Mum, The Heater Man’s Here! … The Heartwarming Tale from Doorstep to Brand Icon

Ange
From leveraging unique Gas knowledge in Chile, England to pioneering a service orientated approach in Australia. This powerhouse couple have navigated some very interesting challenges to build their thriving businesses. 

Andy
And in our chat today, we’ll uncover how they consistently achieve 20 percent year on year growth, adapted to the evolving landscape of the heating industry with a smart pivot and built a brand that resonates with the luxury and customer first philosophy.

Ange
So get ready for an episode filled with actionable insights and inspiring stories you won’t want to miss. 

Andy
You’re listening to The Tradie Show. This is the podcast for trade business and contracting bosses like you, who want to lead with confidence, make more profit and create a better lifestyle. 

Ange
We’re your hosts, Andy and Angela Smith, husband & wife team and co-founders of Lifestyle Tradie. Are you ready to have some fun?  

Andy
Hell  yeah!  Imagine this, no more late nights quoting and invoicing. No more second guessing your business decisions. No more missing out on hanging with your mates and feeling like a slave to your business. If you want to create more freedom, make bigger profits, learn how to utilise AI in your business, build a dream team behind you, and finally get off the tools, come and see us at Lifestyle Tradie on Tour.  We’re coming to a capital city near you for a day of no bullshit. Reserve your free ticket at lifestyletradie.com.au to learn how to work smarter, not harder. But don’t just take our word for it. 

Member’s Testimony
Definitely join Lifestyle Tradie, the amount of support and knowledge which is within the program is invaluable.

We knew that we needed to know numbers, but we didn’t know which numbers to look at. And learning the right numbers to be watching and the right numbers to be looking at is able to double and triple our business, really, within a year, two years,  I’m a hundred percent sold on that. It’s worth it. Just do it.

Andy
Simon and Ali, thank you so much for joining us in the studio today. It’s so great to have you guys here. 

Simon
Thank you guys for having us, long term listeners to the podcast. So very excited to be here and be part of it myself. 

Ali
Thanks for having us. 

Andy
You have such a fabulous story and plenty to share. And I know everyone is going to learn our hate today, so much so, I think we should just get straight into it. So I’m going to start with you, Simon, if that’s okay. And I want you to take us back to the very start of The Heater Man. What inspired you to start this business? 

Simon
Well, look, I started a plumbing business back in the UK, sold that, moved to Australia. When I got here, I realised that my, uh, license wasn’t recognised in Australia, so I had to go back and get a job. So I started working for AGL, and I quickly realised whilst I was there that everyone was coming to me for that knowledge. My basic gas knowledge from the UK was just higher than your average plumber here. And after a while, I got the confidence that, Hey, I can do this on my own. 

Andy
So where did the name, The Heater Man come from?

Simon
Good story. I like this one. It’s one of my favorite, uh, heart feels this one. So I’d been on holiday to Fiji and I’d come back to work from the holiday, with a few pina coladas in the system, feeling a bit confident about life. And I was thinking about heading out on my own, heading into winter. And as I was thinking about it, I went to a customer’s house one morning, the front door was open, but the gate, the fly screen was shut. And as I walked to the door, this little boy shouted, Mom, The heater man’s here. 

Andy
Oh, I love that. 

Ange
I love that story. 

Simon
It just hit me on the heart and I thought, you know what? That was probably my sign to get going. And I love that name. So later that day, I got home, got the domain, mentioned the business name and off we went.

Ange
You just need a little bit of a nudge. 

Simon
Need a little kid, five years old.  

Ali
Five year old nudge. 

Andy
Yeah, that’s awesome. 

Ange
So Simon, unlike a great deal of tradies that we speak with you actually seem to know quite a great deal about branding and standing out from the crowd. Can you tell us a bit about that and what you did to set yourself apart from your competition right in those early days?

