Sparky Coach

The third (and maybe final I guess only time will tell) instalment of our Blink 182 title inspired “your smile fades in the summer” is here.  In this pod we discuss what a January client is, your Christmas party, your clients Christmas parties, the importance of client relationships, treating employees well, planning your holidays season, planning your shutdown times, manufacturing your January, a...

This is the second instalment of our podcast series designed to get you thinking, planning and strategising for your best Christmas period yet.  We are big believers that a good to great January will set up a good to great year. And on that, the opposite is also true. A bad to terrible January can have negative ramifications for months.  In this podcast we break down 4 key components to excelling...

We discuss admin jobs, admin hiring, virtual assistants, job management systems, invoicing, quoting, the importance of relationships, looking after clients, how to build processes, the importance of systems, plus much much more.  Always a great time hanging out with Michael so we really hope you enjoy the pod.  Much love x  Chapters 00:00 Introduction and Client Relationships 03:09 Finding and Ret...

Ahh Blink 182 references, what a time to be alive!  While you can choose to disagree about the best Blink album being “Chesire Cat”, one thing that you can for sure not disagree on is that summer is coming!  Summer. December. Christmas. January. Holidays. Break from work. No break from work. Staff holidays. Clients needing stuff done. It’s all coming up. And really soon. Really really soon.  The h...

Lemme tell you about my friend Jimmy from Lord Voltemort.  Jimmy got a call from a potential excellent client. He almost didn’t answer the call coz he left his AirPods at home and was up a ladder but hey he got there in the end. He was also mad that the phone rang coz he is “so busy right now”.  He heads to site that afternoon to meet the client. For all his procedural flaws, Jimmy sure is good wi...

This week we have the honour of having Heath Knight aka “Hspark Electrical” on the lounge.  Heath is many things - a devoted husband to Rhi, a loving dad to Airlie, a business owner, a connoisseur for land cruisers + Toyotas, a YouTuber, an influencer, a cage fighter (who may just eat your head off in the ring), a lover of mostly black uniforms, a sparky, plus more!  One thing you can always guara...

As projects get moving, it’s incredibly easy let variations slip through without capturing.  This can be due to a number of reasons: rushing, busyness, genuinely unsure of what the current plans are, missed emails, not documenting site conversations, ego, insecurity, lack of established company process, + much much more.  So what is the best way to capture them? Is it at certain points of the job?...

Have you ever been at a job and the client has asked “oh while you’re here can you just do this too?”  Honestly, of course you have!! It’s relatively common isn’t it?  Sometimes it’s easy to make the client the problem. But as we are in the service industry, it’s incredibly important that our company excels in providing an excellent service.  Remember you don’t have to do it for free, you don’t ev...

This week we have the absolute honour of having Hib on the lounge.  Hib runs an awesome crew out of Hobart and specialises in a range of different commercial, residential and solar projects.  Cam and Hib discuss what it takes to start a business, maintain a business, find work, run an admin team, build relationships, maintain relationships, the importance ofworking with A players, the importance o...

A couple of weeks ago we put out a pod called “Forecasting Like Tim Bailey”.  It was basically encouraging everyone to sit down and take control of their schedule for the rest of the year.  If you have not much work on, this is a good thing to do coz it will help you see what you need to do for the upcoming busy season.  If you have lots of work on, this is a good thing to do coz it will help you...

Our mantra here at Sparky Coach is quite simple: make money, build wealth.  And how do we do that?  We do that by buying labour + materials, selling them at a good margin, being kind, then repeating the process.  Essentially at its core, the running of a good business is relatively simple.  Sometimes though, we can make it a lot harder than it needs to be.  One of the ways we can make running a bu...

Guess who’s back? Back again? Tommy’s back. Tell a friend.  Aw yeh you guessed it this week back in the hot seat aka the lounge we have our good friend and fellow coach Tom Ryan from Ryelec Automation.  We discuss electrical, home theatres, automation, business automation, SOP’s, staff annual leave, hiring, real estate, getting clients, and much much more.  Tommy is a full time weapon.  It’s an ab...

