Episode #6: From Logistics To Test & Tag Franchise Partner (with Liam Humphrys)

All right, beautiful. Well, Liam, thanks so much for joining us, mate. Much appreciated. I appreciate you coming in and spending some time with us. Now, you're obviously a test and tag franchise partner here in South Australia. You've joined us only recently, so I thought maybe we'd learn a little bit about yourself. Maybe we can learn what you're doing before the local guys and get to know your story a little bit. So do you mind just telling us a little bit of your background?

Yeah. So before I came into the test and tag side of things, I was in the hire industry.

Okay.

I'd done that for about 10 years before that.

So what sort of hire stuff was it?

Construction and originally. So I started in Ingleburn in Sydney in 2014, I think.

Okay.

2013 might have been.

Yep.

And I was doing pumps and shoring higher for coats.

Hire. Yep. So what sort of job role did you have there?

I was a sales coordinator.

Yep, sure.

So basically just sort of an admin staff that takes the orders from the customers and writes up all the contracts and everything like that.

Yep. What was that like as a gig?

Yeah, it was really good. I really enjoyed it. Did that for a few years. Then I got promoted to regional sales coordinator. So I was basically. It was my role that if there was a shortage somewhere, I'd basically go there and replace them through the specialist branches of Sydney, which we had nine.

Yep.

From that, I then went to the traffic branch. I was in the traffic branch for a couple of years as well and went as their transport coordinator. So I was running their transport, organizing all their events, dealing with the Sydney Light Rail, which was a huge project at that time. Massive hours. You know, there was night shifts, weekend works. We did all the events, like the City to Surf.

Wow.

Blackmores marathon, everything like that. So early morning, Sunday, set up everything.

So whenever you see these big events or whatever, and they've got the big spotlights or they've got all that sort of stuff, there's a lot of work.

That goes into it.

Yeah. That's these guys that were. Yeah, they're doing it. Right.

So we set all that up. All your crowd control barriers, all the water barriers, everything like that.

Yeah.

And then from there, I moved down to Adelaide. Yep. With Coates Hire as well. I was a sales coordinator there.

Yep.

Kind of a sales coordinator. I was sort of assistant manager, but they didn't have a job for assistant manager. So I was just earning a bit more money to be a sales coordinator. And then Covid hit, unfortunately. And because I was the Last one down. I was one of the first ones off.

Yeah. What prompted the move to Adelaide?

My partner. Okay. So I used to stream on Twitch.

Yeah.

And we met each other on Twitch, got along and then I came down to Adelaide to see how stuff that Twitch, isn't it?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So I used to stream Fortnite.

I know I've met someone once before and they used to do that and they'd actually make quite a bit of money from. Yeah.

There was a period there where I was not world beating money or anything, but I was making probably about 200, 300 bucks a week.

Wow.

Which was good for, you know, something in your video games. Yeah, it was really good until I started dating the person I was playing the video games with and there wasn't as much time to play the video games anymore. Wow.

Forget about. What's the. What's the dating app?

Tinder.

Tinder. Forget about Tinder. Let's go on to Switch.

I don't even know if that's the one anymore. So then I moved down to Adelaide. Still with coats.

Yeah.

Got made redundant through Covid.

Yep.

And then.

So how was that? Like that Kind of hard.

Yeah. I'd been there for, I think, yeah, seven years or something at that point.

Yeah.

I'd put a lot of life and effort into the traffic branch, you know, doing these weekends and night work and.

Well, especially if they're doing events and all this sort of stuff. And they would have been one of the most impacted.

It was weeks. I was working 90 hours a week, 100 hours a week when I was in Sydney.

Wow.

Making good money.

Sure.

But just no life. And to find out, you know, that that sort of meant nothing after seven years was kind of a kick in the teeth. Like I wasn't upset that I was leaving. I was upset at the way I was leaving, that it wasn't my decision. And I felt, I guess, worthless from that in terms of a company value. You know what I mean?

Sure.

But I was very fortunate. I had a call from a man called Matt Ball. He hired me at Coates all those years ago.

