For civil & plant · $2M–$30M

You built the company driving the dozer. That’s why it can’t grow past you.

For civil contractors, earthmovers and plant operators turning over $2M–$30M who scaled by doing the work and now can’t see a path off the gear.

Apply for coaching → $1,500 Altitude Audit
The trap

Civil works, earthmoving, plant hire, bulk haulage, demolition, scaled past $2M. Now you can’t step away.

Four pains every owner in this niche describes within five minutes of the first call.

01 · You’re still tendering every major job personally

Government tenders especially eat your weekends. Pricing them right requires your judgement — nobody else has it.

02 · Machinery finance eats cash flow before you see any of it

Plant finance, fuel, parts and operators get paid first. You see what’s left.

03 · Your best operator is one bad week away from his own crew

You know it. He knows you know. Eventually he leaves and takes work with him.

04 · One contested variation could write off the quarter

Civil margins are thin. Variations are contested. A liquidated damages claim or defect dispute can crater the year.

Why this happens in civil

The economics punish unsystematic owners.

Civil and earthmoving founders typically came up running machines. They scaled by doing more jobs, buying more plant, hiring more operators. The skills that built the business — operator capability, knowing the country, owning GC relationships — sit entirely with the founder.

Plant-heavy businesses also carry enormous fixed cost. Every month you’re servicing finance whether or not the gear’s working. That pressure forces the founder to keep selling, keep quoting, keep on the road — and never builds the second tier of leadership that would let them step back.

Coaching for civil isn’t about working harder. It’s about pricing right, tendering selectively, and building leadership underneath you.

Why me

I made the same mistakes — in apparel manufacturing.

I’m a mechanical engineer who started Seight Custom Cycling Wear from my kitchen table. By 24, I was running a $300,000 business. I thought I’d figured it out.

I hadn’t. The dollar tanked. My marriage ended. The business collapsed under $200,000 of debt. I’d built the company on skill, not systems — same trap every owner I now coach is in.

I rebuilt Seight with proper systems and sold it. Since 2017 I’ve coached founders out of the founder-on-the-tools dependency.

Different industry. Same trap. Same fix.

Read the full story →
What coaching is — and what it isn’t

Clear, before you book.

What it IS

  • + 1:1 sessions with Tristan, every fortnight or every week
  • + The Business Evolution Framework applied to your business
  • + Honest accountability for the changes you commit to
  • + Between-session access for high-stakes decisions
  • + Long-term — most clients are 2+ years in

What it ISN’T

  • ✕ A motivational hype-up
  • ✕ A group program or course
  • ✕ An accountability buddy who texts you reminders
  • ✕ A 90-day intensive
  • ✕ Free advice. Real coaching costs real money.
The six steps

How we’d work on your business.

  1. Step 01

    Diagnostic — map the business

    $1,500 standalone, or free strategy call. We map your company against the five BEF layers. You leave with clarity on what’s broken and what to fix first.

  2. Step 02

    Fix Foundation — cash, margin, owner energy

    Cash flow forecast. Real job-level margin. Owner schedule audit. Without Foundation, everything above wobbles.

  3. Step 03

    Build Supporting Systems — people, process, tech

    The operational machinery that runs without you. People, processes, technology, knowledge.

  4. Step 04

    Operate the Success Triad — strategy, marketing, sales, fulfilment

    A real pipeline, real positioning, real delivery. Growth from systems, not heroics.

  5. Step 05

    Sharpen the Inner Core — vision, values, leadership

    The owner-level work most coaches skip. Who you’re becoming as a leader. What the business is actually for.

  6. Step 06

    Reach Core Fulfilment — business serves your life

    The endpoint. The business funds your life, doesn’t consume it.

Who uses coaches

Quietly, most of the operators you respect.

The owners turning over $5M+ and not drowning aren’t naturally better operators. They’ve got someone in their corner who’s seen the next two moves before.

20
Active 1:1 clients
8 yrs
Longest active relationship
5+
Clients past the 5-year mark
$2M+
Revenue floor for this niche
Cross-portfolio proof

No civil contractors on the roster yet. Honest answer.

