Maureen bought into the Bark Busters franchise in 2007. Bark Busters has been around since 1989, originating in Wollongong, it’s the world’s largest dog training company.
What drove this business decision for Maureen was her love for animals and how rewarding dog training is. To positively impact the relationship between owners and their furry friends, is something Maureen is really passionate about, she strives for “peace and harmony” with all her clients. Bark Busters services both North & East Perth providing quality dog training services to pet owners in need.
Like all new business owners, Maureen struggled with marketing and getting her business name out there. Feeling that there simply wasn’t enough time in the day to attract new clients even if there was, she wasn’t sure where to look to find quality customers. Before Oneflare it was hard to share information about their services and to reach clients directly.
Experience on Oneflare
Since joining Oneflare, Maureen’s business has gone from strength to strength. Making special mention of the quality of customers on Oneflare, describing them as genuine and of high intent for using Bark Busters. Customer service at Oneflare is an additional feature she finds very supportive, knowing our local Sydney based team is only a phone call away in any instance is great peace of mind for a business owner.
Maureen is also a huge fan of our auto-quoting feature, it allows her to win even more work without having to worry about quoting. Our auto quoting feature sends quotes on behalf of businesses when a lead comes in that matches their preferred job criteria. Simply set it up and win work.
Results on Oneflare
Bark Busters now has
A stellar 5-star rating with nearly 200 reviews
Genuine, high-quality leads
A thriving business
Maureen’s advice for any business looking to sign up with Oneflare is: “It is well worth it, in this day and age the more presence you have the better, as everything is researched reviewed and booked on the internet!“
Eric’s journey into the removalist industry has quite a unique story. After a long career in the financial services industry, Eric was in a tragic motorbike accident. He was in and out of hospital for many years on a long journey to recovery. During his rehabilitation, he found labour-intensive activities the best way to improve his strength and mobility. Planning to return to the workforce, he knew needed a job that kept him moving. He began a small-scale courier service, where he delivered packages and bulky items. This concept continued to evolve and in 2017, became E Team Removalists.
He started out as a sole trader operating out of his SUV. Today, Eric has a team of 12 removalists with 7 vehicles on Sydney’s busy roads.
Eric was completely new to the removalist scene, and admits he had “no industry knowledge”. He set out to learn the ropes of the industry and understand how to run his own business. However, this was a difficult, time-consuming task and after long, labour-intensive work, there wasn’t a lot of time left in the day for lead generation.
In the early stages of his business, he couldn’t afford to pay for marketing or search engine optimisation (SEO). He struggled to find customers and when he did, there was a lot of competition from more established businesses with more manpower and reviews.
Experience on Oneflare
Joining Oneflare in 2019, Eric’s experience on the platform has really helped him scale his business and achieve his goals. His account manager helped develop and grow E Team Removals, with a hands-on approach, shared valuable suggestions and tips for business growth and success on and off the platform.
With experience on multiple service platforms, Eric sheds light on the affordability of Oneflare and the systems in place to help control competition for businesses. Throughout his impressive business journey, he has also managed to build an outstanding reputation, with unfaltering 5-star reviews.
After working as a fully qualified dry cleaner for 30 years, David wanted to try his hand at something a little different but more importantly, he wanted to be his own boss.
So in 2016, David bought into a carpet cleaning franchise to learn the ropes from an established company. Two years later, he was ready to make it on his own, and from there, Express Carpet & Upholstery was born.
Today, Express Carpet & Upholstery is a fully owned and operated family business. Growth over the years has allowed for David and his son to work full time, while his daughter works from home on the books – it’s really a family affair.
Like all new small businesses, David needed a way to consistently find quality customers. As a carpet cleaner, building a base of loyal customers in the first year was very important. In this industry, repeat business doesn’t come for at least 12 months from the first cleaning service. David struggled with lead generation, marketing, SEO and getting reviews to promote his high-quality service.
Experience on Oneflare
“From the word go, it worked”
After being referred to Oneflare by a friend, David thought he’d give it a go. He received support throughout his onboarding and built a relationship with his Account Manager, who to this day, resolves any queries or refund requests.
David has experience using multiple lead generation service platforms but clearly explains that what differentiates Oneflare from the rest is, the “quality of leads and conversion rate”. He attributes these great results to the transparent pricing and information for customers, reviews and the user-friendly mobile app. David is a self-proclaimed “tech-no-phobe”. He likes how easy it is to use the mobile app and the instant lead notifications he receives ensures he doesn’t miss out on any work.
