Summary
David from Rapid Qs discusses a recent podcast episode with a local builder, his early start to the day, and the upcoming interview with Troy at DAVY Construction.
Highlights
0:00 David introduces the podcast and mentions the previous episode with a local builder.
0:45 David and the camera team are on their way to meet Troy at DAVY Construction.
2:36 David and Troy grab coffee before discussing Troy’s business and goals.
7:20 Troy explains the origin of the company name and his journey into construction.
12:10 Troy shares his rugby ambitions and how an injury changed his path.
16:50 Troy talks about his experience in building and the challenges he has faced.
21:05 David reflects on the importance of having a mentor and learning from mistakes.
25:45 David mentions the ebook on their website and the inspiration behind it.
29:20 The discussion shifts to marketing and the role of Instagram in their business.
33:50 David and Troy talk about the hiring process and the importance of finding the right fit.
37:30 David discusses their communication strategies with clients and the importance of keeping them informed.
41:10 David and Troy talk about the current state of the market and their future pipeline.
INSIGHTS:
– Building a solid team is crucial for the success of a construction business. Finding motivated individuals who are willing to put in the work and stay with the company long-term is a priority.
– Effective communication with clients is essential to ensure their needs are met and expectations are managed. Regular updates and open lines of communication help build trust and maintain positive relationships.
– Embracing a charge-up pricing model can be fairer for both the client and the builder, as it provides transparency and allows for flexibility in project costs. However, fixed-price contracts may still be necessary in certain situations.
– Learning from past mistakes and seeking guidance from mentors or business coaches can greatly impact the growth and success of a business. It is important to continuously adapt and improve strategies to overcome challenges.
– Utilizing marketing strategies, such as Instagram, can help build brand recognition and attract potential clients. Tailoring content and engaging with the target audience can lead to new leads and opportunities.
– The hiring process plays a significant role in forming a strong team. Looking for individuals with a track record of commitment and a willingness to work hard can contribute to the overall success of the company.
– The construction market can be unpredictable, with factors such as interest rates and economic conditions influencing the demand for projects. Maintaining a healthy pipeline and being adaptable to market fluctuations is crucial for long-term sustainability.
TRANSCRIPT
00:00 yo hey guys David here from Rapid Qs uh so not sure if you guys saw last night we released our second podcast with a local Builder down here in Tanger we’re back this week so we had a pretty early start to the day uh got in at like 7:30 in the morning uh brenon the man behind the camera picked me up and we’re just down in Tanga now classic that slide Interruption that was actually the guy we’re going to meet so we’re just down here in teranga today catching up with uh Troy at DAV construction they’ve been
00:29 doing quite a bit of social media we would have reached out maybe before Christmas last year and uh yeah so we just agreed a time and a day so we’re going to come around here now um go check out one of his jobs that they have got in construction at the moment or near in completion and then we’re going to go sit down with him for 35 45 minutes have a chinwag around how he’s run his business challenges he’s overcome problems he’s faced what his goals are and we’ll try to find out if he’s got any uh Hobbies outside of
00:57 building cuz uh most you nut cases don’t so yeah stay tuned for this one and uh yeah thanks very much for [Music] watching hey guys David here from ring Qs we’re here with Troy Davey from dav’s construction down in the beautiful Mount mongi um we’ve just been around one of his jobs went and got a iced coffee um you’ve actually got cream in yours I do you said you’re on a calorie deficit what’s going on there um so we’ve just we’ve spent about an hour with Troy and yeah we’re just going to unpack his uh
01:41 business a bit how he’s got to where he is and um what he’s doing thanks very much mate for coming on much appreciate it no problem man good to spend some time with you bro good to have you down here see the boys get on the coffees um I must ask the logo it comes from the windows eh the beautiful windows in the background yeah the windows match it that’s why we’ve done it nice man um obviously last name Davey Davy’s construction didn’t get too creative there just came up with it when I was uh