Yeah.

And he was now the national manager at a company called Shorehire.

Okay.

Who's one of our clients?

Yep.

Funnily enough, one of your clients. No, one of Daniels. I went there to see them and they wanted Daniels. I did talk them off getting their last test and tag company removed, though, so it might have been my doing.

He owes you a bit of a lease.

Yeah, exactly.

Right.

So from there I got that call and he said we're opening a branch in Adelaide.

Yep.

Probably be. I think this was May I got made redundant, or probably October, November, something like that. Sure. And I said, that's great. I've just got a pretty decent redundancy payout and I had a bit of money put aside anyway, and I thought, I'll take six months off, just relax and reset and rewind. And then. Yeah. Started with Shorehire as their sales and operations manager.

Yep.

I was with them for about a year, I think, and then I got a call from a company called 130010 Fence.

Who?

One of the guys I worked with at Coats. It's incestuous, the hire industry, but one of the guys I worked with at Coats all those years ago that I trained at Coates, he was now the state manager for Sydney.

Okay.

So he basically called their general manager and said, this guy's in Adelaide, I need you to put him on. So I got a call from them. They offered me a bit more money and their operations manager role. So I said, yep, perfect, I'll take that. That's sort of the next step that I'm looking for.

Yeah.

Did that for probably about close to a year. And I just got to a point where it just felt like Groundhog Day.

Yeah.

Every day was the same. Every problem was the same. I dealt with them a million times.

Yeah.

It just didn't feel like I was achieving anything anymore.

It's so funny you should say that. We just had the podcast with Damien, who's our divisional for cleaning and also looks after the test and tag guys in Queensland and northern New South Wales, and he came from the brokerage industry and he was telling a very similar story to yourself and getting frustrated in the. In the finance industry that he was in. And then he decided to go to a different company and he said it was just the same job in a different uniform.

That's it. Yeah. The grass isn't always greener, as they say.

Yeah, but.

And before that, I was with Qantas for a couple of years on the ramp doing their loading. And I think I was with Woolworths for a couple of years before that driving a forklift.

And.

Yeah, a bit like yourself. I had a million different jobs, but, yeah. Before I went into the hire industry. Yeah, but, yeah, so.

So it sounds like you found an industry that you liked at least. Like.

Yeah, I enjoyed more the problem solving.

Yep.

Of it than I enjoyed the actual industry itself, I feel.

Yeah.

I enjoyed what I could bring to the table and I excelled quite early in that space. So I think get that positive feedback. Yeah. Correct. And I was very lucky. I had some really good managers early on in Sydney. Bloke called Mark Munro, he was my first manager. He was phenomenal. Really mentored me to take the next step. And then John Lewis was a guy in Sydney who ran the traffic branch. He was very old school. He'd been there for 30 years, I think he was the manager.

Yep.

But really good at teaching you leadership values.

Okay.

Guys that had been there for 30 years and would take a bullet for him.

Yeah.

Because he was just that good of a leader.

Yeah.

You know what I mean? So, yeah, I was very lucky. Learned a lot from them about business and then. Yeah. Took that down here and took the next step through my career and. But I think I'd always just had that little itch that I want to do something for myself and so tell me about that.

So you're. You're over here in Adelaide and you're. You're working in that industry where. How did you transition or what planted in your mind where you decided that, you know, I mean, how did we get from there to kind of here?

So I think the first sort of inkling of that. I think I've wanted to own my own business for a long time.

Okay. And what was the drivers behind that?

The drive behind that is more just. I'm a very. I like being in control of me. Yeah. You know, I'm not the easiest person to manage. I can, you know, safely say that, yeah, I want to do things my way and.

Yeah.

So I think that was a big driver towards it mainly early on.

Sure.

But then.

So some frustrations maybe.

Yeah, a lot of frustration. A lot of beating your head up against a wall and seeing a better way to do things, but not being listened to.

I think a lot of people share that.

Yeah.

Type of thing, don't they?

