122 | From One Truck to 120+: How Scott Irwin Built a Multi-Trade Machine (and Why You Must Raise Your Prices)

Welcome back to another episode of freedom blueprint podcast. am your host Justin Deese and I am hanging out with my buddy Scott Erwin from down under Scott. Good for a, thanks for coming and hanging out, man.

No worries, good to meet you, finally.

Yeah. You know, what's crazy is we, we'd never met. ⁓ and your name came up two or three times in the matter of a 10 day period to me. And, they were like, you got to connect with Scott. And so that was, that was pretty cool. Anytime you hear somebody's name multiple times from people that you've known for a long time, you kind of go, how did I not know them?

It's small industry right across the world. It's amazing the connection.

Yeah, yeah, and it was

West Coast, everywhere. It's amazing, really is.

Yeah, very cool. So, so Scott, tell us a little bit about your company that you have now.

Hey, there's been a lot of learning curves along the way and business has changed dramatically over 37 years of what we do and how we do today, what we started with. A lot harder today, I would say, in a lot of ways. The staffing issue is always a problem for everyone, I would say, in both countries.

And that never used to be as hard as it is today, but infrastructure spends from government to recycle our resources of humans. So yeah, it's been challenging, fun. Blessed with an awesome team.

So now what all trades do you guys cover right now?

I'm going

to do Handyman aircon electrical plumbing.

Okay, so you guys have a wide variety.

We need the handyman to fix the plumbing mistakes.

You're like, I mean, we got to do drywall. What the heck? We might as ⁓

My good health.

So let me ask you this. So, for the audience listening, if you're, if you're looking at a map of Australia, where do you guys have one or two locations?

So we have two locations, we're in Sydney and Melbourne, which is all East Coast. So if you start at the back of Australia, you start at the top, comes down Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, across the bottom is South Australia, into the West Western Australia. We are on the East Coast in two states.

Okay, fantastic. so running a hundred trucks or a hundred staff, 84 trucks.

No, that's in Sydney and in Melbourne we're running, I'm thinking, 40 trucks down there.

Melbourne is great place. All Australia's coast is fantastic.

So obviously you travel quite a bit over to the US, ⁓ not as many people from the US travel to Australia. So let me ask you this, most of the stuff here in the States ends up being, if it's a multi-trade, it's plumbing, AC and electrical. ⁓ I've noticed that in Australia, there seems to be a little bit bigger blend. Sometimes I've seen roofing ⁓ and some handyman stuff. What is the normal blend there? Is it plumbing, AC and electrical?

Normal blends, All right, very, very single trade focus. Only recently have people decided to go multi-trade. In the last five, seven years.

Okay.

And why do you think that is?

I

would say that you've got a massive data on our case, right? Massive database where you've done plumbing for 30 years and you turn around and go, well, if I can offer those same people great electrical service and great aircon service, that's going to be a win without actually having to too much marketing to get it.

I think that's a good idea. Plus, I mean, the cost to acquire a customer. So you think about now versus 10 years ago, 15 years, 20 years ago. It's certainly, don't know what it is in Australia, but I do know that in the U S it's out of control the way it is.

It's expensive everywhere to acquire customers. That's why you got to keep your customers. Your network, we use 72 % repeat clientele.

Yeah.

That is fantastic. ⁓

It's a pretty good effort. And I think our staff's the same. With our staffs, retention's awesome. We're blessed with an unbelievable team here.

Very cool. mean, and that's a, that's a, that's a large team. That's a, that's a big group. So let me ask you this. So, so being that you've been in the business so long, obviously you're coming out of a conference, which we'll, we'll talk about here in a, in a few minutes, but I'm sure part of the conference, there was a lot of conversation around AI. Is that a

Yeah, there's always a lot of conversation around AI, but you've to remember we're all human, right? And humans like to talk to humans, so don't lose touch with reality.

So, so I was at a service world last week and, we were, we were, everybody was breaking down their booths I was standing back by the podcast stage talking to some of the, some of the guys back there. And, and, and I looked around and I said, isn't it interesting that all of these AI booths here, they all have people breaking down their booths. Like, I feel like from the trades, we're in a, we're in a decent spot when it comes to AI before we got to worry about them. They can't even set up their own booths yet.

