When most people think of setting up a business, they think about strategy, goals, roadmaps, and five-year plans.
Yet becoming your own boss doesn’t always have to happen this way. It doesn’t always have to be a painstaking and longwinded process.
For Jake Ogden of Oggy’s Electrical Services, starting a company happened almost by accident.
“My business started by chance, really,” Jake told GoDaddy. “I finished my electrical apprenticeship in 2012 and quit my job to explore a different side of the construction industry and to help out my Dad in his concreting business.
“During this year, I'd occasionally put my electrical license to use here and there with the odd side gig. Then momentum gained from word of mouth, and it snowballed from there.”
More than a decade on and Jake employs more than 15 members of staff alongside contractors.
Baby steps to big success
When Jake started working on side gigs at the same time as helping his dad, he set himself up as a sole trader and invested in the correct insurances.
“I was fitting in electrical jobs on Saturdays and on afternoons,” Jake explained. “But then I found myself needing Fridays off from dad’s business for mine. Then Thursdays as well.”
With demand scaling up, Jake decided to test the waters further with a letter drop.
“I spent hours walking around the local industrial and commercial estates hand dropping letters and capability statements by hand to each business owner,” Jake remembers. “If given the chance, I’d explain who I was and what I was doing to anyone that would listen.”
Then Jake had a stroke of good luck. He handed a letter to a man who ran the maintenance team for a local McDonald’s restaurant owner with more than five stores.
“That letter soon resulted in us looking after the electrical maintenance and repairs for 42 stores across Sydney,” Jake recalls.
“By 2015 we had a staff of four and decided to change business structures to a Pty Ltd company. We still do a couple of million dollars of work annually with McDonald’s and, being a young guy, at 23 years old, having a crack with McDonald’s work, we’ve been able to leverage that experience and build our knowledge and have grown from there.”
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Riding the rollercoaster and knowing when to say no
Of course, like all small business owners, Jake has experienced his fair share of hurdles.
“There have been some crazy times,” Jake said. “Particularly when I was younger, corporations try to bully or manipulate small business owners for their gain and I wasn't in a position to be able to push back, I just had to ride it out.
“The most difficult thing has been maintaining the balance of work from a scheduling perspective. We’re lucky to always have a lot of work year-round, but at times have to be mature enough to say no to projects to avoid being to stretched too thin or overloaded.
“There have been times when we have said no to large projects due to our books being at capacity, but then other projects then get postponed, or stall, and we are left scratching.
“It all works itself out in the end though.”
Top tools
It’s not just insulated screwdrivers, electrical tape, and wire strippers that Jake relies on for his work.
For his business to run smoothly, he uses a number of digital tools including:
- AroFlo for job management
- Xero for accounting
- GoDaddy’s Website Builder, for a website that includes those essential portfolio, contact us and about us pages
Jake also harnesses Instagram and Facebook pages for marketing.
“These tools have streamlined our job management, making it easy for the guys to manage jobs from site and in the office, saving time and money.
“Xero is great for accounting and has many automated features such as importing bills.”
The secrets of success
So, after more than a decade of seeing hard work pay off, what advice does Jake have for nascent entrepreneurs on the cusp of starting their own businesses?
The good news is, there’s plenty.
Here are Jake’s top tips …
Learn from everyone and everything: “If you’ve got friends or relatives in small business then listen to them,” Jake said. “You don’t have to implement everything they suggest but be open to listening and learning from others.
Be willing to work hard: “Owning a successful business doesn’t happen overnight,” Jake explained. “Success and everything that comes with that doesn’t come easy or quickly. Be prepared to deal with, and put in, plenty of long days; you’ll be working late and starting early.
There will be trials, errors and roadblocks. But it’s not all bad.
Don’t complicate things: “Do a great job and provide a great service, keeping your clients’ thoughts in mind. Put yourself in their shoes then invest in your team as you grow. Without a great team, forget about it,” Jake said.
Focus on the long term: “Don’t chase the money, chase longevity. Choose the best path to gain the latter and the money will come anyway with fewer hassles,” Jake advised.
