For manufacturing & fabrication · $1.5M–$20M

Your workshop runs because you walk the floor. That’s the problem.

For fabrication, manufacturing, joinery, machining and engineering workshop owners turning over $1.5M–$20M who built the business on technical skill and can’t step away.

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

Steel fab, machining, joinery, signage, CNC, custom workshops, scaled past $1.5M. Now you can’t step away.

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

01 · You’re the only one who can quote complex work

Every custom job comes back to your desk. Half your weekends go to estimating.

02 · Production scheduling is in your head

When you’re on holiday, the floor stalls because nobody else can sequence jobs properly.

03 · You’re funding inventory and WIP from cash flow

Materials in, work in progress, finished goods waiting. The float drags every month.

04 · Your QC is you walking the floor

When you’re not there, quality slips. Rework eats margin. Complaints come direct to you.

Why this happens in manufacturing

The economics punish unsystematic owners.

Manufacturing founders are usually the most technically capable person in the building. You scaled because nobody else could deliver the quality you do. But that capability is also the bottleneck.

Most workshops plateau at $2–3M because the founder is the system. Breaking through requires proper estimating systems, production scheduling, and a quality framework that doesn’t depend on the founder walking the floor.

I’m a mechanical engineer (Swinburne). I read workshop drawings. I understand tolerances, machine ROI and small-batch production economics. That matters in this niche.

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
$1.5M+
Revenue floor for this niche
Cross-portfolio proof

The honest answer on manufacturing fit.

The current 1:1 roster is heavy in agencies, advisory and operator-led services. Tristan’s own background — mechanical engineer who built and sold a cycling-apparel manufacturing business — is the closest industry bridge. The Foundation-up sequence transfers. The disclosure matters more.

Tristan’s Seight Custom Cycling Wear was a small-volume apparel manufacturing business. It collapsed under a 25% currency swing and $200K of debt, was rebuilt with proper systems, and sold. The lived experience of manufacturing economics — landed cost, working capital, supplier terms, lead time — sits underneath every coaching conversation.

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 production manager who actually sequences and schedules
  • → An estimator handling everything except the most complex jobs
  • → A QC system that catches issues before you see them
  • → WIP discipline that releases cash from inventory
  • → Capacity planning that matches capital investment to demand
  • → A floor that ships consistently when you’re not in the building
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.

A scheduling miss on a $300K job costs you a week of overtime and a customer relationship. WIP sitting on the floor for six weeks ties up $50–100K of cash. A QC slip on a contract job triggers rework that wipes the margin. Coaching for manufacturing pays for itself the first time it prevents one bad week on the floor.

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

By city

Manufacturing coaching by city.

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

Manufacturing — Melbourne →
Manufacturing coaching for Melbourne-based owners.
Manufacturing — Sydney →
Manufacturing coaching for Sydney-based owners.
Manufacturing — Brisbane →
Manufacturing coaching for Brisbane-based owners.
For manufacturing, fabrication & engineering workshops

Workshop-specific pain — the founder-on-the-floor ceiling.

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

  • 01 You're still on the floor 30 hours a week because nobody else can run the critical machine or solve the customer-specific job. You hired to step back — you stepped sideways.
  • 02 Quoting takes you three days per job because every spec is custom. You don't productise because every client says they're different. Most aren't.
  • 03 The good machinist you hired three years ago is now your most expensive risk. Six months from leaving — you can sense it — but you haven't had the succession conversation.
  • 04 You're running 15% gross margin on work that should be 32%. The pricing inputs were set when steel was different and labour was different. The model hasn't caught up.
Real examples

What we'd actually work on.

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

Example 01

A precision engineering workshop where the founder personally quoted every job over $5K. 80% of jobs were variations on 7 core types. We productise the 7, create rate sheets the office can apply, founder only touches the complex 20%. Quote turnaround drops 5×.

Example 02

A metal fabrication business at $4M with one critical fabricator. We engineer succession — second fabricator hired and cross-trained over 6 months, founder no longer the single point of failure on technical work.

Example 03

A workshop running 18% margin where the costing hadn't been updated since 2022. We rebuild the cost model with current steel prices, current labour cost-of-employment, current overheads. New rate sheet across all customers, communicated honestly. Margin recovers to 29% in two quarters.

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 →

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