I think in almost any role. Like I was talking to my partner about it today and she's. She works for BUPA on the phones and just ways she could see to do things better. But her feedback doesn't get listened to.

Yeah.

And like I sort of said her. It's a detriment to the company at the end of the day, not to yourself. But. Yeah, I think. Yeah, a lot of people get in that boat of they don't feel listened to, they don't feel valued, and they're the ones doing the job every single day. So if anyone has the best, most.

Valuable feedback, they're on the front line.

Exactly.

Right.

When I ran trucks My truck drivers were my most valuable assets.

Yeah.

Because they could tell me exactly how the job was done and it would make my job easier if I listened to them. You know what I mean?

Absolutely.

But yeah, so I think I had that idea quite early on.

Yeah. Was there a pain point? Because I find quite often when people, you know, you're. You're in a job and you're earning X amount and you've got your bills paid for and all the rest of it generally, like, there tends to be a pain point that comes out at some point where you just go, enough's enough, like, I'm going out. Did you have anything like that? Was it more of a slower build?

It was definitely a slow build for me, but I did definitely have that moment.

Yeah.

But that was a bit later down the track. It was more sort of. I went to. It was. Shorehire was a big part of it because Shore Hire, myself and Adam Brown got that business off the ground. We were the only two there at the start. So it was. We went from zero revenue, zero anything to build that business. And I sort of. That I think got the bug in my head of, hey, I can do this.

Yeah.

If I can start a business for you. Yeah, I can start a business for me. Right.

Yeah.

So that sort of got the buggy.

I think that's the thing. Right. Like when you are in a business and things are ticking over, it's just like, you don't see that early stage of it. You just think it's impossible to kind of do this. Like this is this big thing. But if you're involved on the early. From the early days.

Yeah.

Then you just go, this is. Doesn't look that hard.

It's work.

Yeah.

If you're willing to put in the work.

Yeah.

You'll get there.

Right.

Like. And I realized that then. And test and tag was when that came in, we had. I won't mention who they are, but they were the most horrible test and tag company I've ever dealt with in my life.

Okay.

I remember getting a phone call saying, you know, you haven't paid your invoice. Yeah. I said, yeah, it was a week ago. We're on. You guys are on 30 day payment terms.

Yeah.

And massive argument, calling me every name under the sun. And I'm like, hang on a minute, I'm your customer. Like, this is pretty bad. And then I saw the invoice and I've gone, you know, that's not too bad money for being here for, you know, five hours, six hours. If you've got that horrible customer service and you got two blokes working for you and you got. They were older people, they didn't even get on the tools at work. So you've got two guys that work for you, your horrible customer service, you're still obviously making enough money. There might be a bit of money in this, and it doesn't seem too bad of a gig.

Right.

So that was when the idea sort of first came in. But I thought, the safety net, I'll go with 1, 300. They were offering me a fair chunk of money, company vehicle and all that sort of stuff. We're coming into, you know, tough financial times in Australia. So I thought, I'll make the. The smart decision and I'll go and do that. And I just hated it every day.

Yeah.

I tried so hard to come in with a smile and do my job and build the positivity around the place and the culture.

Yeah.

But inside me, I was sort of dying a little bit. And then around February, January, I just came in one day and I said to my manager, I said, look, I think I'm gonna resign. Yeah. I don't think I can do this anymore.

Yeah.

And he said, all right, no worries. Would you mind giving me a decision by the end of the day, if that's okay, so I can start moving things if we need to, whatever. I said, yeah, no worries. I'll give you plenty of notice and things. And I think, yeah, by the end of that day, I'm like, I can't. Yeah, I can't do it.

Yeah. Something clicked. Yeah.

And he said, what are you going to do? And I said, I'm either gonna buy a truck.

Yeah.

I'm gonna go into test and tag.

Yeah.

They're my two options. I said, for now, I'm gonna go and labor.

Yep.

I'm just gonna sign up with a labor company. I want to appreciate hard jobs, so when I'm not doing such hard job, I can have a bit of humility and actually realize, hey, this isn't that tough. I could be digging dirt in 40 degree sun. You know what I mean?