02:07 when I was looking for a name for the company I was trying not to have my name in there and we tried a couple of things and they already taken and I was like it at the end of the day my name goes on it if we do a job it’s my name on it when we do a good job it’s my name on it 100% man I suppose nowadays you’ve got cat GPT so you could probably punch that in and get 100 different names of what you want wasn’t around when I yeah yeah yeah well you still look pretty young mate um I feel it yeah what did you what was your um
02:36 path from leaving school construction what did you like what topics were you good at at school did you do carpentry give us a rundown from sort of I don’t know 16 18 to PE was definitely my best subject um now I was always going to be a rugby player it was my ambition um I was training hard for that um did you have a team in mind Dream Team um I played New Zealand 19s New Zealand school boys when I was younger um Chiefs Colts at that stage and then I was contracted out of the for the B plan Steamers straight out
03:11 of school um and then when I was 20 I paralyzed my shoulder planes so yeah not the first to hear that kind of story going on yeah but hey hindsight I was gutted because hey I might not have gone any further and that might have been it but I sort of didn’t really get the chance to have more of crack but in saying that I wouldn’t take anything back either I went to England and met a heap of cool people and did things I probably wouldn’t have done if I stayed in New Zealand so do you feel like you would um say for example if rugby did go
03:42 right you’d be in your position with your business now maybe maybe not no definitely not yeah everything’s good and 100% there’s you know things don’t work out but something else yeah one door Clos another another couple open eh yeah exactly right um your London experience was that uh before or during app after apprenti ship once you’re qualified when when I finished school I I went to politic for a year and did my pre- trade and then I started building for about I was building for about
04:12 probably 6 months and it was hard on my boss cuz I was trying to train in the mornings go to work come home train I probably wasn’t putting everything into building like I should have so I did about 6 months and then I went and work for my dad who was a fencing contractor yeah cool so I could take the time off the train do what I needed to do um I got paid for the hours as at work so yeah sweet um father been farming background correct did some fencing tools Hands On Da farmer and then fencing contractor how did building sort
04:44 of come about was would you say it was your old man that pushed you into it or did someone give you a Direction no I suppose I’ve always worked with my hands um I I’m yeah I’m a builder yeah sweet I’m a front row forward yeah nice man you’re a hard worker I’m not the I’m not the cleverest knife in the draw you might say but it was it was yeah it was something I wanted to do but I wasn’t I wouldn’t say I was really really passionate about it because at the time everything was
05:13 going into rugby but I knew I had to have something behind me in case I did get injured sure man yeah that’s a killer um so you did your the Polytech stuff um did some fencing did you pick up an apprenticeship straight away how did that work with your first fulltime job I picked up a job away he told me the my boss at the time I was going to have to start working sad days yeah to get an apprenticeship with him so that wasn’t going to work for me cuz obviously I was going to play rugby and that was what I was going to do so that
05:43 was my first and foremost so I did about six-month building and it just became the easy option for me that I was going to chase rugby while I was still young and I could yeah how didd you get your first job dut family friend no the polch oh the poch actually yeah they put you into it so jeez what was the uh minimum wage back then training wage Jesus no probably about the same as started on about $8 yeah would be similar to similar to the Americano we just brought yeah I think I paid $750 for that so you’re pretty right yeah yeah yeah yeah
06:17 so not a lot yeah cool and your how long did your apprenticeship take at that time to get finished so so say then I went fencing went to England after I hurt myself okay and then when I came back um I already had a job to come back to one of my mates at the time I just start up a company and so I went and work for them cool so I think it took me by memory it was just over 3 years to do my apprentiship yeah and uh I won’t say back in those days because it makes you sound old but um was that like paperwork
06:49 and practical at the same time or did you do all your papers at Polytech and then it was just practical politic helped so it was a bit of both but most a lot of those units were assigned signed off Okay cool so you would say maybe 70% was done at potic yeah nice nice did you so your mate was your boss sort of at the time did he have to help sign stuff off give you the right work units to do so I was I was probably pretty lucky because they’re doing a big variety of work yes um they did Renovations they did new
