Appliance Tagging Services
Smart50 rank: 3
Revenue: $3.61 million
Growth: 120.30%
Founders: Sarah Allen, 36; Ainslie Allen, 42
Based: Victoria
Employees: 15
Industry: Property and business services
Website: www.appliancetaggingservices.com.au
In 2002, business owners across all industries began to come to terms with occupational health and safety regulations. It was perfect timing for Victorian-based Appliance Tagging Services. The demand for electrical safety “testing and tagging” was beginning to grow because the majority of electrical contractors, the prime suppliers of this service, did not have the systems and resources to handle the administrative complexity of the rules.
Ainslie and Sarah Allen identified the opportunity to provide a service to satisfy these OH&S requirements and established Appliance Tagging Services as a division of their electrical contracting company. It now has revenue of $3.6 million, up from $1 million in 2006-07.
They developed systems and “back end” tools to manage large multi-site organisations’ electrical safety compliance needs. Demand for Appliance Tagging Services grew quickly, presenting a huge challenge.
“For Appliance Tagging Services to provide a truly national service, the distances involved in servicing clients requirements has sometimes been very difficult to manage,” says Sarah Allen.
The pair decided to develop a franchise operation but they delayed putting on a franchise development manager. “This, in the early stages, impacted on the growth of our franchise network,” she says. There are now 18 franchises.
In December 2007 disaster struck. The pair had just launched an interactive online reporting tool that provided clients with 100% access to all test results and reports for download in a variety of formats. However at the same time they replaced their old server with one that was faster and more powerful.
“Unfortunately, this new server crashed at least 10 times per day which made invoicing impossible. To make matters worse, we were servicing clients at 100% capacity. Whilst we argued with the server supplier, software provider and server manufacturer, we were unable to produce an invoice or report for two months,” she says. Cash flow came to a grounding halt and financially things were looking very grim until the installation of a new server in February 2008.
“We have learnt that we need to have tighter contractual obligations when it comes to a major hardware and software installation,” Allen says. “The reliance business places on a server should not be underestimated, and without the support and understanding of our franchisees and suppliers, we may not have survived to tell the story!”
The pair are focusing on their online strategy. “This is fast becoming our largest source of new business,” she says. They are redeveloping their website to provide key information easily, and to drive the “call us now” message. “We have moved away from the very expensive and ineffective Online Yellow Pages, and are now focusing on search engines for new business. As a relatively new industry (for those not in construction) the majority of inquiry comes after some form of internet research as to their obligations,” Allen says.
They are also planning to expand into New Zealand and Western Australia. “Our goal is to establish an area development agreement in both New Zealand and Western Australia by the end of 2009,” she says.
Allen says the industry is growing rapidly. “WorkSafe are actively targeting ‘testing and tagging’ in some states and in other states ‘testing and tagging’ is now written in to OH&S legislation,” she says. “All businesses across Australia are required to comply with OH&S regulations.”
