Mr Paling Fence founder Andrew Liddell had no grand plan when he finished school; undertaking a carpentry apprenticeship just made sense.

“I like working with timber, and I had worked for my uncle’s building business in school holidays. I enjoyed it, so I did an apprenticeship with him,” Andrew explains.

Thirty years after starting out, the carpentry skills came full circle for Andrew when he founded the Mr Paling Fence business in 2019.

After 12 years as a carpenter, Andrew was keen to take the next step and work for himself.  He completed a business degree at RMIT and qualified as a licensed builder, before spending more than a decade running his own building business, delivering renovations, houses and small developments.

“It made sense to move from subcontracting into running my own projects. My dad had his own business and I’m suited to working for myself,” he says.

“A fencer turned up one day to quote for a job I was doing. He had a few guys working for him, was super busy and revealed he was paying a high GST bill. I wondered how much he must be earning,” he says.

The encounter sparked an idea – to tap into the demand for fencing by elevating the professionalism of the trade.

Making fencing professional

“Fencers would just scribble a quote on a scrap of paper, it was quite unprofessional. I thought there must be an opportunity to run it like a proper business and make it more professional,” he says.

So he engaged a couple of subcontractors to work with him and teach him the tricks of the trade.

“I put the building jobs on pause, I wanted to be on the tools to see how the fencing business really worked. It took off from there,” Andrew says. 

After the Covid lockdowns the business picked up very easily, and Mr Paling Fence focused on servicing customers within a 10km radius.

Andrew hasn’t gone back to the building trade. What began as a focused shift away from complex builds evolved into a business with clear growth potential.

It was only last year when a good mate who is in franchising suggested he should consider it as a way to expand.

“I looked into franchising, did the sums, and it stacked up. What we offer is not complicated, our processes are easy to replicate, so it’s ideal as a franchise,” Andrew says.

“We want to do it properly; we’re selling a business not a job, so it’s perfect for someone with ambition to grow their business. We’re not looking for fencers; we want someone who wants to run a business and do really well.”

A business designed for builders and tradies

He is targeting builders, tradies and project managers tired of the rollercoaster ride of chasing payments and managing inconsistent cashflow.

“I’ll go and quote a job, email the quote, the customer accepts and I send an invoice. The customer pays a deposit, I book in the demolition crew, the timber delivery and construction crew. 

“We only use subcontractors who are skilled fencers – and they complete the job,” he says.

Andrew’s vision is to build the business up along Australia’s east coast, expanding to 15 franchisees in Melbourne before tackling Sydney and Brisbane.

“We want the business to be manageable and sustainable. It’s important that everyone does well out of their territory so we don’t want to flood the market,” Andrew says.

“Demand for timber paling fencing remains strong across Australia’s major east coast markets. In Melbourne, paling fencing has been a popular choice for years, with homeowners regularly replacing or upgrading older fences,” he says.

The business has exceeded his expectations – with nine subcontractors regularly working for him, Andrew is looking for more subbies to meet customer demand.

And now he is primed to take the next step and share the benefits of the business he’s created with other like-minded people.

“I have much more leisure time now. Thanks to Mr Paling Fence I’m not just reaping financial rewards, my lifestyle has improved enormously,” he says.