07:20 builds um they built decks they did subfloor yeah um whereas some apprentices these days don’t quite get that option yeah I was going to say maybe not so much but bigger markets Wellington Christ Church ockland where you sort of see you would be on a framing job for a year and I’m like well if there’s however many standards and you’ve only done one unit for a year also some of them that are doing group housing they’ll in there they’ll never do a slab they’ll never do a Timber subf
07:46 floor they don’t do decks they stand frames if they’re lucky they’ll do they’ll work on two or three different claddings a lot of them don’t even put their own join in yeah that’s right they’ve got stores for those now um I reckon there’s a from what we see obviously in or stuff there’s so many um Specialties but you would probably confidently say Regional Builders are a lot better than big city guys yeah yeah yeah within reason um maybe across the Board General variety I think definitely
08:14 once like teranga Hey we’re still a city yeah yeah yeah a city not quite the size of Oakland but yeah once you get into your definitely say your Central North isand you’re not going to have your Specialties like you are North yeah yeah yeah absolutely um so finished your apprenticeship um after that did you go did you have another boss after that or was it straight yeah I did I did I had another boss um I did a little bit of stuff just mucking around for myself and then I went and worked for another
08:42 company for a couple of years cool um what was their main sort of work sort of quite highend um but a bit of everything um they didn’t yeah mostly quite big stuff not really your small bathroom or deck or something like that yeah doing but they were doing new builds and Renovations so they’re quite highend sort of stuff um I mean you’re a guy that loves a coffee you would say on smaller jobs you’ll see different coffee shops you know different job one a month or what did you prefer did you like that
09:14 I quite like being on a site for a while you get to know your coffee um yeah true especially if you get a good one there’s nothing worse than finishing that job and yeah man some people yeah some people say there’s um beautiful coffee shops overseas are big to differ man I think there’s a few good ones floating around here 100% um so you’re with that boss for how long and were you like a foreman at that stage were you running a project or just qualified chippy no I was just qualified chippy um and that’s
09:42 probably when I was saying you earlier that we ran out of work so I had to then start finding my own work and we’re still coming off the bat of say you’re 0809 09 um even I think that was 2013 people were still yeah there was work but not J it was more the obviously highing more guys with money they were the ones still doing stuff at that time some of them got fly smashed over too the way highly yeah highly leveraged for risk probably the one money in stock market some some yep depending on what they did um where they had their money
10:17 sitting okay um but I mean a lot of it was just say your workflow probably they had work but all it took was one or two jobs to either get held up or fall over and then we’ve got a hole yeah so yeah so no I wasn’t I wasn’t a foreman I was just qualified chippy working away under someone and a team yeah nice and then all of a sudden we’re running out we ran out of work so I had to have another 3 weeks off just after Christmas nly which I couldn’t afford so I had to go find start finding my own
10:48 stuff back to fencing no or did you go to a bit of rugby sevens in Hawks Bay no no we um I managed yeah I managed to find work um my very first little bit of a stint was just just Landscaping fully Landscaping a place and that was sort of about a month’s work or something yeah and then I did a a small extension yeah it’s probably adding on about 60 70 sare M how are you getting these little jobs just Word of Mouth Word of Mouth family friends rugby contacts people on at the pub on a Friday night yeah I don’t drink too much
11:23 okay back then but um but then my another guy knew um offered me a new build and that was my sort of first y would you say after you got that new build was it semi smooth sailing on workfront from there no I was still chipping away with the labor only stuff at that stage um still trying to trying to find my unicorn job yeah nice you know full contract y yeah okay so you were doing uh the labor only stuff that was for another company that you were doing no it was four homeowners four homeowners it was four homeowners they
11:56 were providing their own sub trades and their own materials yeah um I was running the first job he ran them he had a lot of knowledge within the building industry um the second one I actually ran a lot of those sub trades okay at my cost yeah when you look back at it you’re likeus yeah man that’s dangerous but at the time I suppose you’re just doing what you had to do to make it work float yeah um so you didn’t have any for an experience on that and then you kind of went jumped straight into managing
