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This year, Plum Heating and Cooling Melbourne celebrates its 25 year Anniversary. We want to share this special moment with you all as we believe that it is our customers and the community that moulded us to the business we are today.
As a token of our appreciation, we would like to share various articles with you, beginning with this article which explains how the business came about.
It all started in the small community of Werribee where a young man fell in love with a girl and decided he would begin his first and only business closer to her. At this time there was the owner, Kyle Briggs, who was in charge of sales, a receptionist and a plumber.
In recognition of the 25 years in business, we ask the founder of the business 5 questions about the success of Plum and how Plum Heating and Cooling became the successful business we see today.
Let get started..
1. Why did you begin Plum Heating and Cooling Melbourne?
Apart from trying to provide for the family, I wanted to do something that I enjoyed. I also wanted to give good advice and provide an honest service when it came to heating and cooling solutions.
2. How did you come up with the name Plum Heating and Cooling?
The business was originally called ‘North West Air Con’. Then it changed to ‘Climate Centre’. We found that it was a mistake changing it to a name with Climate in it, as people started calling us with weather related issues asking about variation in temperature, atmospheric pressure, wind, etc.
I quickly found that we had to change the name and at the time, businesses with ‘fruit’ names started appearing everywhere. Apple was growing. A phone company called ‘Orange’ came out. Then there were unique names like ‘3 mobile’. All these names made me think of Plum. This is sort of a play on words. It is a unique fruit name as well as being a shortened version of ‘Plumber’. You can also use the slang meaning of ‘neat’ so that plum = a neat job. Keeping it unique meant that people had to ask the question, “why Plum for a heating and cooling company?”
3. How did you feel becoming a business owner?
I was excited and eager. I couldn’t wait to get straight into it! I had the knowledge which I guess eliminated the fear of starting my own business. I also wanted to meet new people and do an excellent job for the customers. I relied heavily on word-of-mouth, so I had to make sure every job was a ‘plum’ job
4. What are the hardest and easiest things about being in business?
Managing cash flow would have to be the hardest. Seeing the amount in your business account and not being able to spend it like crazy was difficult. I needed to be disciplined with my budgeting and could only spend in places where I would get a return on investment.
The easiest thing about being in business is a little harder to decide as it all seems hard at some time. I guess it is the ability to be myself. Being honest and having fun doing what I like doing, for the business. I believe that life is too short and you need to have fun doing what you are doing. With my own business, I was able to do this.
5. Give 5 pieces of advice for other entrepreneurs
- Follow your dreams
- Be honest and sincere
- Look after your staff
- Get an Excellent CRM (customer relationship management) System
- Always leave work at work. Family is more important.