Yeah. Yeah.

So I did that for a couple of months, and during that time, I'd done a lot of research, which I think was probably apparent from our discovery call, and you guys had really stood out. I'd looked at a lot of different test and tag companies. I thought about starting it myself, but I know enough about business. But there's also a lot I didn't know at that point. And I'm self aware enough to know that there's a lot of back end stuff that I probably still don't know and I still need to learn, so. And you know, starting a business yourself is quite daunting without any support. I'm a very, you know, individual person.

Yeah.

But I'm also. I played football all my life. I'm a very team orientated person as well. So I like a bit of both. I like my own space, but I like being part of a team.

Yeah.

Which is where franchising seemed like a really good idea. Yeah. So I think I was looking up something about how to start a test and tag business.

Yeah.

And there was an article on the local guy's website that was about, you know, hey, if you want to do it with us, we'd love you to and everything like that, but if you don't, here's some helpful tips for you. And it was really good. It was really well written and it was really constructive. And I thought this isn't just, you know, someone putting up something to seem nice. You've actually thought about this and like, yeah, there's plenty of other tips and tricks that you could learn by actually coming on board. But this is a pretty good template for. For free, for nothing, you know.

Can I tell you something? Story about that thing. I was sitting at Woolworths in the car park on my phone typing that up while I'm waiting for Stacy to. To do the shopping. I remember we had the. The dog in the back and we just. Sorry, I'm deviating, but we just taken him for a play and he was panting like crazy and it was a warmer day, but he was in the boot with the air conditioning and the windows cracked and all the rest of it. And I remember having some people come and knock on the door and they were like, sure, dog, okay back there. And they. I was like, yeah, yeah, it was fine. But I think they might have said, oh, what breed is your dog? And I heard her walk off to the husband and go, oh no, it's all right, he's got the air conditioner on. But yeah, I was sitting there on my phone bored. She was obviously doing whatever it. Willie's taking forever. And I'm typing this thing up and yeah, then I put it up and I didn't even think of it. So it's quite funny that here we are now. And I had no idea about. But that was the. That was that you read from there. So.

So that sort of got you guys on my radar, I guess I could Say.

Yeah.

And then I was looking through, you know, gyms, and I think Pulse was another one. And there was a few different companies that I was looking at. But everything I'd look at, I'd keep coming back to the local guys.

Okay.

I'd be like, oh, are there any YouTube videos of anyone doing anything? You guys. Heap of videos.

Okay.

And not just videos about the business and what it entails, but there were good videos of yourself and Stacy as well.

Yeah.

Which sort of gave an insight to what kind of people you were. For me, it was a big value thing. Right. I'd much rather start with a growing company and grow with them that have good values than start with a big company where I'm going to make more money.

Yeah.

That was my biggest thing was values.

Yeah.

And I saw a lot of, you know, family orientated values in yourself and Stacy and just something that I thought I'd align with. Yeah. And so I thought, all right, I've. I've made my decision on where I'm going.

Okay.

I've made my decision on what company I'm going with.

Yeah.

But when? Now. Right. When do I do it? When's the right moment? And I'm working at a job at Udunda Hospital.

Okay.

And I see this local guy's ute just rolling. And I'm like, literally last night I was watching YouTube videos about you guys.

It's fake.

I've got to go talk to this bloke. Right. So I run down and I stop what I was doing. Run down. And I'm like, oh, are you an employee or are you the franchisee?

Yeah.

And he's like, I'm the franchisee.

Yeah.

Nice to meet. It was Daniel. Yeah. And I had a bit of a chat to Daniel about, you know, how he was finding it, if he would recommend it to people. What yourself and Stacy were like.

Yeah.

You know what? The whole company was it, you know, just a facade.

Yeah.

And, you know, he answered all the questions that I asked him.

Yeah.

To, you know, very. I was very happy with the answers he gave.

Yeah.