12:25 your own jobs doing these labor only contracts is quite a of management in that some people would say there isn’t SLE swim man yeah there must have been a lesson learned there surely something went wrong give me a 100% like um running the jobs wasn’t the problem um for me when I first started out man I didn’t even know what I was supposed to be charging I didn’t know what pmgs were I nothing um I had one job but this was like most of my jobs weren’t going too bad um I I I priced them myself again it
12:56 was I didn’t have a lot of overheads that way my overheads were low um I wasn’t back costing so my way of telling if I had money in the bank was account was going up perfect yeah um so yeah it was it was when I look back at it like cringe man but at that time I was doing what I what I what I suppose the only thing I did know was work hard put my head down chew the fat work hard yeah um and I did some massive hours yeah sweet man um but then yeah I did have a job go wrong um I priced it all myself yeah
13:36 yeah and I used the C’s takeoff which I used to do yeah uh no Qs I did it all myself yeah and um I think we had six weeks to go with three guys on site yeah and I was out of budget oh man it wasn’t very nice I don’t yeah I don’t want to work out the I don’t want to work out the alley rate of cost there but it no it wasn’t a very nice feeling yeah um we had another job at the time which was a reclad and that went really well and probably lucky that that propped us up financially so you would have uh would
14:09 you have been in that position what’s that saying um Rob pet to pay Paul took a deposit off that floated the remainder of that job no not quite because the first two years of business I think I was paying myself about $600 a week okay um I work six days a week virtually every week of the year my main thing was starting out was I had this big thing about being a statistic I didn’t want to be a statistic of a company that another one in liquidation 100% I looked into it when I first started out and I was like oh my God I was
14:40 myself that’s a chip on your shoulder yeah so I just ground I just ground away man and so I’d paid myself very minimal um my van was this piece of Beauty um High Ace that every time it rained my knee got wet oh bro um you didn’t take that one to Europe for the vour did that van to that that van didn’t make it that that lasted about 2 weeks I think that van and it blew up um but no so was I had money behind me because I just grounded away I took minimal out of the company I had low overheads I didn’t
15:15 go out and buy a big flash Ranger to begin with I just grafted away at what I had you see a lot of that eh big yeah Ford Rangers raised up everything um so at that stage you would have had two to three guys by the sounds of it yes so the first year was just myself I chipped away I built that new build I had a um a Backpacker come and help me with some of the heavier stuff otherwise that first year was fully just me yeah the next year um one of my best mates was moving back from uh Melbourne and he went to building prip so he started on with me
15:46 cool and we chipped away for maybe another year and then I took on an apprentice cool and we just slowly grew like that so this by the time I hit that job that went fairly bad yeah um that was maybe 4 years into business yeah um when you priced that first job yourself it went bad you probably spent half an hour an hour pricing it how much time do you spend now I put I I put a bit more into it than half an hour but probably I I might have been half a day yeah maybe half a day looking into it but I didn’t have the systems that a Qs
16:22 has and that’s they’re trained man they’re trained in that stuff that’s what they do yeah absolutely um once that went wrong I knew that I had to do something to change so what how did you PR your next job straight away from there um I started getting in touch with quany service I started working with quany service yeah have you worked with a Qs on every job since then or you just sort of most jobs yeah most jobs not every job but most jobs especially the bigger ones um I I don’t really do too
16:53 much smaller stuff now um like I I so after that I was still doing say your bathroom renovation and things like that and I would price the smaller ones but the bigger jobs you’re anything over 100,000 plus get someone to do bring someone in to do it when you pay the Qs to do that you obviously add those fees into your business structure into the price proposal for the client y um when you when you get a lead like how do you sort of manage uh a new lead from the get-go phone call what’s the process at
17:23 Dave’s construction when you get a phone call to sign contract so this is this is what found so since I’ve come straight off the tools I’ve been off the tools now for about no nearly seven years um this is the biggest okay is trying to wean out the tie kickers yeah for sure man I went through a stage of espe as your company grows yeah you think Jeepers I need more work so you just go and look at everything yeah and can’t do it no so the main thing I’m trying to look for is where they are in
