The Trade Den

When people start a partnership they think they’ll be able to grow twice as fast, but in all of my years working with Trades & Construction businesses I’ve found a common pattern. 

They usually end up thinking they’re helping the other out by answering a call or just jumping in to send a quote, but instead of MAXIMISING their productivity, they step on each other's toes and hold themselves back from growing. 

Today we’re joined by Chris and Andrew from Kinetic Electrical & Data who were mates at school and went on to start their own business together. They now have 13 employees, both take holidays, prioritise their fitness and are more profitable than they’ve ever been before.. 

The topics we cover today are important whether you’re in a partnership or not and are things that we see holding people back from growing to their full potential all the time. 

You’ll Learn: 

🔨 What most people get wrong when they choose a business partner

🔨 The reason Chris & Andrew have had very little conflict in 9 years of business

🔨 How to get on the same page to grow together 

🔨 The non-negotiable meeting that you need whether you’re in a partnership or not 

Want to join a community of like-minded tradesmen or have a topic you want us to cover? Join The Trade Den on Facebook 

Ready to reclaim your nights and weekends and get off the tools? Book Your Free Strategy Session here 

Find out more about Pravar Group at www.pravargroup.com or @pravargroup.

As you grow your trades & construction business there comes a time when you need to step off the tools if you want to grow your business to the next level. 

And with this step we often see so many business owners get dragged back to site because they feel guilty for ‘leaving the boys’.

They feel as though they are being judged for being in the cozy office whilst the rest of the team are out in the heat or freezing cold. 

And they struggle to be able to have the tough conversations with team members who are underperforming or taking the piss because they’re mates and there isn’t the level of mutual respect you need to get the best out of your team. 

Being one of the boys has got your business to where it is today but if you want to grow to $1 million dollars plus AND work less whilst you’re doing it you need to make the decision to actually be a manager and a leader for your team. 

So today we’re going to cover the exact steps to take to get there, and if you want some help with this book a free chat where we’ll help you to figure out the first step here

You’ll Learn: 

🔨 Why being a good Tradie doesn’t equate to being able to Manage a Great Trades Business 

🔨 How to stop feeling guilty the minute you step off site 

🔨The skills you need to be a great manager and get the most out of your team 

🔨 Where to start if you’re serious about growing your business 

Want to join a community of like-minded tradesmen or have a topic you want us to cover? Join The Trade Den on Facebook 

Ready to reclaim your nights and weekends and get off the tools? Book a Chat here 

Find out more about Pravar Group at www.pravargroup.com or @pravargroup.

If you’ve taken some steps to wind yourself off the tools but realised the second you step off-site you somehow start making less money, and the team take longer than ever to get anything done, this episode is for you!

“No one does the job as quickly or to the standard that I do” is one of the most common statements we hear when trades & construction business owners start to step off the tools.  

But if you don’t learn to navigate this properly you will ALWAYS be stuck feeling like a slave to your business and team.

If you’re constantly having to go to the site to check on work, fix mistakes, deal with clients OR you’re forever feeling as though you’re allowing enough time for the work to be done but frustrated that your team just don’t meet the deadline … there are three things you can do to fix this or make sure it doesn’t happen to you. 

Dan and I are going to talk through what these things are, how you can implement them in your business and how to get your team to take accountability and meet the deadlines and budgets you set for them. 

You’ll Learn: 

🔨 Why your Ground Crew Doesn’t Work as Hard or Fast as You Do. 

🔨 How to Set Your Team Up For Success WITHOUT you & Get Their Buy In 

🔨 Importance of communicating time allowed, deadlines and clear expectations

🔨Where people go wrong when choosing a leading hand and growing their business 

🔨 The type of training & development you need to do that will make your team want to STAY

If you haven’t listened to it before today you can find Episode 10 where we give you the steps to stop your team from hijacking your time and how to cut your phone calls in half. 

And if you want some support to get your team set up for success book a free call to figure out your first step here

Want to join a community of like-minded tradesmen or have a topic you want us to cover? Join The Trade Den on Facebook 

Find out more about Pravar Group at www.pravargroup.com or @pravargroup.

“We cannot selectively numb emotion. If we numb the dark, we numb the light. If we take the edge off pain and discomfort, we are, by default, taking the edge off joy, love, belonging, and the other emotions that give meaning to our lives.”  – Brene Brown

When growing a business, you will constantly be facing challenges of all sizes and from all directions. Clients will forever be changing their minds, projects will continue to be pushed out and staff will always seem to resign at the worst possible time…and that’s just on the business front!  

