The unexpected death of Keith McDonald, who succumbed to COVID at age 59 in August 2021, left a gaping hole not only in his family, but in the small towns of Milledgeville and Sandersville, Georgia, where the master plumber had built a well-known plumbing company — Keith McDonald Plumbing.

“Every single person around here knew my dad,” says his daughter, Lindsay Goodson, a master plumber herself who helped her father run the company, established in 2002. “He was a pillar in the community.”

In the weeks that followed, Goodson and her mother, Robin McDonald, who co-owned the business with her husband, faced two options amid their grief: Keep the company and preserve the jobs of its roughly 30 employees at the time, or accept a purchase offer from another plumbing company.

In the end, Goodson opted to buy the company from her mother and keep Keith McDonald Plumbing in the family.

“It was very tough after my dad died,” Goodson says. “He always was steadfast even when everything was falling down around him and I didn’t know that I had that in me.

“But I found out I did,” she continues. “My goal always was to make him proud, so giving up after he was gone would have been awful.”

CHANGES IN STORE

After taking ownership of the company, Goodson restructured the business. The septic-pumping arm of the company was sold to her sister, Natalie Hyman, and her husband, Kyle Hyman, and closed a company division in a nearby town after most of its employees left the company.

“We just don’t service that area anymore,” she says.

The company also shifted its focus from what was equal parts commercial and residential construction and service plumbing to primarily residential and commercial service and light residential construction.

Furthermore, Goodson also modernized the company’s operations by investing in business management software and a new GPS system for increased efficiency and introduced another new technology: a camera system that allows her or another senior plumber to supervise junior technicians via livestreaming video.

Amid all that, the company was on pace to generate roughly $1.7 million in gross revenue through November 2022.

Not too bad for a self-admitted reluctant plumber who never planned to enter the field.

LATE-BLOOMING PLUMBER

McDonald became a plumber later in life. In 2001, when he was 39 years old, McDonald left his job as a maintenance supervisor at a local processing plant and founded his company in Sandersville in central Georgia.

The business grew dramatically from about 2009 to 2013, when McDonald bought four small plumbing companies, including one that also pumped out septic tanks. At its peak, the company employed nearly 40 people, Goodson says.

Goodson joined the company in 2009 after she lost a job as an office assistant during the Great Recession. She had three two-year associate degrees under her belt, but jobs were impossible to find, she recalls.

“So my dad said I should come home and work for him until I figured out what my big-girl job was going to be,” she says. “It was hard — I hated it for a long time. At first, I literally cried every day.”

Nonetheless, Goodson discovered she enjoyed learning how things work and dealing with customers and contractors.

“I found out I loved working with the community as well as solving problems,” Goodson says. “My dad never thought I’d be a plumber, but then I got good at what I was doing and sort of shoved my way out into working in the field to learn more.

“And he kept putting more and more and more on my plate — meeting with contractors, checking jobs, running the guys and problem-solving when he wasn’t available,” she continues. “It just became fun.”

By 2015, she had proven herself to the point that her father put her in charge of running the company’s
Milledgeville location.

“He said I could involve him as little or as much as I wanted,” Goodson says. “He told me, ‘Show me you can run it better.’ And dad-gummit, I did.”

Along the way, Goodson earned her journeyman plumber’s license. And in the wake of her father’s death, she also passed her master plumber’s exam after the state allowed her to take the test only a year after she received her journeyman’s license, instead of waiting for the required two years, she says.

BAPTISM UNDER FIRE

Goodson’s first year of ownership was tumultuous. She fired underperforming employees and others left because they didn’t want to work for a female owner.

“Being a female in this industry isn’t normal, especially one that owns a plumbing company in Georgia,” she says. “There were quite a few guys that didn’t respect me or my position, so I cleaned house and paid my remaining guys better.”

On the other hand, many employees rallied around her and stepped up to take care of the company when things got really difficult, she notes.

“They did a really great job,” Goodson says. “That first year was God-awful, but we have a great customer base and our employees are top-notch. I love all of them.”

Goodson did great, too, says her mother.

“Lindsay kept things together when I wanted no part of it,” says Robin McDonald. “She is a real spitfire, to say the least.

“Keith had an unbelievable reputation in several counties and his death created a massive hole in so many ways,” she adds. “It was an unbelievable struggle for our family for more than a year now, but my girls (Lindsay and Natalie) have stepped up to carry on Keith’s legacy.”

A FOCUS ON EMPLOYEE RETENTION

The company’s employees are its most valuable asset, particularly in a tight labor market where tradesmen are scarce to begin with. As such, Goodson says she tries to create a positive atmosphere that keeps employees from jumping ship.

“I don’t micromanage my guys or yell at them if they make mistakes,” she explains. “We try to have fun.

“I also let them know that they’re important to our success and I do everything I can to ensure this is a quality place to work,” Goodson continues. “My philosophy is we work to live, not live to work. So their personal happiness ultimately is the priority.

The company also boosts employee retention by investing in good equipment. The business runs nine service vehicles, including Chevrolet Express and Ford Econoline cut-away cargo vans, Isuzu NPR box vans and Dodge Ram pickup trucks to pull heavy equipment. Some of the vehicles feature box bodies made by Knapheide Manufacturing Co. and Reading Truck.

The company also relies on RIDGID K-1500 and K-50 sectional drain machines, K-400 drum cable machines and Milwaukee Tool sink machines; RIDGID standard SeeSnake pipeline-inspection cameras and a microReel camera; Milwaukee Tool M-Spector push cameras; and a trailer-mounted water jetter from General Pipe Cleaners (a division of General Wire Spring Co.). Technicians use power tools from RIDGID and Milwaukee Tool and RIDGID hand tools.

A Kubota excavator and a Ditch Witch trenching machine with a boring attachment and a blade attachment round out the equipment fleet.

TAPPING ON THE BRAKES

While her father always had the business in full-bore growth mode, Goodson says she’s content where the company is at the moment. Her plan is to focus more on her employees and ensure they keep honing their skills and become the best plumbers they can be, she says.

“Then when it’s time to grow, people will be ready to step up into leadership roles,” Goodson says.

The entrepreneur also doesn’t rule out eventually expanding the company’s service area. But in the meantime, the current business base was solidified when a regional utility selected the company as a preferred plumber for working on natural gas lines. Furthermore, the company has developed a close working relationship with a local municipality, she notes.

“After my dad was gone, I used to worry a lot that we’d lose business because people wouldn’t have the same confidence in me that they had in him,” Godson says. “But I’ve picked up some major customers. … I feel like he’s up there pulling strings.

“I can’t wait to talk to him about all of it someday.”