Bolt On Ops isn’t another tech agency selling templates. It’s a tech partner built on years of real experience running trade businesses in the Macedon Ranges.
I’ve spent 20 years running a cleaning company. Not advising cleaning companies. Not consulting to them. Actually running one. Hiring teams, quoting jobs, chasing invoices, managing schedules, dealing with no-shows, and trying to make the numbers work at the end of every month.
In that time, I’ve tried every piece of software going. CRMs, booking platforms, quoting tools, scheduling apps, invoicing systems, job management platforms. Some were decent. Most were built by people who’ve never set foot on a job site.
The good ones were expensive. The cheap ones looked it. And none of them talked to each other, so I’d end up stitching together five or six subscriptions just to run a basic operation. That subscription stack quietly became one of the biggest line items on my P&L. Thousands of dollars a year, every year, for tools that each did 60% of what I actually needed.
Then I made the big bet. I spent over $100,000 on a custom-built CRM and quoting system. Purpose-built, exactly to spec, designed to finally solve the problem properly.
It delivered zero value. Not “some value.” Not “it was okay.” Zero.
That was the moment everything changed.
I stopped looking for someone else to build the right solution and started building it myself. Not because I wanted to become a tech company. Because I was sick of paying for tools that didn’t work the way a trades business actually operates.
I started small. An automated quoting flow that matched how I actually priced jobs. A booking system that worked the way my clients expected. A dashboard that showed me what I needed to see without logging into four different platforms. Things that saved real time and won real work.
They worked. My business ran smoother. I got hours back every week. And the trades business owners I knew started asking what I was using.
That’s how Bolt On Ops started.
I build practical, no-nonsense tech tools for trades businesses. The exact kind of tools I wish someone had built for me a decade ago. No enterprise bloat. No monthly subscription you’ll forget you’re paying for. No generic templates designed for “small businesses” by someone who thinks a tradie is a persona in a marketing deck.
Just tools that work the way your business actually runs, built by someone who’s lived it.
Brad Stribley, Founder, Bolt On Ops
Brad Stribley, Founder, Bolt On Ops
No jargon, no tech-speak. We talk about jobs, quotes, bookings, and revenue — because that’s what matters to your business.
We’ve hired cleaners, dealt with no-shows, chased late payments, and spent Sundays writing quotes. We understand the problems because we’ve lived them.
No bloated features you’ll never use. Every tool we build is designed to solve a real problem in the simplest way possible.
We’re based right here in the Ranges. We understand the local market, the seasonal rhythms, and what it takes to run a business in regional Victoria.
Whether you need a website, want to automate your quoting, or just want someone to tell you what tech is worth investing in — let’s chat.
