Entering the microtunnelling market is an expensive undertaking, a risk that many are unwilling, unprepared or unable to make. But unique job models being offered by Edge Underground, takes away the economic risk, allowing new players to enter the market and build their business.
Keeping skills in the industry
Stuart Harrison, Managing Director at Edge Underground, said the idea for offering different business models came about for two reasons.
“One of the reasons I came up with this idea was because we were competing with the mines, and good people were getting paid a lot of money to go away and work in a mine and come back,” Mr Harrison said.
“We’d lose a lot of knowledge and passion potentially if they chose that option. So I wanted to put the ball firmly back in their court and say, ‘I think you’re good. You’re telling me that you’re good, and you’re worth X amount of money. Well let’s partner and see how we can make this work’.”
Another reason behind the decision was to allow people to continue to grow, while still allowing them to do the job they love and want to do.
“When I travel across the world, I often see that there are people that are very good at what they do and they’ll be promoted into a position which is seen to be a step up, but it’ll actually be taking them away from what they’re good at,” Mr Harrison said.
“These guys don’t want to do something where they’re going away from what they’re doing. In fact, quite the opposite. They want to do more of what they’re doing.”
Mr Harrison said this was something he has also seen in his own team.
“When guys had been with us for a certain amount of time, we started to understand that they were looking for a greater opportunity that they couldn’t find without going out on their own,” Mr Harrison said.
“The problem was maybe they weren’t prepared, or couldn’t afford, or were not willing to take the risk of starting a microtunnelling company where you need to have a lot of resources available and a lot of backup measures in place, while still being able to back up themselves.
“So I looked at that and remembered those days myself; that was me at one point in time, sitting there with an idea and struggling to make it into the bigger league of microtunnelling. My passion and my energy and my desire, all of those things were definitely there. Maybe I’m a little bit crazy, maybe I was prepared to put up everything on the line 100 per cent.
“But I can understand why people wouldn’t want to do that; they’re still good people, and they’re still very passionate.
“So we as a company looked at what we could do to help them and came up with our percentage models to really give them the chance to take their life to another level.”
A business model for growth
Edge Underground has a number of different models available to help people enter the industry, depending on their goals and financial situation.
“We have a base pack model where the onus on the partner arrangement is more heavily on Edge Underground than on the partner. This allows people to grow and become more financially secure in the venture, so they can then take more on until they can run it all themselves,” Mr Harrison said.
“When you run one of our job sites, you’re not just paid a wage, you earn a percentage of the profit generated from the job. When you’re doing really well, obviously you see the full benefit of your own work, your own input. Of course, as a company we need to support that in every way, so that when things aren’t going to plan we’re all pulling together, and when things are going great, we all enjoy that success together too.
“Not only does this benefit our team members, it also helps us run our job sites efficiently. Every single person working for Edge has an interest in the job being completed to the highest standard and in the best possible time frame.
“We certainly think that that model has got a lot of scope and gives people an opportunity to continue to grow within our organisation.”