Member Profile - Ashley Woolf

Meet Ashley Woolf, owner of Woolf Plumbing & Gas

LIFESTYLE TRADIE - VIP DIAMOND MEMBER

1. Tell us 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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

For the time I have been working on the back end of the business, I have managed to pay myself a consistent wage, but even more than that, I get to be there in the morning when my little boy wakes up and be able to put him to bed each night.

Ezra is now three, and Josie and I have another one on the way’ to ‘Ezra is now three, and Josie and I have just welcomed a little girl too. One boy and one girl! Bucket list… tick…tick! We love going on short trips and watching Ezra’s eyes light up as he experiences the world. We live a happy life and are forever grateful for all we have, not wanting anything more except maybe even more time to do things together. (And Josie wants a Range Rover…Life Goals!)

2. What do you love most about what you do?

I have always loved doing a trade. When I was younger, I would work with my dad as an electrician and loved plumbing when I started straight after finishing school. More than anything, I loved the fault finding and fixing!

I really enjoy being able to teach our employees not just about plumbing, but business too. Owning a business has introduced me to so many amazing people who have helped me in more ways than I could ever imagine and has also allowed me to guide others in similar situations to those that I was in years ago.

Seeing someone else thrive or gain success from something I helped with is where I get my kicks these days. But again, I love what I do the most because it gives me the time and freedom to be there for all those critical moments and events in my family’s lives!

3. Tell us a little about your life before joining Lifestyle Tradie? (What wasn’t working, what was holding you back or was in your way?)

Before joining Lifestyle Tradie I was a little lost. I knew flat-rate pricing from my previous employer but couldn’t get anything to stick. Nothing was consistent, and I didn’t know where to start. Cash flow was always an issue because I never knew my numbers and didn’t even consider overheads. I was required to be there all the time and didn’t have any time to grow anything.

4. What specific results have you achieved since joining Lifestyle Tradie?

Since joining Lifestyle Tradie, the first thing I got back was time. Getting onto my processes early on stopped my phone ringing and allowed me to then work on my flat rate book. These two things turned the business around as we were making more money than we ever had before. We weren’t making crazy profits because that’s when I came off the tools full time.

Having two guys on the field paid for all our wages and an outsourced admin team. Since then, taking on new guys has allowed me to build the back end infrastructure of Woolf Plumbing to a position in which we are ready to scale.

Each strategic step, aided by Lifestyle Tradie, has gotten us to where we are now, and I must say (most of the time) with very little stress. The business has made a consistent small net profit while providing a decent director salary, for the most part, doing an 8am - 4pm day.

5. Where do you see your business in five years?

In 5 years, I see the business running itself. The plan is to build the business in teams of 5 with a team leader running each team. I would love to have 10 - 15 techs on the road and maintain business relationships and take plenty of time off. We want to start giving back in the broader sense, working with local charities, helping the homeless and disadvantaged kids.

6. What are the top three things you have learnt about business that you would recommend to other tradies and why?

Tip 1. Time is your biggest asset. Everyone has the same 168 hours in the week, but what are you doing with yours? So, in saying that - delegation is the key. Delegate anything worth less than your time!

Tip 2. KNOW YOUR NUMBERS!!!! You can’t make any good decisions without knowing what’s going on in the business. Get familiar with GP and NP and read a P&L. How does increasing “leads in” by 1 or 2% affect the bottom line? What happens if you then grow your average $ sale? If you don’t track these things, you can’t know and you don’t know what’s working and what’s not.

Tip 3. Be kind. Life and work are so much nicer when you spread kindness; when you do things for others, when you help, when you give back and when you give a smile. No one ever achieved anything by being mean, getting one up on someone else, winning an argument or belittling someone.

7. Tell us something quirky about yourself that your buddies don’t know?

When I was little, I wanted to be a tree when I grew up. Since I don’t have a middle name, I told my mum to start calling me Ashley Tree Woolf.

One night my family and I were playing a scary board game called Atmosphere where you would put a VHS in (yes, I’m old enough for VHS) the video player and the guy on the screen would change from a man to a skeleton as the timer run out on the board game. When it was my turn, the guy on the screen asked my name and I told him it was Ashley Tree Woolf and then he said, “WELL, THAT’S A STUPID NAME”. I thought it was real and ran out of the room crying. Please don’t ask how old I was. I either can’t remember or was old enough to block it from my memory.

8. If we were sitting here one year from now celebrating what a great year it has been, what have you achieved together in both business and life?

If we were celebrating one year from now, I would be a father of an amazing, inquisitive little boy and a beautiful little girl. I would have succeeded with my first 5 techs on the road, one being a team leader and myself not having anything to do with operations.