From a $90K Loss to 7 Trucks: How Jay Hogan Turned ProFlow Around in 3 Months
How a former soldier turned a failing family business into a fleet operation — by finally learning his numbers.
Jay Hogan went to the accountant expecting good news. He'd been grafting — long hours, barely a day off, building a gutter cleaning operation from scratch with his dad in Perth.
The accountant looked at the numbers and told him he'd made a ninety thousand dollar loss.
No pricing structure. No financial oversight. Just hard work and hope — and it wasn't enough.
Three months later, Jay had clawed back the $90K and banked a $50K profit. Today, ProFlow runs seven trucks with seven field staff, and Jay is stepping out of the day-to-day to build a business that doesn't need him on every job.
Here's how he did it — and what every trade business owner can take from his story.
The Family Business: A $1.2M Contract That Disappeared Overnight
Jay's dad had been running a commercial pressure cleaning business in Perth for close to thirty years. The backbone of the operation was a railway contract — cleaning train stations across the network on a twelve-month rolling schedule.
It was solid, consistent work. Until it wasn't.
The government department changed its approach — from scheduled cleans to ad hoc, as-needed work. Funding got cut. The contract that had been pulling in roughly $1.2 million a year dropped to around $300,000 virtually overnight.
With most of the revenue tied to a single client, the business was in serious trouble.
Lesson: If the bulk of your revenue comes from one contract or one client, you don't have a business — you have a dependency. Diversify your income streams before you're forced to.
From the Army to the Workshop: Jay's Path Back
Jay hadn't planned on coming back to the family business. After leaving school, he'd worked with his dad for five years before following a lifelong ambition to join the Australian Army — direct entry for special forces.
Two weeks before his selection course, he fractured both legs during a solo navigation exercise. Sixty kilos of gear, a hidden crack in the ground at the edge of a ravine, and a fall that ended his selection dream.
With no radio signal at the bottom of the ravine, Jay threw a rope around a tree, hauled himself out, and walked two kilometres on fractured legs to reach a road.
He spent the rest of his five-year career in an infantry unit in Darwin, rising to acting corporal — responsible for a section of ten soldiers by the age of twenty-five.
When his dad called and told him how bad things had gotten with the business, Jay made the decision to come home.
Lesson: Jay credits the military with two things that directly transferred into business: the discipline to push through hard times, and the leadership principle of sharing intent — telling your team why you're doing something, not just what, so they can adapt when things change.
The Pivot: Turning Dead Assets Into a New Revenue Stream
When Jay got back to Perth, the business had vacuum units sitting idle in the yard — originally bought for water recovery during pressure cleaning jobs. They'd never worked properly for their intended purpose.
Instead of writing them off, Jay and his dad looked at what they could do with the equipment. They'd seen operators in Melbourne using industrial vacuums for gutter cleaning and thought: we can do that.
Jay's dad — a lifelong hands-on mechanic — sourced parts from an industrial vacuum supplier and built the first gutter cleaning rigs himself. He still builds all of ProFlow's equipment to this day.
They started with two trailers and two blokes on the tools. That was 2023.
Lesson: Before you spend money on new equipment or new services, look at what you already have. Assets sitting idle — machinery, vehicles, skills — might be the foundation of your next revenue stream if you're willing to think differently.
The $90K Wake-Up Call: When Hard Work Isn't Enough
The gutter cleaning took off quickly. The volume of residential clients dwarfed anything the pressure cleaning side had ever handled — more clients in a week than the old business saw in a year.
But nobody adjusted the back end. Jay's mum had managed the books for thirty years using MYOB, mostly dealing with five or six commercial clients. She'd done a great job of it. But the volume and complexity of hundreds of residential jobs was a completely different beast.
Jay, meanwhile, had zero oversight on the financials. He trusted the system because it had always worked.
Then came the accountant meeting.
Ninety thousand dollar loss.
Jay had worked himself into the ground — and the business had gone backwards.
Lesson: Revenue is not profit. If you don't know your numbers — your cost of operations, your margins, your break-even — you can work seven days a week and still lose money. The accountant shouldn't be the one telling you how your year went. You should already know.
The Three-Month Turnaround: Head Down, Get It Done
Jay and his dad didn't panic. They sat down with the accountant, asked where the numbers needed to be, and went to work.
In the first five months of 2025, Jay and his dad each took one day off. One. They went all in — tightened operations, pushed revenue, and got ruthless about where the money was going.
Within three months, they'd recovered the $90K loss and banked a $50K profit on top.
It wasn't a magic strategy. It was intensity, clarity on the numbers, and a refusal to stay in a bad position any longer than necessary.
Lesson: Trade businesses generate cash fast when the owner has a clear target and the discipline to chase it. The faster you sprint through the hard phase, the sooner you get to the point where you can hire, delegate, and step back. Half-arsing it means staying stuck for years.
Finding TSA: From Facebook Ad to Midnight Study Sessions
While Jay was grinding his way out of the hole, he started looking for guidance. He'd tried business coaching before — a one-on-one service — but the coach wasn't in the trades industry. It gave him some fundamentals but nothing specific enough to move the needle.
Then the TSA ads started showing up on Facebook.
Jay booked an info session, liked what he saw, and signed up. From day one, he was in — staying up until midnight watching every training video, booking sessions with every coach, and flying from Perth to Byron Bay for a full-day strategy session with the TSA team.
The difference? Each TSA coach is specialised in a specific area of trade business — pricing, operations, hiring, marketing. Jay wasn't getting generic business advice. He was getting a playbook built for exactly his situation.
Lesson: Coaching only works if you actually do the work. Jay didn't just pay and wait for results. He treated it like training — studied the material, booked the sessions, flew across the country, and executed on every step when he got home.
Where ProFlow Is Today
In under three years, ProFlow has gone from Jay and his dad on two trailers to:
7 trucks on the road
7 field staff in the field
Jay in the operations manager role (transitioning his lead technician into the office)
His dad on equipment maintenance and builds — still fabricating every unit in-house
An admin three days a week
The original railway contract still running — now over twenty years strong
Jay is now focused on the next phase: getting himself fully off the tools and into a true leadership position where the business runs without him on every job.
Key Takeaways for Trade Business Owners
Know your numbers from day one. Don't wait for the accountant to tell you how your year went. Understand your cost of operations, track your margins, and review your financials monthly — not annually.
Don't put all your eggs in one contract. ProFlow's pressure cleaning arm nearly collapsed when a single government contract was cut. Build multiple revenue streams so one client can't sink you.
Look at what you already have. Jay didn't start from zero — he turned idle equipment into a new service line. Before you invest in something new, audit what's sitting in your yard or your skill set.
Sprint through the hard phase. The grind is temporary if you attack it with intensity. The faster you get to a strong financial position, the sooner you can hire and step back.
Get trade-specific coaching. Generic business advice doesn't cut it. Find people who understand the trades — the cash flow cycles, the hiring challenges, the pricing traps — and follow their playbook.
Do the work. Paying for coaching, buying software, or attending a strategy day means nothing if you don't execute. Jay stayed up until midnight. He flew across the country. He implemented everything. That's why it worked.
Listen to the Full Episode
Hear Jay's full story in his own words on the Tradies Success Podcast — from the military, to a $90K loss, to building a seven-truck operation in under three years.
$90K LOSS TO 7 TRUCKS — Listen on Spotify
$90K LOSS TO 7 TRUCKS — Watch on YouTube
Ready to Build a Trade Business That Actually Works?
If Jay's story sounds familiar — working flat out, no real profit visibility, no systems — the Tradies Success Academy can help you fix it.