17:55 their in their Journey you don’t always get it right sometimes you m it up and sometimes you think man this dude’s a tie kicker but something tells you to go and see them have a crack at it and you do and you get their job and you’re like I’m I’m glad I sort of follow my gut on that one but when that lead comes in I’m trying to wean out where they are in their Journey so um through our website we try and do that with some of the questions that we ask them cool so it’s not just a name and phone number
18:22 what kind of things are they filling out um they they’re filling out a form to say hey where are they in their Journey are they going to build in the next 6 to 12 months um do they have plans y that type of thing okay cool yeah no that makes sense if if they don’t have plans then I’m trying to say to them hey I can give you designers if you’ve got designers perfect we can build it otherwise I can give you I can put you on to designers yeah start getting the design done and then we can start um
18:47 giving you prices cool would you say uh the majority of the clients I come to you now uh say like we call them warm clients or Word of Mouth clients and do you feel like because of that you’re sales or weaning out process is a little bit less now they’re coming to you for you yeah yeah well I I can start to see where they are in their joury um because of our marketing I suppose you could say that they’re a bit warmer they know a bit more about us um a lot of the time they’ve been put on To Us by someone
19:16 else we’ built for previously so okay they already they already know a bit about us They then go to our website they can then see our team cool a bit about our team um possibly who’s going to be on their side yeah for sure um so yeah tell a bit of a story paint a picture what it’s going to look like who’s um who’s the brains behind the marketing stuff at so we’ve got a marketing company called wisp that weal yeah Bas Bas based here they’ve been with you for a while so I’ve been
19:45 working with them now for about the last jez getting close to a year now we were with an Australian based company yeah um how did that work and it was it was good because it built our brand to but then we got to a stage where I don’t think we could grow much more with them I see um so we wanted to bring it back home and um the company we deal with Now is awesome yeah nice so they come out onto our sites they interview us um they talk to the boys see what they’re doing they take photos they take drone shots yeah
20:17 nice yeah it looks it looks good are they the ones that gave you the inspiration for the for the Instagram work we had we had Instagram stuff going on beforehand but they fully run the page now and I think they’ve just given it at probably a different perspective on it all and they they push it probably a bit differently to how cuz we were doing a lot of the Instagram stuff where some of the stuff that the Australian company were doing was a lot more generic and probably not as tailored not as personal yeah okay um do you see do
20:46 you get many like direct jobs through Instagram or do you find it’s just like a online Hub bit of a CV this is what we do so I mean yeah it’s it’s important I think Instagram is so important it’s yeah 100% it’s important whether it comes directly from there or not I don’t know and that’s something maybe I maybe I should track a bit more to see what the numbers are but it does a few things one your brain recognition Okay people like you know what it’s like they’re like a stalker
21:17 someone when someone logs into your stuff next minute holy David construction’s attacking me every time you open your Instagram and you just want to see something about Troy’s mug pops up man then I’m dream about talking about a GU that’s the so absolutely you can direct Market people and um it’s stuff that I don’t know a lot about but that’s where the marketing company I I use that good pay pay a pay a specialist to do a special task man that’s that’s the one 100% um so we talk about um
21:51 specializing getting guys that are good like your internal management structure at David Construction obviously you’re we’ll call you the head honcho um how does it work from there tell my wife yeah yeah well we can edit that out so what What’s um does she have much of a role in the business you obviously do x amount and then just run me through just want to know you know Foreman apprentices Builders how it how it works day to day so yeah me and me and Bri um we’ve been working so ever since my son
22:19 was born it’s coming up seven years now she’s been working for us so her background as a chartered accountant cool so with her background and me as the Builder I’ve learned a lot of lessons when it comes to financials and budgeting and just even even back costing following jobs um yeah she’s she’s got a massive role within the company that’s good um I was sort of I had a lot of hats on the last well ever since I’ve been off the tools you know I was um business owner um I was finding our work sales Marketing
