Case study: From a garage to 12 employees in a year

Where was the money leaking with three installations a month?

When we first sat down to the Excel table at Jacek's office – which was then also his kitchen – the numbers looked weak. They were earning about 4200 PLN net after deducting all material costs. They worked 12 hours a day because they went on installations themselves and did valuations themselves in the evenings. The problem wasn't a lack of customers, but fatal organization of purchases and lack of counting time spent in wholesalers.

It turned out that Tomasz spent an average of 9 hours a week in traffic jams, driving for missing connectors they forgot to order earlier. At an installer's hourly rate, these trips cost their company almost 1850 PLN a month. This was the first thing we had to cut. We introduced a simple checklist rule before every trip to an installation and set one day a week for larger purchases in Łódź, which immediately boosted the profit by 7% on each job.

They earned 4200 PLN a month working 12 hours a day. The problem was connectors and fuel, not a lack of orders.

Hiring the first employee without fear of taxes

The biggest brake was the fear of labor costs. Jacek was afraid that if he hired someone on a contract, the tax office would eat him. However, we calculated that hiring Mr. Darek – an experienced installer from around Bełchatów – would allow them to take 2 additional orders a month. The cost of the employee was about 6400 PLN with overheads, but the profit from these two new installations brought the company an additional 11200 PLN in margin.

This was a turning point. At Polish Wings of Development we always repeat: let's check specific numbers before you say you can't afford it. After hiring the first person, the owners could finally focus on sales, not just tightening bolts. In two months, the number of inquiries about heat pumps increased from 4 to 13 a week, because Jacek finally had time to call people back within 3 hours, not after three days.

Scaling the team to 11 people and a new warehouse

In September 2023, the garage was no longer enough. We rented a small warehouse at the exit to Łask, with an area of 84 square meters. This allowed them to buy components in bulk, which lowered the unit price of a pump by an average of 2100 PLN. At 6 installations a month, the savings on purchases alone covered the cost of renting the warehouse with a large surplus. The company already had 3 two-person installation teams and one person for paperwork in the office.

We operate on hard data, so we monitored the time of each installation. We shortened the average installation time from 4 days to 2.5 days thanks to better preparation of assembly kits in the warehouse. The guys arrived at the site with a ready pallet on which everything needed was there – down to a single gasket. This meant that in October they closed 9 large orders, which was a record in the history of their activities in Pabianice.

Shortening the installation from 4 to 2.5 days gave them time for 3 additional houses a month without taking overtime.

Summary: Where are they today?

Currently, the company employs 11 people, including 8 installers, 2 salespeople, and Ms. Aneta, who handles 'Clean Air' grants for clients. Jacek and Tomasz no longer go to construction sites with wrenches, but they watch quality and margin, which has stabilized at 24%. It simply pays off if you stop treating the company as an extension of your own hands and start treating it like an efficient mechanism.

P.S. The most interesting thing is that they didn't spend a single PLN on expensive radio or TV ads. We focused on local groups on Facebook and recommendations from 47 satisfied customers from the first year of cooperation. If you want to see how your workshop can become such a company, get in touch with us. We don't promise miracles, but we promise we will find those leaks in your wallet through which profit escapes.