Well, exactly right. So if you're a white collar worker, think you, you, really got to choose your career well, because if you're not hopping in a truck and driving to someone's house to service those, that house, all their needs, your job's on the block. So a lot of retraining is going to happen over the next five years from the white collar to the blue collar. And which it's going to be sad in a lot of ways, but that's what AI does.

replaces people.

Well, and you think about, you know, that this, is not the first time that technology has replaced, ⁓ people and typically people get, you know, they get a little bit in the box about it they get a little bit concerned about it. But then what happens is that it ends up creating other jobs, right? So, you know, for instance, they used to bring milk to your door and they used to bring ice to your house and now there's a refrigerators and now there's people that sell refrigerators and maintain refrigerators, you know, all the, all the things. So I would imagine as AI starts to.

to take over some of those tasks. I would imagine that's gonna happen, but who knows?

It's a really fast moving section on AI and it's learning so quickly. So the next two years, be a different landscape, five years, who knows.

Yeah. Who knows? let's, let's back up, ⁓ away from AI just a little bit. So 37 years ago, you, you guys are just celebrating your anniversary, which congratulations. That is a, that is a huge feat. What did technology look like back then?

Pager. On a public phone.

So you had a pocket full of quarters.

in pocket full of 20 cent pieces here and you'd hope the public phone you went to wasn't vandalised.

⁓ yeah. ⁓

That's where we started out, And then we got cell phones. And then we progressed to where we are today with iPhones, iPads. The technology change has been phenomenal.

Yeah, I mean, and you think about how different it is to manage business now versus then, and you said this earlier, you kind of alluded to it. It might've been easier then than it is now because there's so many different pieces and moving parts to it. know, marketing back in the day used to be, well, I don't know about over there, but here it was, hey, you set up a Yellow Pages and you put the biggest ad that comes up first and.

said. And that's what it started as now, the yellow pages isn't to be seen anywhere. Yeah. What, what really changes is what I was just looking at yesterday, the amount of software we run in a business today, I'd be saying that your business will be the same, just to collect information and data and put the right people on the right spot. The programs we run is insane.

It seems so simple, right? Answer the phone, send a truck. But all the workings behind that over the last 30 years is just off the charts for the change.

Yeah. And I'll say, uh, and I know, I know you're a service Titan user and, you know, for all of our businesses, use service Titan as well. And, it was, it was really amazing because before service Titan, were on a different and we've been on service Titan for, I don't know, dozen plus years. Uh, they were pretty early when we, when we jumped on board with them. But right before that, we had a software that we were on for a couple of years. And before that we were using an appointment book for like hair salons is how we kept track of where everybody, everybody went.

And now it's really cool because you can, you can know your business and where you stand with all your KPIs so quickly now.

to reporting.

Yeah. So how, how does having self reporting and instant reporting, how does that help you and your team kind of navigate the day and make decisions?

don't know that really helps you make decisions. Really, really honestly, there's so much information for our DSRs to grab right. And maybe we get lost in the reality of just, get someone to someone's house or the right person in that house and help that person solve the problems. That's sort of where we get lost when we go down all the data with the rabbit holes. I'm big believer in people simple.

Probably if you're looking at all the software we have in the service time world, the dispatch pro, what are they called, ProBook or dispatch pro, whichever it is that we use to best tech, closest tech, that's probably the pick of the lot.

Yeah.

And that saves a whole takes the whole bunch of emotion out of between your DSR and your annual service tech, which is pretty cool.

Well, and, and you know, data, data driven information, it is always nice to one have data to make decisions. And two, if you have the data and you don't have to make the decision, something else is making the decision. That's even better, which again, that, mean, that's an advantage to AI and advantage today is that they're not thinking about, you know, do I like this person the most or do I not? No, no. Here's how they're

Yeah.