22:54 sales marketing running the boys operations yeah then slowly year by year in the last few years we’ve split out so we’ve brought in marketers cool um we’ve brought one of the boys off the tools Matt who’s coming to a project management role yeah um and then so we’re running that I’m working closely with Matt Bri’s doing all the numbers um she’s doing all the invoice side of it she’s helping me with budgets and stuff when it comes into um figuring out where jobs are sitting as they’re
23:23 going as they progressing through yeah um and then we’ve got our for on site who are running those sites they’re ordering materials they’re ordering subies Matt’s going there he’s doing health and safety um he’s pretty much following what they’re doing to make sure they’re not missing anything if they need a hand from him in the way of ordering stuff um just second guessing themselves that he’s there as support um how does it like was there a was there a point or a position where you noticed
23:52 one key hire that was a huge game changer for you for my personal experience I remember the the uh biggest change I had was going from me managing one person to having one p one person managing four cuz then that freed me up to do sales was there one key hire that really changed the game from you whether it was your first qualified Builder or or likes of Matt I mean there’s there’s been there’s been a couple and I suppose each stage of your business I’ve gone from just a oneman band to J zil be by
24:22 next week there’ be 17 of us in the company and career high there’s yeah that will be career conratulations thank you M um so I mean definitely Bri coming into that role say 7 years ago um instead of going back to work she she’s chared account about working at the bank at the time so instead of going back there she came on board with us that was massive Matt coming into that role that’s been massive okay um the other one is the foreman that are running the SES yeah every time I take a new Foreman
24:51 on get it’s a bit nerve-wracking at time I was going to say do you lose sleep or you during the day are you like no I wouldn’t say lose sleep on it um but it’s just you’re a bit anxious because you’re like je is what’s this guy going to be like cuz end of the day they’re running the face of your company yeah man um and that’s where I’m so lucky with the guys that I’ve got in there is they’re good they’re good with people they’re good with people they’re good with the boys
25:17 um they’re motivated they’re organized Y when you go through your hiring processes or anything you kind of look out for do you see what do you see is like a red flag and a green flag do you have certain things yeah definely um one of them’s jumping around like I get CVS come through from people and quite often a year 6 months a year they don’t last long in jobs that’s definitely a red flag for me um I want someone that’s going to come on board and they’re going to stay with us for quite a while you
25:44 know and we’re going to be able to build a team around them yeah absolutely and that goes from Apprentice right up to Foreman foran yeah so that’s definitely one thing I’m looking for cool um and are they people are they people person can they work with people are they going to piss people off yeah will they work in your team will the clients like them only takes one Bad Apple Man think of sh yeah crazy and uh and a green flag is there something you can spot or look for um like we’re talking about before like you’re looking
26:15 for you want people that are motivated so if they’ve got something in their past where they’ve had to actually put their mind to something and graft away to to be able to achieve something to me that as a green flag straight away because okay this this dude he actually knows how to work for it he’s not just going to turn up and and think everything’s going to be handed to him yeah for sure um he’s not afraid of a bit of graft yeah um cuz there’s some jobs in building yeah absolutely
26:43 absolutely man digging pile foundations under a shitty house for two days yeah trying to get and then trying to get concrete and yeah that’s that’s not fun man um yeah no I love talking about the hiring process cuz I feel like um so much stuff we get as is uh you know how do I how do I go out of my own how do I get more money and I’m like well if you become really good at just one thing or just get real good at your job you’ll probably make more money so um yeah chip chip away it takes time eh
27:10 absolutely I’ve seen some guys they start out and man they got five guys with them the first year and hey I take my hat off to them because man there’s no way I could do that I would have sh myself it scary getting my first full time and luckily he’s one of my best mates so yeah yeah absolutely I see you’ve got an ebook on your website what was your Inspirations behind doing that did someone push you to it did you just want to put some knowledge out there yeah so I’d like to say it was my idea