Simon
Yeah, for me, it’s the foundation. So when I left the UK, I couldn’t sell my company. It was called Wills Plumbing. It was just me and a couple of guys and it had no tangible value to it. We didn’t build databases or software back in the days. So it was just me. There was no value. So I shut it down and moved to Australia. When I started The Heater Man, I thought I’ve got to get this right. I want to build a company. I want to build a product or a brand. So I quickly started working on it. I realized I had good accounting software. So I got that nailed straight away. ServiceM8 launched around the same time I started. I was actually invited to the launch of ServiceM8 in Australia, which was quite cool. Yeah. So I got into that really quickly. And we started off with that great software integration with our accounts. But also in terms of branding, I went to a branding agency 10, 12 years ago. That was probably pretty new. So I would be turning up to jobs with sign written vans, uniforms on, a nice website, a solid brand just helped to get that rolling really quickly. People thought we were bigger than we were from day one. 

Andy
And I suppose the big thing that really, you know, stood out for me was that you were happy to spend the money to make sure you’re doing it right from the very beginning. 

Simon
Yeah. It’s more about concepts. I mean, everyone says you hear about people saying, what do I do in business in terms of I can’t do everything. And sometimes I pull their wife into the accounts. But they don’t know how to do accounts. So my theory was borrowed from my future self. If I could make this work, I’d have the money in the end. So I got my accountants in, I got the software, I got the branding, and very quickly people were seeing this big brand and asking me if we were a franchise.

Ange
Interesting. What I also take out from that is that you really highly valued your skill set. And the fact that you wanted to set up a brand, which is what a lot of tradies don’t do, they undervalue themselves to a certain degree. So I love that you recognize that from an early standpoint. And quite clearly it was perhaps because of the experience you had when you were in England. Ali, you now run the business alongside Simon and together you are truly quite the powerhouse. What’s your professional background and how did you come to be involved in the business? 

Ali
Um, my background was marketing and I used to help run branding workshops. So my interest and passion was there in the world of branding. It was a bit of a double edged sword and it continues to be because I know what we can do and what we should be doing. But implementing it all myself, you know, is a daily struggle, like every person that runs their own business. And I just saw Simon not being able to answer the phone and he was missing all these calls and I saw that there was an opportunity there. I needed a break so I came in to give him a hand and I quickly saw that there was room to grow and that we very much needed a second person.

Andy
So Ali, how did it when you came in, how did it go? Because if anyone’s listened to Ange and my story, you know, I got my back up a bit, we clashed a little bit. What about you two? How did you go? 

Ali
Did we clash? Of course we clash.  

Simon
I still do. 

Andy
It was a bit of a, it was a bit of a pause. And I’m like, okay, where’s this going? 

Ali
Do I answer this question? Yeah, of course we clash, but um, we also have our own corners. Um, I think, and as Simon said, um, don’t bring your wife into accounts if she can’t do the numbers. We did try that and I was reconciling things in Xero. And I very quickly said, I can’t quote toilets and I can’t do the receipts and those are two things that I am unable to do, but I love doing the communication stuff. I love working with the staff, and love doing the HR stuff. So definitely just stick to your own corner is my advice and hire experts for the things that you can’t do that you’re not good at.

Ange
Sound advice. 

Andy
And I don’t know why I thought of this straight away, but when you said stick to your own corner, I just thought. Thought of a boxing ring. Oh, I love that. I love it. Come out and kick it. Absolutely love that. So the thing that I found really interesting as well with you guys is not only did you start the heater man, but then you went and you started a new business called Roselle Plumbing. So Simon, what made you go into that path of starting your second business? 

Simon
Well, I guess the simple answer is that we sell heat to Australians, Andy. Yes,  that’s right. And they’re pretty hard to sell heat to in the middle of summer. 

Ange
Yeah, in Sydney, Sydney. 

Simon
Yeah, so we quickly realized after it was actually the second year of business that work dropped off so much in the summer. But we had to get a second arm of work opposite to the heater man where we wanted to have a national brand around Sydney covering the whole of it with a plumbing company. I didn’t like the idea of the plumbers traveling and all of that downtime it would bring for that specific industry. So we went super micro on that. So we just really fully targeted local suburbs in Sydney. All of our marketing is entirely locally based. We want to avoid all the traveling. So, you know, we sponsor local schools. We do all local letter drop box football clubs. I’m really trying to just get that local market. And If we drive off of that area, it’s just not, it’s not making us money by traveling through Sydney.

