Pimlico Plumbers' head honcho Charlie Mullins

Company: Pimlico Plumbers
Founder: Charlie Mullins
Age at start: 27
Background: Plumber by trade
Start year: 1979
Business: Plumbers

Pimlico Plumbers sprung from humble beginnings. As a nine-year-old boy, founder Charlie Mullins bunked off school to earn "two bob" a time helping out his local Camden plumber.

His company now earns more than £14million per year with a client list that includes the likes of Jonathan Ross, Eric Clapton, Louis Theroux, Boy George, Michael Winner and Tara Palmer Tomkinson.

It turned the plumbing industry on its head, creating a reputable brand bursting with reliable, trustworthy plumbers.

The straight-talking pioneer describes his London-based company as "the complete opposite" of stereotypical plumbers who have disappointed in the past.

Charlie's main concern was to shed the image of an unreliable rogue, a feat that took years to achieve.

Thirty years ago, plumbing was by no means trendy; now it is practically cool. Charlie is Britain's first millionaire plumber and has differentiated his business enough that he has inspired a new generation of plumbing companies.

The seeds were sown very young, a factor which Charlie attributes to his success.

Inspired by a local plumber because he drove a Ford Zephyr and seemed to be the richest person in the area, Charlie had a working and in-depth knowledge of plumbing before he was 10 years old.

Since then, his whole working life has involved plumbing and so when it came to starting out on his own, he was in a position to know all the things which customers disliked. The public were fed up of plumbers arriving late, cancelling appointments and turning up badly presented, all of which were perceived to be plumbing industry standards.

New Expectations
These days the general public don't stand for shoddy work or cowboys. The smell of lawsuits and customer rights hang in the air.

Charlie very simply did the complete opposite of what was perceived and used this as a simple yet highly effective way of distinguishing his business from other plumbers. He comments that "you either improve your service or don't become a busy company".

By using his common sense and making the most of opportunities, Charlie began to build his plumbing empire pipe by pipe.

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Organic growth
Charlie left school with no qualifications and went straight into a four-year plumbing apprenticeship, following in the footsteps of his local plumber hero.

After this, he began working for himself. He chose never to work for a company as he disliked building sites and wanted to be his own boss.

Thus the only option was to become self employed, build up a client base and create a good reputation.

Many of Charlie's clients were based around London's Pimlico area and in 1979 while he was working out of the basement of an estate agent called Pimlico Properties, he chose his company's name.

It seemed a logical step, as he did not need to venture further into London to make a living.

Even now, Pimlico mainly operates in a five-mile radius covering the Central London areas of Kensington, Chelsea and Belgravia.

His ethos of time keeping and honesty went a long way in London's demanding and unforgiving marketplace.

Yet his youth and seeming inexperience proved problematic when convincing clients he was "legit".

Some discarded his four years of training too quickly and the bad reputation of plumbers preceded him.

Charlie remembers that in the early years, in order to win some jobs, he insisted that no payment was made until the job was completed to the customer's absolute satisfaction.

Pimlico Plumbers did not become a household name overnight. Nor did Charlie employ permanent staff for a few years.

Friends would help him with jobs on a larger scale, so that "once people know you are more than a one-man-band, they offer you the bigger job".

This is how Pimlico set up. There were no investors, bank loans or business strategies.

The business was self-funding and expanded when it had the money to do so. Its reputation was created by word-of mouth.

"It takes a long time to spread. But eventually, once it gets moving, your reputation can get you somewhere before you get there," notes Charlie.

Today, almost 80% of Pimlico's workload is generated from people who have used them before.

From the beginning, Charlie strove to offer a 24/7 service. As he was the only plumber of the "company", this facility was not as guaranteed as it is today, but Charlie always tried to work to this policy.

Over the years, Pimlico has endeavoured to create a more reliable service than its competitors and now guarantees their 24-hour availability and to have someone with the customer within the hour if necessary.

Charlie did not have high expectations for Pimlico's founding years; its aim was simply to be continually busy.

In the first year, Charlie earned enough to pay himself a wage and buy a second hand van from auction.

Today, almost 80% of Pimlico's workload is generated from people who have used them before.

Charlie is vehement that Pimlico has never and will never have outside investors. He acknowledges that whilst the business could have been 10 times bigger and probably national if he had taken on investors, it may not have been better.

Plumbing Prejudice
After the first couple of years, the business began advertising in the local paper, the Westminster and Pimlico Informer, but was not permitted space on the front page to begin with.

Charlie believes this was because of the stigma attached to plumbers. Over the years, Pimlico Plumbers has slowly been promoted from being lost amongst the pages to claiming a front-page spot, a progression they are very proud of.

Having fought for this position, Charlie certainly will not part with it.

Keep it Simple
From small beginnings to the company's present day success, managing more than 1,200 jobs a week, Charlie emphasises the need to keep it simple.

Some may find his manner blunt and he certainly takes pride in a no-nonsense attitude to business, not letting himself be swayed by swanky titles and complicated presentations that he feels are surplus to requirements.

Surprisingly, he has never met his bank manager. He detests meetings of any kind and will go out of his way to avoid them. That is how Pimlico has always been run - on a need-to-know, straightforward basis.

He has, however, followed a lucid marketing campaign, which he believes is crucial for any business, combining adverts in the Yellow Pages with prominent premises signage and smart, well maintained and highly branded vans, which have become well known around London - helped by the introduction of cheeky number plates, such as LOO2OLD and BOG1.

Where are they now?
Now aged 55, Charlie Mullins is still very involved in Pimlico Plumbers; he remains energetic and ambitious for both his company and the plumbing industry.

He aims to encourage more women to take up the profession and is still actively involved in transforming it into a more reputable, popular profession.

Although Pimlico does not intend to develop outside the M25, it is nevertheless expanding. Pimlico Home Services Group was set up in 2000 to meet customer demand for a range of domestic property services including carpentry, electrical work, repair and maintenance of home appliances, tiling and decorating.

David Lester is a successful entrepreneur, the founder of the small business website startups.co.uk and the co-author of How They Started (Crimson Publishing, £12.95)