A loyal base of repeat customers, built on reviews and referrals
An 4.8-star rating with over 200 reviews
A thriving family business with the freedom to work whenever and wherever
A “Top-Rated” award
David’s advice for any business looking to sign up with Oneflare is: “If something works, stick to it, and this works.”
David explains that in the beginning, as a small business owner, he found it quite difficult to wrap his head around the fact he had to spend money to make money. But after signing up with Oneflare, he soon realised that the return on investment was far greater than the initial costs. “From the word go, it worked, and worked consistently”, he advises any small business to give Oneflare a chance to experience growth and success as he has with Express Carpet & Upholstery.
After 12 years in the graphic design industry, George possessed a great skill set, knowledge, and experience. In 2000, he decided to start his own business. With a mission to provide quick, affordable, and sustainable graphic design services as George Moussa Designer, he specialises in logo and brand identity design for small businesses.
Challenges before Oneflare
Prior to signing up for Oneflare, George found it difficult to find, secure and service clients. As a graphic designer in Sydney, there is a lot of competition, the market can be hard to break into, and even harder to establish and thrive as a new small business.
After trying out a number of lead generation platforms to help grow his business and source quality leads, he landed on Oneflare and has never looked back.
Joining Oneflare as a small Aussie business meant that local leads were really important to George. Being a graphic designer, he has the ability to work remotely but is passionate about servicing locally acquired leads for a number of reasons. George talks about Australian leads as, “more likely to be genuine, legitimate & trustworthy. Also, since the time zones are close to my area, it makes it easier to initiate, follow and work systematically, methodically & streamlined.”
Oneflare has given George the ability to connect with potential clients and secure projects much more than any other lead generation platform.
“Every other similar platform was way behind on what Oneflare offered in terms of quality”
“George Moussa is truly one of the greatest graphic designers of all time. My project consisted of designing labels, letterheads, and business cards for my sports supplements company. George delivered an outstanding result. His work, work ethic, and communication skills are second to none. With decades of experience, he is truly an expert in his field. I highly recommend using George.”
Lisa became a celebrant because she wanted to make a difference on one of the most important days of one’s life. It all started after Lisa and her husband tied the knot in 2009. She hired a celebrant based on good recommendations, but after the ceremony, she was left feeling like “just a number” due to the lack of consideration for her unique, individual needs.
With this poor experience, Lisa enrolled in a Celebrants course and from there, her business, Beautiful Weddings by Lisa was born. Lisa vowed to listen and learn about every couple, hear their story and make her service as bespoke as possible. In addition to certifying marriage, she offers assistance in vow creation, something she feels very passionate about.
“A vow is a promise, and the most valuable thing you can give another human is your promised word.”
Just 6 months after becoming a qualified celebrant, Lisa relocated to Melbourne from Sydney. Starting a business was hard enough, let alone in a new state, so of course, Lisa struggled to get her name out there and find quality leads. She took to social media but found this method of marketing very time-consuming. She needed to find a more effective lead generator to provide her with the growth and success she was looking for.
After moving to Brisbane a couple of years later, the memories of her first relocation began setting in. The thought of starting that establishment process all over again led her to seek help in the form of digital service platforms. That’s when she found Oneflare, and her business finally started to grow.
After signing up with Oneflare, Lisa has been able to forget the stress of marketing and has built a thriving customer base. A great number of these clients have been referrals from other happy newlyweds. The user-friendly Oneflare site and mobile app have made it easy for Lisa to engage customers and gain valuable reviews.
With the help of Oneflare connecting her to quality customers across Brisbane. Lisa was not only able to get her brand out there but she was nationally recognised for her stellar service as a celebrant. She took home “Brides Choice Awards for Best Celebrant” in 2019 and has been placing in celebrant competitions ever since.
Alex grew up in a family of hard-working plumbers; he started out by helping his dad and brothers with their plumbing work on the weekends. As the years went by, he fell in love with the industry and decided to build his own business, Abco Plumbing Solutions.
He started out as a sole trader and took on jobs throughout Sydney. Now, 16 years later, he has his own team of plumbers, 5 trucks on the road and 24/7 emergency plumbing services.
