Episode 10 - The Air Conditioning Podcast | ARMA

Howdy guys,  Welcome to the 50th and Final Episode of The Air Conditioning Podcast!

No guests on this episode, just the two of us reminiscing previous episodes, blending back and smashing a couple of Furphy's, reflecting on what an awesome time we've had putting this shindig together.

Without getting too soft, we've learned an absolute ton of information from our guests, regardless of their company size or background and are so grateful for each and everyone of them for joining us on our show and sharing their wisdom and experience.  We'd also like to say a massive cheers to you, the listener for taking the time out of your busy days to listen in.

We want to wish you and your families every success for the future, stay happy, healthy and prosperous in every thing you do.  Don't sweat the small stuff and celebrate the positive influence you have on this industry.

Until we meet again guys, we love yer guts.

Hey guys and welcome to Episode 49 of The Air Conditioning Podcast! 

In this episode we diverted slightly outside the realms of HVAC to bring you a Plumber!!??  Why you ask?  Well that’s not the reason we invited him on the Show. Nor is it because he owns and operates two successful plumbing businesses (one of which won a Telstra Business Award in2019), nor was it because he is also Chairman of Master Plumbers Australia and President of ACT Master Plumbers! Nope, we invited Tom Martin onto the Show because of his other business which is Virtual Trade Assistant.

Tom speaks frankly about how a VA can help us with our business in giving us back our precious time by outsourcing many of our day to day tasks.

We were left wanting to know more and will be speaking to Tom further ourselves about potential VA’s for our own business.

(Psst! Make sure you listen until then end of the episode for a rather big announcement!)

Hope you enjoy the episode and here’s just a smidge of what we covered…..

Take us back to the start.  How did all this come about? (4:15)

How do you source the ideal VA? (7:10)

What are some of the main benefits of outsourcing tasks? (11:00)

How much of our business should we be outsourcing? (12:50)

How do you measure their performance? (14:30)

Do you have the opportunity to listen in on calls for the purpose of coaching and quality assurance? (16:00)

Can you briefly run us through the initial consultation and how you implement a VA to a business? (17:35)

If a VA is working with multiple business’s does that pose any issues? (22:40)

With the time differences and various religious holidays etc, how do we ensure that the VA is working the hours we need them to and does someone else step into their role in their absence? (25:30)

And honestly, there is so much more ground we covered in this episode and highly suggest you check it out because having a VA in your business, might just gift you some of your time back again.  More time to work on your business instead of in it.

To reach out to Tom and the team at Virtual Trade Assistant, head over to virtualtradeassistant.com.au or send an email to info@virtualtradeassistant.com.au or even call Tom on 02 6100 1798.

Until the next (and final) Episode guys, Catcha!

Hey guys! In this episode of The Air Conditioning Podcast we very fortunate to have chatted with Florida based CEO of Lead Ninja Sales Training & Marketing, Gene Slade.

Now living Down Under, you may not have heard of Gene (yet), but this dude is a gun when it comes to helping Service Techs and Business Owners Double Their Sales, Income And Profits across the USA.  With an extremely impressive back story, Gene’s massive enthusiasm, passion for the industry and obsession in helping others, we’re sure you’ll find him as infectious as we did.

Here’s just a sniff of stuff we unpacked……

Tell us more about the Gene Slade story by taking us back to the beginning about how you got started and where? (1:30)

How much coin is a tech leaving on the table when they carry out a straight service or maintenance visit? (7:30)

What questions to ask in order to increase your ticket value (9:30)

Talking tech with the client and using industry jargon to impress the client with your extensive level of knowledge……is it really helpful? (11:05)

What’s the missing ingredient between a tech who goes carry’s out a service without adding value and increasing their ticket value, compared with the tech who adds value for the client, but also increases their ticket and increases their profits? (13:30)

Should technicians be paid by the hour or should the be paid by commissions and incentives? (18:00)

Is maintenance servicing, just maintenance? (23:15)

What’s your favourite “Grant Cardone” close when it comes to overcoming a client objection? (32:00)

For anyone currently in lockdown and unable to go out and work, what should they be doing right now to help their business? (36:00)

And guys believe me when I say that is just a snippet of the gold nuggets Gene rips out in this episode.  We hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed bringing it to you.

If you’d like to learn more about Gene Slade, Lead Ninja Sales Training and the great stuff they’re doing, you can visit leadninjavt.com, or just Google his name, you’ll find him no problem.

Thanks for listening people and for your support, we love ya work!

Howdy guys & gals and welcome to Episode 48 of The Air Conditioning Podcast!

In this episode, we chatted with NSW based business owner Ray Pinto of Pinto Air Conditioning services.

Ray spoke candidly about how and why he started his own air conditioning business, his day to day, how COVID affected his business and where he sees his business heading in the coming years.

