The Trade Den

There’s a cycle that every trades business goes through before they figure out how to stop it … tell us if this is you. 

You’ve had a great few months and have been SO BUSY doing work - the team are flat out and you’ve even had to jump on the tools … but looking at the books there’s not much coming up.

You get a bit stressed, you feel like you might have to let some of your team go so you rush out and quote, and quote, and quote and quote and quote … and then all of a sudden you’re FINALLY BUSY again (for another few months) 

These dips in work happen so often they feel normal, as if maybe they’re caused by Christmas or just something that happens in the industry. 

Well today we’re going to introduce you to something we call the Win Work, Do Work Cycle and tell you that you DON’T have to be in this pattern and if you want to grow you definitely can’t be. 

You’ll Learn:

🔨The signs that you’re stuck in the Win Work, Do Work Cycle 

🔨What causes this and how you can break free for good 

🔨 The targets that you need to implement in your business to ensure consistent sales 

🔨The 2 Systems that will reduce your quoting time and increase sales conversion

🔨How to stop getting dragged back to site (EVEN when you win a whole heap of new work) 

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.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Getting off the tools is usually so you can have MORE time right? 

But the day you put them down, the thing most people have to pick up instead … is their phone. 

When they come to us most business owners are fielding between 50-100 calls a day from their team or clients - which leaves NO time to get any of their own work done. 

The bad news … the reason your team call you is because YOU’VE created a culture of dependency where they NEED you to get their job done. 

The good news … this is an EASY thing to change and just by listening to this episode you’ll have the exact tools you need to cut your phone calls in half. 

There are three main reasons your team are currently picking up the phone so in this episode Dan and I talk through what these are and the changes you can implement so those calls don’t just stop for a week, but they actually stop for good. 

You’ll Learn:

🔨The #1 reason building a team has meant MORE problems and EVEN LESS TIME

🔨How to get your team to STOP calling you and figure it out themselves 

🔨What information your team need from YOU to increase their productivity and ability to problem solve 

🔨How Frank the Painter went from a team of 2 working 70+ hours a week, to a team of 14 doing 30 hour weeks, giving him time to focus on his 2 loves; Family & Fishing

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.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“If I wasn’t in coaching and I didn’t face the facts I don’t think I’d be in a relationship, my family would be broken … and I'd be stressed and dealing with all sorts of problems.”

This weeks guest is Anthony Rentzis from Hypower Electrical & Security and Absolute Airflow, he started working with Pravar in 2021 and aside from the obvious business success we are going to talk about in this episode he has done a complete 180 in so many aspects of his personal life. 

When he started with us he was working 70+ hours a week, was on the tools full time (and trying to send quotes in between the team asking questions or needing a hand) and although he was doing around $1million a year in revenue, his relationship was suffering and he was using alcohol as an outlet for all of the stress and pressure he was feeling. 

We talk about how Anthony not only turned this around but the strategies he used, the steps he took which has allowed him to cut his working hours back to 40 a week (or less) even though he now has a second business AND be in a position where he can take uninterrupted holidays with his family and focus on other wealth generation activities. 

If you currently feel like there’s no way that you can get out of the cycle you’re currently in, growing a team feels daunting or you can feel yourself perhaps reaching for vices more than you want to, this story is a must listen. 

You’ll Learn:

🔨The 3 key phases of Strategic and Sustainable growth that lead to a revenue increase from $1Mill to $3.6Mill in 2.5 years

🔨How Structure enabled Anthony to go from 70 hour weeks to 40 hour weeks, managing 2 businesses

🔨The power of facing the facts around Alcohol as a crutch to numb stress

🔨How to unlock Time as a pathway to Building Wealth, Personal Transformation and Family Reconnection

🔨What Anthony focused on to create a $650k Net Profit turnaround in 12 months

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.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Most trades and construction business owners will hit a ceiling when they are growing their business. 

They can get to $1 million, $1.5 million or even $2 million but then often will get stuck and aren’t sure how to break through. 

In this week's episode, we’re talking about how you can smash through that ceiling PROFITABLY because the other thing that we see WAY too often is when business owners start to grow, they add on the team … and then all of a sudden they find they’re not making any money and quickly revert back to their old ways, size and team. 

So what is the answer to all of this? Growing your team. 

Now you might be thinking that you’ve tried it before, that we have no idea what it's like to actually be in your business, that there are NO good tradespeople out there and that is EXACTLY why Dan is putting on the client hat and talking through all of these problems PLUS what to do when you can’t find anyone as good as you and why in the past it's just cost you MORE time and money and hasn’t resulted in more profit. 

You’ll Learn:

🔨 Why most people make LESS money the bigger they get (we call this revenue no man’s land) and how you can avoid this 

🔨 The VERY simple test we give to our clients to find out who they REALLY need before making their next hire

🔨 How to recruit the right people at the right time that will unlock MORE growth for you, using our Revenue to Resourcing Matching Principle

🔨 The most important skill you must develop in order to unlock all the time, profit and freedom you want from your business

Download the Crew Designer Worksheet 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.

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.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As a business owner in the trades and construction industry, your to-do list can often feel never-ending… and just when you get a handle on it, the phone rings and a client or one of your team needs you urgently. 

We learnt last week that you can’t MAKE more time so if you are going to make a change this year and you want to GROW your business you need to DECIDE where you are going to invest your time. 

