Episode 111 Podcast Transcript
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Build the business and execute on the strategy correctly and don’t rush it. You’ve got plenty of time in front of you because if you do it too fast, you run the risk of imploding. But if you just slow and steady wins a race, you will set you and your family up for life. And that’s the beauty of running a great business. G’day everyone. Rob Kropp and Dan Stones here from Pravar Group, and welcome back to another episode of The Trade Den. Good to have you back, Dan. How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Great to be back. Hi, Rob. Hi, everyone. Yeah, today really excited. Looking forward to exploring this whole journey that a trades business goes on. It’s a big one. It’s a long one. It’s a hard one, but we’re going to do it anyway. So I think the thing to start with is after working with probably hundreds of businesses across Australia, the thing that becomes patently obvious, right? The patterns that emerge, it’s undeniable. The journey isn’t random. Every business we work with, regardless of their trade, their size, the state they’re in, they all move through the same three phases. The numbers might change a bit, the names of the phases shift, but when you break it down, they’re the same every single time. And that’s the whole point of this series. We’re not going to oversimplify what you’re going through, but we want to give you a map, a way to see where you’re going and what you’re doing, because once you know what phase you’re in, everything changes.
(01:17):
You get to a point where you stop trying to solve a phase two problem in phase one. You stop trying to build systems that you’re not ready for just yet. You stop wondering why things aren’t working and why your hard work isn’t producing results that you feel that they should. So that’s really what we’re looking at over the course of these journey discussions that we talk about. So let’s start with this idea of a map. And Rob, I want to ask you, why is it that trades businesses follow predictable phases? We hear this all the time about business owners saying, “My business is different. I’m unique.” Not the case.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
It isn’t the case because sure, there might be idiosyncrasies to what you do, maybe the market you serve, the way you go about serving them, your unique selling proposition or the different value you add to the marketplace. But we’ve got to remember, business is business in the end of the day. And it doesn’t matter if you run a plumbing business, an electrical business, a carpentry business, you run a business in the trade space. It just happens to be that the service that you provide is plumbing, electrical, or carpentry. So business at its fundamental core is the same. Now, sure, is there a few little differences between trades businesses and something in healthcare? Absolutely. But this whole podcast is for tradesmen in the trade sector and it’s more predictable. Running a trades business is more predictable than most people like to realise.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
And I think that the early punchline is the sooner you accept that, the faster you can get into that lane that you are in and feel like you’re swimming with the current and with the flow. And we talk about three phases that every single business owner, trades business owner has to go through. So let’s break them down quickly as we set this up and then we’ll jump into one in detail. But let’s start with phase one, what we call the tool belt business. Just give us the rundown on what that looks like.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
A tool belt business is between zero and a million dollars roughly in revenue. So any financial mark that we talk around is pure revenue line, pure top line. Now it might be a little bit below, it might be a little bit more plus or minus a little bit. But in rough terms, it’s zero to a million dollars as a toolbelt business.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Yeah. And tool belt business being things run through you. You’re doing a lot of that work, the quoting the work itself, you’re on the tools. You’ve got the tool belt on that day, you’re running around because you haven’t got structure at night doing admin then, that sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Yeah. Generally at around the million dollars in rev mark per annum, you love your trade and your craft. You love it. You actually love doing that. And you’ve still got the identity of being a tradesman. You still run a business, but you’re still very heavily involved in the doing of the business. You’re literally wearing every hat, I suppose. And yeah, you might have two or three people around you, whether it’s a tradesman or apprentice, but you’re running a very lean and mean operational machine. You are the operations and that’s why it’s a tool belt business.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Yeah. Yeah. Like that. All right, let’s go into phase two, what we call owner operator business. This is around that one mil to two mil mark, right?
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Yeah. And we’ll talk about dead spots and sweet spots throughout this series, but there’s a real sweet spot at around a $2 million mark. And this is where, in my opinion, if you’re not aiming to get to at least $2 million in running a trades business, you’re somewhat wasting your time. And at the $2 million mark, you are generally off the tools. You’ve got some office crewing around you, you’re stable, you’re managing the business rather than the business running you.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Yeah. And that transition, I like that. You go from doing everything to starting to, you’ve got to put on another hat if you like, really, which is a management hat that you didn’t really have to do tool belt business. You can just run around and have your hands in everything. But when you start to get to this level, management comes into it. And if you can’t accept that, if you don’t lean into that, it just becomes absolutely brutal. So it’s really, really important. We’ll go into that in part two, but yeah, it’s a brutal transition if you really fight that management component that comes into it. All right. Phase three, lifestyle business. This is around three to six, right?