Yeah. So that that that part really works really well. And if you if you want you're talking scalability on a business, right, you've got to have that software in because I was it's the scale of this so hard. And now you can go okay, you can scale this anywhere. And you don't really need to be there that your your process that will take care of it.

That's exotic.

very limited on where they worked. I mean, we didn't, mean, I remember when Tom Tom GPS came out, you know, and like the individual GPS you could put up there and, man, that, made such a big difference. And it's crazy how, how all that stuff has evolved so quickly.

All the job cards filled out, there's your day.

mean, in 93, there was, I mean, there were cell phones, but they were very limited. they were not very mainstream. Um, I guess there was, there was pagers that, that was even, that was still kind of a new technology. And I mean, there was no Google.

Definitely made Google, it was like letter blocks dropped.

Yeah, if you got on internet.

and the yellow pages. That's it. I see about this the other day, I remember seeing flyers go out, even in yellow pages ads, mobile numbers speak to diploma live now. What a pain in ass that was.

If you're the plumber,

Yeah, well you're doing it. It's a shocker. Again, that's the other thing you look at today's people who work with you, Ryan, especially kids on the field, they're so phone reliant. The whole world revolves around this little Apple phone or Google, whatever they're using. And it's their world. That whole world lives in that phone phone. Scary stuff.

But I tell you what, when you, I know for me, when I get a couple of days where I don't, my phone doesn't work or I don't have to have it on me, man, there's just such a different sense of relief and peace that I have. ⁓

in

a piece. was talking to a person yesterday. said that when she traveled, she left the country and no phone, right? This is way back. she said no phone and she was, it might be a knockout she had, right? This is before iPhone. She's 18 months away traveling. So you just, your phone doesn't work that well and you're here and there and your internet cafes, those?

And that's how you say in contemporary way, she gets home and the Apple phone's been released and the world changes when that happens.

yeah.

And that was the beginning of a grunt.

I can remember getting the very first iPhone and thinking, how do they have all this stuff in this little bitty phone? Because before that we were all using Nextels. You know, so all of our guys were like, beep beep. Then you were having to make sure that whoever was on the other end was appropriate.

Was clear.

And then if you go back to an old Apple, how slower is the processing?

Like you get back to the first gen Apple and you turn it, if you had one still, it still work. We're instant here, right? We're talking across the world on our phone and it's instant. Back then that was so slow. was like dial up. like dinosaur. There'll probably be one for this subject.

Hey, so let's, let's talk a little bit about, because, we, mentioned service Titan a little earlier and you just had an event, they're in Australia for service Titan. When did, walk us through kind of how you got set up with service Titan, what that looked like and, what that looks like today.

One back three years ago, August. So my wife and I, and this is when Ara and Vahe used to turn up and go to trade shows, just how long ago this was. We would always, come on, can we bring this to Australia? And it's forever no. So then I had, it just happened to be in the States, met up with Vahe, introduced to Tom Howard, and Tom was going, no, can't do it, it won't happen.

many hassles. So this went on for years, right? And then ultimately, we got in front of Tom and said, let's just give this a crack. And he said, I reckon we can do this. And with the blessing of Barhe, that's how we got Service Titan to the country. we brought it in. Tom came over two weeks with a gentleman called Matt Rawell, and they got it up and going. So there's no one else in Service Titan except Barhe this was happening.

So we started and then that's the pilot program. So we run for about six months. And we swapped, I'm thinking in the first round, maybe 75 techs straight over to it in network at that time. And then we did mill and we had to change accounting software at the same time to make this work. So was a real nightmare.

and difficult, but the service time and dealing with everything in service time has been the most accommodating people in so many ways, especially just nothing was a hassle, even though the technology didn't get there where you wanted as quick as enough, but they were always a delight to deal with. So, six months from there, we, Keith and Ross came out and Tom, a couple of other guys, Matt, and then we,

We put 12 companies on the pilot program after we'd gone through tests of what we could work and we're only functionality probably 40 % of the software. So, and then we, that was the first year we do that. And then we start getting better. We start getting more functionality, systems and processes get better. We learn more, right? And today I think we've got 95 companies in Australia on service time.

That is very cool.

