Time flies when you’re on the frontline

Owning a business can become all-consuming, just ask Matt Daly of Daly Plumbing. Matt had been working crazy hours since starting his own plumbing business in 1996. It wasn’t until 2016, that he and wife Kristen went to Bali for a break. That’s a long time without holidays!

This is their story.

The old days

They were long and lonely hours back in the early days. Initially, it was Matt’s choice to put in the hard yards, believing that one day the hard work would pay off. Over time, he realised there was no break in sight.

Enter wife Kristen, who gave up being a nurse to join in and get things sorted. Before she knew it, she too was lost in the world of paperwork and job management.

In fact, whenever the family would go away on holidays, Matt would stay behind, instead using the opportunity to catch up on paperwork in the office.

“We were out of control, working at least 12 hours per day and in the office every weekend.” Kristen

Working harder and adding more staff didn’t help

No matter how hard Matt, Kristen and their growing team worked, they could never get on top of the workload. The more work, the more staff required to run the business, which in turn increased administration - more work also meant more invoices to be processed. It was like any business that struggles with it’s workload: unless a system is put in place, the existing cycle continues.

Post-simPRO

The situation got to breaking point. Kristen had heard of this simPRO thing and asked herself, “what have we got to lose?” So, they took the leap and made the investment.

Under an already frantic workload, Matt entrusted Kristen with bringing simPRO into the business.

“If I had my time again I would have sat down from the start and done all the training.” Matt Daly, Daly Plumbing

Soon, things began to settle. Invoices were no longer waiting until the end of the month to be processed, often now being sent once the job was complete, that day.

Quotes were no longer double handled, field staff were much less reliant on the office and the office gained increased visibility into what was happening out on the road in real time.

Finally, it became time for Matt & Kristen to take a break so they headed to Bali. It was Matt’s first holiday since he began the business back in 1996. Kristen took the iPad and deliberately kept Matt out of the loop. With the iPad, Kristen was able to monitor operations and financial back in the office. Once returned from Bali, Matt sat down and said “ok, I’m ready to take a look at this thing.”

We’ve written before about the importance of taking a step back from the business. Matt’s break from the office is what enabled him to see the bigger picture and understand the enormous benefit simPRO could bring to the business and their personal life.

The big change

• Bills are going out as the job is finished rather than processing piles at the end of the month
• All staff have returned to working ‘normal’ hours
• All the info about every job is within a keystroke
• Kristen is again sleeping at night
• Kristen began fulfilling her dreams. Last year she walked the Kokoda trail
• Another holiday has been planned. They’re off to Milford Sounds in New Zealand for Kristen to introduce Matt to some hiking
• Matt’s rekindled his passion of racing classic cars
• Matt doesn’t want to be working every day but wants to remain connected which is exactly what has happened

Watch their story below.