Speaker 1 (05:40):
It is. And this is the holy grail. This is where it becomes worth it for carrying all the stress, all the pressure, carrying all the risk of actually running a business. Because anything sub $2 million, you’ve just got to … Literally you got a job and you carry all the risk because you’re too big to be small, you’re too small to be big. You’re generally working for wages. You don’t have the profitability around you at this point, and you don’t have the day-to-day operational freedom to be able to enjoy the life that you wanted when you got into business. And so getting to this point at a $3 million plus business, this is where it becomes worth it because you’ve got the structure, you’ve got the people, you’ve got the systems, you’ve got the resources, you’ve got the time and the money, which makes it worthwhile for carrying the risk of actually running a business.
(06:34):
All right. So the three phases that we’ve just outlined are there, but at each phase, there’s three things that ultimately determine. It’s the same three things as we go through it. They change as we go. But what’s going to determine whether you stick there or you get stuck there, you move through it, or you even fall back. The three things we talk about are your identity, your structure, and the decisions that you’re willing to make at the time you enter into those phases.
(06:59):
Yeah, it is. And this is the beauty about this whole journey that trades business goes on. And this is, I suppose, what sets Pravar Group apart from every other trades coaching company out there, I suppose, because most other coaching businesses have a one programme and it’s a one size fits all. They’ve got someone in there doing 50 grand a month and they’ve got someone in there doing 500 grand a month. And that’s good because it’s good for the 50 grand a month because he’s looking up going, “Wow, he’s inspiring me to go and get there.” But the 500 grand a month guy’s going, “Well, I’m learning about foundational stuff and I need to learn about leadership and management and building in leadership teams and culture and more advanced business strategy.” So what happens is you have a blanket coaching approach, and in my opinion, in our opinion, it doesn’t work.
(07:57):
And that’s why at Pravar, we chop up this journey to align the programme to solve the problems and provide a programme promise to deliver on that, to get clients through those phases. And that’s why we’re so effective in what we do here at Pravar Group, and that’s what I love the most.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Yeah. I’d agree that the effectiveness of what we do, and I think that’s what it’s all about. How do we remain effective? Like you just outlined, if you’ve got different levels in the one programme, you’re either going to be spoken to or it’s not your level that’s being spoken about. So you’re sort of switching on and switching off even though you’re in the programme, so you’re not getting the most out of your time. So we’re going to pack all those phases as we go through this, we’ll call it a series that may not be in order, but today we’re going to focus on phase one. Before we go any further though, you mentioned before, and I want to pick this up, the idea of a sweet spot and a dead spot. Just explain that concept because we’re going to come back to this time and time again.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
When you’re growing a business, there are definitive dead spots and sweet spots throughout your journey. And what I mean by that is, think about a ladder that goes from one to 20. When you start to get to 10, you’re in a sweet spot, you’re in an optimal space on that ladder. The moment you cross that threshold to move into the next phase of your journey, you’re moving to run 11, 12, 13, 14, 15. Whenever you’re going through the phases, you always move from a dead spot where it becomes challenging and there’s certain identity changes, there’s certain decisions you’ve got to make, there’s certain strategies you’ve got to follow, and it generally gets harder before it gets easier. And that’s what I mean by a dead spot where you’ve got to move through that dead spot to optimise your structure and the model that you’re running to move into a sweet spot.
(09:48):
And that’s important to remember because if you are sitting there where you’re like, “Oh man, this is hard work and I’m feeling like I’m not moving ahead,” it’s probably because you’re in a dead spot right now. It’s not what you’re doing wrong, it’s just a symptom of your size and in a dead spot, you probably don’t even realise.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
And again, that’s specific, what it feels like is a different dead spot. We call it a dead spot. It’s the flat point, the pinch point, the pressure point, the hard bit, but it’s different in each phase. So we will break that down as we go through what we’re talking about. The other part of this that we’ve got to talk about then, sweet spots, dead spots is decision points. You made a real point of that in the opening, a decision point. What do you mean by that?