Andy
Yeah. And I find that really interesting because some people, including Dr. Drip, we traveled way too far and too broad an area. There’s no doubt about that. So, the one thing I want to talk to Ali about was running Two businesses can be a real challenge and, and it’s that thing that I believe that sometimes as entrepreneurs and obviously you guys are and all business owners are entrepreneurs, we’re looking for the shiny object. Now, I don’t think you guys are looking for the shiny object here, like Simon said, because you realize selling heat in the middle of summer is quite tough, but sometimes in business, this You know, there’s a lot of demands, but where your time goes, the money flows. And sometimes I find when you’re juggling two businesses, and I’ve done that for many years as well. Have you found that at all? What’s been the biggest challenges you’ve seen in running the two businesses, Ali? 

Ali
It is a challenge. You’re right. And sometimes you do have to think, Oh, who am I going to save from drowning today? But what we have done that we have found success in is hiring experts in external fields like social media, web development, you know, bookkeeping as well. And those freelancers only work on that business. So we really keep everything external separate. 

Andy
I love that. 

Ali
We feel pulled between the two businesses, but when we’ve got our Roselle plumbing, a social media person on the phone, hustling us for stuff, then we rely on them to pull us to the side and focus on that. So definitely bringing in the experts and giving them a sole focus is how we solve that juggle. 

Andy
And I love that. Cause I think by, you know, you’re, you’re setting up a structure around when you’re working on which part of the business. So I think that’s something that’s absolutely critical when you’re running two businesses.

Ange
So can I then ask the question and correct me if this is not true. Is it the two of you that head up both The Heater Man and Roselle Plumbing and the team are split specifically or is that not true? And if so, can you share what that team kind of looks like for each one of the businesses?

Simon
Yeah. So in terms of tradies on the ground, different vans, different sign writing, different teams altogether, even social nights and team catch ups are entirely separate. 

Ali
We don’t let them hang out. 

Simon
Yeah. And again, like the focus for them is their company. Yes. On a day to day basis, there may be a need to help out, but fundamentally every person’s got their own goals and the accounts and bats for the plumbing company and the other accounts and butts for the heater man company, which means that they’re only got that company and interest rather than having a mutual goal of making them both balance or both to be happy. They’re both driving each other. 

Ange
So what’s the size of each business? What’s the team look like? 

Simon
Currently, the heater man’s running at about 12 people. And the plumbing team is actually currently just two tradies on the road with outsourced virtual systems for all the phone calls based in Australia. And one of our plumbers is just overseas on a sabbatical for a year. So it’s nice to give him that chance, but we could do with some more feet on the ground.  

Ange
I love the fact that your entire team and external interested parties are so focused on one business or the other so that they don’t get really confused even with their communication between the two of you. And totally where their focus is to ensure that the business is thriving. I think that’s actually really smart. 

Andy
And so many people that run two businesses and I even know I’ve done it if you brought to paypal and you do that. So I love how you guys have got it so structured separately. I think that’s definitely the way to go.

Simon
When we started off Andy, like what I said, we brought the plumbing company in. We were defined as well, like in a practical sense on the ground and come winter. We would have everybody working in the heater man. Plumbing customers were waiting or being delayed. They won’t get the service they need. And then came summer, it was the absolute opposite. We’d have three plumbers turn up to change a tap washer, which of course is, A, not profitable, but the customer’s standing there looking at you and going, why are there three of you here? Yeah. So it wasn’t a good look. So we did have to force that wedge between them, You know, long term wise has been a good move.

Ange
So Simon, your approach to customer service really stands out. Can you talk me through your approach and why you focus so heavily on this? 

Simon
This is pretty simple for me. I’m going back to my first ever job when I came to Australia. So I’d started the heater man, went to my first job, got the phone call, booked it in. I was going at 7 a. m. Monday morning. I turned up. I knocked at the door. And the lady stood there and she opened the door and she went, you’re here. And I was like,  didn’t we organize this? Like, sorry to disturb you. Am I at the wrong house? She was like, no, no. Like I’ve called three or four people and you’ve actually turned up when you said you would.

Ange
Wow. 

Simon
And at that moment I was like, this is going to be easy. And to do that, communication is going to be like the root of our business. So communicating with our customers when the jobs are booked, like answering the phone calls, getting to the job, letting them know we’re coming, all that pre information. And if there’s a delay for some reason. We always communicate. We find that people are happy to be moved around or happy to be delayed. If you tell them in advance, if you just don’t turn up. They’re going to be really annoyed. But if you phone them, they’re actually happy, not every time, but you know, generally they are.