Both in Business and Life, the more we strive and the bigger the game we want to play things have a way of getting harder, not easier — but it is how you choose to view each “setback” and challenge that really matters. It’s the actions that you take the moment a challenge appears that will define your success. 

So in today’s episode, we are talking all about resilience. The word gets thrown around so much these days but what does it mean? 

We’ll discuss not just the ability to get back up after a tough situation, but how to ensure that each time you face adversity, you come back stronger and stronger.

Let’s dive in.

What You Will Learn:

🔨 What is Resilience? It’s way more than just bouncing back from setbacks

🔨 How to Approach Challenges: The 3-Step process to develop an Unstoppable Mindset

🔨 From Acceptance to Action: How to move through challenges - from acceptance to tackling it head-on

🔨 The Power of Community: How community support can help you navigate challenging times

🔨 Real-Life Examples: How Rob has worked on being resilient through personal goals

Want to join a community of like-minded tradesmen or have a topic you want us to cover? Join The Trade Den on Facebook 

Ready to reclaim your nights and weekends and get off the tools? Book a Chat here 

Find out more about Pravar Group at www.pravargroup.com or @rob_kropp.

Today is not about preaching to you about drinking less or quitting altogether. 

Instead, we invite you to honestly examine your relationship with alcohol and how it is currently serving you as a business owner, husband, father, family man and friend.

Alcohol is deeply ingrained in the Trades and Construction industry. From after-work drinks to Friday pub lunches, it's often seen as a normal part of the job. But have you ever stopped to question why you drink?

Join us as we share with you our own experiences with alcohol, the positive impact we have seen on our clients who have taken a hard look at their drinking habits, and the amazing results we’ve had since choosing to reduce our consumption (Don’t worry - Rob still enjoys a good red).

So if you're at the top of your game but feel something's missing, it might be time to consider your relationship with alcohol.

You’ll Hear:

🔨 How Alcohol is used as a device

🔨 The hidden cost of using Alcohol as a crutch or coping mechanism

🔨 How to unpack your relationship with Alcohol 

🔨 The specific roles alcohol has played in the Trades and Construction Industry

🔨 Rob and Dan’s past and present relationship with Alcohol

If drinking is not serving you and you want to seek support, reach out to the National Alcohol Hotline at 1800 250 015 or visit www.adf.org.au.

Or look into alcohol and drug counselling at www.counsellingonline.org.au

Want to join a community of like-minded tradesmen or have a topic you want us to cover? Join The Trade Den on Facebook 

Ready to reclaim your nights and weekends and get off the tools? Book a Chat here 

Find out more about Pravar Group at www.pravargroup.com or @rob_kropp.

For someone who is only 27 years old, Zach Hansen has had to overcome his fair share of challenges and adversity.

He has now become the leader and businessman that most people struggle to achieve in a lifetime.

When Zach came to Coaching, he was trapped as fear held him captive, preventing him from delegating simple tasks to his team.

Every morning at 5 am, he'd drag himself out of bed to get materials from the supplier, a task he was convinced only he could handle. 

He was struggling with stepping off site because he thought that his clients needed Zach to do the job.

Now, Zach is off the tools and manages 10 ground crew, an administrator, a bookkeeper and an Operations Manager from the comfort of the factory he never thought was possible.

So how did he get here?

He worked on his mindset, put himself in front of people who knew more than him and wasn’t afraid to ask for help. 

Success leaves clues. Listen to this episode to find out what you can learn from Zach’s story.

You’ll Hear 

🔨 How Zach went from not trusting his staff, to moving COMPLETELY off the tools

🔨 The growth and profit INCREASE that occurred when Zach grew his mindset and moved out of the front bedroom of his house and into his new office

🔨 How to build a business people WANT to work for

🔨 How coaching helped Zach CHANGE the course of his personal life so that he could achieve his own goals

Want to join a community of like-minded tradesmen or have a topic you want us to cover? Join The Trade Den on Facebook 

Ready to reclaim your nights and weekends and get off the tools? Book a Chat here 

Find out more about Pravar Group at www.pravargroup.com or @rob_kropp.

Deciding what margin you should be charging can be the make or break of whether you win work AND whether you actually have a profitable business. 