Speaker 1 (10:32):
When you’re growing a business, there’s points along your journey where you should be consciously making a decision, am I willing to step out of a sweet spot and move into the next phase of my journey? And what I mean by that is how far you go is determined by the vision that you’ve got, the money that you want to make and the freedom of day-to-day operations that you want to have. And so generally the more of that that you have, the bigger the business has to be, but you’ve got to be willing to make decisions along the way to be able to go, “Am I prepared? Am I willing? And am I going to go on a journey to shed an old identity, shed an old version of me, adopt a new mindset, adopt a new identity, adopt a new set of skillsets, and adopt a new way of doing things, and am I willing to cross that threshold to get onto that next phase of that journey?” And most guys run a business without even realising that they’re making decisions along the way.
(11:40):
They just try and grow a business. But the more you understand the journey, the more in control you are of that journey and the better decisions you can make along the way.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Yeah. You can see it guys that don’t have a map in front of them to know what they’re going to be in for, where they’re going and what they’re doing. It just feels like, “Geez, this was hard. I thought I was going all right. Now it’s hard again. Why is it hard? Now it’s easy.” It’s just all random events, but the pattern starts to emerge.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
And I think that when we explain that to clients to be able to go, “Hey mate, you’ve just entered into a dead spot and these are the symptoms.” They go, “Oh, I get it.” That’s common that clients experience that, don’t they?
Speaker 2 (12:16):
They do. And you know what else lives is that idea of, “Geez, I’ve really stuffed this up.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
I’m in a bad spot. I’m hurting because of this. ” It’s almost not about them at that point. It’s how they respond to that phase of the journey they’re in. And can you work through it as opposed to just going, “Well, I’m no good at this. I suck at that. I never learned that. Maybe I’ve got to do it without that skill or that thing.” It’s none of that. It’s literally being conscious about the map and making the decision to move through the dead spot that you found yourself in.
(12:45):
And it also takes the pressure off, I think. Yes. There’s some guys who go, “You know what? I don’t listen to anything in the marketplace. It’s all about scale and growth and 10X and you got to run this size business.” But we would rather lay the path in front of our clients and say, “Here’s your journey, here’s the dead spots, here’s the sweet spots, here’s the decision points, here’s the optimal phases of where you should be aiming to. Now you decide where you want to go and don’t listen to anyone else.” And I think when someone makes a decision to be able to go, “You know what? If I built a $3 million lifestyle business, I’d be happy.” Whereas the marketplace is saying, “You got a 10X man, you got to do this. ” It’s almost like you give yourself permission to live the business and life that you want to build rather than be dictated to by what you should be doing.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Yeah, what you should be doing, the should version of the world. Yeah. That’s really cool. Now you’ve thrown some big words around here. Before we get into any example of our first phase, I want to really break these down so we’re clear. And I said this even at the start, the thing that separates you of those three things that we call identity structure and strategy. We call this the big three, right? And they reappear every time. So it’s not like you do them once and it’s like, “Tick, I’m ready to go. Get me to the end.” You’ve got to go through it every time. So let’s break these down. Big three being identity is the first one.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Identity’s huge because the reality is you’ll never … When it comes to your identity, your identity is who you see looking back at you in the mirror. And in psychology terms, it’s the words that flow after I am. And when you’re running a small business at say a $2 million or less, when someone says, “Hey, Dan, who are you? ” Most people will say, “I’m a plumber or I’m a tradie.” So that’s your identity talking because you’re saying, “This is who I am.” But as you grow your business, you’ve got to evolve your identity from being a tradesman to a good operator, to a good manager, to a great leader, to eventually go on and be a great master and then on to be an investor. So your identity has to evolve over a period of time because if you don’t evolve it, your business will never outgrow the identity that you hold onto.
(15:12):
So identity is a huge part in this transformational journey you’ve got to go on because it’s actually the leading indicator of how far and fast you will transform over a period of time.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Nice. All right. Structure. What do we mean by structure for the sake of what we’re going to be talking about in this series?
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Yeah. If you look at anything online, it’s all about systems will set you very … But at Pravar, we are all about structure. It’s the operational structure and how the business is hung together from a structural point of view. And structure to us is a combination of people and systems, but the reality is that there’s a standard operational structure that a trades business has, and it doesn’t matter if you’re doing a million dollars or $5 million a year, the same structure stands. It’s just that when you’re a million dollars, you’re wearing all the hats working pretty much 100% in the business. When you’re at $5 million, you’ve employed people to wear those hats and you’re working 100% on the business. So the structure around ground crewing and bookkeeping and admin and estimation and operations, that structure does not change. It’s just that what you do in the role that you play within that structure evolves over time as you get bigger.
