What do Tae Kwon Do and air duct maintenance have in common?

Written by Tess Sanders Lazarus

When Glenn Allan decided to launch his own commercial air duct maintenance business in Victoria just over 18 months ago, he didn’t realise at the time how vital his Tae Kwon Do experience and training would become.

Kex Commercial Services provides air duct maintenance, kitchen exhaust compliance, fan replacement, sanitisation, air quality testing and maintenance and mould remediation across the commercial, industrial and business sectors.

“I’ve been doing Tae Kwon Do for years. As a third dan black belt, not only is it good for my fitness and mental health, it’s also good for my agility and flexibility,” Allan said

“In fact, I love the sport so much, I’ve been a Tae Kwon Do senior instructor for years too, teaching kids and adults with my local club, Moon Lee Tae Kwon Do Martial Arts Club in Dandenong for over 13 years.

“My line of work is really gruelling, more physically gruelling than you realise. At any time, I may have to crawl along a narrow air duct that is up to 40 metres long to get to an exhaust fan or outlet that needs maintenance or replacement.

“Not only do you have to be incredibly fit, you also need to be able to work in confined spaces. It takes a lot of stamina, perseverance and self-control to work in spaces like that.”

According to Allan, he wouldn’t be able to do what he does without his Tae Kwon Do skills.

“Tae Kwon Do is a wonderful community that has given me self-worth and confidence that has enabled me to start my business. It is a great sport that includes five important tenants: courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control and indomitable spirit,” Allan said.

“My whole team has to be incredibly fit and focused to do what we do.

“I like structure and I like control and these things have helped me to grow the business at a super-fast rate while at the same time keeping things well organised and structured.

“I have also implemented systems to enable the business to expand rapidly. Installing invoice financing has been a key element of our success.

“With me needing to focus so strongly on service delivery and operations, I wanted to ensure that I had a good finance partner in place to chase down our invoices and ensure quick payment. The team and I don’t have time to be doing this.

“So we engaged Earlypay to take care of this for us through invoice financing. The whole process is so easy; they pay our invoices upfront providing our business with stable reliable income and they take on responsibility for getting paid by our clients.

“It’s a win-win situation that also means we can rely on our own income for growth rather than having to speak to the bank about loans. I haven’t got time to be put through the wringer and nor do I want to. Kex Commercial Services would not be where we are without the support of Earlypay.”

According to the CEO of Earlypay, Daniel Riley, invoice financing has been around for many years and is increasing in popularity because it is now so easy to set up and use.

“Once the facility has been established, the business simply generates and sends invoices as per normal. We then pay 80 percent of the value of the invoices to the business upfront so they no longer have to wait for invoices to be paid. We can also look after chasing debtors and managing collections so people in the business can focus on what they’re good at,” Riley said.

“For businesses that use Xero or MYOB, we integrate with their accounting software to automatically access the invoices directly so it’s a really simple way for busy business owners to access funding.

“As a result of the pandemic and increased awareness of invoice financing as a product, the demand for invoice financing is growing fast and the amount we lend to SMEs has doubled in the past year. It is ideal for businesses facing supply chain issues or other challenges that impact cash flow and can be used by businesses in any stage of the lifecycle, from start-ups to large, established businesses. And because invoice financing relies on the strength of the debtors and invoices instead of the business itself, it is also suitable for businesses that have a short trading history, significant debts or a less than perfect credit history, which is a group often ignored by banks.

“Invoice financing is growing in popularity as a funding tool because it offers the flexibility to suit just about any type of business that sells on credit to other businesses and issues invoices after the goods or services have been delivered. A big positive is also that it uses outstanding invoices as security and not the business owners’ homes.

“COVID has created an extraordinary and unusual set of trading circumstances for businesses that traditional business loans are not set up to cover and we’re delighted to see Glenn and his team enjoy such great growth with the assistance of invoice financing.”

About Earlypay

Earlypay is an ASX listed (ASX: EPY) provider of business finance that has experienced year on year growth since its inception in 2001. Earlypay provides a number of key services, including Invoice Financing, Equipment Financing, Trade Financing and Foreign Exchange Services.