CUSTOMER STORIES
JJS Gas and Heating Ltd.
How Brent went from being a one-man band to managing team of 6 (and counting) with Gas Engineer Software
4+
years using GES
3x
team size & revenue
1 → 6
Sole trader to growing team
BACKGROUND
About JJS Gas & Heating Ltd.
JJS Gas & Heating is a Gas Safe registered heating and plumbing company based in Medway, Kent, covering everything from boiler installations and servicing to central heating, plumbing and full bathroom fit-outs. Brent started the business the way thousands of gas engineers do — on his own, as a 24-year-old, with a van and a box of tools.
“I started as a sole trader. It was just me, my van and my tools. I was 24 years old.”
— Brent Songhurst, Managing Director @ JJS Gas and Heating.
Nearly 11 years on, JJS is a limited company with a team of six employed staff, backed by a network of trusted partners — subcontractors, plus outsourced marketing, copywriting, web, and bookkeeping. The business has just moved into a larger office space, bringing a team that once worked remotely back together under one roof.
“I really love this office space — it feels like home. Having everyone closer together makes organising the jobs, the admin and even deliveries so much quicker.”
— Brent, JJS Gas and Heating.
THE CHALLENGE
Hitting the ceiling of what paper could do
For years, Brent ran a busy, growing business almost entirely on paper. Like a lot of skilled engineers, he was brilliant on the tools but admits he was “extremely old school” when it came to the business side.
Early growth came quickly. But after the initial surge — and through the turbulence of Covid and a shaky economy — growth plateaued. Brent had reached the natural limit of what a paper-based business could sustain. Hand-writing every certificate, with no central record of customer history and no automated reminders, meant the business could only stretch so far before the admin became the bottleneck.
“I was extremely old school and wrote my certificates out by hand on every job, for years. It was just old habits and a lack of business awareness.
You can only grow your business so far on paper. Then you need good software to progress further.”— Brent, JJS Gas and Heating.
Ultimately, the time consumed by admin and paperwork meant Brent had hit a growth ceiling, and needed to fundamentally change the way his business worked on a day-to-day level in order to grow.
Above: Creating a certificate in Gas Engineer Software
THE SOLUTION
Why JJS Gas and Heating chose GES
With prospects of growing the business and expanding the team, Brent needed an all-in-one job management system that enabled him to not only streamline paperwork, but work with a connected team of admin staff in the office and engineers out on the tools.
In early 2022, Brent made the switch to Gas Engineer Software for everything from issuing certificates to customers, generating invoices, and planning multi-engineer scheduling.
His biggest worry was that it would be too technical, but this was quickly proven not an issue:
“I’ll happily admit I’m not overly good with computers or tech. But the app is incredibly easy to use and has so much capability — it’s been a game changer for me.
If anything, I just wish I’d have joined sooner.”— Brent, JJS Gas and Heating.
A NEW WAY OF WORKING
From handwritten certs to a system that scales
“Gas Engineer Software simply helped me expand and scale. It made the process of employing other engineers easier. It helps the workflow… flow!
It’s as easy as that.”
— Brent, JJS Gas and Heating
Above: Colour-coded schedule & calendar in Gas Engineer Software.
Going digital did more than tidy up the paperwork — it removed the ceiling on growth. With records, certificates, scheduling and customer history all in one place, JJS could finally take on more work and more engineers without drowning in admin.
Certificates and records, done in minutes
- Certificates are created on the app on-site, instead of being hand-written job by job.
- Every record is stored and searchable, so previous jobs and customer history are a tap away.
- Data carries forward year to year, ready for the next service.
Reminders that bring the work back
- Automated service reminders keep repeat work flowing without digging through old files.
- The team stays efficient and professional, with nothing slipping through the cracks.
- A steady stream of work together with an easy way to manage multi-engineer teams
A workflow that lets you hire
Most importantly, the software made it far easier to bring new engineers into the business — the single biggest lever for scaling a trade company
The results
Triple the team, triple the revenue.
Three years after going onto the software, the numbers tell the story of a business that finally broke through its ceiling. Brent was no longer running a sole trader business running at max capacity, but rather laying the foundations for a much bigger operation.
“Three years after we went onto the software, my company tripled in size — the team tripled, and my revenue tripled.”
— Brent, JJS Gas and Heating.
On top of the headline growth, the day-to-day time savings are substantial — hours reclaimed every week that used to disappear into paperwork, chasing details and re-entering information.
“You can save hours and hours, without a doubt. Let alone the reminders, the saved data for the next year, and accessing previous history. It’s an absolute must.”
— Brent, JJS Gas and Heating.
3x
team size in 3 years
3x
increase in revenue
1 → 6
from sole trader to multi-engineer
WHATS NEXT?
Eyes on seven figures
JJS now turns over mid-six figures, and with the new office secured, the path is clear: a couple more engineers on the team and a push to break the seven-figure mark — built on the same solid systems that got them here:
“We’re not entirely where we want to be just yet. I’d be comfortable with two more staff to help. We do mid six figures, and my aim is to break the seven-figure mark.”
— Brent, JJS Gas and Heating.
Special thanks to Brent from JJS Gas and Heating for taking part in this case study.
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