LIFEST YLE TRADIE MEMBER PROFILE – WOOLF PLUMBING
LIFESTYLE TRADIE
MEMBER PROFILE ASHLEY WOOLF
WOOLF PLUMBING
VIP DIAMOND MEMBER
1. Tell us a about your business, life and family. Woolf Plumbing was born after I met my now wife, Josie. I fell into plumbing after I was offered work experience as a plumber in year 10 at school when at the time I actually wanted to be an electrician. I worked for a local company in WA for two years on the tools and two years in the office running dispatch. I decided to go it alone and became a sole trader tubing new build homes in the 40ºC heat.
Things changed when I joined as a member of Lifestyle Tradie and started to get some clear processes into place. The business began to run more efficiently and with less effort from myself. I was taking on another two staff and getting off the tools. We struggled with marketing for about a year, waiting to gain traction with outsourced companies and then, once under control, we struggled with staff. We are now sitting at three techs on the road, myself in the office and an outsourced admin and marketing team.
The plan was to build a ‘construction team’ to do new build homes while I would go out and do maintenance jobs. This was against the advice of a more experienced site plumber. He told me the numbers didn’t work and I wouldn’t make enough money… PFFFT… what did he know?
Our main work is domestic and commercial maintenance, with a dash of commercial construction and domestic renovations thrown in the mix. We have had comments from bigger, more established businesses that we seemed to have just popped out of nowhere, having become well known locally by our customers and the community as a business that provided exceptional service.
Apparently, a lot! It wasn’t long before I had two apprentices and wondered why I only just had enough money to make payroll, often at the sacrifice of my pay.
The journey has had its ups and downs, making a small net profit each year (nothing to rave about). On the down days, I often thought about jacking it in and getting a “job, job” but forever reminding myself of why I started a business in the first place is what puts me back on track, and that’s to get my dream of being a hands-on Dad.
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