiring a rookie,” he says.
The thing about having employees is that owners have to become managers, too. Shears was asked if he found himself to be a natural-born manager or if it’s a skill he has had to develop.
“It is not as hard as I thought it was going to be,” he says, crediting experience as an Eagle Scout with giving him an edge. He says he has also found Housecall Pro software to be valuable in scheduling and billing and, in general, managing the increasing volume of his business activity.
A confident future
So Shears Premium Drain Cleaning is moving ahead, one clogged line at a time, and learning how to deal with the increasing volume of business.
For instance, Shears’ wife Danielle kept the books at the outset but the burgeoning business activity necessitated hiring a CPA, the price of success.
“I don’t want to get huge,” Shears says about the company’s steady growth. He fears that unwieldy expansion of the company would begin to detract from his earnest desire to help the community. So how much bigger is big enough? Having five service trucks on the road would satisfy his need to grow the company without losing his connection to the people he serves, he says.
Today, Shears looks back with clear eyes at his struggles in school because of learning disabilities. He was constantly encouraged, he says, but also warned that if he didn’t pass this test or that one, he would never succeed in life. He used such prodding as a “crutch,” he says, to prop him up and motivate him during discouraging times.
“One history teacher said if I didn’t pass a particular exam, I would never be able to get ahead,” he recalls. “Now she calls me to do all her plumbing work.”
As important to keeping him on track, Shears says, is the ongoing support of friends.
“The people I network with encourage me. Fellow employees who have stayed friends, when I hear them say, ‘He’s the best I know’ — it lifts me up and gives me confidence.”
Continue reading for free
