If you are reading this, I guess you are looking for a bit more information about me and this business. I will share a bit about my background.
I started in business thirty years ago, in Sydney. My first business was vinyl welding and leather repairs. I did this right up until 2005. Not on a full time basis, but since I had the skill and the tools, I just kept it alive.
In late 1986 I started a pin-striping business which I built from the gowned up, and sold it in 1988. I saw the writing on the wall. That type of business was loosing ground, and it became a bygone fad. In that line of work I installed a lot of graphics, auto accessories, like wheel covers, protection mouldings, radio cassettes, roof rack, etc. All of which were nice, but kind of meaningless. They were little more than appearance products.
My first venture into window tinting came late 1989 (as displayed in my logo). I started very small, and played with it. I didn’t really think there was any money to be made, but i liked the challenge of installing it on cars. After a single 20″ roll of 50% VLT film, and several cars (mine and a few friends and relatives), I decided this may have some potential. I was absolutely lousy. I would not pay for a single one of those jobs today. I started doing a few “easy” cars, did a few car dealers (since they were customers already), and improved little by little.
Somehow, I got a hold of an old training video, which I watched until it wore out (well, not really, but it was MANY MANY times). It taught me some basics. Now I was feeling more confident, and decided in mid 1990 to do it seriously. I found a workshop that suited my needs, organised a training session with a company in Sydney, paid for some advanced training, and opened my first tint shop. This was in Canberra. I neglected to say that we moved to Canberra in 1986.
Well that was the early days. My tinting business grew from there. Not too long into the growth, I realised I needed help, and employed a very talented and skilled young man who taught me to install sunroofs. (Pop-ups were all the rage back then, so we got into that also.) By this time we did a lot of homes and commercial jobs, and we gained a very strong reputation for good quality products and services. It seems everyone in canberra had heard of us. We had car stickers all over the place. The business was called Quali-tint, just incase you were wondering. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of you also heard of us at some point.