Where do you sit on the mountain of success?
Like we addressed in this article, the first step in achieving trade business success is to have complete clarity on where you are RIGHT NOW.
A good place to start is to use our Summit System.
This tool is a great way to get an initial understanding of EXACTLY what stage of growth your business is at right now, so you can identify the steps needed to move forward.
Launch – $0 to $100K Revenue
The first level is LAUNCH. It’s a completely new business, built out of your desire to take control of your future. Likely starting out in your spare time, you’re doing work on the side after hours or on the weekends, doing jobs for family, friends and subcontracting to other trades businesses. You’re FULL of excitement, and you’re motivated to make something of this new business, with all of your energy going into hunting for enough work to replace your salary.
Hustle – $100K to $500K Revenue
The second level is HUSTLE. You’ve now built up enough work to give you the confidence to go out on your own, but you're constantly hustling because winning more work is now a NECESSITY. The excitement starts to drop off and is replaced by stress and uncertainty. With more and more demands on your time through marketing, sales, pricing, delivering the work, invoicing, paperwork, etc. you’re doing everything, and progress starts to feel slow.
Survival – $500K to $1M Revenue
The third level is SURVIVAL. Now, with more clients and jobs, you’re starting to take on your first employees. This has you working overtime on your business during nights and weekends, stressing about how to keep everyone busy. With greater demand for job management, you have to now start thinking about planning their work, whilst doing your own work, all with increasing piles of paperwork. You need a strategy to get to the next level fast, otherwise it feels like it would just be easier to go back to being on your own.
Ceiling – $1M to $2M Revenue
The fourth level is CEILING. Your workflow has now become more consistent; however, despite your growing team and being largely off the tools, job management, quoting, invoicing, sales, marketing, etc. is still reliant on you. You’ve become the operations manager at best, and the admin assistant at worst. You’re still doing everything, strapped for time, working ridiculous hours, putting out every fire and burning the candle at both ends. You’ve reached your ceiling of capacity. You KNOW this isn’t healthy, but you don’t know how to get to the next step.
Leverage – $2M to $5M Revenue
The fifth level is LEVERAGE. You’ve gone from reactive to proactive. You’re a business builder, buying back your time through developing your team, building systems and hiring help in the office. You’re starting to learn to let go and also resist the temptation of grabbing the tools and fixing EVERY problem. But, you’re still the most important cog in the machine, driving the ship and keeping the vessel afloat. Without you, everything stops.
Success – $5M Plus Revenue
The sixth level is SUCCESS. This is where it all comes together. Your business is no longer dependent on your direct involvement anymore, so you can CHOOSE to work in it, or hand over the day-to-day responsibilities to your management team. Also, your business is now an attractive asset that someone would be prepared to pay good money for. Here, you’re making more money, getting back your time and you’ve built a business that works for you.
Stuck at the SURVIVAL or CEILING stage?
The survival or ceiling stage is where most people tend to realise that being a great tradesman is not the answer, and simply working harder is not scalable or sustainable and the old ways of running your business are now actually limiting you and holding you back. Without the team, systems and processes, you simply don’t have enough time.
YOU NEED TO CHANGE GEARS... YOU NEED A COACH.
Hiring a coach, let alone an entire team of coaches, working behind the scenes to support and help drive results in your business WILL dramatically improve your life.
There's a reason EVERY professional athlete has a coach; there's a reason EVERY successful person has a mentor; and there's a reason EVERY great company has a board of directors.
Books, guides, seminars, programs, software, or apps can only get you so far.
Success comes from a clear roadmap, smart strategic business decisions, informed collaboration, accountability and powerful guidance — the kind that comes from the right team of business coaches.
If you don’t have your pricing or numbers sorted; if you don't have WORKING onsite systems or office systems; if you don’t have a CONSISTENT stream of profitable jobs; if you’re struggling to hire the RIGHT team OR get them working productively (and the list goes on), then you are going to get stuck...
Stuck struggling to grow and achieve the lifestyle that you likely went into business for in the first place!
Our job at Trade Business Success is to help plumbers, electricians and other construction and trade-based service businesses get from the SURVIVAL and CEILING stages to the LEVERAGE and SUCCESS stages, where they can truly achieve trade business success.
If you're an electrician, plumber, painter, carpenter, or any other trade business owner who is looking to take your business to the next level, click here to learn more about how our team can help!