Kind of a touchy / controversial subject here but let’s go with it.  I think it’s interesting that any coaching company can say whatever they want from an office (or a boat), BUT it may not be applicable or relevant to your real life business situation. You hear people say “never work on an hourly rate always flat rate pricing!!”.  But ask anyone who has accomplished anything of substance in the e...

While only SOME of you may get the obscure emo reference from the mid to late 2000’s, my guess is that ALL of you will understand what it means to lose control of your schedule.  Growing up in a pentacostal church the classic line from the pulpit was always “show me your friends and I’ll show you your future”.  While I am not debating that at any length, the business comparison may be “show me you...

Today on the lounge we speak to Simon Thorn from PKF who specialises in small business restructuring.  Simon walks us through what a “small business restructure” is, when to reach out for help, and the option/s that may be available to a director who is under serious financial stress.  If you’ve ever found yourself under financial stress, it’s very important that you hear this: you’re not alone, t...

While only SOME of you may get the obscure emo reference from the mid to late 2000’s, my guess is that ALL of you will understand what it means to lose control of your schedule.  Growing up in a pentacostal church the classic line from the pulpit was always “show me your friends and I’ll show you your future”.  While I am not debating that at any length, the business comparison may be “show me you...

While only SOME of you may get the obscure emo reference from the mid to late 2000’s, my guess is that ALL of you will understand what it means to lose control of your schedule.  Growing up in a pentacostal church the classic line from the pulpit was always “show me your friends and I’ll show you your future”.  While I am not debating that at any length, the business comparison may be “show me you...

Oh yeh back on the lounge we have Joe Pratt aka Joey from Benchmark Electrical Co based out of northern NSW.  Joey has just started doing a day a week here at Sparky Coach. He runs our Wednesday help desks where he specialises in Service M8, Simpro, finding work, workbook training, profit + much much more.  On this episode Cam + Joe talk through a whole bunch of on site + off site items that will...

Ok so close your eyes for a second and imagine that you could plan out your dream work week.  What would be in it? What wouldn’t be in it? What outcomes would you be expecting of yourself? In what role/s do you think that you best placed? What do you actually enjoy doing? And so on with the questions.  Now open your eyes and realise that your calendar is 100% in your control. Show me your calendar...

If you grew up watching Tim Bailey forecasting the weather then count yourself very lucky.  Today we talk about forecasting your business with (hopefully) the same amount of enthusiasm as the demigod Tim.  While no forecast can be 100% correct, it’s incredibly important to reference where the current workload sits, where it needs to be, where the workload needs to expand and diversify to, how the...

This week on the lounge we have the unofficial major of Adelaide Michael Centofanti.  Join Cam and Michael as they chat through business ownership, blowing up PlayStations (lol), finding work, family, retaining work, virtual assistants, releasing admin, key learnings, growing too soon and so so much more.  Michael is an absolute lord and he will be joining us on the coaching staff here at Sparky C...

In a world full of noisy and noble tasks there is essentially one big question: is everything that NEEDS to get done in your business currently getting done?  There are certain tasks that are nice to do aka noble, and they will move the needle forward. Thee are certain tasks that are noisy, and nothing will really be moved forward or backward (maybe sideways though?) if you engage in them.  But th...

One thing we see heaps of is kind and nice business owners holding onto average staff members for too long. Usually this is because they feel bad, are too nice, are too insecure to have a big conversation, are too worried about short term ramifications, are hoping things will change, are too busy to confront big topics, and so on (insert individual issue here pretty much). It’s a tale as old as ti...

This week on the pod we have the OG sparky core lord + insta phenomenon Dave Willman.  Don’t let the beard fool you and don’t be distracted by his notorious meat cooking ability, this man is one calculated cat.  We chat through starting out, favourite tools, apprentices, finding work, choosing your clients and staff wisely, instagram, business growth, content creation, family, fostering a supporti...

Ah variations, what a blessing and a curse!  Handled well and they can make a job (hopefully) more profitable and (mostly) smoother.  Handled poorly and they can make a job way less profitable, way bumpier, way more passive aggressive, and drag you into a corner that you never would wish to be in.  We had a member ask us “if a job goes smoothly, should I charge for every variation?” The answer, as...