And I remember I messaged my partner at that time and I said, I don't care what I've got to do. I'm doing this. And that was, I guess, my pain moment in a way.

Sure.

Where I said, yeah, I don't care what it takes. I don't care what I have to do.

Yeah.

This is what I want to do and this is what I'm doing.

Yeah.

And. Yeah. So that's long winded.

Wow. There you go. That's cool. I didn't know that story. So, I mean, tell me. Okay, cool. So we've made the decision now to. To join, which is fantastic. How did you find the experience from there on out? Like, maybe do you want to talk to me about how the onboarding experience was and then I'll. I'll talk to you afterwards about, like. I'd love to. I'm sure a lot of people would love to hear because you've been on now up and running for how long now? I.

Just shy of two months.

Yep, sure. Okay, cool. So you're in an interesting position where it's all fresh in your mind still. You're still going through the J curve as we talk about the J curve. And you're in that first year of business deal, so you're in. I always talk about the different phases or different spectrums. We are as a. As a franchise partner and you're in that early stage. So let's, let's talk about that in a second. But why don't you tell me about the onboarding experience and all that stuff.

So after I'd sent that message, I jumped straight on the local guys website. Yeah. And I left an inquiry form saying I was interested in a franchise and everything like that.

Yeah.

Who did you talk to about Georgia?

Georgia. Okay, sure.

Yeah. Georgia got back to me within probably half an hour. Okay. It was very quick.

Yeah.

Might not have even been that long.

Okay.

And said, oh, can we book you in for a discovery call with Jared? Yeah, I said, yep, that'd be fantastic. And then I think it was not long after, maybe a week later, if that. I think maybe a couple of days. You gave me a ring.

Yeah.

We sorted out a time and a date and you gave me a ring and went through all the. The things for the business and that was sort of what I wanted to hear. It ticked all my boxes and everything like that. Made perfect sense.

Yeah.

And then we organized, you know, all the back end stuff from there, everything we needed to get organized. Sign writing for the vehicle.

Yeah.

And all that sort of jazz.

Yeah.

And then Elle was working here then and she booked me in for the training and was in con. I don't know who. Whether she was harassing me more or I was harassing her more. So I'm pretty bad for being proactive.

As well, which is good. We like that. There's nothing harder than, you know, it's me pushing Elle and El's pushing the franchise candidate, and all of a sudden it's Just, it's great when it goes both ways.

Poor Ellen, constantly sending her emails. Do you need anything else?

Here's this. It would have secretly made it very happy. Trust me. Trust me.

So, yeah, so that was really good. And no trouble ever getting hold of her. She was very easy to contact and fantastic to deal with. I've had nothing but good things to say about Ellen.

Yep. So then we had the. The two weeks of training. So for those that don't know, you've got one week online, which I believe you actually did in.

We were the first to have the both.

Yeah.

Which is a fantastic experience. Yeah.

Yeah.

With Shannon in here. That was really, really good. And Phil.

Yeah.

As well.

So, yeah, we spoke with Phil a couple of days ago. So we've got his. His podcast that's going to be coming out soon as well, which is. Yeah, we had Phil and both El in one together. He's doing very well, he's very happy. So. No, it's good.

I was meaning to send him a message last week. I've been messaging him every now and then, checking on him.

He said. He said you're a legend in there. Which is. Which is great. So, yeah. So we got you guys on board, all trained up and all the rest of it. How was it? Tell me about your first day. Your first week. When you're out in the big bad world by your. By yourself. You're not by yourself, but you are by yourself in regards to. You've got the keys.

So I think the first day I was sort of not really knowing what to expect. I was very lucky in the fact that I'd already had a national job booked in.

Yep.

By that point. So I thought, I've already got a job booked in. I'm happy with that. I got it booked in, I think, on the third day. So I think I started on the Monday, booked in for the Wednesday, but the Monday and Tuesday, I'll just spend the day just driving around and checking out my area and doing a few sales calls and things like that.

Yep.