And with that, we get more R &D dollars, we get better processes and more attention. So now we can really start to move a software that's going to change the landscape of this industry in this country.

Well, and I think about it because that's been how many years ago since you guys were able to start getting on it.

Three years ago in August, when we started.

You we're pecking away at it for years.

I would wait if he is since you guys were waiting for it.

That's pretty neat. But let me ask you this. What do you think the holdup was to allow companies in Australia to be on the software?

It's so busy in the US. Remember the population difference, right? You guys are 300 million plus. We're not even 30 million. So it's a lot easier to stay where you are when you're really busy than it is to go look around the world for global market.

Yeah. And plus there's a huge time difference. So they're supporting.

Your support, it supports only just gone 24 hours in the last month or two months. So it's all right on the west coast to Australia, Sydney to LA, it's fine, right, but it's not that bad. When you go to the east coast, it's an absolute disaster.

Yeah. So tell us about, tell us about the event that you guys just had out there.

So, okay, well, I'll wind back to April was our first event with Service Titan. And the only reason these events really go ahead and fast, I would say is because of Ellen Ross. She was an absolute gem. She just pushes, pushes, and gets shit done really at end of the day. Fantastic. So first event was in April and that was just a smaller event.

and that worked really well. we had a lot of people turn up, just 180 people turned up to that. So then we thought, okay, let's do another one in October. So we planned it, but we couldn't advertise it because we had Pantheon and they didn't want to cross advertising. So we had a ramp up. So after Pantheon finished, we started advertising Service Titan in October.

and

week one we've got like 25 people and we need, the aim is here is 300, reality was going to be we should end up about 200. We've got 220 people to the main days. We have Tom Howe, have Tommy Merlo, have Ellen and they bought, and Service Side did really well here, they brought 25 or 30 people across just to do troubleshooting for existing clients.

which was fantastic. the big thing with software or this software particularly is not the software. The software is awesome. get that. But what really makes it is the community, the people around the turnout, the just great people. 200, I think on day, it's Tuesday, 220 people. Just fantastic people. All wanting to learn, all wanting to grow.

or a common girl. That's pretty cool.

That is pretty cool. you you got to admit that's, that's one of the things that's so fantastic about the trades is that there's just amazing people. And I tell people all the time, they're like, did you ever think you'd be in the plumbing and HVAC business? You know, when you were growing up, like, no, I had no idea, but man, I'm, so grateful that I am because there's so many people that have, that have helped me throughout my journey. that I have their numbers in my phone that I can text if I need something.

They text me if they need something, you know, like when I was, when I was launching the podcast originally, ⁓ I mean, it was all, mean, the first 50 episodes were friends that I had known for years. And I was like, Hey, come be on my podcast. And they're like, sure. So.

The

community or the people in the community, right in the trades are so down to earth and they're caring and most trades where their heart and their sleeve, right? They're just, really emotional people, which is unique. And they're caring. That's the biggest thing they care. And that's really important as well. We do a lot more of that.

So one of the big things with the podcast that I like to do, and I'm going put you on the spot right now, because I got you on camera. It's recorded. You can't go anywhere. So ⁓ one of the things we like to share is kind of what advice do you have for anybody who is in business? Let's say they've been in business three to five years and they're looking to grow. And the advice can be something that you doffed or just something that you know that is a hurdle that a lot of businesses have.

Biggest hurdle I see for people is they procrastinate. Get off the fence and get shit done. Doesn't matter what you do, just do something, one thing. Because when people sit there and they don't actually do anything and they just ponder, you become stagnant. And if I've got out of it, everything I see the people, that is probably the number one issue. The number two issue is belief. Believe in yourself and believe in your worth.

I bought a lot of businesses over the last five years and every business I've bought, I reckon it's 40 % off the pace in a price point.

And it's, there's nothing sadder than when you get to 55 or 60 and you run this business all your life and you're broke because you didn't believe in your worth, what you should judge. And that is.

saving the customer to sacrifice yourself or your team member.