Andy
Yeah, agree. 

Simon
So communication was the big thing. But the other thing as well is that we’ve paid as business owners good money for that person to phone us. 

Ange
Correct. 

Simon
So like getting that phone call and they phoned you because you’re a professional. So why don’t we just act professional, answer the questions, give them the time they need there and then, because my view is that they’ve cleared their desk at work, at home, wherever they are. And they’re focusing on 10 minutes, half an hour, whatever it is, to book this problem. Or to visit us about a fireplace and talk about it. Yep. So we’ll clear our desks at that same moment because that’s when they want to talk about it. 

Ange
Of course. 

Simon
If I’m busy and say, I’ll call you back in half an hour, they could be on the school run or could be having lunch. They’re not available. They’ve moved on. So, a right now policy, like if the phone rings more than three times, it’s for you, get it, make the time and deal with them. So really just getting that customer focus from the word go. If you don’t answer that call, make that booking, give them the time, they’re going to spend that 10 minutes with somebody else.

Ange
It sounds so simple to say that the basis of exceptional customer experience is communication, right? Sounds so simple. But what’s interesting is so many trade business owners forget the little things and these little one percenters that make all the difference to a customer building trust with you so that they eventually make a decision to actually buy with you. So it’s an interesting sentence. Ali, we both understand how important the flow of a job is and specifically this customer journey experience. Can you share one or two of the most important touch points when a customer walks into your Heater Man showroom? 

Ali
Uh, sure. As you said, the customer journey is so important and there are lots of touch points, but I think it’s the first and the last that are really, really key and important to us. The first touch point is Literally that customer walking in being greeted and then we sit down with them in front of a couple of fires. They’re always turned on in advance and they warm their toes and sit with a hot coffee and we literally learn about their project and their home. It’s not about us. It’s not about what we can sell. It’s not about what’s in the warehouse that we want to get rid of. It’s about their home project and how we can essentially share our knowledge that we’ve learned over the last 10 years to help improve their home project and make it easy for them. We want to cut through the noise. There’s so much out there. There’s so much going on. There’s so much on Instagram. It’s our job to make their experience easy and enjoyable. 

Andy
And I absolutely love that because I know that everyone out there listening would just go, Oh, That is awesome because when someone’s got to do an investment like buying a fireplace, it can be good dollars, you know, it can be a good investment, but you guys are taking that time to really understand exactly what they want. And once you understand, you can point them in the right direction to make sure that you’re giving them the service they need. So I absolutely love that. 

Ange
I absolutely agree. And when you explained that, Ali, you took me into this moment of being a customer and you changed the way I felt. I imagine sitting on a soft couch in front of this beautiful warm fire of holding a coffee and you’re just going to help me experience this moment that subconsciously I’ve actually already purchased because I’m just now choosing which one is right for me, not is this a yes or a no thing. This was a yes thing immediately because I felt something different. What you did say though is the first and the last touch point to you was the most important. So can you share what the last touch point is? 

Ali
Sure. Uh, the last touch point is sending that customer away that you then built that relationship with, with a quote, an idea of pricing in a beautiful folder that we’ve designed with our logo on it and our marketing message. And all the spec sheets that they need for the builder, everything that they need for the builder or for their other decision maker at home, essentially just to remove all those barriers and again, making it an easy choice for them, removing all that noise.  

Andy
Now, I absolutely love that. Those two touch points are extremely important. So Simon, I want to ask you, obviously, like that story that Ali talked about and what Ange said, that customer journey, having a fancy showroom and being able to do that for the heater man is amazing. So how do you try and implement a similar process and approach for your plumbing business? 

Simon
Well, the plumbing business is not so tangible in wanting the warm feels from the fireplaces.

Andy
That’s right. That’s right. 

Simon
In fact, there’s a problem. So that comes down just simply to the communication side of stuff.  Turning up looking clean, looking tidy, you know, no deodorant smells and all that kind of thing. Clean vans, make sure we communicate in advance to set the expectations that we’re going to deliver and when we’re coming and that communication side from the front. When we then obviously present our job, it’s a consistent process for the guys. Once the job’s done, we don’t tell them we’re leaving. We ask if it’s okay if we can leave. That’s kind of like saying, have we answered all your questions today? Yeah. Yes. It kind of gives them the power to say, yeah, cool. Oh, thanks. Yeah. You can go now. And it’s just a little bit of, I guess, hopefully a small bit of difference that we do by asking that question at the end. 