27:36 but um no it was um I did a mentorship with a um a guy that helped me to actually learn to run a business um because like I said at the start man I I knew nothing jumped in a yeah so so I I had a business coach for quite a while and that was one thing that they were pushing um but the whole thing around it is just trying to give someone a bit of guidance or you know a bit of insight these are the things have you thought about um just so they can when they’re trying to select a builder yeah um they’ve got some knowledge of what
28:07 they’re actually wanting because some clients don’t really know what they’re looking for yeah absolutely I feel like now I feel like there is a lot of information out there for guys trying to do it maybe um you know 5 10 years ago there was minimal information on how do you sell how do you Market how do you invoice what’s zero you know there’s a lot more 100% there wasn’t lot around when I started no um so I was talking to people and I was I was just trying to learn like that yeah yeah fair enough um
28:35 what do you see sort of Market stuff doing in the next 12 months and on the back of that question what’s your pipeline like for the next 12 to 24 months or 12 months it’s it’s interesting I think this is going to be an interesting year man I have to ask yeah 100% And it’s a hard one because like we our pipeline looks good we’ve got um we’ve just taken on three more guys like I say we’re at a record high of of employees um not just employees team members I call them they’re our team
29:08 they almost become family you know you do a lot stuff with them um but we’re at an all-time high whereas you hear of some companies now that are that are really struggling and some of that might just be hey a job or two is tipped over or they just don’t have anything coming through the pipeline yeah and that’s what I mean I’m it’s it’s a hard one to G because I still think there’s a bit of hurt out there inflation is still sitting too high so people are still going to be a little bit weary interest
29:35 rates are High um whereas some people they’ve just been have they’ve had their designs done for the last year and a half two years so they’re still pushing on and that’s some of the some of the jobs that we’re just starting um we are still getting new leads coming in yes so hey for us it’s it’s going to look pretty good yeah unless one or two of those start dropping off yeah at what stage do you go like at what stage do you know the job is fully gone ahead like do you know a signature on a
30:04 contract is go or are you once I’ve got a deposit in my account I’ve I’ve had jobs fall over yeah man um right up to signing stage yeah Y what what would you say um you must have one standout crazy experience crazy client job gone wrong Something’s Happened pulled out the night before for a job starts yeah got something yeah we we had a we had a job go wrong um it it didn’t end up in court but it could have um hey I don’t think she was quite correct in some of the stuff she was saying but then she probably didn’t
30:44 think I was quite correct in in what we were saying but at the end um we we came to a negotiation yeah that’s good we got in and resolved what she wasn’t happy with yeah um and to the point where we actually finished it um um nice qu quite sort of happy with each other which was nice because there was a point there I was like holy where’s this going to go and and it was it was it was it was a turning point where I was like man what am I doing do I actually want to be doing this I wasn’t sleeping very well
31:16 it wasn’t very nice but we got through it sometimes it’s not nice to say but sometimes you’ve just got to bite your lip and just do the job and yeah the standard in which my guy did a couple of things wasn’t flash yeah and so we had to go back in there and we had to fix it but some of the stuff that she was pushing I didn’t think she was correct either but at the end of the day we need to do a product that we’re happy with and our clients are happy with or else yeah she’s going to you know they’re not
31:49 going to be happy and they’re not going to push your name somewhere yeah some of those can be um you kind of got to use the theory of short-term sacrifice long-term gain like we’re not going to make money here but at the end of the day we’ve got 2 weeks left let’s just nut it out and do it might cost the company a grand two grand but we’re going to get get it done 100% And when I look back on that job now I look at it and I’m like I should have just I probably should have talked to her more