(16:36):
So structure fundamentally is at the heart of growing a good business.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Yeah. I want to add something there because it’s not, just to be really clear, it’s not systems versus people when we talk structure.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
No.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Because the structure is the right roles in your business field. It’s roles and the right people to fill those roles, yes, but it’s not people versus process. That’s it. If I’ve got people or I’ve got systems, because in this world there’s like, well, if I can get rid of the people, I could just run systems and AI and things like that. Now, there’s places for all of that, but when we talk structure, we’re saying there’s specific roles in your business that you need to have as you go through this journey that help you move through it.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
It is. And most people think systems first, person second, and then we’ll work out the positions later. We’re big advocates of position first, person second, and then you wrap systems and processes around that person in that position. And that’s the right formula because you get the right people and the right positions following the right task. And that’s where you get the leverage. That’s where you get people taking ownership for their roles. And that’s when you get the freedom from your business because people in the business are doing what you’re actually paying them to get done in the end of the day.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Yeah. And the last one then becomes strategy. Now, we’ve done it this way, and it’s probably just force of habit for us in the way we think about it, but there’s a deliberate reason probably why strategy sits third. But strategy is our third big thing that you’ve got to get right as you go through this journey.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Correct, because there’s a series of strategies you’ve got to get right when you’re building a tool belt business. It’s all about foundations, and we’ll talk about that in this episode, but there’s a series of strategies you’ve got to work on. When you’re building an owner-operator business, there’s a series of strategies that you’ve got to work on. When you’re building a lifestyle business, there’s a series of strategies you’ve got to work on then. And when you chop up the journey, you can chop up the identity, chop up the structure, and chop up the strategic plays that you’ve got to work on. And that’s what becomes the journey and the roadmap. And that’s where it becomes predictable. And what it does is it prevents someone at a million dollars pulling a lever on a strategy they should be holding off until they’re $3 million. So it prevents right strategy wrong time when you understand the journey correctly.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Yeah. So important. So important. The last thing I think before we do go through a bit of an example is that these all come together. You can’t muscle your way through it. Most people think, “Just give me the strategy. It’s all I need. Tell me the answer. Give me the answer. I’m really good. I’ll work really hard and just give me the strategy and off I go. ” But it doesn’t work that way. You’ve got to match your identity with your structure and then implement the strategy is what you’re saying.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Correct. They all work hand in hand. And you probably hear us saying this a lot, that mindset always precedes structure and strategy. And that’s why we’ve got them in that order because first you have to shift, then you build your structure and whilst you’re doing that, you’re executing your strategy. So they all work hand in hand and you’ve got to be patient in this. And if you think about a business that goes from one to two million dollars, that generally takes 12 to 24 months to be able to get there. To be able to go from to build a lifestyle business, which is three to six million dollars roughly, it generally takes three to five years to get there. And so don’t be in a hurry to do this because you need the time to shift your identity, build the structure, build the business and execute on the strategy correctly and don’t rush it.
(20:07):
You’ve got plenty of time in front of you because if you do it too fast, you run the risk of imploding. But if you just slow and steady wins a race, you will set you and your family up for life. And that’s the beauty of running a great business.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Yeah. Let’s work through then. Let’s build on what we’ve just talked about. Let’s build this into an example. We’ll take phase one, tool belt business. Okay? So let’s start with that and let’s follow what we just outlined as the concepts, if you like, in real terms and the practical sense. So let’s start with the dead spots and sweet spots of a tool belt business.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Yeah. The dead spot is between zero and 300 grand and we-
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Zero’s a pretty big dead spot.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
This is like day one. Now, this is not time because I was speaking to a guy the other day, he’s like, “Rob, I’m doing 16 to 80 grand months and I’ve been in business seven months.” And so it’s not time, it’s the bracket that you’re in. Now, zero to 300, we call that the Wild West. And this is where one man band’s running around like that.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
Anything and everything goes, right? Anything and everything goes. It’s the Wild West.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
It’s like undercutting. It’s like doing cashiers, running around. Literally you are a contractor kind of thing. You haven’t yet made that decision to put your first person on and you’re in an absolute dead spot because you really don’t have a business at this point, do you?
