Level Plumbing Canberra Managing Director Jason Tait started as a plumber on the tools 25 years ago. Today, he oversees a $40 million business built on systems, accountability, and a belief that great trades businesses should help people grow — not consume them.
Twenty-five years ago, Jason Tait and his co-founders, Andy and Lawrie, started Level Plumbing Canberra as a subcontracting operation. Just a few tradies who were good at the work, loved the job, and were stubborn enough to keep going when things got difficult.
“We were too naive to give up,” Jason says with a laugh. “If we stopped long enough to think it through, we probably would have given up some years ago.” Jason Tait, Managing Director, Level Plumbing Canberra
That stubbornness paid off.
Today, Level Plumbing Canberra — part of Level Group Australia — generates around $40 million in annual revenue and employs approximately 130 people across commercial service and maintenance, project work, and expanding trade lines. They service government hospitals and universities, defence projects, commercial spaces, real estate, and strata. It is, by any measure, a serious business.
“I expected I would have got to 10 or 20 staff, driven around in a ute, had a few beers on Fridays with the boys,” he says. “That was all I had in terms of aspiration.” Jason Tait
Instead, the business became something much larger — and demanded that he grow alongside it.
“It’s amounted to much more than I ever would have imagined.” JasonTait
The Long Way Up
Building a business the right way takes longer than most people expect.
In the beginning, Jason was focused on doing the work well and figuring out everything else as he went. Growth came gradually and honestly. More clients. More staff. More complexity. Over time, the scope of the business became something much larger than the founders originally envisioned.
“We sort of made all the mistakes on the way to success, and worked our way through.” JasonTait
Project work expanded — retail fit-outs, government contracts, defense projects — alongside a growing service and maintenance operation that eventually organized itself into four distinct teams serving different customer groups across Canberra.
With that growth came a parallel education.
“I started off as just a plumber on the tools and gradually had to learn my way through finance, employee management, safety, risk, and strategy.” JasonTait
Every new layer of the business required a different version of leadership. And Jason approached each one the same way he approached difficult work on the tools: patiently, practically, and without pretending he already knew the answer.
Over time, he came to understand something many trades business owners eventually run into: the mindset that makes someone technically excellent does not automatically prepare them to lead a growing organisation.
“As trade professionals, we inherently have this very technical mindset — and that’s not helpful when it comes to letting things go. You’ve got to let go of that identity almost, and go: that got me here, but it won’t get me any further.” JasonTait
Both the business and Jason were evolving.
The Systems — Building the Operational Backbone
Part of that evolution happened in community.
Joining Level Group Australia, connected Jason and his team with operators who were further along the same journey — people who had already experienced many of the growing pains Level Plumbing Canberra was navigating in real time.
“The biggest reason we joined Level was to become part of something — getting connected with other professionals in the industry, some of whom were further down the journey than we were.” Jason Tait
Those conversations through the alliance deepened the team’s thinking around systems, accountability, and the role Simpro could play as the business became more complex.
“It was a natural progression, especially with the project team,” Jason says. “They needed a few more features, and Simpro enabled us to segregate the business and provide really clear accountabilities to each individual team and each department. And the client asset management side of things was really, really good.”
Over time, Jason came to see systems differently than many operators do. For Level Plumbing Canberra, systems were never about adding complexity for the sake of it. They were about creating structure, accountability, and consistency across a growing organisation.
“After people and culture, systems and processes are the second most important elements for a business.”
More than a decade later, both the Level Group Australia network and Simpro remain embedded in the way Level Plumbing Canberra operates. For Jason, the value has never been just the software or just the network — it’s how the two reinforce one another. The Level alliance provides perspective from operators navigating similar challenges, while Simpro provides the operational structure to implement and improve how the business runs day to day.
Simpro has been there in the background for years. It’s part of everything they do — the team are in it flat out, all day, every day. But Jason credits the Level network with helping sharpen how the business continues to evolve those systems over time.
For Jason, that consistency matters more than flashy technology or constant change. The value of a system is whether it creates clarity, accountability, and efficiency at scale — not whether it’s the newest tool on the market.
That same mindset shapes the way he approaches AI.
“My approach to AI and most technological things is a little bit of a wait and see,” he says. “Is this an enabler? Is this something that makes us more efficient? Is it an answer to a problem — or is it a shiny toy in the corner?” JasonTait
That filter has led to both restraint and adoption.
When Level Plumbing Canberra explored AI for call center operations, the answer became clear fairly quickly: their customers expected a human being on the other end of the phone. The technology didn’t align with the experience they wanted clients to have, so they moved on.
Other applications, however, have created immediate operational value.
“The AI functionality has definitely improved clarity and conciseness — which the invoicing team are all on board for,” he says. “They’re the non-technical people who have to turn those plumbing terms into something the client can understand.” Jason Tait
For Jason, systems only work when businesses commit fully to them. Software alone doesn’t fix operational problems. In many ways, it simply exposes the strengths and weaknesses already inside the business.
