The Company
The Trades Coach is an industry-specific business coaching and advisory firm. We work with the owners of trades- related companies to improve their profitability and help them become more systemised, so they aren’t working 18 hours a day. Most owners we work with are highly skilled their trade and any training they do is typically related to the production side of the business.
But just being great at your trade does not automatically mean you have a successful business. There are lots of other pieces to the business jig-saw puzzle and it is these other areas that we focus on.
I have specialised in the construction trades for over 10 years. Prior to that I was a generalist business coach since 2005 and prior to that held a number of management positions in the corporate world.
How many trade clients do you have? Do you specialise in this industry?
All of my clients are trades business owners. I typically tell my clients the benefit of focusing on a market niche and so have followed my own advice and done the same.
I chose the construction industry because the typical owner works extremely hard and takes high risks at times. This often does not translate into a high reward and so that is my crusade. To better balance the effort and risk put in with the rewards taken out.
How did you hear about NextMinute?
I was aware of NextMinute from its early period of development. Being a specialist in the trades my radar is always on for business tools and complementary services that my clients may benefit from.
The Challenge
Why did you decide to partner with NextMinute?
NextMinute sits in a good position in the market for a number of my clients, particularly smaller builders. They need a job management system that provides them good time saving and visibility into the profitability of jobs. NextMinute provides this but is at a price point that sits under some of the big overseas offerings.
Tell us about how your trade clients worked before NextMinute?
Many tradies have traditionally been “pen-and-paper” type people, or even worse, a scrap of timber or off-cut of gib board. Workers’ timesheets were prepared in a variety of different ways, delivered unreliably and provided a high level of frustration to the admin person. These very manual and uncoordinated processes are often unreliable and it was easy to forget important information.
The Process
Was there a particular problem NextMinute helped solve for you or your client?
Probably the biggest issue that NextMinute helps to solve is the accurate and timely recording of labour hours. Labour is often the biggest cost component of a building project and is usually where project cost blow-outs occur. Monitoring and reporting of labour cost is critical to a successful building project and NextMinute does this well.
