Tony left a stressful job to start a Test & Tag franchise with The Local Guys. After five days of training learning electrical systems and welding equipment, he's excited about setting his own schedule and eventually hiring his wife to help grow the business.
How are you feeling about training so far?
It's good, I'm excited, I'm learning so much, real happy, so keen to learn more, it's fun. Well, my full name is Antonio Allan Viandante, Test and Tag in Forestfield. I'm also known as Tony. There's things I never knew about Test and Tag, there's a lot of people don't know about it, so I've learned so many new things that hard to pinpoint one, but there's so many great things I've learned. Knowing the support I'm going to get, but I'm one phone call or one email away. From getting knowledge of anything I need to know to complete a job successfully. She's reassuring. Well, we'll go back a couple of years. I was pretty much at my wit's end. I was overweight, pretty stressed. It was time to go. It was just a stressful job. So I left there to go to work for one of my former bosses and be a manager somewhere else, and that just didn't eventuate. When I looked at the Test and Tag and I started looking at Test and Tag of all the companies, the local guys, when I looked at that and read that, it looked so much better. And then after numerous phone calls to RJ, I ended up saying yes. My wife actually says that I've got like a new lease of life. I'm smiling again, I'm happy, I'm back to doing stuff that I would like, that I love. It was 25 years and it was good to move on, and this is exciting. Looking for independence where I could work for myself, choose when to work and choose when to have fun. This job, from what I know of and what it is, is giving me exactly that.
Did you have any hesitations about before joining and How do you feel about them now?
Yeah, I did. It's always about whether you can do it and whether you're going to earn enough money and whether you're going to be able to sustain the business. But after the conversations to RJ and the number of people here at The Local Guys, just made me feel so comfortable to do it. And I feel comfortable that I can do it.
On a scale of nervous to excited, where are you at now?
I can nearly go between both. I am nervous, but I'm super excited for what lies ahead. I'm very excited about what I'm going to learn in the next 5 days left of training and then to put that into practice when when I get back. I'm over the hill and I'm just about to slide down it into hopefully a great business venture. I'm hoping that I am able to provide a great service, meet new people, grow the business into something fantastic, and hopefully one day when I'm ready to move on, pass it on to someone else, whether it be a family member of mine or sell it off to someone else, and just grow a successful business.
We are doing testing 3-phase electrical and normal, of course, um, also on our welding machines and all that kind of thing. And how's infield training going, Tony?
Yeah, good. I must admit, um, it's a bit full-on yesterday trying to get the scope of everything going on. Today feels a little bit more comfortable. It's pretty much full-on. There's a lot of things to do, lots of work where you wouldn't think there was work. Sometimes where the client might go, there's only 2 items here, but they in fact, there could be 10.
How's Patrick? How's his teaching style? Patrick's fantastic.
I must admit, I've learned so much off him. Also the way he sets up. Got his phone number to keep in touch.
Is there anything that seemed really scary in theory, but once you came out here, it's all good?
Scary part was whether I could do it, whether I could put all that knowledge that I've got on the different tests I've got to do. Which in the beginning, it's not as easy as it seems, but once you've done it a few times, then you do remember this chord, I need that chord, I got to do that for this. It is getting easier.
What are you most excited for once you're up and running?
My first job.
Yeah.
My first job that I get on my own. That'll be fantastic. The first one I can get and earn for myself. The first time I'm going into business all by myself where I've always worked for someone. Most companies I've worked at, I've been someone's second in charge, been a lot of times done jobs like that, ran the company for the person that owns it, but not being the person that's the end ultimate person.
How's it feel to be the boss now?
Oh, it's good. It's good even though I'm just the boss of myself, but it's good.
What does this opportunity mean for you and your family?
It gives me the chance to continue to, you know, earn some dollars and earn it in a way that I'd like to, the hours I'd like to. And for my wife and I, as we're getting to our, you know, later age, we want to start doing a little bit more holidays as well. So trying to fit in work and holidays, being my own boss, I think that'll be easier than working for someone else.
So you want a little bit more work-life balance?
Yes, definitely, definitely work-life balance.
So let's fast forward 12 months, Tony.
12 months, yes. I hope I've got a lot of work in the first 12 months. 12 months in one day or two days, whenever that first job came up, I'm doing that repeat job on that same job in 12 months. And then hopefully to build onto that, to get to a stage where I've hopefully got enough work for myself And who knows whether I would have someone working for me. That's something in the near future, you know, in far future.
Do you hope to bring on an employee?
I would like to, yeah, yeah. Oh, my wife wants to come and work. She wants to quit her job, she reckons.
So you wouldn't be the real boss then?
Yeah, true. Maybe not still. So that's what I am doing now. I'll be checking their tags. What tags you got? Thank you so much, guys.
Appreciate it.
