Meet the mom who owns her own plumbing company

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Moms on the Move week continues with a woman who's working in an industry that's typically considered for men.

If your toilet breaks, kitchen sink gets clogged or a pipe burst, Eyewitness News knows the woman to call.

"People come up to me and say, 'You're not really a plumber are you?' 'Well, yea, I am actually," Monica Ryan said.

Monica Ryan is not only the owner of Village Plumbing and Air, but she's a master plumber.

"Either someone's very impressed with it, so they treat you differently because they're impressed with it. Or, they don't take you seriously," Ryan said.

Ryan doesn't let the negative comments stop her from growing her family's business.

"My mom and dad started the business in 1946, and my dad always said he wanted to have blue collar people with white collar livings, and that's part of our mission, and part of my mission," said Ryan.

The master plumber said that she never planned on getting into the business until her father had a stoke, forcing her to take over his business. Ryan realized her love for plumbing and bought the business in 1993.

"We were stuck in the same revenue stream for a long time with a certain amount of employees," Ryan said. "We had such a great reputation and I knew we could be better."

In a few months, Ryan grew the company from 20 employees to 75. She said that the company's success came from their emphasis on teamwork and customer service.

Aside from running a successful business, Ryan spends her free time teaching her two daughters the ins and out of plumbing.

"It's something that you can learn that you can always do for yourself," Ryan said.

Ryan does not have any female plumbers, but she says she's always looking.

"No matter what you do in business, you're going to run into that brick wall, and there's nothing more helpful that having someone to call and say,'I just hit the brick wall,'" Ryan said.