This is a transcript of a YouTube interview with Nash, a franchise partner for Local Guys Test & Tag in South Australia. Nash describes running a four-person, family-involved operation (himself, William, Kelly, Sue), starting the business just after COVID (around 2021) with support from the franchisor, and emphasizes client retention, daily sales activity (10–15 calls when possible), and local in-person marketing. On-site details: they tested about 200 items at a JMC site (a job taking a few hours) and report being able to test ~300 items in about four hours on familiar sites. Nash recalls a slow first six months, then rapid growth, and says they plan to double work in the next 12 months.
Questions this video answers
Four (Nash, William, Kelly, Sue).
Just after COVID, in 2021.
Three years (in their third year).
Approximately 200 items.
About four hours (initially took a whole day; now ~4 hours).
Chapters
That's a big number to be honest.
Very big number.
Decent. Yeah. Decent, yeah.
You're being humble. It's quite big.
Four person operation. Regarding sales, we never stop. But the first six months is a bit rough. But we never gave up. The simple secret is treat your client good and the client will stay with you. A lot of repeat work. That's the beauty of this industry. Once you win the client and if you maintain the client, the client is forever for us. Hi, this is Nash from the local guys test and tag from South Australia. We are here at JMC doing the electrical testing and tagging and RCD testing. We're testing closely on approximately 200 items. It made a couple of hours to finish this job but we, we started quite early to do the finished R series because it got a big distribution board. So it may take a couple of hours to finish the R series. So roughly four hours say Y.
So how long have you had this client for?
3 years, his third year. So I think it's fine. Yeah, a lot of repeat work. A lot of repeat work. That's the beauty of this industry. Once you win the client and if you maintain the client, the client is forever for us. Got very good support from the support center because we started the business during just after the COVID like in 2021. So it's really hard for us to get a lot of clients. Support center helped us a lot. We have more clients and we try to maintain those clients over the years. And the simple secret is treat your client good and the client will stay with you.
So you're alone today but you're actually part of a pretty big team.
Yes.
Can you explain the structure?
Today I'm just alone by myself. But we got a big team of four people. Myself, William, Kelly and Sue myself. I'll be doing most of the technical side of things and William will be doing technical as well as the marketing and the sales stuff. Kelly and sue are more into the sales and the admin side of stuff like scheduling. So that way the entire process was quite easy. So while I'm doing these jobs I don't need to focus on sales like do I need to call them or if I get any lead like Kelly or Sue will pick them and they'll try to give them a call. So I'm more focused on doing the job properly and they're more focused on getting the clients. We never say no to any customer. We'll try to figure out what timelines and all that stuff.
So it's a well oiled machine. You got going on here and you guys are clearing quite a bit per month. Do you mind saying how much?
On top of my head, I don't have the exact figures, but that's quite good. That's a big number, to be honest.
Very big number.
Decent. Yeah. Decent, yeah.
You're being humble. It's quite big. So it's a four person operation then?
Four person operation. Wow. And regarding sales, we never stop. So no matter how busy we are, we try to make 10 to 15 calls every day to make sure we sell different, different clients.
So you're always getting new clients every day.
I mean not every day. So I can say like out of 10 calls, like six or seven they'll come back. But they're not readily due now. So I mean like the schedule, like for the next round of decent tag. But sales will never stop. Sales and marketing, we never stop. So if I have some time, so for example, if I finish by 1 o' clock or 2 o', clock, I'll just go to my territory, I'll just introduce myself to the different clients to make sure. Because the more they see our face, they don't immediately say, yes, come and do it. There are few clients, they don't know what a syntax is. When we try to explain them how important it is and how safety concern, all that stuff, they will immediately say, okay, when can you start the job? I have done in past, like few customers, like we just went and introduced ourselves and they said when can you start? We started immediately job there.
I like the strategy for the first year or so with Vamsi calling and then you go in, in person.
