By Jad Salman · · All guides
Buying a van and a toolkit is the easy bit. Setting up a plumbing business in the UK means getting the legal side straight, deciding how you'll trade, sorting insurance, and then finding people who will actually ring you. Miss any of those and you either get stuck on day one or you lose work you could have kept.
I'm Jad. I built Slotby after talking to a lot of plumbers about the phone side of the trade. This guide is the wider picture: how to get from "I'm good at plumbing" to "I have a real business that can take jobs tomorrow."
Skills, Cards and Insurance First
Before you worry about logos or websites, make sure you're allowed to do the work you want to sell.
If you touch gas, you need to be on the Gas Safe Register. That isn't optional. Customers check it, landlords require it, and working without it is illegal. For water fittings, look at schemes like WaterSafe and WRAS so you can show you're competent on the regulations that matter.
Public liability insurance is the one almost every plumber needs from day one. It covers damage or injury claims from customers. Many also take tools cover and, once they employ anyone, employers' liability. Shop around, but don't start without public liability.
Keep copies of your cards, insurance schedule and qualifications somewhere easy to send. Customers ask for them more often than they used to, and a quick photo of your Gas Safe card in a WhatsApp chat still wins jobs.
Sole Trader or Limited Company?
Most new plumbers start as sole traders. You register as self-employed with HMRC, keep records, and pay Income Tax and National Insurance on your profits. It's simple, cheap to set up, and fine while you're one van and your own name on the invoices.
A limited company is a separate legal entity. You become a director and usually take a salary plus dividends. It can look more professional, can help with tax once profits are higher, and keeps business debts separate from your personal money in most normal cases. It also means Companies House filings, corporation tax returns and more paperwork.
There's no single right answer. If you're unsure, read the GOV.UK pages on setting up as a sole trader and setting up a limited company, or spend an hour with an accountant who works with trades. Switching later is possible, but starting simple is usually fine.
Either way, open a separate business bank account. Mixing personal and job money makes tax time painful.
Tax Basics and When VAT Matters
As a sole trader you report through Self Assessment. Put money aside for tax as you earn it, not in January when the bill arrives. Keep invoices, receipts and mileage notes. A shoebox works until it doesn't. A simple spreadsheet or accounting app usually pays for itself.
VAT is separate. As of writing, you must register for VAT if your taxable turnover goes over £90,000 in a rolling 12 months, or if you expect it to in the next 30 days. You can also register voluntarily below that. Rules change, so check the current VAT thresholds on GOV.UK rather than trusting a blog forever.
Being VAT registered means adding VAT to customer invoices and reclaiming it on business purchases. For some domestic customers it makes you look more expensive. For landlords and commercial work it often matters less. Decide with real numbers, not vibes.
Finding Your First Customers
Tools don't ring themselves. Early work usually comes from people who already know you, plus a few boring but effective basics.
Tell everyone: old colleagues, neighbours, local Facebook groups (without spamming), landlords you've met, and other trades who don't do plumbing. Offer a clean, fair first job and ask for a review after.
Set up a Google Business Profile. Put your service area, phone number, hours and a few photos of real jobs (with permission). Ask happy customers for Google reviews. That profile is how a lot of emergency and local search work finds you.
A simple website or even a clear Facebook page helps. Show what you do, where you cover, and how to get in touch. Don't hide the phone number.
And answer the phone. Or make sure someone does. New customers rarely leave a voicemail and wait. I've written before about how many calls plumbers miss and how to stop missing them on a job. When you're solo and under a sink, diverting unanswered calls to something that can take a name, address and book a slot is often the difference between a quiet week and a full diary. That's the problem Slotby is built for, but even a reliable callback habit beats hoping people leave messages.
Pricing Your Work and Quoting Properly
Guessing rates from a mate down the pub is how people undercharge for years. Work out your real costs: van, fuel, insurance, tools, phone, accounting, time off, tax set-aside, and a wage you'd actually accept. Then add margin.
Decide what you charge for:
- Call-out or first hour
- Labour after that
- Parts (markup or at cost)
- Out-of-hours and weekends
- Quotes for bigger jobs like bathrooms
Be clear on the phone. People hate surprises. Say what the visit covers, when the clock starts, and roughly what extras might look like. Write quotes for bigger work so you're both looking at the same scope.
If you're new, you may price a bit under the busiest local firms to get reviews. Just don't race to the bottom. Cheap and unreliable is a hard reputation to shake.
Simple Ops: Van, Tools, Diary and Phone
You don't need fancy systems on day one. You do need habits.
Keep the van stocked for the jobs you actually do. A second trip to merchants kills a morning. Keep a basic job sheet or notes app: customer name, address, what you found, what you fitted, what they paid. Photos of before and after help with disputes and insurance.
Use a diary you trust. Paper is fine if you check it. A shared calendar on your phone is better once jobs start stacking. Leave travel time between bookings. Running late every day is how you lose the customers you just won.
Treat the phone like part of the business, not a distraction. Have a short greeting ready. Capture the postcode early so you know if it's in area. If you can't talk, say when you'll call back and do it. Or set up cover so the enquiry isn't lost while you're working.
A Short Checklist Before You Take Paid Work
- Skills and cards for the work you'll sell (Gas Safe if gas)
- Public liability insurance in place
- Sole trader or limited company decided and registered
- Business bank account open
- Way to invoice and keep receipts
- Google Business Profile live
- Clear rates for call-outs and labour
- A plan for calls you can't answer
That's enough to start properly. You can add a van wrap, a nicer website and fancy software later. The foundations above stop the expensive mistakes.
If you're already trading and the weak spot is the phone rather than the paperwork, have a look at how Slotby works for plumbers or send us an enquiry. We'll get back to you the same evening. And if you're still sorting the business side, keep GOV.UK and a good trade accountant close. Getting set up once, cleanly, beats fixing it under pressure later.