EP #53 – You Are The Bottleneck In Your Own Business w/ Edward Lovell
📑 Table of Contents
TOC
📑 Table of Contents
Overview
What does it actually take to build a heating business that can grow without you being in the middle of everything?
Edward Lovell is back on the podcast talking about the moment the chaos stops being manageable, why most engineers stay in it longer than they should, and why without systems in place, you become the bottleneck in your own business.
Highlights
Knowing when it’s time to change
- (1:10) – How Edward used to run things — texts, notes and material lists on the back of a bit of plasterboard — and why that falls apart under volume.
- (4:13) – The “boiling frog” idea: spot the pain early and switch sooner, because waiting just slows your growth.
Choosing the right software (and the right people)
- (6:39) – Mapping the business with an org chart, seeing every hat you wear, and working out which roles to hand over first.
- (10:27) – Learning about what different software platforms can do and using trial periods to see if it’s a good fit.
- (11:46) – Why Edward settled on Gas Engineer Software: it does exactly what he needs without the clutter, and capturing job, boiler and customer details on-site beats losing them on paper.
- (14:49) – The part nobody tells you about — scepticism of the usual sales pitch, and why real support from someone like Alexa, who’s worked in the field, made the difference.
Building systems that let you step back
- (19:11) – What actually changes day to day: invoicing as you go, smoother cash flow, and nothing left to chase a week later.
- (20:13) – Repeatable, measurable, monitored — and why, if it all lives in your head, you become the bottleneck that stops the business growing.
- (22:26) – Edward’s stack (sales dashboard, GES for operations, Trello for jobs) and splitting your list into work in the business and work on it.
Planning your time and knowing where you’re heading
- (24:12) – The colour-blocked “default week”: deciding in advance when each type of work gets done, because great lists go nowhere without a slot.
- (27:30) – Planning across three years, annual plans and quarterly OKRs (objectives and key results), each layer pointing at the bigger goal.
- (30:05) – The edge in tracking data your competition doesn’t — quote turnaround, conversion rates — and how small tweaks add up over time.