Yeah. Yes. It's all about the teamwork and initially we don't have much jobs, so instead of wasting the time sitting in the home and doing some other stuff, we started roaming into our territories, local marketing. We introduce ourselves to the clients. Every time we go, the client never say yes, come and do the testing pack. Because they're seeing the new faces, so which they have now been seeing. And many companies, as I mentioned before, they don't know what testing tag is. So we need to educate the clients as well, how important is and what's the advantages of getting this testing type done, the safety of the company and safety of the employees and all that stuff. We tried different, different strategies and luckily most of the strategies worked for us.
Just a lot of hard work, eh?
Yeah, I mean Vamsi got very good. I mean he got enormous amount of the sales experience. So that one helped us a lot because he used to Work for big, big corporates in past. With that experience and my technical abilities, we are able to track a lot of the customers.
The dream team.
Y. Yeah.
But obviously you guys are an exception. You guys are killing it out here. You don't have to have four people working.
Not really, no.
You can all. You can do it by yourself.
Yeah, that's true. But the more work we get in, like it's good to have the family, all family together so that we don't miss if it is a family. So they have the responsibility and they make sure nothing is slipped if it's all by one person. So at one particular point of time, make it. I'm completely exhausted. Let's leave this for now. So we don't have that mindset at all.
Everyone's holding each other accountable.
That's true.
And so what would you say to those starting out? What sort of advice would you give?
Don't panic. Like it's an easy process. Just follow the process. And it's quite easy for everyone. Sometimes they try to complicate things. Don't complicate things. Just follow the process blindly and the results will automatically come. So that's what we did initially. We never complicated anything. We just simply followed the process. If we have a time, we'll just go to the territory, we do some local marketing and we do calls so people will know more about us.
It's about getting your face out there.
That's true.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Making connections, doing just the calls is one aspect and just showing your face to them is also very important because we are in service industry these days. If we are just calling, everybody thinks it's a scam or some sales marketing call and they just ignore them. But if we go and meet them, then you'll know. Yeah, these guys are really genuine. They come and introduce ourselves.
It's easier to say no to someone on the phone.
True. It's really hard to say no when it's face to face.
Yeah.
I mean initially, for the first one year, myself and William, we organized everything. Even the scheduling, even jobs, marketing, sales calls we did by ourselves. Our agenda is we never stop. So no matter how busy we are, we try to figure out some way we can accommodate a new client. So even for the new person, the new franchisee partners trying to come in, it's not a complicated process at all. It's a very smooth and easy operation. I do remember initial days of our training. We were given a set of process, step by step process. We're still following the same process. Make sure your kick service is properly updated and you check that all the repeat jobs are clicked on. A lot of initial days we forgot to click on the repeat jobs and later the customer tried to call. You guys didn't come for test contact. Then we made sure like every six months or every three months quarterly, we will make sure all the clients have the repeat jobs on or not. It's quite easy because the system itself was properly designed. So it's not complicated like for all four people. We just want our family to be together. It's always a good support running as a family business kind of thing.
Can you remember any particular turning points for the business?
So I mean like, like everyone, like initially, the first six months we found it like bit hard to get the business. But Jad used to always say just trust the process and things will turn around like magically. And that's how it happened. Like I mean he used to say do marketing, do sales and slowly things will come. But after six months, unexpectedly, we were very busy. There are too many jobs. The first six months, myself and William, we both used to go to the jobs. Even it's a small job, we both used to go. After six months we separated. Like I'm going to different job and he's going to different job. That's how busy we started getting there.
And so how quickly could you get a job of say 300 items done?
Initially I used to take whole day, but now like maybe four hours.
Wow.
Because if it is a new site, it may take more time, but if you're aware of the site before you already have done the testing tag there, it's very, very quick.
What's the best thing about being your own boss?
We can schedule ourselves like at particular time so we can spend time with our family and time with the business as well. So we have a good work life balance. Being your own boss, you can schedule your own jobs based on your timings and your needs. So you can spend some time, quality time with your family as well. Before we started the business, we inquired a lot of companies, but we found that the local guys are very efficient. Very quick response. And the communication from the first point till now, we have been here with the local guys for close to four years. I guess the communication is very, very good. They're very efficient and we never had any issues with the support center. They're always helpful. If you are stuck with something, they're always there for help.
So Nash, what's the next 12 months of business look like for you?