Here’s a sneak peak of what we chatted about:

What sort of work are you doing right now in light of Lockdown? (3:00)

What sort of work can you do, and can’t you do with restrictions in place? (3:15)

Take us back to the start, how did you get into the industry and how where did you start? (4:15)

What you say that going out on your own was a good move? (7:30)

Do you think you are working longer or shorter hours working in your own business? (8:00)

Do you have an Accountant/Bookkeeper to help you with your accounting and paperwork? (8:30)

How do you go with your paperwork?  Are you diligent with it? (9:00)

Are you doing mostly Residential or do you work with Commercial clients as well? (10:30)

Do you use a manual paperwork system, or do you use an online CRM? (12:00)

Is it just yourself in your business or do you have other employees? (14:30)

How do manage your customer acquisition? (17:45)

Are you looking to take on any apprentices at any stage? (18:30)

And that’s just a sniff of the stuff we covered…

If you’d like to learn more about Pinto Air Conditioning Services, you can check Ray’s business out on Facebook here.

So we hope you enjoy the episode and hope you enjoy your weekend.  Stay safe, stay strong and get vaccinated so we can meet down the pub for a beer as soon as possible!!

Until the next episode guys…catcha!

Hey all and welcome to Episode 46 of The Air Conditioning Podcast!

In this episode, Brad and Shane have the tables turned on them and were very fortunate to have been asked to be a guest on Behind The Tools Podcast (by Tradify), with the Host and CEO of Tradify, Mr Michael Steckler.

Behind the Tools Podcast is an inside look at tradespeople from all over the world. On each episode, they bring on a guest to answer the real questions you have about life in the trades, running a business, and how to overcome the challenges that come with being a tradesperson.

In this interview, we chatted about how our own  business, Morphett Air started back in 1971 from humble beginnings where our parents worked from home amongst other topics. 

Until now, we haven't really spoken about our business, so while it felt a little awkward at times, it was a great experience and Michael was a great (and very professional) host.  We hope you guys enjoy the episode and urge to you to check out the Behind The Tools Podcast here.

Thanks guys and have a great weekend!

Howdy guys, hope you’re all safe and well in these uncertain times.

In this episode of The Air Conditioning Podcast, we chatted with Scott Kenny who is a Refrigeration tech working for Airmaster Australia.

Airmaster is an award-winning building services company, providing HVAC&R Management, smart building solutions and fire services across Australia, New Zealand and South-East Asia.

Here’s a taste of what we discussed…

Can you start by telling us a bit more about how you got into the trade and Airmaster? (2:00)

How long have you been working with Airmaster? (6:00)

How long has Airmaster been in business? (6:45)

Airmaster is innovative with their technology and data acquisition, can you unpack this a bit further? (9:30)

Looking at some Plant Rooms and the sheer size of them, you would imagine that there would be concerns around energy consumption? (13:30)

Sounds as though you have a considerable amount of variation in your role? (19:30)

Do you think the Airports etc are moving more towards VRV/VRF Systems? (23:00)

Has it ever crossed your mind about shifting from Commercial to Residential? (32:00)

Airmaster covers a lot of markets, are there any that you would be interested in moving into? (34:00)

And that’s just a sniff….

If you like the Refrigeration nitty gritty, we reckon you’ll enjoy this chat.

We’d like to personally thank Scott for joining us on the show and sharing his experience and knowledge.

If you’d like to reach out to Airmaster Australia, you can visit their website at https://www.airmaster.com.au/ or Scott personally at skenny81 (on insta)

But until the next episode guys…stay safe and don’t do anything Brad wouldn’t do…well…just be safe.

Hi guys, in Episode 44 of The Air Conditioning Podcast, were joined by David and Oscar Cardenas from All Climate Solutions, a family owned and operated business out of Mulgrave in Victoria, Australia.  From humble beginnings in 2011 to a team 25 staff members strong, they continue to grow from strength to strength covering all aspects of air conditioning and refrigeration in sales and service for Residential and Commercial clientele. 

Here’s a snip of what we chatted about….

How did your company start and where are you at now? (3:30)

With a team that large, how do you go managing your staff? (4:30)

Do you have a staff member that overseas your staff or do you manage them yourselves? (6:00)

Was your growth a gradual process or did you see a definite surge? (6:50)

What would you put the rapid growth down to? (8:00)

With the growth of the business, did this mean that you needed to consider systemising your business? (8:50)

What’s your mix of Residential and Commercial work and do refrigeration as well? (11:00)

Do you employ your own duct installers, electricians etc or do you use subbies? (12:00)

How do you ensure your quality control? (13:40)    

What are you using in the way of technology? (14:25)

How do you market your business? (19:15)

Out of the multiple ways you market your business, what gives you the best return on your investment? (20:45)

And that’s just scratching the surface….

We’d like to sincerely thank David and Oscar for joining us on the show today and wish them continued success with their business.

If you’d like to get in touch with the guys and their team at All Climate Solutions, you can visit their website at https://www.allclimatesolutions.net.au/ or contact them at 03 9561 0220.

But until the next episode folks…catcha!

Howdy folks!  In this episode of The Air Conditioning Podcast, we were joined by Craig Staley of HG Site Designs.  Based in Omaha, Nebraska in good ol’ US of A, Craig and his team specialise in Small to Medium sized Businesses who are looking to scale their business without spending massive hours of their own time and dollars.  Craig and his team consider themselves to be long term strategic partners to help you grow and improve your business.

