When Joel Sleeman did a shop tour last year at Network Home Services, one of Sydney's largest home service businesses, he came home with a clear goal: build something like that.
The problem? The software he was using wasn't built for it.
Sleeman is the owner of Skyco Trades, an electrical and air conditioning company in Sydney's Sutherland Shire. He had been relying on the same software since launching the business in 2017, and it worked fine for builders, Skyco’s primary business.
But home service runs differently.
The software couldn’t keep up with crucial steps to the sales process, such as presenting multiple options on a job, converting quotes on the spot, and adding extra work while already on site.
"It was like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole," Sleeman said. "It was very, very clunky."
For example, when trying to present multiple options to a customer, Sleeman’s old software would only show the total cost of all the options combined.
"The customer's thinking, 'What's $40,000? What's this for?'" Sleeman said. “And I was like, ‘No, no, no.’”
Network Home Services was running on ServiceTitan. So were the American tradie podcasters Sleeman had been following: Tommy Mello and Ismael Valdez, tradies doing hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.
“Everyone said a big reason (for their success was) ServiceTitan,” Sleeman said. “So I'm like, ‘If everyone else is doing it and having massive success, why can't I?’”
Built for Home Service
Six months into using ServiceTitan, Skyco’s numbers were already moving.
"When the top and bottom line go up, we've made the right choice," Sleeman said.
The software has given Skyco's five technicians the sales tools to do more on every home service job.
Presenting options: Sleeman can now run a report showing his technicians are averaging 2.4 options per job. "The technicians like knowing to provide options because it's increasing their sales," Sleeman said.
Job history: Technicians now walk into every job with a full picture of the customer: past visits, photos and unsold estimates. That’s very different from how things used to look on their prior software. "The technician would get the quote and they wouldn't know if it was a first-time customer, or a customer that we've been servicing for the last five years."
Adding work on site: When a customer asks for extra work while a tech is already there, ServiceTitan keeps it all together. "There are times when it's just the power point," Sleeman said. "But now there are times when it's the power point plus the switchboard. It's not just a $500 job. It's a $5,000 job."
Since switching to ServiceTitan, Sleeman estimates that the average monthly revenue per technician has gone up 25%-30%, with some technicians now averaging $45,000 to $55,000.
Skyco’s average ticket tells the same story. It used to be around $700.
“Now, the average ticket is $1,300,” he said.
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Building to Sell
Last year, Skyco brought in around $1.2 million in revenue. This year, the company is on track to cross $2 million.
Behind the growth is a bigger goal. "I want to get the business to a point where I can sell in 2030," Sleeman said. Whether he does or not is another question, but the target is set.
Private equity has arrived in Australia, and Sleeman has been paying attention. "Hearing the stories about private equity in America... it's here now," he said.
That shift has changed what makes a trade business worth buying. It's no longer just about goodwill, Sleeman explained.
"Now you're buying a system that runs without you," he said. "You're buying a system backed with all this data. ServiceTitan shows we get this many calls from this many marketing channels. We book this many calls a day, and get this much revenue, and these are our average tickets.
“That’s what (private equity) is buying.”
And it's why Sleeman is all in on ServiceTitan.
"ServiceTitan is probably the best program to have, not even just to sell, but just to grow and expand," he said. "If you want to sell, people want to buy something. (With ServiceTitan), they've got evidence. They've got data."
