How building a team can transform your business

“Up to the end of 2018, I was doing alright – Business was just bumping along, that’s all it was doing, and I was working my guts out for that, too. Flogging myself to make just a little bit more money.

I was stuck in a hard place, because I couldn’t do the hours to make the profit I needed, but it wasn’t enough income to put on a tradesman. I really needed a tradesman to go the next level, but I wasn’t ready to pull the trigger.

Then I did my back. It was a severe fracture and my L3 vertebrae was almost detached. I had to work, but I couldn’t. I went into fight or flight mode; and it was fight.

This one afternoon, I was just a shell of a man. Beyond burnt out, it was like a mini-break down. I couldn’t cope with anything. But I had some awesome people around me that helped me through that shit feeling. Then I got the ball rolling and put an ad out for a tradesman.

I found my tradie, put him on, and from there, I absolutely did a 180. I started seeing the results straight away. The first month we had a tradesman on we basically doubled our income. It was insane. And I was like, this is where it’s at.  

There’s only so far you can go as a one-man team. You can’t be everywhere at once, you can’t do five jobs at the same time.

I could’ve folded, but I kept fighting. Now I’m thinking why the fuck didn’t I do this years ago? And it’s because I didn’t have the support.

If you hire the right fit, it’ll do wonders, business and personal. It’ll change your whole attitude. Now our workplace is fucking amazing. We’ve got a group of guys who work for us, everyone knows what they need to do, they’re all the right fit. It seems like a big risk putting someone on, but the rewards outweigh the risks”

-Andrew Sly, ESA Peak Performer

As a sole trader you’re wearing every hat. 

You’re doing the grunt-work, running the sales and marketing departments, advertising, buying materials, and making sure the balance sheets stack up at the end of the month.  

Unfortunately, as you get busier and take on more responsibility, it’s usually the marketing and growth side of things, the lifeblood of your business, which falls by the wayside.

If you’re getting busier and the business isn’t growing, you’re going to feel like a dog chasing its tail.

But you don’t have to do this alone. If you want to scale your business, you need a team. That includes staff members, and a community of like-minded people who inspire, motivate and challenge you to take action.

Most sole traders are keen to start building their team, but they often lack the confidence, and don’t have the right systems in place to do it. A lot of the time, they just aren’t thinking big enough. It’s not just about being busy enough to support an extra person, it’s about having the right framework for them to slot into.  

At the academy, our programs teach you the skills and systems needed to transform your business and get you ready to bring on your first tradie. We’ve also got some awesome guidelines and tips for electricians who are keen to take the next step and level-up but not sure how to go about it.

We’re going to share these in today’s article.

Alright, so how do you know you’re ready?

You want to be clocking up an extra 30 billable hours each week before you seriously consider bringing on a tradie.

That’s the benchmark.

If your operating model is clunky or you’re undervaluing your service, thirty billable hours might not seem like enough.

If you’re not hitting 30 billable hours just yet, you’ll need to work on your sales, marketing and lead generation to get you there.  

At the end of the day, if you’re busy and not profitable, there’s a serious problem with the way things are being run. And if you’re busy and profitable, you need to be scaling. We’ve helped thousands of electricians in both camps get to where they need to be much quicker than they realised was possible.

In our experience, sole traders underestimate what they’re capable of and how fast they’re actually able to grow.

But what if business goes pear-shaped?

We recommend hiring a full-time tradie on a casual basis.

The main advantage here is that you’ll have a failsafe in case things don’t work out or business takes an unexpected hit, like it did for many sparkies during the COVID pandemic.

You don’t want to be hiring someone and not having enough work for them – your staff don’t want to be sitting around doing nothing either. They’ll want to learn and develop their skill-set. You don’t want to waste their time, or your money.

When you’ve got your systems rolling smoothly, and you’re confident with the people you’ve brought on board, you can offer permanent full-time employment, if you want.

How do I find someone who’s a good fit?

The first thing you need to know is exactly who you want to hire.

Yeh, we all want a good, honest hard-worker, but the ideal staff member will vary a bit from tradie to tradie. 

Do you want to be the oldest and most experienced person in your team? If so, you’re going to be looking at younger candidates, but you might not want to hire someone who’s still in their party years.

What are the professional and personal attributes you admire most? Punctuality, politeness, or good communication skills?

Think strategically about where your ideal candidate would live, as this will impact where they will be able to service clients – do you want to expand your service area? If so, hire someone who can broaden your reach.  

Break your ideal staff member down into an avatar and be as specific as you can with what you want.

Be selective and patient during your recruitment process, as you’ll be investing precious time and resources getting your tradie up to speed.

What does it really mean for me to bring someone else on?

You’ll have more time to focus on business growth, and more free time.

If you want to scale your business, you’ll need to spend more time on marketing, creating strategic partnerships and making sure your profit and loss is on point.

Day to day, you’ll have more time to do the things you really enjoy. If your business is a well-oiled machine, you’ll be able to spend more quality time with the family, laying on the beach, or watching footy.  

The electricians we work with at the academy want to take their business to the next level. They want to grow their business so they have more freedom, and because they’re driven to succeed. With the right systems and guidance, everyone can level-up their electrical business. You just need to put together a team of people who have your back and will push you forward.   

5/ Where can I go to get geared up and ready to do this?

Book yourself in for a chat with the ESA team or visit our Facebook group to check out some more content. We’ve got videos and articles designed to help electricians of all experience levels.

At the academy, we’ve fast-tracked hundreds of electricians into the next phase of their careers and watched them get epic results really quickly. We’re passionate about helping electricians realise their potential and transform their businesses, and themselves.  

If you’ve been thinking about building a team to level-up your business for awhile, stop thinking and take action.

It’s time to pull the trigger.