In a conversational interview hosted by Jarrad Goulding, Greg and Mitch Windeatt discuss the first six months and the broader first year of operating their Test & Tag service. They recount landing an early client—a skills‑training provider for the care sector—where they performed both test‑and‑tag and ICD testing, converting the lead within 24 hours. A few months later they secured a quarry contract near Wisemans Ferry, which required on‑site fire‑extinguisher checks for a Level 2 mine; the job was won because they could mobilise a four‑wheel‑drive vehicle to service trucks across the site. The conversation highlights how the business built strong, “sticky” client relationships, achieving over 90 % annual retention by proactively notifying customers of upcoming tests and adding value (e.g., on‑site extinguisher servicing). Mitch reflects on the need for adaptability—shifting daily between offices, quarries, and other environments—and how the varied work provides unique insights into different industries. Both Greg and Mitch emphasize that these early lessons—quick lead conversion, flexible service delivery, and proactive client communication—form the foundation of a sustainable, repeat‑business model in the Test & Tag sector.
Chapters
Tell me, what was the first sort of 6 months like?
I think it was fairly busy. We had a few days we didn't have anything on, but it sort of kicked off pretty quickly from the moment we sort of got switched on. I think we had a lead within a day, within that, within 24 hours, and we converted that lead. And we actually had just been back there last week doing the test and tagging again. So, and that, that job is a skills training business that delivers skills to the care sector. So nursing. Age care, all that kind of thing. And they've got quite a large business and it takes to get through their office and their training rooms. It takes us a couple of days to do it. Wow.
For, for both of you as well.
So that's a decent, decent little job there. And we do their ICD. So we've just gotta go back cuz we've gotta work for them when there's not too many people. We're going back early on a Friday morning. It's not, they don't have any classrooms booked and there's not many staff there cuz as you know, to do the ICD testing, we've gotta trip the power in and out, go, go back Friday, tomorrow week, and then we'll finish that job off. So that was one of our first ones. So we, we kicked off with a fairly big customer and 6 months after that, we, 'cause we were prepared to travel to Sydney, that helped us. And I think another good job we picked up a couple months after starting was a quarry out near Wisemans Ferry, which is sort of near the Hawkesbury area, northern sort of northwestern area of Sydney. And they've been, and that was mainly just checking fire extinguishers because it's a level 2 mine site, I think they've told me. Therefore they're governed by the mining board, one of the government department it is. So therefore they've got fairly stringent safety compliance requirements and definitely fire, because every earth moving piece of equipment they have, which is some of them are quite large trucks, they've got to carry at least 2 fire extinguishers. So they were looking for someone the previous guy they had wanted them to bring all the extinguishers to like their workshop where he could just stand there at the back of his truck and check all the fire extinguishers. And the guy, the service manager said, well, that doesn't really work for us. Cause what happens, we've got trucks all over the place and a fire occurs down in one of the pits and we've got all the fire extinguishers stuck up here just to suit you. Yeah. So they basically gave that guy the, they sacked him if you wanna call it. Yeah. And he, we're looking around and he, when I had the conversation with him after getting the lead and he says, do you have a four-wheel drive? I said, yeah, absolutely. We've got a Mazda B250. He says, you'd be prepared to drive around the quarry and go to each individual truck? I said, yes, of course we will.
Yeah.
We scored again. We converted that lead and we've been doing them ever since. And I've been one of their good customers and we get on, we've built that rapport now with that service manager and he's now, cause that business is growing too. They've put on apprentices and all that. So. They put a new work health safety manager on who we get on well with. So that's, that's another one of our clients that we got within the first 6 months and we're still servicing them.
It's great, isn't it? And the, and that's the beautiful thing I love about Test and Tag is the clients tend to be quite sticky. You look after them in ways like that and it's like 10 years later you're still servicing those same clients. I think our retention rate in Test and Tag is, you know, I know for myself, when I was doing it, I was around over 90% retention rate year on year. And, you know, very similar to you guys, you know, you're on the front foot, you let them know when their testing is due. You don't mind adding the extra value by, you know, running around doing the extinguishers at where they need them done rather than having it all come to me. And before you know it, which, you know, it seems like obvious stuff to us. And before you know it, it's like all of this revenue that I've made from last year, I can pretty much guarantee is coming through to the next year, plus anything new that comes. You can actually build a sustainable business on that. Mitch, for yourself, was there any lessons that you learned during that initial stage of business in the first sort of year that you look back at now and just go, oh, that seems so obvious, but at the time it really sort of didn't quite understand it then?
Yeah, I think definitely in the first 6 months you're still getting a hang of all the different environments that you'll be working in. You know, you might go work in an office one day. And then the next day you could be working in a quarry. So you need to really be prepared to be adaptable to whatever the day throws at you. You got to be able, like Greg said, for example, having a four-wheel drive was the reason why we got that quarry job. So you're not always going to be working inside offices. You got to be prepared to venture out. And that's the beauty of the job is that not every day's the same. Every day's slightly different and it's that variation and just like seeing like how businesses work on the inside can be actually very eye-opening. And, you know, it's great to just, you know, see how stuff is done, you know, behind the scenes. And that's, you know, that's one of the things I love about test and tagging. It's being able to like, you know, just get all like work in all these different places and get all these life experiences. Like that's the best, that's the best thing I reckon.
I couldn't agree more. That was one of my most favorite things about the job is I could literally go into all of these places places that the general public would never get to. You know, I've been in the Federal Police where they tap phone calls. I've been, you know, to remote Aboriginal communities. I've been all over the place. And, um, so fascinating to be able to see the interworkings of different businesses because you're at different ones every single day. And although the job, you know, is repetitive, every job's repetitive that you do in the world, but you get to go out to a different site and meet different people and, and see different things. So I couldn't agree more, that was definitely one of my most favorite.