And

that's a typical trade, know, how many of them do that? just, there's a good way of putting it, saving the customer and killing themselves and their family. And you see it, like I see all the time that they're going through two or three marriages and never owned a house, couldn't give their children what they needed, all because they didn't believe what they were worth.

Yeah, being around acquisition, we sold our business, our last business to a private equity. So I've been working with them on the acquisition side for quite some time. And it is, it is so sad to see somebody who's been in business for 15, 20, 30 years. And they're like, I just need to sell my business. I've got to exit. And you're like, it's worth the customer database. Maybe. Yeah. And that's so sad because ⁓ you're putting forth the work and the effort.

And you're sacrificing and you're putting in the investment. And a lot of times really had you just worked for somebody, you'd probably made more money.

You

might not be able to make way more money. That is, is, if you've got a mission in life, it is to change that belief for people that hey, you're a tradie, you're awesome, you're worth your weight in gold. Don't not charge correctly because if you do charge wrongly, your life sucks.

Right. Right. And, you know, and I think that, a lot of that shift, mean, we always needed to charge the right price. think the tipping point for a lot of people was when COVID happened and they started to realize that they were like, they were essential. Like you could not have plumbers and AC people, right? Like the banks can close, the government can shut down. Like there's all these things that can happen.

But man, if there was no plumbers on the planet for, I don't know, five days, we would have a real health concern in this world.

Yeah, and I don't think they understand that. really think the education piece around your worth as a plumber, or tech, or whatever, any trait really, is missing. We just don't educate enough.

Yeah, yeah. And a lot of times it comes from that one customer saying, what? think that price is too high. It's like, great, based on what?

and

Yeah, well, can compare two. Yeah, I, it is the probably another thing that would be paramount to when you're talking as you're in a business, three to five years or even starting a business, surround yourself with the right people. Winners, not wingers. There's so much to be learned from so many great people. What I've found and discovered in this world,

Yeah.

If you want information, I want to talk to someone who runs a great business, they're always willing to share 99.9 at a time, right? They're happy to see, they want you to succeed, ask them to help you. And then when you do ask them to help you, listen and implement.

Yeah. then do it. Yeah. That's the silver bullet in business. People are like, I just want the silver bullet. Great. It's implement.

Like people get, okay, I'm going to go on a service time, like a 10 trust and they expect to open the box of service time and do everything for them. Well, you've got to actually have a great business before you start. And then you got to implement it and then you're going to know it or have people to know it for you. If you don't do that, it's freaking useless software like any other software.

Garbage in garbage out.

100 % on it and a lot of people don't get that. I think it's a magic bullet.

Yeah. And, and you know, that's, you know, I have people that call me pretty frequently and ask me that they're not on service Titan and they're, they're going to service Titan. And they asked me, they're like, you know, is this the right move for me? And obviously I've been on service Titan for a very long time. We've had our own the podcast. I've done those guys for years and years. ⁓ and the answer is not always yes. And the truth is even service Titan will tell you that. I mean, that's why they're like, you gotta have a minimum of X amount of trucks. And a lot of times what.

What companies will do is they'll say, well, yeah, just, just pay for those amount of trucks. Well, the reason service Titan does that, I believe is because you do have to have a certain level of sophistication before you can operate a system like that. As many years as we've been on it, we're still constantly evolving, adapting, changing. mean, it's a, it is an ever moving software, is bad ass, but it's not a seven. Forget it.

Well, it's like a Ferrari. You don't know how to drive it. It's just a car.

Okay. ⁓

You

gotta maintain it, it's expensive.

It's expensive, you look after it, but hey, what joy does it give you when you get it right? And if people get that and like anyone that knows me, they know I'm not a software guy, but my team lives it, all my reports come from it. And that's paramount as a business owner to be able to get all the information fast that you want. And the right information too, that's all. So.

And that's, Titan doesn't enable you to do that, which is fantastic. And that's what makes it a rockstar software. But like all software, you got to work at it.

Right. And now that you have the information, now you have to know what to do with it.

something

Yeah

⁓ And that will change us so quick. And now it's all about that. And then the forefront is offer awesome service. So your clients love you and want to call you back.

