Rise Of The Trades: Construction, Business, Tradesman, Tradesmen, Tradeswomen, Entrepreneur, How To

Who came up with your business name, fonts, colours, strapline and logo when you first set up your business? Did you know that the vast majority of businesses are actually turning people off with a cheap or boring-looking brand? (They don’t realise this is happening) A brand that they came up with years ago when they first set up their business with no experience in branding or marketing and a bra...

After 11 long years of running his plumbing and heating business, Mark was only 2 months away from running out of money and throwing in the towel on his business.  Mark had 4 engineers working for him, offices and a showroom.  He was always busy but he wasn’t making any money and was working 80 hours a week trying to keep his head above water.  So, how can Mark have gone from being a broke plumber...

Does any of this sound like you? Have you been there or are you here now?  In the earlier years of me setting up my joinery and construction business, I used to have negative cash flow problems. These money problems caused me some serious amounts of anxiety, worry and stress as well as arguments at home that negatively affected my family.  I remember those sleepless nights I used to have tossing a...

How many hours a week do you waste doing mundane tasks like admin? How many hours a week are you allowing your customers and team to steal from you?   You only have 168 precious hours in your weekly time bank.  Why squander our valuable time on tedious admin tasks and dealing with people who lack common sense and initiative? Take control of your time and focus on what truly matters. If you want me...

How many vetted leads would you say your website generates you each day?  Does your website rank on page 1 of Google for all your SEO keywords? Sadly most people invest time and money into having websites built only to be left feeling out of pocket and frustrated. They were expecting to hit page 1 of Google generating them an avalanche of quality leads. Instead, they are left with a trickle of tim...

How frustrating can employing staff or subcontractors be?  Sometimes it can feel like you are babysitting grown adults who have no common sense.  Ringing you up every day with stupid questions Turning up late for work or to customers' jobs  Tossing it off on their phones in your time  Turning up not wearing your uniform  This list goes on and on... So, how do you build a trustworthy, reliable...

Fricken cash flow problems!  I’m sure you’ve experienced them at some point. Right?  I know in my early years after setting up my joinery business I had some serious problems with cash flow.  I remember the sleepless nights tossing and turning all night waking up worrying about money. Not having enough money in the bank to pay the wages. Getting those overdue payment reminders from my suppliers an...

In this coaching episode, I'm going to be teaching you how to systemise and automate your trades or construction business so it can run without you.   If you want to get your valuable time back, make more profit, generate more leads, or you want to get your team running your jobs for you… Well, then you must learn how to systemise and automate your business.  Otherwise, the more you grow and s...

Do you need to generate more profitable and vetted leads coming into your business?   If the answer is “YES” you need to stop winging it with your marketing and create a powerful marketing strategy. “But Craig, how the hell do I create a marketing strategy? I don’t know where to start” Well, I've got your back! Just listen to this episode to discover how to create a marketing strategy that wil...

Do you know the 9 characteristics to work out who your most profitable customers or clients are and where to find them in their highest concentration? Most people don’t know where to even start working out who their target market really is. This means they will be wasting time and money creating content like social media posts, videos and building websites that generate little leads. Or even worse...

Gone are the days of me hitting that snooze button in the morning and dreading getting out of bed.  Then coming home at night drinking 6 bottles of lager, and eating shit whilst staying up until midnight doing quotes and paperwork.  However, I understand that the stresses and strains of running our own business can sometimes lead you to create bad habits and poor daily routines.  In this episode,...

Running your own business can be a tough and lonely place at times. Add on the stress and demands of modern-day life and it can result in a massive negative effect on our mindset, health and wellbeing. Is there any wonder that sometimes it can all feel too much? You start to question yourself, limiting beliefs and negative self-talk kicks in and before we know it you have fallen into a bad rut.  S...

Do your customers call you, text you, WhatsApp you and email you on evenings and weekends and expect you to be at their beck and call?  Or how about when they ask you to do extra work that was not included in your original quote and then complain when your invoice comes in as they expected it done for free? Do you feel like your employees or subcontractors are taking this piss?  They won’t wear yo...

Be honest, do you understand or know how to work out your gross and net margin figures on your jobs? Do you know how to tell if your business overheads are crippling your business and destroying your net profit?  How the hell can you build a business that will look after you and your family for the next 30 years if you are winging it with your numbers?  In this episode, I coach you through the exa...

If you're losing self-motivation, you’re not generating pre-sold ready-to-buy leads, not making enough profit, have little or no automated systems in place and can’t find trustworthy, reliable, hardworking staff… Then you need to listen to this episode. In this episode, I coach you through the 5 most important areas of growing and scaling your business. I call these "The 5 Pillars To Prof...

In this episode, I share with you the 3 critical stages of business growth that trades and construction business owners navigate through. WARNING!! You must avoid stage 2 at all costs. If you get stuck in stage 2 you will end up working 60+ hours a week, making no profit and stressed out to the max. You will never be able to go on holiday for a week without your customers and team constantly email...

How frustrating is it when you waste your time and money on marketing strategies that do not generate you quality leads? Or you're wasting your own valuable time on time-wasting customers? Or having to work until 10 pm at night doing your quotes, paperwork and sending emails? I feel your pain. In this coaching episode, I teach you about building a marketing strategy that will vet out time wast...

Are you doing almost everything yourself in your business? The marketing, surveying jobs, pricing, quotes, invoices, dealing with customers, organising labour, and ordering materials. This leads to rushing around like a blue-arsed fly, firefighting and becoming disorganised. Right? In this coaching episode I share with you one tool that will help you save hours of time each day, help you become su...

If you do not have bulletproof T&Cs, subcontractor agreements and other legal documents in your business you are leaving you and your business wide open for people to exploit you. Without having the correct level of protection you could lose your business and even your home by not protecting your assets. In this episode I sit down with legal expert Michael Long, Director at MJL Law. We delve i...

In this first episode of "Rise of the Trades," I share my honest story of how I went from a stressed out, overworked and skint carpenter and joiner. Working 90 hours a week, having cash flow problems and how my business controlled me and my time. I tell you all the classic mistakes, the same mistakes you will be making right now. I share the catalyst to what made me have a shift in my ow...