Speaker 2 (21:30):
No, you’ve got a gig, you’re busy doing stuff, you’re getting out of the ground. You’re in almost survival mode. It just feels like there’s no end to it. It just feels like it’s more of the same. Every day is the sale. We’ve just got to keep going, keep grinding through this until it works. And you sort of get to there. And eventually though, you do move out of the dead spot. There is a sweet spot, believe it or not, to a tool belt business. You can thrive in the Wild West if that’s your choice, if that’s the decision that you’ve made.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
The biggest decision to get out of the Wild West is actually making that decision to put someone on. That’s what it is. And I’ve got a mate who’s like, “I don’t want to hire anyone. He will be in the Wild West forever.” And that’s a definitive, I’m just happy being a one man band. But when you move into that 500K to a million dollar mark, it’s generally you and maybe one to two, three people around you might have another qualifier and two apprentices or two qualifiers and apprentice around you. And I’ve got another mate who works down the peninsula and he’s that type of business. He sits at around 80 grand months. Mrs. helps him with a bit of bookkeeping. He loves being on the tours. He just loves it. And you say to him, it’s like, “Mate, do you ever see yourself getting off the tools?” He’s like, “No, I love it.
(22:52):
” And he’s happy. A couple of guys around him, they do some pretty good work. They’ve got a good name for themselves in the local area. That guy doesn’t want the headaches of moving out of home and getting a premises and stuff like that. And he actually makes not bad money because he’s on the tools making money, and then he gets the margin off the guys that he has around him. So running a toolbelt business, it’s a real thing. It’s not a bad spot to be in, is it?
Speaker 2 (23:19):
No, I think the difference between the Wild West and the connotation of people running a mark is that they don’t treat their business like a business. You can be in the Wild West like you mate and treat it like a business. It doesn’t have to be fancy. It doesn’t come with all the bells and whistles of a bigger business. It’s basics done consistently, done well to a standard that you know what you’re doing and you’ve made that choice.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
There is a downside though. You got to be honest, there is a downside of that business. You are the business. You do all the admin, you do all the bookkeeping. You can never go away on holidays and the business comes to a grinding halt. It’s very risky. There’s key man risk dependency. There’s a lot of downside to that business. And to be honest, it’s not really worth it in that space, but some people choose to be there. You just got to make a decision of what space you want to live in.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Yeah, exactly right. I think as long as it’s a choice and you’re not stuck there wishing you were somewhere else, then do something about it. So let’s talk about this now. The big three, let’s move on from dead spots and sweet spots and decisions. Talk big three to me in terms of, let’s stick to tool belt business. So identity. What’s the identity and is there a shift within that that needs to happen when you go through this sort of phase?
Speaker 1 (24:33):
The shift is you’ve made that shift in your mind from being a tradie to a good operator of a trades business. And you still run around in hi vis, you still got all the tools in your trucks, you’re still on the tools, you still think like a tradie, but there’s a slight difference in identity between a one man band contractor and someone who runs a couple of guys. There is a difference in the way that that person carries themselves, isn’t there?
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Yeah. Do you think it’s that sense of responsibility? Maybe that’s part of it. For me, that’s what I think. It’s sort of like you treat it like a business means you’re almost caring for it. You’re responsible for it. There’s a sense of, I’m going to do this the right way by the business as I do it. I think that’s the initial phase shift that I see.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Yeah, definitely. Yeah, there is. I think you get to know your trade inside out, your identity’s wrapped around it around being a good trader, a good problem solver, but you’re starting to think a bit bigger. That’s what it is. You’re giving yourself permission to think a bit bigger than being someone who’s just a one-man band. Not that I say that in disrespect, but there’s a difference in mindset, isn’t there?
Speaker 2 (25:40):
Yeah, absolutely. There is. Absolutely. Let’s talk structure then. Let’s move on. We talked a little bit about structure already, but let’s talk about building capacity structure. Yes, structure, but you said before, you still wear all the hats. It’s not like you just go out and blow it out with people because you can’t afford it. But what do we mean by structure in this specific phase?
Speaker 1 (26:00):
When you’re in this phase, the structure of a toolbelt business is still the same structure as a lifestyle business. It’s just that like we said before, when you’re running a lifestyle business, you’ve got people wearing those hats. Whereas when you’re a toolbelt business, you are the bookkeeper, you are the admin, you are the sales and estimating guy, you are the project manager, you are on the tools, you are the leading hand, like you are wearing every one of those hats. And it reminds me of that image where that dude’s sitting there and he’s wearing all these hats really high. That’s you. You’re wearing hats. You have zero structure. You might have a couple of guys around you on the tools, but that’s it. Remember, you’re running roughly a million a million dollars and you’re either happy there or you get this little feeling inside of you where it’s like there’s a bigger game to play.