There is so much to cover in the area of marketing, specifically, Google Ads, Google My Business, SEO and Reviews, and as usual we unfortunately ran well short of time but tried to cram as many gold nuggets in as we could in the time we had with him.  We hope you find the episode helpful!

Here’s a tad of what we covered…..

Can you tell us more about your company and how you help businesses? (7:00)

Once you have a website, how do you drive traffic to it? (10:00)

Craig talks about Google My Business…what is it, why it’s important and where does it appear on Google? (10:30)

Why are Google Reviews important and is it better to have a high star rating with few reviews or lesser star rating with a larger volume of ratings? (12:30)

What’s the best way to acquire client Google Reviews? (15:35)

Is it ok to respond to Negative Reviews? (21:00)

Is it more important to have a Google My Business page than to have a website? And for anyone just starting out in business with a limited budget, what advice would you offer? (23:45)         

For anyone who might already have an online presence and are looking to grow their business, what advice could you offer to assist with growth?  (26:10)

Do you think it’s a good idea to outsource your marketing and social media or should we be doing it ourselves? (29:00)

And there was plenty more goodies in there….

We’d like to thank Craig for joining on the show and hope that you find it helpful with your marketing of your business.

If you’d like to reach out to Craig,  you can find him at craig@hgsitedesign.com or as Craig mentioned he has some free work sheets and videos to help set up your Google My Business page at www.hgsitedesign.com/gmb. 

Also, don’t forget to check out his podcast:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-small-business-school/id1510776072

But until the next time guys…bye for now!

Howdy guys, in Episode 42 of The Air Conditioning Podcast we chatted with the SA State Manager of Airefrig Australia, Mr Ben Bithell.

Starting out from a WA based Garage in 1970, Airefrig Australia grew substantially in the first 12 months, and has continued that momentum. Airefrig Australia is a company that’s committed to being market leaders as a national wholesaler for the refrigeration and air conditioning industry.

We hope you enjoy the episode and as usual, here is a sticky beak….

Take us back to humble beginnings and how Airefrig started (2:50)

How many brunches do you have (3:50)

How do you service your customers on site?  Do you deliver out? (5:15)

Do you have an online portal for your customers? (6:45)

Can you see the business heading more towards becoming an online business? (8:15)

Who is your target client?  Do you cater from single self-employed through to large companies? (9:00)

You mentioned the Airbiz Solutions Portal for your trade account customers, can you tell us more about what this offers? (10:00)

Does it offer reporting for reclaim bottle tracking for the purpose of ARCtick auditing? (12:30)

Given that Airefrig expanded so quickly from a garage in WA to 11 locations Australia Wide, what would you say has attributed to the success of the business? (13:30)

When it comes to the HVAC side of the business, do you sell splits direct? (17:45)

Working with some of the biggest names in the industry, how does Airefrig select which brands they will work with and endorse? (18:30)

Can you tell us more about the range of tools you offer? (21:00)

Can you tell us more about the Ben Bithell story?  How and where did you start out? (24:15)

And that’s just a sniff of what we coverd….

If you’d like to get in touch with the team at Airefrig Australia, you can check them out at https://www.airefrig.com.au/

We hope you enjoy the episode once again guys and thanks for stopping by!

Have a good one.

Hey people!  In this episode of The Air Conditioning Podcast we sat down with Robert Wolfe and Martin Howlett from the Trade Advisory Group.

Identifying a gap in the market in providing experience based business assistance to business owners in the trade sector, The Trade Advisory Group are made up of advisors with decades of personal experience in owning and operating successful trade businesses, they are a trusted business partner that offer the right tools and advice when it comes to overcoming problems and providing clarity to understanding your business.

Here’s a bit of what we covered:

Can you tell us more about what it is you do and the services you offer? (4:00)

Can you tell us more about the business that you were currently operating before branching out to The Trad Advisory Group? (4:30)

Running any business during the midst of COVID was challenging enough, let alone selling one business and starting another.  Can you tell us how you navigated through this difficult period? (5:45)

Does your business primarily focus on HVAC businesses or what other trades do you work with? (6:30)

Are you working with many clients who are still trying to navigate through the impacts of COVID? (9:00)

What are the common issues that present with businesses you work with? (10:30)

How do you approach new clients when it comes to identifying their problem areas? (12:15)

For anyone who is contemplating branching out from being employed to starting their own business, do you think it would be of benefit for them to speak with you first, prior to taking the initial leap? (13:40)

How important is marketing to a business? (16:45)

You introduce technology options to your clients to assist with their business, can you tell us more about that? (18:00)

How important is it to have a business plan in place? (20:45)

Why is Succession and Exit Planning important to a business (25:00)

What are KPI’s and why are they important to implement? (30:15)

And that’s just a taste of what to expect!

We’d like to thank Robert and Martin for joining us on the show today and if you’d like to reach out to the guys and their team, you can visit their website at tradeadvisorygroup.com.au

But until the next episode guys…..Catcha!