24/06/2022
No I'm not retiring but will hit a bit of a milestone next week when we finish 30 yrs in business and go into our 31st year or our 4th decade to make it sound a little more impressive. Lol. I still love what i do believe it or not probably due to having a lot of fun, having a good laugh around the work site and trying to keep it enjoyable as possible by talking plenty of nonsense and encouraging it as much as possible, I've always thought if you're going to be stuck there for 8 hrs you might as well try having fun doing it. To be fair being in this game for my 45th year there certainly is days where i find I'm get a bit over it but i put that down to probably getting a few kilometers on the clock and turning into a bit of a grumpy old bastard as the boys point out to me on nearly a daily basis now so there might be something in that.Lol. I'd be lying if I said it's been all roses for all these years, yes we have had many good times with a lot of hard work but s**t we have been up a lot of dusty tracks as well with just as much hard work and just getting by as plenty of other small business owners would understand but on the positive we have always stuck with it and rode out the hard times with the belief that things would turn around and the attitude of well ,it is what it is. In saying that my home town of Gatton and the people of the Lockyer Valley in general have been very good to us and i have left literary a thousand jobs with new friends that i often run into and get a hello in passing, even if you don't remember their name you remember you painted their house at some point. It's also always nice when people ring you to come and see them about doing their place for the 2nd time and we have actually done a couple for the 3rd time which is the wonderful thing about small country town loyalty. Of cause that cuts both ways as kerrie and i have always been supporters of local sporting and community groups where possible with sponsorship, donating a drum of paint for a working bee or simply sending a couple of the boys for a day to throw a quick coat on something to simply help out and you tend to find it's greatly appreciated and that's what it's all about i believe. I think what's kept me keen for all these years, even in the tough times has been the satisfaction you get in the finished job, i mean it's fairly normal to come across jobs that really needed to be done a while ago and after the team puts in the blood sweat and tears and seriously some bloody hard work you end up with something that's pretty smart, a happy client and something you can look at over the years and still be proud of the result you got, after all these years that still gives me a buzz. We have had many good staff over the years and have always relied on local tradesman, apprentices and subbies were possible to try and keep the money local as not only the local home owners but also many business owners and Comercial building owners have supported us very well over the years which also shows they have similar ideas of locals supporting locals. Oh well it's been a great 30 yrs and i have no idea where it went but I'll touch wood that there's a few more in us yet.👍