There are THREE key areas that the most successful business owners we work with a master, so they are not slaves to time…

They make great decisions around what to Prioritise, how they Focus AND how they manage their Energy; and in today’s episode teaching you about all three. 

So HOW do you decide? That is what we are talking about today. 

You’ll Learn:

🔨 How to master your Priorities, rather than being a Slave to Time

🔨 The 1 simple strategy which will help you identify up to 20 hours of Low Value Tasks (LVT’s) that can be deleted or delegated

🔨 How to Focus on getting the important things done, rather than firefighting and getting caught in the urgency of low tasks

🔨 How improving your health and well-being increases your personal productivity

🔨 How you show up as a leader sets the standards amongst your team and what you can do to shift the culture to a high-performing 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 @rob_kropp.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Most people get into business so that they can have MORE TIME. But the wish for almost every business owner you speak to is ‘if they could just have some more time’ … and the wish for their families is often that they could have MORE time with them as well. 

It’s one of the biggest challenges in business and something that will continue to hold you back unless you master it. 

So today we’re going to be talking through how unless you change your relationship with time, you will go through life using Time as an excuse, and not achieve your true potential.

The reality is Time Management is a Myth.  Time manages itself just fine.  We all have 24 hours in a day.  It is what you prioritise to do in the time that you have is what matters.

We’re going to talk about the changes that we’ve seen our most successful clients make that have enabled them to balance family, business and life.

If you’ve been struggling with time lately and feel like no matter what you do there are not enough hours in a day, tune in to this one. 

What you will learn:

🔨 Why you always feel like you 'just need more time' and how to break out of this cycle

🔨 Why Priority Management trumps Time Management

🔨 How to recognise that you are using time as an Excuse, and how to Prioritise more of what matters in the Time that you have

🔨 What are the common Low Value Tasks (LVT’s) that are robbing you of the time to work ON your business and be present with your family.

🔨 How to Stop being a ‘Yes Man’ and Start being intentional with your time

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.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When Ahmad started working with us, all he wanted was to go on a holiday with his family where he wouldn’t be interrupted. 

Fast forward and not only has his business doubled, he’s moved out of an industry where he was losing money on jobs, he has just purchased another business AND had three weeks completely uninterrupted with his family. 

For so many men in the trades and construction industry, they can’t grow because they don’t know how, often, they might not know the BEST levers to pull to give them the best return, but the thing that is ACTUALLY holding them back is their mindset. 

It’s that little voice in your head when you’re completely on your own driving from site to site that tells you ‘You’ve just fluked this’ ‘You’re going to lose this job’ ‘Your team are going to walk’ … that voice can completely cripple you and worse than that, it puts a limit on what you can achieve next. 

If you are feeling like business and life is all-consuming, and you have an internal voice that you know is holding you back, Ahmed’s story is a must-listen.

You’ll Hear 

🔨 Why so many business owners in the trades & construction industry hit a ceiling that they can’t break through 

🔨 How to structure your business, by putting the right people in the right positions to reclaim your nights and weekends

🔨 How Ahmad went from wanting to shut down his business, to doubling his business from $2mill to $4mill, taking family holidays and reconnecting with his wife and kids 

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.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Have you hit a plateau in your business and life, where you can’t break through no matter how hard you try? 

Last week we took you through why principles are the key to success in not just your business but your life as well and why Face The Facts is the first step we take with our clients. 

This week we’re introducing you to two principles that unlock the next stage of business growth and letting you in on what we’ve seen happen for our clients when they start to embody these in their lives.

You’ll Hear 

🔨 The reason so many tradesmen get STUCK working way too many hours and earning an average wage 

🔨 What successful owners do differently (and how you can incorporate this into your life) 

🔨 The one thing one of our clients did to take him from $2mil to $15mil in revenue and $2mil in profit 

And so much more 

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.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to the first episode of The Trade Den. 

This is a podcast we’ve wanted to start for such a long time (and had quite a few requests for) because the world of being a business owner in the trades and construction industry can be pretty challenging and lonely at the best of times. 

So many tradies start their business because they want to create a better life… love what they do, earn more money, and have more time with their family.  

However, the stark reality for so many of them is they end up working even MORE hours and seeing their family less than ever before. 

I’m your host Rob Kropp, founder and CEO of Pravar Group and together with our Coach & Operations Manager Dan Stones we are here to help break this cycle and reconnect families again, The Trade Den is our free resource to help you get there. 

In this episode you’ll hear:

🔨Why business is HARD  

​​🔨What to expect from The Trade Den 

🔨The reason coaching DOESN’T work for so many people 

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 get off the Hamster Wheel and take your Business and Life to the next level? Book a chat with us here. 

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There are things in this episode I have never spoken about before. 

Welcome to Episode Two of The Trade Den, an episode I was a little apprehensive about recording.  This week we’re giving Dan Stones creative control to ask any question about my origin story and how Pravar Group came to be. 

We go right back to the start, talking about what it was like being a kid with a Dad who was the typical tradie who worked his arse off to provide for our family, my honest thoughts at that time, and how it has shaped me to be who I am today as a husband, father and businessman. 

Along with something I see so many tradies do when running their own business which is why their businesses just aren’t working. 

You’ll Hear:

🔨Where the name Pravar came from  

​​🔨The Reason I started coaching in the first place 

🔨What it takes to transition from a tradesman to a successful business owner

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 get off the Hamster Wheel and take your Business and Life to the next level?  Book a chat with us here.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.