01 · You’re still pricing every job over $50K personally
Apprentices can wire a building. Foremen can run a site. But quoting still happens at your kitchen table at 9pm.
For specialist trades · $2M–$15M
You’re the best sparky in your business. That’s the problem.
For electrical, plumbing, HVAC, fire and mechanical contractors turning over $2M–$15M who are still quoting every major job and can’t see a path off the tools.
The trap
Electrical, plumbing, HVAC, fire, mechanical contractors, scaled past $2M. Now you can’t step away.
Four pains every owner in this niche describes within five minutes of the first call.
02 · Half your jobs lose money and you don’t know which half
Job costing isn’t tight enough to know what’s actually profitable. So you keep doing everything.
03 · Your best leading hand is about to start his own company
Probably with two of your best apprentices. Because you haven’t given him equity, a path, or a reason to stay.
04 · The licence is in your name
Which means you can never really leave. The business is technically and legally tied to you.
Why this happens in specialist trades
The economics punish unsystematic owners.
Specialist contracting rewards technical competence. You got promoted, then started your own business, because you were the best on the tools. The skills that made you a great tradesman — perfectionism, hands-on, do-it-yourself — are exactly the skills that prevent you from scaling.
Most contractors hit a ceiling around $3M. The ones that break through have systems, second-tier leadership, and a founder who’s stopped quoting.
Coaching for trade contractors isn’t about motivation. It’s about removing yourself as the ceiling.
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.
- 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.
- Step 02
Fix Foundation — cash, margin, owner energy
Cash flow forecast. Real job-level margin. Owner schedule audit. Without Foundation, everything above wobbles.
- Step 03
Build Supporting Systems — people, process, tech
The operational machinery that runs without you. People, processes, technology, knowledge.
- Step 04
Operate the Success Triad — strategy, marketing, sales, fulfilment
A real pipeline, real positioning, real delivery. Growth from systems, not heroics.
- 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.
- 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 specialist trade contractors on the roster yet. Honest answer.
I’ve been coaching $1.5M–$10M service businesses since 2017. The current 1:1 roster is heavy in agencies, advisory and operator-led services — not electrical, plumbing, HVAC or mechanical contractors specifically. The Foundation-up sequence transfers. The honest disclosure matters more.
Billy Sheldon · 4:3
Billy Sheldon — Billy Bubbles
Mobile detailing. Crew model, margin discipline, multi-city expansion. The closest direct parallel to a trade-services business on the roster.
+15%
Margin vs market
3 cities
Expansion
Darren CB · 4:3
Darren Crichton-Browne — DCB Events
Field-team coordination, project revenue, founder-dependency break. Maps closely onto the trade-contractor operating model.
$700K
Anchor contract
NZ
Expansion
Josh Berg · 4:3
Josh Berg — Hedgehog Marketing
Productised pricing tiers. Pattern transfers directly onto fixed-price-quote bottlenecks.
$554K
Annual rev
32hr
Work week
Book a diagnostic and we’ll work through whether the trade-specific layer is something we sketch together — or whether you’d be better served by an industry-specialist coach.
What to look for in a coach
If you’re shopping around — three filters.
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.
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.
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 senior estimator pricing all jobs except the largest
- → A leading-hand pipeline with a clear path and a reason to stay
- → A second licence holder so the business isn’t legally tied to you
- → Service revenue smoothing out project peaks and troughs
- → A field-supervisor layer that runs sites without you on FaceTime
- → A real recurring maintenance book on top of the contract work
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 bad quote on a $200K commercial fitout costs you 5% margin ($10K). One leading hand walking out with two apprentices costs $80K+ in recruitment and project disruption. A failed licence-holder succession can shut you down entirely. Coaching pays for itself the first time it prevents one of those.
Real coaching pays for itself the first time it stops you making the same mistake again.
By city
Specialist Trades coaching by city.
Coaching is delivered globally over Google Meet — but if you’re looking for the city-specific page:
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 specialist trade contractors
Trades-specific pain — the ceiling at $2–5M.
Four things I hear from trades owners in the first call. If three or more land — we should talk.
- 01 You're still the only one licensed to sign off on the work that matters. Take a four-week holiday and the business stops, because half your team can't legally close out jobs without you.
- 02 You're winning bigger contracts. The cash flow gap between starting the job and getting paid keeps stretching. You're funding clients' working capital with your own.
- 03 Your quoting is fast for the work you've done before. The new categories take three days each because you're working it out from scratch. Two days you don't bill.
- 04 You hired a foreman. Three months in, every site decision still goes through you. You haven't actually delegated — you've added a layer.
Real examples
What we'd actually work on.
Three current/recent engagements in this space. Names redacted, specifics intact.
Example 01
An electrical contractor at $3.4M turnover. We rebuild the licensing structure so two senior staff carry the credentials. Founder takes four weeks off in year one — first holiday in nine years.
Example 02
A plumbing business at $2.1M where every job over $20K was personally quoted by the owner. We productise the top 12 job types into a standard kit with margin floors. Quote turnaround drops from 4 days to 4 hours.
Example 03
An HVAC commercial business where the cash conversion cycle was 71 days. We get progress invoicing into every contract over $50K, drop the cycle to 38 days, free up $180K of trapped working capital.
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.