And I think I got three or four leads in my first day. And I was like, here we go, off to the races. I think I booked like three jobs in for the next day. Didn't care where they were, how much they cost, how much they were worth. Could have been in Sydney for 100 bucks. I was going. So got those, went out and did them on. On the Tuesday. And that was really cool. I was very lucky with, you know, the trainers I had, especially Pete. Pete was phenomenal.

Yeah.

Definitely felt confident, you know, testing and tagging and everything like that. So yeah, that was really exciting.

He's up there. Number one.

Number one.

Yeah. He likes that nickname.

He should be number one too. He's been very helpful. Yeah. Very good guy.

Yeah. Yeah.

But yeah, so that was really exciting and I think my partner actually had an annual leave day on the first day I went out to do jobs. So she ended up just tagging along with me because I think it was like four small jobs or something like that. So she just tagged along in the car and waited for me and then come back out and just go for a little drive because it was a bit of a run that I'd set for myself.

It's funny, Shannon had an annual leave day on Friday and she was out with Phil doing a job. I said ahaha, welcome to business world. There are no annual leave days.

She really enjoyed. It was her idea. She wanted to come. Oh good. Well she. The long term plan is she'll come on with the business as well. Yeah, perfect. Was good for her to sort of see.

See it firsthand.

Yeah. What it's all about everything like that. So now that was really exciting and I think I've never been as excited to do paperwork as when I got home that first day and doing your first invoice. Yeah, you know, it's very exciting, very rewarding. Yeah, no, it's really good.

So tell me like now we're in the, the first year of business and now this is, this is the part where it's probably one of the most important times in any new business. But for us, for our new franchise partners, this is where we're very much watching them like a hawk. We've got our scorecards now which are very helpful. We're keeping an eye deer on things, on number of leads, leads by marketing source, what your average transaction value is, what your conversion rate's like and we're seeing all this data and we've only got a small bit of data to compare on right now which is I was only looking at your school card before and. But it's a really important time because any. I call it the Valley of Death and basically it's very, very great name, isn't it? It's very exciting to be. But we've got got a thing that we talk about in the local guys called the J Curve. You could look it up anywhere and I know it's part of the training and all the rest of it and it's like anytime you start any new business or Any event, new. Basically, it kind of goes like this and it gets harder and all your resources are going out and money's going out and all the rest of it, and it feels like you're not getting anywhere. And all of a sudden it starts to dip and it goes up like this. And we've got franchise partners that are on all parts of the spectrum. And it's funny, like, you know, you'd see Pete right now and, you know, very happy, friendly, nice guy. But I've seen him on all aspects of the. You know, he's on this part of the J curve now and he's flying that and everyone's somewhere along there. So you're in the valley of death currently, which is. It's good. It's good to know that you're in the valley of death. And, you know, we've got. Because then you can put things in place for it. And that's why, I think having really strong. Having really strong habits and. And being hard on yourself, on things that you're uncomfortable with and things like that, because once you get into year two, it's a different ball game. And we talk about this in the training. You know, you start to get your repeat work, you're getting referrals, your net brand names out there. You know what you're doing, you're a lot faster. You know how to price. You know, there's a. At the beginning, you've got the support and you've got everything, but you still very much got the training wheels on with spirit, and you're setting up those habits and those habits that are either good habits or the bad habits. I know you're very strong on this. I've been very impressed with the way that, you know, we've had conversations around the strong habits you've put into place to ensure that you're successful getting through the valley of death. Why don't you tell me some of these things that you've put into place for yourself to ensure that you've got good habits built into your business?

Yes. I think the first thing just on that. I think being aware of that is.

The key thing, half the battle, isn't it?

And I think Shore High was huge for me with that because I kind of. Not that I experienced it, but I experienced how the business went.

Yeah.

I wasn't as stressed about it because it wasn't my money at the end of the day, but I experienced that. That's how things go.

Yeah.

So I learned that you've got to put the work in here. So you can get to here. And I think being aware of that is a big help.

Yeah.

It also doesn't stop it from still being in the back of your mind every day. Being aware of that. You're still stressed out about it, right?