Ange
Customer psychology. That’s what that is. 

Simon
Where did I learn that Ange? Yeah. 

Ange
No, I absolutely love it. Love it. So Ali, in regards to marketing the business, I’d love for you to share a little bit about some of the strategies that you guys adopt.

Ali
Sure. There is so much you can do, and that’s, um, I definitely think that’s the challenge, especially nowadays with social. It’s presented to us in a way that we should be able to do all this ourselves. Anyone can do a social media post, but getting the right hashtags and the right videos and the right reels and the right trending music is not an easy thing. So I have specific people that I work with who are younger and cooler than me who can choose the reels, they can pick the trending music, they can tell me what to do. We recently filmed our guys walking into the office because that’s a trending thing at the moment. So definitely picking those experts who can help me in those areas that I’m not an expert in. It’s definitely important to that. We also do EDMs. We have a great database that we utilize. Uh, we use Flowdesk, we use MailChimp, and we focus on our retention strategies. Everybody who’s ever had a heater service is automatically put onto an email and they will get an email a year later reminding them to service their heater.

Andy
Yeah. And I love the fact that you guys have an incredible shop front on Victoria Road in Roselle, which focuses, there’s a lot of attention on who you are and your name and, and there’s no doubt you get a lot of people driving past there every day going, that’s where we need to get a heater. We’re going to go see those guys.

Ange
Absolutely. They know exactly who you are. Ali, over the years, the two of you have had great success with 20 percent growth year on year, which is absolutely amazing and huge congratulations to you both. What do you attribute that consistent growth to? 

Ali
There’s two sides to this that we were debating in the car. I put all the, uh, the attitude, all stuff down. I think that, you know, it’s important to be agile. Um, we’re always looking to do things in a new way. Fail fast, fail early is a really key, key piece of being innovative. Having a great attitude. Simon is definitely the most optimistic person I know. And then he sort of piped up and said, but our business model is based on retention. I’m like, Oh yeah, that’s right. We email everybody to come back to us next year. So I think those two things combined. 

Simon
Yeah. Even when we sell a fireplace, we pre sell a five year service package. So we’re getting that sale upfront for the product, but by selling them a prepaid service package, we’re also showing them right from the start that we care about them long term.  We won’t just sell a box. We’ll take it to your house, fit it, make it look beautiful, and we’re going to look after it for you. 

Ange
Amazing. 

Simon
So that whole customer service side of stuff just makes it an easy choice. Yes. I was talking about the folders earlier. One of my favorite last touch points, when the customers come back into our showroom with our folder full of a lot of other quotes,  they’ve clearly been to all the other shops carrying our folder and they’re like, well, you know, we want to work with you guys. Um, so that retention side of stuff is really from the ground through for all of that stuff. 

Andy
Yeah. I’d have to agree with what Ali said before that Simon’s a real go-getter. I can still remember being up in Brisbane. We had quite a few beers and he said to me, Hey Andy, we’ve got to do a marathon. And I’m like, are you serious? Are you serious? What? We’ve got to do a marathon. You’ve got to do a marathon. I said, mate, I don’t think I’m ready for it. He said, well, I’ll do it if you do it. Lo and behold, was that six months, a year later, sorry, after those drinks, the next day he signed both of us up. Six months later, we hadn’t done much training and all of a sudden we got into the training and a couple of weeks out from actually doing the marathon. What happened to you, mate? 

Simon
Yeah. We’ve got a foot injury, had fasciitis, which I’m still struggling with today, a year later. Actually, next week is a year. And so have you recovered yet? 

Andy
I haven’t recovered yet, but I did manage to squeeze out those  42 K’s and it was an absolute punishment, absolute punishment. But Simon, I want to go back. This is something that a lot of, in the plumbing industry are talking about, but definitely in the heating industry, they must be talking about it. The whole gas industry, where is the future going with this? Because governments are starting to shut it down and they’re starting to transition away from gas. Like I couldn’t think of anything more stupid myself, but they’re going to go into just electricity. So where do you see the future for you guys? 

