Mark Lucchiari’s (aka Lucch) is not one to sit still. From professional wakeboarder to Australian Champion kickboxer, his career is full of adventure. Weekends include skydiving, surfing, abseiling and mountain biking while his plumbing business goes from strength to strength with the help of smart cloud software.
The dawn of epic adventures
Before we get onto the plumbing story, let’s set the tone with Lucch’s backstory.
A career in plumbing began with an apprenticeship at the fledgling age of 15, while on the sporting field Lucch was kicking goals playing football for the Burleigh Bombers.
His friend, an Australian wakeboarding champion, saw Lucch’s wakeboarding potential and convinced him to give the sport a serious go. Plumbing gets sidelined to take on the sport professionally. Together they open a wakeboarding school.
Six years later, Lucch returns to plumbing.
And that's just the beginning.
Professional fighter with a plumbing side hustle
One afternoon Lucch decides to enrol his son in a boxing class. After frequenting the gym, he decides to give kickboxing a try for himself.
You know what’s coming next.
Boots ‘n all, Lucch turns professional. Dedicated to the craft, he set about working his way up through the ranks.
To pay the bills he has a team of contractors doing rough-ins for high-rise apartment buildings on the Gold Coast. Several times each week he’d visit on-site to keep the project moving.
“Once I’d set the boys up on-site, I could concentrate on fighting”
- Mark Lucchiari, EEP Plumbing.
The family begin spending time in Thailand for Mark and his son to pursue a fighting career.
Lucch went on to become the Australian Muay Thai champion. Twice.
Settling down to go big
After executing such a mighty achievement, Mark returns home to focus on his plumbing business, EEP Plumbing.
EEP begins branching out for more work into the domestic and commercial markets and it's not long before consistent work is streaming in. Winning projects and earning a reputation is the lifeblood of any business but it’s important to cast one eye into the financial future.
The team is building and the bank account is growing, but in this day and age when pen and paper remain your source of truth, cracks begin to appear. There’ll inevitably come a time when you need some very clear visibility into your finances.
“You wouldn’t know if you’d made any money until the end of the job.”
- Lucch
Financial reporting and cash forecasting becomes difficult without the right office tools in place. On project works, the money is often going out before it’s coming in so the bigger your business and the bigger the projects, the more financial forecasting plays an integral role.
The inevitable pain point that can make or break a business
We’re not talking about the kind of pain experienced in the cage.
The business is going well. Real well. In fact, in less than 12 months EEP landed their largest commercial project to date - a $750,000 hospital project. Quickly the wages bill grows from $5k to $25k per week and the materials bill jumps from $10k p/month to $60k p/month.
When the capital is not immediately available, sleepless nights are ahead.
Before it’s too late, Lucch gets in touch with Groundplan.
How does Groundplan help to estimate plumbing takeoffs?
By doing a digital takeoff of the floorplan, EEP Plumbing could quickly see the exact labour and materials required to finish the job and were able to make financial decisions accordingly.
The project turned out a success with the builder happy but the lessons were learnt; it was time to reinvest back into the company to build a digital infrastructure. EEP later added to the mix with job management software and Xero for accounting.
Mark’s since been busy in the office learning the systems and creating processes to bring it all together and get some reporting in place.
“We wouldn’t be where we are today and we wouldn’t be able to expand further without these cloud systems”.
- Lucch
These digital systems can be huge in their scope. When you’re managing your own business day in, day out, it can be near impossible to extract anything close to what these systems are capable of.
Mark's focus on reporting will soon be magnified with external help in the form of Modus Operandi, who will dig deeper into EEP's process and report on how they can further optimise operations.
With the foundations in place, financial clarity is increasing every day.
“We wouldn’t be able to compete with these bigger companies without the software”
- Lucch
The great freedom enabler
Today, the suite of cloud software gives Mark the freedom to do what he loves from anywhere.
“Another HUGE part is that it’s all online and cloud-based. I’m away most weekends, and 1 week every month, as long as I have internet, I can take my work with me”
- Lucch
The added flexibility today’s cloud software affords business owners and managers is being embraced far and wide. Whether you choose to work from home, from the ski fields or out on site, whatever your lifestyle, you have your own choice to make.
The choice is yours
If you too are looking for the agility, flexibility and financial accuracy that cloud takeoff software gives you, it’s time to get in touch.
We’d like to thank Mark Lucchiari for sharing his incredible story. Below we’ve included some links if you’re interested in checking out more of what he's up to.
Lucch Links
The day CYPRESS saved the life of Mark ‘Lucch’ Lucchiari
