Over the past 10 years, Craig Dolbel and his Test ‘N’ Tag Orange team have carved out a real niche in the regional New South Wales city of Orange. But, having operated from the same small workshop for many years, the business’s premises were no longer suitable for an expanding team and ever-increasing workload.

At its core, Test ‘N’ Tag Orange is an electrical repair shop that helps customers keep their electrical products safe and up to date.

But Craig’s business is about a lot more than just inspecting, testing and tagging. Test ‘N’ Tag Orange’s combined safety services has grown to include inspections of first aid kits and fire assets (such as extinguishers, hose reels and fire blankets), as well as restocking and even first aid training.

“We found that so many people were going to one place for the test and tag, and another for their first aid training,” explains Craig.

So, he made the business decision to combine these services, meaning customers could go to one place, rather than having to work with and coordinate multiple providers.

A need for space

Having enjoyed consistent growth over recent years, Craig needed extra space in the Test ‘N’ Tag Orange workshop that would help the entire crew streamline their projects, take in more business from the wider region and ultimately boost the company’s bottom line.

“The workshop we had was so small that we were stepping over ourselves just to do our work,” he says.

“That meant if we had multiple projects going on, we’d have to pack one up before moving on to the next. If we were doing a repair and waiting on parts, I’d have to box them up and put it to the side, just to have some room.”

But, thanks to a timely small business loan from Prospa – which saw Craig receive the funding he needed in a matter of days from first contact – Test ‘N’ Tag Orange was able to invest in a more open workshop that is making life a whole lot easier for everyone concerned.

“We’ve now got three workbenches, so it allows us to have multiple jobs on the go,” he explains. “It’s saved us so much time and effort.”

A fast and efficient small business loan process

Craig came across Prospa after watching an episode of small business show The Mentor, which is presented by Australian businessman Mark Bouris.

“Mark Bouris had a lot of good things to say about Prospa,” Craig says. “And I thought to myself, ‘Well, this is a guy who’s done many things in the business world. If he’s speaking about it positively, then it must be good.’”

After previous unsuccessful dealings with more traditional lenders, Craig decided it was worth contacting Prospa to explore further.

“I got on the phone and had an answer almost straight away,” he says. “We didn’t have to go into a bank. We didn’t have to fill out forms. We didn’t have to do any of that. It was quick and simple.”

Planning for a profitable future

While Craig says there’s not much more that needs doing in the newly-expanded workshop, he may well take out another small business loan in the future to purchase more stock, and then working on the backflow.

But, right now, he’s just pleased with the speed, efficiency and overall outcome of using a Prospa Small Business Loan to help make Test ‘N’ Tag Orange an even better business.

A Prospa Small Business Loan has helped Test ‘N’ Tag Orange:

• Invest in a workshop expansion that now includes three workbenches – and enables staff to work on multiple projects at the same time.
• To take on more customer jobs that can be turned around even faster.