Simon
Well, it doesn’t matter how rose tinted my rose tinted glasses are.  There is an element of truth to this and it is going to happen whether we agree or not. I’d like to think that there’ll be some softening on the movement to that. Yeah. Um, you’ve just seen recently in Melbourne there have been big power cuts and people are cooking on gas stoves that they’re camping with in their kitchens. It’s not ready yet. If you go to the pub and you ask your mate if he’s going to get an electric car, he says not yet. I’ll get another couple of cars first. So it’s clearly a bit too soon for your average Joe to be jumping away from it. So our goal in the short term is to maximize what we can out of our gas and heating business. In Canberra, where they’ve now stopped or pretty much trying to stop gas altogether, there’s about a 30 to 50 year layoff period where it’ll be achieved over that kind of period. Um, there’s no real sounds about it in New South Wales yet, but yeah, it’ll come and it’ll be interesting, but we’ve got to pivot now. So we’ve launched an air conditioning business to try and get more of that, you know, understanding. So we’ve launched an air conditioning business, which is, we’ve cross trained our service techs in because they’re also going to be slightly concerned about this theory. So we want to give them a bit of confidence in their future. So we’ve paid to retrain them. Some of them are going for their licenses. Others are just doing cert twos. So, they’ve got confidence in us with them for the future. The air conditioning business, we’re running the same format as we do the heater man company in terms of service. You can come in and you can feel the units and have that tangible experience. We’ve also got electric fires coming through, bioethanol fires. Even though we’re in central Sydney where there’s a great gas network, we’re also making sure our guys are up to speed with LPG gasses. Yeah. Really common outside of Sydney, but in Sydney, we installed two this week.

Andy
Yeah, wow. 

Simon
People, they’re trying to get off the one appliance. 

Ange
Yeah, wow. 

Simon
It’s changing. So, just getting ahead of it, retraining the guys. Making the most of it whilst we’ve got it, um, I think is an important thing. 

Andy
But I think everyone listening just would understand how Simon Ali is so on the pulse. Like you’re adapting, you know, it’s coming, but it’s down the track and you’re adding these extra things into your business, which is absolutely amazing. I’m absolutely so happy for you guys. You’re absolutely killing it on that front. 

Ange
Well, it’s important for every trade business owner to not put your head in the sand, right? When you know these things are clearly changing in the industry, well, what are you going to do to ensure your business survives long term? And I love the fact that you’ve taken your team for the ride so that they understand what their future holds and the fact that you’re actually supporting them. So huge kudos to you. Ali and Simon, you guys have been members of Lifestyle Tradie for coming up to five years now, which is amazing. I’m actually really interested in what prompted you to actually join Lifestyle Tradie when you already had what seemed to be a really successful business.

Ali
It was the systemized  processes that hooked me into the Lifestyle Tradie membership. But really what’s kept us is the network and that shortcut to information. You know, it’s a little bit like there’s an app for that. There’s always a lifestyle tradie solution for that. If we ever need anything, it’s just a quick jump on the Facebook page or a quick jump into the modules. And the answer is always there. You don’t sort of have to, um, break new ground on your own. You’re not on your own. 

Andy
Yeah. And I think the big thing there, what you just said was you guys had a great business and there’s a lot of tradies out there that feel like they’ve got a good business and they do, and they feel like they know what the next steps are, but it’s interesting and obviously you guys are flying and great entrepreneurs, but there was a real part there. What you said was, you know what you need to do. Sometimes you’re not doing it, but it’s so much easier just to go in the portal. We’ve done all the training templates checklist, and it’s just fast tracking what you’re doing and making sure you’re on board. Plus we’ve got an incredible community that you can ask as well. 

Ange
Well, that’s a great question to ask Simon is, what have you found most beneficial being a part of the community? 

Simon
That’s a business owner having that support around. Like when you’re a small independent, you’re on your own, like, and I talked about getting an accountant or getting a bookkeeper and outsourcing and stuff, but it’s still just you. And if something goes wrong, it’s just you. If something goes wrong with money, it’s just you. You need an outlet and you need to be around people that have got that similar thing. You know, you’re the, you’re the person at the top. You can’t go to anybody else. The network and the community through Lifestyle Tradie gives you that network. I’ve got great friends now in the same industry who we willingly share information with. Who’s based in WA, like I would never have had that relationship with somebody in Sydney because I think I’m a competitor, but Lifestyle Tradie has lifted that competitive nature between everyone and allows the open format. We often share numbers, figures, ideas, somebody will test it and then everyone else gives it a go. So it’s really great. You’re not advancing the wheel, you’re not on your own and someone invariably has done it before. 