I mean, yeah, as, as, as we talk about what the, acquisition costs, you know, what did it cost to acquire a customer these days is, is so very expensive. And you said this earlier, you said, you know, over 70 % of your customers are reoccurring. Well, that means that's 70 % of new customers. know, you're not spending that amount of money for net new customers. That's a huge savings when it comes to marketing dollars. I mean, good Lord.

We're living it's better than that. They know what you're like and they're prepared to pay for it. And that is all, that's way better than a new customer.

that

you're having to explain the process and train them.

Yeah. We're going to educate your customer. you. That has to happen. If you don't do that, I believe if you don't do that, it's just the customer and you want your customers to be customers for life. Good book. If you ever want to read a great book is customers for life. Carl Suell, out of, he was the first Lexus dealer in the U S and he just, his book, it's a gospel for me. It's just how to treat people and keep people.

It is good skill.

great skill but also you to use it internally with your staff right you've got to love your staff and be part of their world to make them or get them to understand how much you care for them because when they understand how much you care for them they care for your customer the same way.

Yeah, you don't take care of them. They're not going to take care of your customers. Ultimately, that will take care of you.

They're more important than your customer, your own customer at the end day. And in my world, have, and I've got a great team. Like I said to my wife yesterday, here we are, 37, 38 years down the track, a hundred people in this building, plumbers, CSS, DSS, marketing, everything. I've got to, it's a pleasure or joy to come to work and just hang out with cool people that are passionate.

in their, in trades and field, which is really on the run. That's in my world, that's priceless.

Well, and I hope that for the people that are listening that are in that stage of business where it's rough, ⁓ and you, you know, it's not all going the way you want it to go. I hope you heard that and you think about that, right? Like you, you get to build the culture, like you get to build it. ⁓ you get to make the decisions of how the business is run. ⁓ and now that can also be complacent, right? That you could not do anything and that's going to affect how the culture is built.

But yeah, I think if you're intentional, like Scott said, if you're intentional, then you get to the point where you have this amazing team, you have a great culture. And then when you got to go to work, you're like, hell yeah, I get to go to work. Not, ⁓ it's Monday.

Monday, here goes Monday. I can't wait for Sunday to finish. That might be a tragic situation for me, but I actually like it just the people are unreal. And it is such a joy. mean, we all had bad days when you go off free. He doesn't know what it is. And that didn't even right for you when we're small, right? And then you're five or 10 guys and some guy leads, know, how am gonna replace that? There's always someone turns up.

And as the event, one of the good things about as you get bigger, you get to actually put on a better hat. In my world, it's belief, culture and building relationships, right? In our business, which is really cool hat to wear compared to day to day grind and running a business. And it's also at this size, if you can run that right and the people you look after the people, right? Does this see

We start at quarter to six on Monday, Monday to Friday, quarter to six every morning. And I'll be like, probably 15 young kids here under 22, all turning up with a smile on their face.

Yeah, that's pretty cool. That is cool.

And that's what we all work for. If we can do that, we win the game.

Scott man, I appreciate you coming and hanging out with us today. It was awesome to finally connect. And then we talked on the phone and text back and forth. But it's good to finally, finally connect via video. Hopefully we'll meet in person.

I'll

get the person, I'll be back in the States or you'll be here.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

You

always welcome to come over here, it's an open invitation.

Absolutely. I, know, I've never been to Australia and it is, it is definitely one of the places that, ⁓ that I want to recently, man. So, my wife just made this comment the other day. She said, this is our first semester of empty nesters. I said, cause our daughter, it's her first semester in college. So, ⁓ so yes, we're empty nesters now, which is cool. Cause we've had this crazy travel schedule from, I don't even know when from September, basically when she went to school,

He missed her, right?

to after Thanksgiving, it's been just awesome. The amount of travel we've gotten to do ⁓ exhausting too, but awesome and grateful that we get to do the cool things that we get to do.

Every bit of it. Yep. Every bit of it. Well, cool, Scott. I appreciate it, man. Thank you so much for coming and hanging out and we will, we will see you soon,

Absolutely appreciate it. Take care.