I’ve been coaching $1.5M–$10M service businesses since 2017. The current 1:1 roster doesn’t include civil or plant contractors specifically — and saying so up-front is the first test of whether a coach is being honest with you. The Foundation-up sequence transfers. Tristan’s own background in mechanical engineering and operator-led manufacturing means the project-revenue-and-equipment economics aren’t foreign.

If you’re a civil contractor reading this — book a diagnostic and we’ll work through whether the industry-specific layer is something we sketch together. Plenty of civil-specific coaches exist; the question is fit.

What to look for in a coach

If you’re shopping around — three filters.

  1. 01 · They’ve actually built something

    Theory is cheap. Has your coach run a real business? Made real payroll? Lost real money? If not, you’re paying for theory.

  2. 02 · They understand the trade economics

    A coach who’s only worked with SaaS startups doesn’t get progress claims, plant finance, or shift work. Industry context matters.

  3. 03 · They’re long-term, not 90-day

    Anyone offering a 90-day transformation is selling a course, not coaching. Real change takes 18–24 months minimum.

The endgame

A business in this niche that doesn’t depend on you.

It’s not about disappearing. It’s about choosing when to be in it. The end state for an owner I coach in this niche looks like:

  • → A tender system run by an estimator with your sign-off on pricing only
  • → A foreman/supervisor layer that runs sites without you
  • → Plant utilisation tracked and managed — not just owned
  • → Cash flow forecasting that anticipates retentions and variations
  • → Selective project pipeline — saying no to bad-margin work
  • → A second tier of operators with retention plans tied to the company
Is it worth it?

Direct talk on cost.

Fortnightly coaching is from $2,000/month + GST. Weekly from $3,000/month + GST. Six-month minimum. A $1,500 Altitude Audit stands alone or rolls into coaching.

One contested variation can write off $80K. Servicing $3M of plant finance when revenue stalls eats six figures of cash flow. Losing your best operator to a competitor wipes a year of margin. Coaching for civil pays for itself the first time it prevents one bad tender or one critical operator walking out.

Real coaching pays for itself the first time it stops you making the same mistake again.

By city

Civil & Plant coaching by city.

Coaching is delivered globally over Google Meet — but if you’re looking for the city-specific page:

Civil & Plant — Melbourne →
Civil coaching for Melbourne-based owners.
Civil & Plant — Sydney →
Civil coaching for Sydney-based owners.
Civil & Plant — Brisbane →
Civil coaching for Brisbane-based owners.
Not ready to apply?

Find out where your business is, before you book a discovery call.

The Altitude Audit tells you exactly where you are in the BEF and what to fix first. From $1,500. Standalone — no coaching commitment.

Book the Altitude Audit →
For civil, earthmoving & plant

Civil-specific pain — equipment, contracts, and the cash gap.

Four things I hear from civil owners in the first call. If three or more land — we should talk.

  • 01 You've got $4M of plant on the books and 60% of it sits idle in any given week. The utilisation problem is killing you and you can't see the data clearly enough to act on it.
  • 02 The big tier-2 contractors pay 60 days. Your fuel and finance bills land weekly. The cash gap on every job is bigger than the margin.
  • 03 You're carrying compliance risk that'd ruin you in an audit. Not because you don't care — because the systems weren't built for the scale you're running at now.
  • 04 Your foremen are good operators. None of them have ever read a P&L. Decisions on site get made on instinct that no longer matches the cost base.
Real examples

What we'd actually work on.

Three current/recent engagements in this space. Names redacted, specifics intact.

Example 01

A civil contractor with $4M in plant. We build a utilisation dashboard out of their existing data — turns out fleet was at 38% utilised, not the 70% they'd been quoting on. Decision to sell three pieces and lease two specialist ones recovers $90K/year.

Example 02

An earthmoving business where every job was bid on a target margin that nobody tracked back. We get cost-tracking on every job, every week. Three months in: clear which job types make money, which ones cost the business to take on. Bid strategy changes.

Example 03

A plant hire business at $7M turnover that was technically profitable but had no cash buffer. We rebuild the AR process and Foundation cash discipline. 60-day buffer reached at month 8.

Ready to step off the tools?

The $1,500 Altitude Audit is the entry point. One hour over Google Meet, full BEF map, written plan — yours to keep whether we work together after or not.

Apply for coaching → $1,500 Altitude Audit