Andy
Yeah, and I think that’s a big one, what you said there, most business owners are living in isolation. They’re making one decision, 10 decisions, a thousand decisions a day, and they’re doing their very best with making that decision, but sometimes you just need to ask someone that’s been there and done that. And within our community, we’ve definitely got all the answers doesn’t matter what trade you are in. So what I want to do is ask you guys for both of you, Simon and Ali, one piece of advice to any tradies that are struggling out there. We know that, you know, the wheels are turning a little bit. It’s not as hot as what it used to be, but what is one bit of advice you’d give tradies that are struggling right now?

Simon
I think trying to work out what the trends are, there’s probably a bit of a deep answer to this quick one, but what does your business follow in terms of trends? Like our business, it follows the renovation market. It follows house buying, house selling. So it gives you a bit of an idea of what’s coming a little bit ahead of you. So trying to get a bit of that understanding of what’s going to be like in three to six months, if you can, really helps you now to focus ahead a little bit. Even if you’re an independent or if you’re a bigger company, that’s really important to have an idea of what’s coming. Building your database is basically the shortcut to that answer, Andy. Yeah. Um, if you’ve got a database, we’ve survived off that for the last three months. We’ve had very few calls coming in, but everything has been coming back on retention from our database. So focusing on what’s coming, but also building that database and holding that knowledge, making sure it’s correct. We’ll help you through the leaner times. 

Andy
And the interesting thing is, cause I know you rang me and said, Hey, we’re a little bit quiet. What do you think we should do? And we strategize about a path and how to go about it. And it worked extremely well, which is great, but there’s a lot of tradies sitting out there on an absolute gold mine, but they don’t even know how to use it. So that’s really crazy. But Ali is, have you got any advice? What’s the one thing you think you’d, um, recommend for any tradies out there that could be struggling at the moment?

Ali
I feel like we’ve just swapped roles, Simon. You’ve given the marketing answer. Um,  I’m going to give you the finance answer, get a bookkeeper. Have a good bookkeeper. You need someone to look at the cashflow for you. 

Andy
Yeah. And I think anyone that’s listened to us over the time, knowing your numbers is critical. A lot of people have a bookkeeper. A lot of people have an accountant, but they actually don’t get the right information. I would say that the 70, 80 percent of tradies out there right now that run their own business that doesn’t have the right bookkeeper, doesn’t have the bookkeeping set up the right way.  A lot of accountants are really just ticking boxes and they’re not really giving you the advice you need. You need to understand your numbers. You guys on these podcasts have heard me say it a million times. So that is absolutely great advice from both of you. 

Simon
I don’t think there’s any excuse for anybody not to get a good bookkeeper in. Yeah. And even as a couple, obviously we work together every day, like you’re, day to day business struggles. If Ali worked somewhere else, she would still come home and tell me about how tough her day was at work or how good it was. We do the same, but if you actually fold into that conversation, I have had a bad day and they haven’t paid their bills and this, it brings another level of stress. Yes. Um, even out of work and into work that you don’t necessarily need to have on the table all the time. So to outsource that specific part of your business, I can guarantee tradies, if you’re all guys out there, your wives don’t want to do it, they’re doing it to help you. You’ll have a much happier life if you get it out. 

Andy
So guys, we have a section where we’re going to ask some rapid fire questions. Are you ready? You’re going to have about 10 seconds to answer. 

Simon
Get in your corner, Ali. 

Andy
Yep.  I love it. Love it. 

Ange
Okay, here we go. Question one’s for you, Ali. What’s one strategy you use to start your day right?

Ali
Have a cup of tea. 

Andy
Wow, straight into the tea. That’s how you start. So I’m a coffee. What about you, Simon? 

Simon
Definitely a coffee. 

Andy
Yeah, straight into the coffee. So Simon, the second question is, what is something that’s made you smile recently? 

Simon
Oh, I  like it. 

Andy
You just did that  grunt and now he’s like, tone it down, tone it down.

Ange
This is pretty cool. 