Alex needed a quick and effective way to connect with genuine, high-quality customers. This was challenging because he didn’t have a strong online presence and had very few reviews and ratings to prove the quality of his work.
“Before I started with Oneflare, I didn’t have many reviews and I wasn’t winning much work. The more time and effort I put into [Oneflare], the more I started to feel that I was starting to win more work because of the reviews. I was starting to get a lot of repeat work, and a lot of genuine customers.” – Alex
Through a Credit plan with Oneflare, Alex committed to growing his business and providing the best service he could for his customers. He collected all his reviews and ratings and completed his Business Profile to stand out against his competitors.
The Customer Success team supported him throughout his onboarding journey and shared valuable advice for winning work. Once all set up, the Oneflare Account Management team took care of any questions and continued to provide support when necessary.
Results on Oneflare
Abco Plumbing Solutions now has
The freedom to choose the type of clients, jobs and locations
Alex’s advice for any business looking to sign up with Oneflare is: “Use the platform, try to jump onto every single job you can. Go and meet your customer, bring a card, quote on the job and brand your business out there. Get out there and give it a go. You’ve got to be in it to win it”.
Alex of Abco Plumbing Solutions / Source: Abco Plumbing
Here we share the story of Melisa Savickas Photography
Starting a small business can be daunting. The stress of whether you’ll be successful, and what the right next step should be to grow can be overwhelming. We spoke with Melisa from Melisa Savickas Photography in Melbourne to hear her insights on how she’s approached running a small business, and how Oneflare was able to help grow her small business.
Melisa has been in the photographic industry for the past two decades working in a variety of roles, and decided to run her own business and register it with Oneflare less than a year ago. Since registering with Oneflare, her photography business has been hired on Oneflare over 73+ times and has over 33+ positive reviews and high star ratings. Here’s what Melisa had to say about how using Oneflare has helped her along the path to success.
Melisa uses Oneflare to help grow her photography business / Source: Stock image.
How much has Oneflare helped grow your business?
Since I got started, Oneflare has been instrumental in growing my client base. My business has more than doubled with Oneflare. I have a regular influx of new customers, and I find that some of my Oneflare customers are returning time and time again to hire me.
How has Oneflare helped this growth?
I have been able to access the general public as well as businesses that I would not otherwise have had access to. I am a sole trader and do not have a shop front, just a website and social media for advertising. Oneflare has become a very effective way for me to market my business and grow my customer base.
How do you think Oneflare helps small businesses?
Small businesses will get the right exposure to new customers on Oneflare, at a reasonable cost and a high strike-rate for professionals. It’s a really effective tool for small businesses to access the customers that they need to get started and keep going.
Do you find using Oneflare easy?
Yes, it’s easy and simple to use. The interface is intuitive and it’s easy for me to update my details, add new images or take old ones down, plus I can respond to my customers’ comments to thank them for their positive reviews. I get notified of new jobs easily through my email and the app on my phone so I can send my quotes quickly.
What is the most important feature of your Oneflare profile to catch a potential customer’s attention?
My positive customer reviews and high star ratings show what I offer my customers in a way that they will trust. I have completed my profile with details of who I am and what I do, plus I show evidence through images of my photographic skills. Being able to link my profile to my business website gives potential customers confidence in my work.
What advice would you give to someone starting to deal with their first customers?
Build up a portfolio of your work and take the time to create a professional-looking website that shows it off. Be reliable and polite with customers. Having good communication skills is essential and always be friendly when talking to customers and out on jobs.
What advice would you give to someone starting their business on Oneflare?
Read the onboarding emails and the Win Work Guide after you register, because these tell you how to correctly complete your profile and get started quoting on jobs. When communicating with a potential customer, provide as much information to them as you can.
What should people who want to hire a professional photographer look for?
A good photographer will have taken the time to make a professional website and profile that shows a range of their work to a high standard.
Don’t go for the cheapest quote – professionals need to factor in high-end camera gear, photo-editing software and the costs of running a small business.
Explain a breakdown of the costs when giving a quote, so there’s no room for surprise that can end in getting a bad review.
Speak to the photographers that send you quotes to see if you feel comfortable with them since you will be spending a lot of time with them.
Having a small business can be stressful when you hit a quiet period and can’t predict when the customers will pick up again. That’s where using Oneflare comes in. The constant flow of job leads means you can grow your business from scratch, or maintain a steady stream of customers.