32:13 yeah when when when I knew it was starting to go a little bit peer shaped I actually should have talked to her a little bit more communicated and got that sorted and nipped in the butt early yeah instead of but yeah because most jobs have run so smoothly you know just never anticipated one of our jobs going like that yeah for sure um but I learned a big lesson and um hence the reason I’ve really brought um one of my guys into project management because I need that person communicating with the owners and I just didn’t have the time
32:43 to do it yeah so that’s been a massive Game Changer and hey good learning curve yeah for sure I think keep keep everyone happy so yeah I think you can always take a good out of a bad day um 100% would there be a couple key things that you do do within your business to keep clients happy like do you do a a weekly or fortnightly on-site meeting do you do a weekly email or how do you what do you do there so every week um we do a an email through to say where that job’s sitting um what’s coming up what to
33:11 expect um depending on where they’re at hey we need to make sure we’re starting to get paint colors all sorted if they’re not working with interior designers then um we need tile selections we need floor selections so just giving them plenty of notice and not just dropping the hammer on them say hey on a Friday afternoon say Hey Monday we need pank yeah yeah yeah get busy Saturday Sunday it’s just trying to communicate more and that’s where um Madden that role is bloody good um he keeps that point of contact with the
33:39 owners they know what’s happening um and then we’re trying to have regular budget catch UPS as to where those jobs are sitting as well cool um talking on budget stuff um you were saying earlier uh pre-co you’re doing a lot of uh fixed price charge up now yeah vir all charge up now um now and again we get a that the bank says that they have to have a fixed price and we fix price stuff but for me personally I think um I just think it’s fairer to go charge up as long as you’ve got a team that puts
34:13 their head down they work hard yeah um you’ve got we’ve got a system well we’ve got systems we follow we’ve got schedules we follow um and owners tracking that from the background we’re having regular catch UPS they can come on side and see what we’re doing yeah um I just think that that’s the fairest way to do it open book yeah fa I mean if it works for your business and you’re still here man that’s that’s the dream um what’s the hardest sub trade to get here in the mount moui who
34:39 scarce brookies we went through a stage a while ago where brickies were just yeah they were really hard to get a yeah have you got one now yeah yeah yeah bricky blocky that we but yeah they they were they got really tough this definitely after Co for some reason yeah I think um what I’ve seen as well the rates in Wellington for bickies went through the roof um and Queenstown I think on average we’re sitting maybe 350 to 450 a square and then I was seeing 550 to 650 all of a sudden they just become an endangered
35:13 species yeah one thing I got to ask with all the insurance work that went on at the start of the year um we used to do all that estimating on for pler and paint sort of around depending on job size anywhere from 35 to 55 bucks a square we see now with small small job it’s like 700 bucks minimum for a plaster do get them in yeah I don’t know we see that for little patch repairs huge cost I suppose and again it depends where in the country they live at I I can understand that because say a plaster they’re coming in three to four
35:43 times it’s a few visits man cost of fuel especially if they’re in Oakland I know what your guys traffic’s like but even terang is getting bad now yeah if they’re coming from the other side of T even Mount to Omar now that’s 4 minutes 35 minutes 40 40 if you go right yeah y sweet and um most most sub trades in teranga what if what’s the easiest one to find the easiest I mean you your plammer your spies yeah but I’m I’m I mean I’m I’m loyal I stick with the same guys I stick with the same guys every
36:16 job y sweet man um yeah cool couple lifestyle questions what are you doing the weekends mate you’re a family man family man um both me and my partner we love our fishing so we do a lot of fishing do you do any competitions yeah we do um we just had our son in the fatani kids tournament yeah did he how did he go he went well from his old man six-year-old two rods I’d say more as POA as POA yeah I quite like my fishing but uh I’m I’m probably more of a fishing gav as some of my mates call it but I’m not as bad as some of them
36:53 actually but no fishing and I mean I love my sport still follow rugby I still follow it I sort of I keep away though I still get feet believe it or not I haven’t played for a long time you don’t play any club rugby now no wouldn’t dabble back in I did when I came back from England yeah um but when I started the company I stopped playing yeah yeah cool no no good as gold righty mate I think we’re all uh all done here good bit of business questions uh bit of Lifestyle thank you very much for jumping on much appreciate it thank you
37:21 guys for coming down cheers bro thank you