Yeah.

And you could ask my family how many times I've said to them, I can't wait till 12 months.

Yeah.

Because then the repeat work will start coming in and then it'll just get a nice on flow effects. Exactly what you've said.

Yeah.

But I think the biggest things for me have been one just setting a work day. So the hardest part, I think, about owning your own business or being self employed. Employed is you don't have anyone. What it's the best thing, but the worst thing is you don't have anyone watching you anymore. You don't have anyone telling you you have to be here by this time or you have to be here until this time. Yeah. So it's being honest with yourself and making sure, you know, for me that it doesn't matter what time it is. But say you set, you know, from 9 till 5 or from 9 till 3, I'm going to work tomorrow. You get up, you set your alarm still as if you're going to work and that boss is waiting for you. You start at nine, you get on the road or you start making your calls or whatever you've planned to do that day. Some days it might be out on the road seeing different customers, handing out business cards, getting some business cards, trying to get some quotes across that way. Other days it might be making sales calls all day and just locking yourself in the dungeon and going nuts.

Red Bull marketing.

I think networking with some of the other franchise partners has been really helpful as well. Obviously training you get to meet a few of them that way.

Yeah.

I was lucky, I guess, that I already had somewhat of a relationship with Daniel y y beforehand.

Yeah.

So I went out with him for an extra day, which was really, really handy.

Yeah.

You know, Daniel has been here for long enough that he knows what he's doing.

Well, Daniel's an interesting one as well because, you know, he's right on this end of the spectrum as well. And now he's gone and taken another dip down again because now he's on boarded. He's his lovely partner, Tamara. So then all of a sudden. Oh, all of a sudden my costs or my fixed costs within the business have just jumped up astronomical because now I'm not paying for one person, I'm paying for two people. The business has to pay for two people. So then all of a sudden, yeah, I've got way more time now because there's two of us. But now we've got to cover double the amount of costs because you had a wage coming in from a different place and all the rest of it. So then you kind of go like, you start with a dip and then you go up and you go do another diff and you go back up again. But once they get to the other side of it, they can go even higher again.

And it's taking those steps. Right. Like, I'll refer back to shore hire quickly. And when I was there, you know, say our budget was $20,000 a month.

Yeah.

Right. Then we'd put on another staff member, would go up to $40,000 a month.

Yeah.

We're only making 30. But because we've got that extra staff member over the next three months, we get it up to 50. But, oh, now, now we've got too much work.

Yeah.

That three of us can't do it anymore. So another staff member, but now the budget's 80.

Yeah.

But then you slowly build again and just that stepping stone. Yeah, 100 exactly.

Right. And I think that's the thing that, like I talk about, and we talk about a lot in training is right now where you're at, you have no. Like, when you get to year two and onwards, especially year three and onwards, and stuff like that, you don't really have. Like, what we find from a lot of the guys is they don't have time for marketing, to be frank. They're too busy. They're too busy with their clients. They're flat out, they can't keep up and all the rest of it. But in that year one, you'll never have as much time in your day as you will in year one, especially right now at the beginning. So. And you also probably never have as much motivation as you have right now. So it's really important that we push yourself and set up those strong habits in doing your local area marketing and do all those sorts of things in the, you know, in those early days, because they're going to be the habits that follow you through all the way. And either way, you'll be setting up habits. It'll just either be positive ones or negative ones. And it might be that you wake up at 11 and play PlayStation for an hour and do whatever. And I go, still got a habit. It's just a negative one. Correct. Or it could be, you know, I get this done, this done, this done, this done. This done, and then I can go do whatever I want for the rest of the day. But I know I've ticked all my stuff out for the day, and I think if you do that, you can really set yourself up for success and then the good stuff tends to follow out the back end of that. You know what I mean?

You can always give yourself a little reward system. Like, you know, if I want to go, because I might go to the gym, but I don't want to go to the gym at 5, 6 o' clock if I can help it. So, you know, I'll sit down. All right, well, if I can get 10 quotes out.