“If you’re going to run with a job management system, go both feet in. Set it up, use it, and use it really, really well. Constantly review how you’re using it. It is an exceptional tool, but it’s only as good as how you implement it in your business.” JasonTait
Learning to Let Go
What those systems ultimately gave Jason wasn’t just operational visibility. They gave him the ability to stop carrying the entire business himself. Like many founders who come from the tools, Jason spent years believing the business depended on him being involved in everything. Every decision. Every problem. Every fire that needed putting out.
At one point, he describes himself as “the busiest man in Australia.”
The business consumed everything. Constantly working. Constantly thinking. Physically exhausted, mentally stretched thin, and bringing the weight of the business home with him every day. Having children forced him to look at things differently.
“I was a mess at that time,” he said. “The business can become all-consuming if you let it.”Jason Tait
That realization fundamentally changed the way he approached leadership. Instead of remaining the technical expert at the center of every decision, Jason began focusing on building something more durable: a management structure capable of owning outcomes without everything running through him personally.
“We’re very data driven as an organization,” Jason says. “The team know, each day, each week, how they’re tracking against their goals.”Jason Tait
The shift required more than delegation. It required identity change. Over time, though, the business changed because he changed. What once depended heavily on the founders became a business with structure, accountability, and leaders throughout the organization. Not just tradespeople doing jobs, but people growing into managers, communicators, mentors, and decision-makers.
“Building a really good management team — that’s what I’m most proud of in the last three or four years,” he says. “Getting some great people on and releasing a bit of control to them.”Jason Tait
Moving Beyond Hustle
A successful business, in Jason’s view, should create opportunities without consuming the people inside it. It should support customers well, create meaningful careers, and allow the people building it to still have a life outside of work.
That philosophy shapes the way Level Plumbing Canberra continues to grow today and reflects lessons Jason has learned from his personal experiences as a plumber advancing his way through the trades — and the toll it can take mentally, emotionally, and physically.
“We've had to move from the early days of just hustling to: how do we promote better, more holistic lifestyles? Not just work hard, work fast, work long. That's been a bit of us maturing as business owners." Jason Tait
For Jason, mentally healthy workplaces are built through culture, systems, communication, and sustainable expectations — not slogans. In his view, the infrastructure of a healthy workplace is built into the way the business operates every day. He is skeptical of symbolic gestures without structural support behind them.
“It’s easy to go, ‘Oh yeah, we’ve got an EAP and we hand out hats on Are You Okay Day,’” he says. “But there’s more to it than that.” JasonTait
That same spirit showed up recently in a more personal way. Jason and a team from Level Plumbing Canberra participated in a 24-hour movement challenge for KultureBreak, a local charity delivering mental health and well-being programs in Canberra schools, raising about $11,000 to support their mission.
Over time, that shift reshaped not just the way Jason runs the business — but the way he defines success inside it.
What Success Looks Like Now
For all the scale Level Plumbing Canberra has reached — financially, culturally, systematically — Jason doesn’t talk much about revenue. He talks about people.
Admittedly, he did not expect to enjoy leadership as much as he has.
“To find so much purpose in building great teams, in seeing people given the opportunity to grow and realize their potential inside a trade environment — I never expected that.”Jason Tait
That, more than anything, is how he now measures success.
Twenty-five years later, it’s not just revenue targets or headcount. It’s the apprentices who've grown into leaders. The staff who've built careers and stability for themselves and their families without sacrificing their health, identities, or personal lives in the process.
“All of a sudden they’ve got this really rewarding career,” Jason says. “You can pay them really, really well. But they’ve still got this work-life balance.”Jason Tait
For people who want to grow inside the trades without necessarily taking on the risks of business ownership themselves, Level Plumbing Canberra has tried to create an environment where that’s possible.
“If they don’t want to risk it all — employ staff, take out loans — they can come here, build their clients, build their team, and realize all of that potential inside this ecosystem we’ve built.”Jason Tait
That philosophy is shaping the company’s next stage of growth, too.
The goal is $50 million in revenue by 2027, driven through a combination of organic growth, expansion into electrical and HVAC services, and strategic acquisitions. Jason believes the operational systems, management structure, and support network — strengthened over time through both Simpro and the Level Group Australia network — now exist to scale the business intentionally, without sacrificing the culture they’ve worked hard to build.
“We feel like we can bring on other businesses and use that exact same system, that exact same support structure, to grow them.”Jason Tait
Jason’s own life reflects that same shift in priorities. He works four days a week in the office, keeps Fridays lighter, exercises regularly, continues studying and learning outside work, and prioritizes time with family.
And after 25 years in the trades, the thing Jason values most isn’t just what the business has become — it’s what the people inside it are becoming, too.
“As we keep building the business, we can invest time in coaching our staff to become not just better tradespeople but better leaders, better people. Those skills spill into their sporting teams, their community groups, their family. That’s really rewarding.”Jason Tait
Explore the Level Alliance: Level Plumbing Canberra is part of Level Group Australia, a network of leading trades businesses. Explore the Level Group partner directory →
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