Simon
Yeah, this totally brought a smile to my face. I tell you what, this is really bizarre. I’ve had a really bad customer experience. These last few weeks. 

Ange
And that made you smile? 

Simon
Yeah. Well, it made me smile inside about myself, if that makes sense. 

Andy
Yeah, definitely.

Simon
I put my car in for a service repair, got a smash damage, taking the guy seven months. And yesterday he was screaming at me about how tough his life was, how it’s taken so long because I know I feel sorry for the guy, of course, don’t get me wrong here, but he’s just got it wrong. He’s doing it all on his own. It’s taken my car, with a really small prank, seven months to get fixed. 

Andy
Wow. That’s ridiculous.

Simon
Yeah, it is ridiculous, right? 30 cars. It’s brand new, I was so gutted. Like I’ve had,  I’ve had the rental car longer than I had my own car.  But, it was a small internal smile, not against him in any way at all. It made me realise that we’ve got something right. I don’t ever feel like this guy fell.

Ange
Because he’s verbalized all this negativity to you, no doubt he would actually feel terrible. It’s like, stop verbalizing any of that stuff. So let’s move on to question number three, which is actually for both of you. What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?  Ali? 

Ali
Do you want a work one or a non-work one?

Andy
No, best piece of advice, just in general. 

Ali
At my wedding, my dad, um, gave us Simon advice.

Andy
Yeah! Oh! Lo! 

Ali
No, it was too late for that. We already had two kids. 

Andy
That made you smile. 

Simon
Yeah, it made me smile. 

Ali
Uh, the advice was, To, uh, take the spoons out of the sink before you put the water on. And I think that’s excellent.

Andy
Wow. That’s plumbing related. 

Ange
Is that so we don’t have a flood? 

Andy
So it doesn’t splash everywhere.  

Ange
Let’s see a plumber. Is that why I gave you that advice?  

Andy
What about you, Simon? 

Simon
Um, my dad, uh, so I’m a third generation plumber and I really hated this when I was younger and I was an apprentice with my dad. And that was don’t put off till tomorrow what you can do today.

Andy
A hundred percent. 

Simon
Um, that, as I was saying earlier, feeds back into our first step of customer service. They’re there now. Let’s just deal with it right now. 

Andy
Yes. Yeah. Agreed. I love that. I love that. Listen, guys, it’s been a hell of a lot of fun. We really thank you for coming here today on The Tradie Show. You guys are an absolute wealth of information. I know you’re crushing it out there and doing some incredible stuff that you’ve done over the years. So congratulations. 

Ange
Even more so. We love having you part of the Lifestyle Tradie community because you share your journey. You’re really open about what’s  going on? Hence the reason why you’re here. So thanks so much for sharing. We wish you continued success in your business and truthfully can’t wait to hang out even more in our next member event. It’s going to be so fun. 

Andy
Oh, not that far away. Yeah, close. 

Simon
Thanks guys. It’s been an absolute privilege to be here today and part of this. I said long term listener, so really excited to be looking at my podcast out there along with you guys. Are you doing it with me or am I doing it with you? 

Ange
Amazing.  If you loved hearing Simon and Ali’s story and want to know more about how Lifestyle Tradie can help you create more time, scale your profit and get your life back, then come and meet us at Lifestyle Tradie on tour. So many of our members have success stories just like Simon and Ali, and we would love to kickstart that journey for you. To reserve your free ticket right now, head to lifestyletradie.com.au and we look forward to seeing you in the room.

Member’s Testimony
Don’t wait. These guys are very honest and open. They share so much information personally as well as business. It’s a holistic approach to life, not just how to run your plumbing business. 

Lifestyle Tradie has a huge sense of community. Just a great group of people just helping everyone out and they help you out, just hanging out after the events is always fun as well. Some great speakers come along and definitely always, always learning stuff from every event we go to. There’s been so many times where I’ve learned on the community’s advice, where we’ve had certain issues that we’ve been able to bring up in our, you know, Facebook  group. You get plenty of answers that you can actually action.

Don’t hesitate. Every year that you put it off, there’s just an extra year that you’re losing if you need help. Get it. 

Andy
Subscribe to The Tradie  Show. wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Rate and write us a review, or for more information about Lifestyle Tradie, head to lifestyletradie.com.au.