Yeah.

Then I can go to the gym. Yeah. You know, or something like that. Or, you know, play an hour of PlayStation, you know what I mean?

Yeah.

And that way it's sort of. You're keeping yourself accountable that way as well, which I think is huge. And El's also been sort of keeping us accountable every week or so, just following up and seeing how we're doing. So that's been really helpful as well.

Yeah. So, yeah, yeah, no, that's great. And we can see like, you're already. We were talking about some numbers earlier and, you know, you're already building up that pipeline. We've got some. A good amount of clients that are sitting there. They're going to be ready for you next year. Obviously some of them are 6 monthly. I'm sure, like some of them are 12 monthly, but you're already starting to build up that. That pipeline. I guess that's the good thing about.

First three monthly coming up next week or the week after.

Okay, yeah, yeah.

Very excited for that. The first repeat.

Wow, that's great. And that's a whole nother thing in itself, isn't it? Like contacting people for repeat clients. Like, I know during one of our franchise partner meetings just recently, we'd had quite a few clients that had called us and sort of said, I'm due to be rebooked in again. And I remember jumping on the call and sort of saying to everyone, look, if you're not contacting your people for your repeats, you don't deserve to be in business. I hate to be that frank, but it's true. You've literally paid for the lead fee you paid for this client. You've onboarded them and then all the hard work's done. You know, like, they're committed to you. They're your client.

You know this better than anyone. How many businesses have you started? Yeah, the hardest part is getting the Business. Once you've got that business, if you throw that away, you're a fool.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. So then now it's that easy part. Just keep building upon that every year. And then before you know it, two, third year, it's like you're trying to fight off customers because you've just got so many.

Well, I found that there's, you know, there's no reason before you leave, it's 12 monthly, it's 6 monthly. It's going to be routine.

Yeah.

I'll say before I leave.

Yeah.

You know, just so you know, I've got you booked in already for next year. I'll give you a call about two weeks before the start of the month just to find a perfect day for you. But I've already got you booked in for that month. Yeah. Yep, perfect. No worries. It's done.

Yeah. Yeah. Clients for test and tag for clients, it's a box they have to tick. It's compliance that needs to be done. And if they know that Liam's taking care of it or the local guys are taking care of it, that's one less thing I need to think about. I know in 12 months time, Liam's gonna call me up and he's like clockwork, he'll call me up and let me know. And the funniest thing is our systems notify you.

Yeah. Tells you you can see that. Enough to leave in the system.

Yeah.

100%.

Yeah.

You're a fool not to.

And definitely.

Yeah. It baffles me. I think I told you a story with my lawn. I used to pay to get my lawn done.

Yeah.

And out of four or five different companies.

Yeah.

Not one person bothered to call me. And I wasn't happy with any of their work, but if one of them had to have bothered to call me and just say, hey, because you want me to book it, I would have gone.

Yep.

No dramas because then it's done. Because it's just no headache.

Yeah. Yeah.

So the least headache you can give them. But most people are so busy, they don't want to worry about the testing and tagging or the fire extinguishers or whatever it may be. They just want it to be taken care of with no stress.

Yeah.

If you can do that for them, you're providing with a great service. Yeah.

100 now. That's great, mate. I'm really excited to see the business grow. I think that you've got all the tools and it's just about coming in and working that system now and just punching it out. It can be an emotional roller coaster, especially for where you're at in the business right now, as you know. But I think that you've got all the tools there. So now it's just a matter of just letting those months go get on by. And as you say, before you know it, you're in year two. You're moving on to this other end of the spectrum and. And it's like it's heading in a great direction, but that's what I dream about at night.

That's my light at the end of the tunnel.

Year two repeats. Well, it's happening and you're doing a great job. And we've been getting some great feedback already coming through for reviews and stuff like that, so well done, mate. And thank you so much for coming in today.

No, thank you. Talk about the tools. It's all the tools you guys provide that help with that. That's the whole reason I'm here. So thank you. I appreciate it. Beautiful.

Thank you.