Small Business: How Working Spec is growing despite a squeezed labour market

Paul Naude, chief executive of Working Spec. Photo / Supplied

Architectural designer Paul Naude, director of software firm Working Spec, servicing the building industry, talks merging two sectors and navigating growing in a stretched labour market.

What does your business do?

Working Spec is a way for manufacturers to communicate their installation instructions. Our current users are building manufacturers and builders. Manufacturers have 2D drawings and the instructions don't always work, especially with the guys that are hands-on, so we produce digital 4D models allowing builders to view the instructions and see the installation order - there is a sequence we co-ordinated with the manufacturer and the animation helps with the installation. It can be used through our app. We launched Working Spec in 2018 and have been going for about five years.

What was the motivation for starting it?

One of our pilot clients, cladding supplier Rosenfeld Kidson, had a specific installation method that they needed to show to one of their clients and there was a specific way to install one of their products and they just didn't know how to do it. Just by chance I was working on a solution like this at the time and then we actually continued on and developed this method of showing the builder how to do this on-site and from there the interest just grew. A lot of groups like James Hardie and Nu-Wall Aluminium Cladding and some of the more major suppliers are keen and happy to make use of the product as it makes installation easy.

I'm in the architecture business and by chance I have an interest in technology as well and it really helped to marry the two fields in that way. We've found a way to take technology and make use of it in the architecture and construction industry.

How big is your team?

We are five, we're mostly based in Auckland and have help from our folks in Christchurch.

How was the business funded?

Currently we are completely self-funded, by myself and my business partner Andy. He runs the background and technology side of things and we rely on our own funding at the moment. I'm generally on the technical side or the advisory, whereas Andy is focused on the IT side of things and does a lot of the programming.

Where do you see the business in three to five years' time?

We definitely would like to have as many New Zealand manufacturers on board as we can. We've had a large number of international inquiries as well, from countries who use similar installation methods as we do over here, inquiries from the United States and quite a bit of interest from Malaysia. We're keen to expand globally and make this available to everyone and have a platform that more people can use and produce content for. Currently, it is just being used by New Zealand building companies.

What's your plan and timeline for offshore expansion?

We want to go offshore as soon as we can. Currently the American market is geared towards our installation methods so we're keen to explore how we can expand into that area, as well as Australia. James Hardy is already on board in that sense and we've started talking about making available and adapting information for the Australian market.

We're currently expanding as much as we can handle and deal with, we are currently looking for more people to join our team. We're keen to get hold of more people who are technically capable and savvy in terms of being techy and being able to create content, which is really hard to find at the moment.

How are you dealing with the labour market crunch?

It is a really big challenge. Luckily, we seem to be quite fortunate where there are quite a few guys willing to do a bit of moonlighting - willing to put in a little bit more extra work, so they find more time available to produce content. That seems to work for the moment, but as we grow and as the amount of work we produce increases I imagine that some of those people might transition from where they are. I think it is likely industry-wide that we'll probably see a lot more moonlighting in the next few years, where people might want to take on a little bit of extra work to subside their incomes. Hopefully we can gain new students - that's probably where a lot of that workforce will come from. We're talking to some support groups who are interested in finding students who would be suitable to join our start-up.

We're looking at expanding our team by about three to five more people, and we'll need quite a few more and we'll need to adapt our systems to understand where we are at. Because we are a start-up we do need to stay agile and with a large group it is much harder.

Working Spec's 3D model of a skylight. Photo / Screenshot

How does Working Spec make money?

The way we generate income is producing the installation content. We are looking at an advertising model as well, which will come into effect very shortly. We would like to have suppliers advertise on the models themselves, you could call it product placement that they can subscribe, which is another source of income for the business.

What is your current major focus?

At the moment producing the content takes up quite a bit of time. What we would like to do is be able to provide a platform for other users to create content, so we can focus on expanding and improving the product, getting user feedback and working through user requests on how they would like to see the product expand and become more usable for everybody.

What advice do you give to others wanting to start their own business like you have?

If you are going to start your own business, be sure what you are doing is something that is needed in the marketplace and is something people want. We did not anticipate the response that we received for Working Spec and how big the need for it is.

Coming up with anything isn't always a good idea - have a look at the marketplace and understand what the needs are.