(26:48):
But for here, there is no structure. We just got to be honest.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
Don’t jump. I know you don’t want to hang out in this zone.You’re ready for phase two, phase three, but we’ll get there eventually. I think the other thing with structure for me, Rob, is the idea of you’ve got to build some level of capacity for the numbers to even work at this level. So you start building a ground grow. If you’re way at the beginning, it’s about getting to a point where you’ve at least got some capacity to do more work to get it to a point where it can generate what it needs to. You’re not just living on the absolute line of nothing. You’ve got people and you can get through a decent amount of work. Last one to go, strategy. What to focus on and when. And this is probably the easiest one in a sense, but it’s the hardest one because it feels basic and you know there’s better strategies, bigger strategies, other strategies.
(27:39):
What’s the newest strategy? This is probably the most confusing, but it’s the simplest to sort of get your head around once you know what the strategies are.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
All foundations. It’s all foundational strategies like understanding the basics of recruitment. But let’s be honest, when you’re at that size, you’re recruiting your mates, like all people you know in the industry. And then it’s the basics of sales, but to be honest, you’re probably doing work with three or four builders that you went to school with. Or you’re working for property managers in real estates you kind of already knew. So you’re learning the basics of, it’s the basics of communication, the basics of sales, the basics of understanding your numbers. It’s having a zero or a mild file that you kind of use. It’s very much the basics. Now, they’re important because if you can’t get the fundamentals right, don’t even try and grow a bigger business. So don’t underestimate the importance of foundations at that point. But yeah, the strategies are very much foundational strategies to get the business up and now to the ground.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Yeah. And I think you give yourself a chance when you do the strategies in the right space, especially at this level, to build some momentum, to build … You get to cut your teeth on a few things. The risks, the downside isn’t as big as when the business is bigger. If you haven’t got foundations in place, the whole building collapses. But at this level, you just keep building your foundations until they’re strong enough to move to the next point. So I think strategy has a real … The right strategy at the right time at this place is really, really important. And patience plays a big part.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
It does. Don’t underestimate even running a million dollar business. You are still in the top sized businesses in Australia, in the trade space. Don’t underestimate. A million dollars is a milestone. It’s also very much a sticking point. We’ll talk about that in our next part of the series, but even get to a million dollars, it’s a big feat because what you’ve done is proven that you’ve got the proof in the marketplace that you’ve got the quality and the capability to deliver on what you say you’re going to do. So don’t even underestimate that at a million dollars it’s still a good business. It’s got its downsides, but don’t underestimate the position you have in the marketplace.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Yeah. Even to get to here, it takes a hell of a lot of courage to even take Take that step and get to this point. So it’s no small feat to run a tool belt business.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
What a great episode, Dan. And I think it was important that as part of this series that we’re going to do, we really talk through the journey, the dead spots, the sweet spots, the decisions, the big three. We’re going to keep coming back to them because they really set the tone for how a trades business owner grows their business. And confusion is a huge part of a business owner that prevents them from moving forward. They often get to a point where they feel trapped, they’re confused about what to do next. And having clarity is the big thing to be able to keep moving forward and growing a great business, isn’t it?
Speaker 2 (30:45):
Yeah, absolutely. We always say no clarity, no progress. You’ll get change, you’ll get busy, you’ll get all the other things that come with it. But when you get clarity, you can actually start to make progress, which is what we’re here for.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
Part one was around that. Part two coming up is going to be around how to build an owner operator business. And this becomes a great milestone to aim towards. Now, like we spoke around today, there is a dead spot you’ve got to work through. There’s a decision you’ve got to make and then there’s a sweet spot to enter. So stay tuned for that episode coming up. We want to talk through what that $2 million plus owner-operator business looks like. And hopefully it inspires you to be able to keep cracking along in your journey. Hopefully you’ve enjoyed today’s episode. And if this has really resonated with you where you’re feeling to that point where it’s like, you know what? I am feeling in a bit of a dead spot and I feel stuck and trapped and confused and want to take my business and life to the next level.
(31:42):
Then jump across to strategysession.com.au. Fill out the application form. If you meet the criteria, then get a time that suits you. Let’s book in a time on a discovery call and let’s have a chat to you to see how we can keep laying your path in front of you to be able to achieve all the great things that you want to achieve in your business and life. Until then, have a great week and we’ll talk to you soon.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
Catch on the next one.