But the hidden cost that most trades business owners miss is getting their markup and their margin mixed up. 

Today’s episode we’re going to take you through what the difference is between markup and margin, what you should be aiming for AND how you can troubleshoot to find out where the problems or missed opportunities are in your business. 

We do get technical so make sure you pause, rewind or if you just want some help and for us to do it with you book in your FREE strategy call over at www.strategysession.com.au

Listen in to Learn:

🔨 What is Margin, and where you should be making margin in your business 

🔨 The difference between gross and net margin and which you need to pay attention to 

🔨 Why you’re leaving money on the table if you don’t understand the difference between markup and margin  

🔨 Why you might be getting too many no’s OR winning work but not making any additional profit. 

Catch Part 1 here on Apple or Spotify 

And Part 2 here on Apple or Spotify 

Want to join a community of like-minded tradesmen or have a topic you want us to cover? Join The Trade Den on Facebook

Find out more about Pravar Group at www.pravargroup.com or @rob_kropp.

When you think of job costs, what comes to mind? 

For most people, it will be labour and materials to complete the job. 

If you’ve got those 2 you’re well on your way to understanding the true cost of a job BUT if you aren’t also factoring in incidentals, recouping costs for equipment you own OR you’re using an hourly rate when you don’t understand the true cost of labour - this could be one of the reasons you haven’t been making as much profit as you thought. 

Last week we spoke about some of the most common mistakes we see business owners in the trades space make when they are pricing and this week we’re going to teach you how to accurately build a price that works for you without missing any of your job costs AND means that you’ll never need to drop your price again. 

Listen in to Learn:

🔨 The 4 things you NEED to measure before you set a price 

🔨 The real cost of your ground crew… hint: it’s more than you think

🔨 How pricing correctly can help you hold your team accountable for the budget you’ve set 

🔨 The Pricing Pyramid Concept to build your sales price from the bottom up

Catch up on Part One Apple or Spotify 

If you know your pricing needs a review but you’re not sure where to start, book a FREE call with us over at www.strategysession.com.au so we can help you start to price for profit again. 

Want to join a community of like-minded tradesmen or have a topic you want us to cover? Join The Trade Den on Facebook

Find out more about Pravar Group at www.pravargroup.com or @rob_kropp.

Where did your pricing model come from in business? 

For most trades business owners it’s usually something they got from an old employer, shared from a mate or something that sounded right at the time. 

With the increase in trades businesses shutting down or running at a loss we thought it was time to do a series on all things pricing. 

In part one, we are going to take you through how you can price to make PROFIT (and still win work), how your pricing model needs to evolve as your business grows so you stay in front and why copying anyone else's pricing model will severely hurt your bottom line. 

Listen in to Learn:

🔨 The 6 factors that should be influencing your pricing model 

🔨 When you should review your pricing model 

🔨 How the different types of work or industries you operate in will impact your pricing  

🔨 What to do with your pricing as your overheads increase  

If you know your pricing needs a review but you’re not sure where to start, book a FREE call with us over at www.strategysession.com.au so we can help you start to price for profit again. 

Want to join a community of like-minded tradesmen or have a topic you want us to cover? Join The Trade Den on Facebook

Find out more about Pravar Group at www.pravargroup.com or @rob_kropp.

A lot of Trades business owners get to a point where they know they need to hire help BUT they either don’t know who to hire and when… or hire the right person at the wrong time. 

When this happens instead of unlocking your growth, getting time back, and allowing yourself to get off the tools it often ends up costing you more time, energy & money and in some cases even reputational damage. 

Today we’re going to be talking through the 3 phases of hiring - who you should bring on at each stage, WHY it goes wrong when you bring someone else on instead and how to make sure you are bringing on people who actually ADD value to your business. 

Listen in to Learn:

🔨 The 3 Phases a Trades Business Owner MUST go through

🔨 Which Hires Will help YOU to actually take a step back 

🔨 The cost of making the right decision at the wrong time    

🔨 Where people go wrong that means they either make NO profit OR your team constantly needs you 

If you are doing $80k a month or more and want to map out how to structure your business so you can unlock growth, profits and freedom from the day-to-day operations, book a FREE call with us over at www.strategysession.com.au so we can help you map out your growth plan.

Want to join a community of like-minded tradesmen or have a topic you want us to cover? Join The Trade Den on Facebook

Find out more about Pravar Group at www.pravargroup.com or @rob_kropp.