Hello tradies,

It’s Jon here, Small Fish Business Coaching – the business coach. Today I’m going to complain.

This is something you shouldn’t be doing.

I heard this story from a friend of mine the other day, a woman called Tanya. Doing a bathroom renovation she needed a painter and a plumber. About $7000 dollars worth of work.

She went through 7 tradies before she could get the work done!

2 painters, first guy didn’t show up, second guy showed up late – got the work because he’s the only one,  5 plumbers.

The first 3 plumbers didn’t show up. The fourth guy showed up, gave her quote, she accepted his quote and then he went on holiday. Didn’t tell her, disappeared for three weeks. Not surprisingly, during that time she heard he went on holiday (asked around like you do) and thought fuck him and got another guy.

He did a quote, kept his appointment, got the job, did the work. And the first guy came back from his holiday and was upset with her for giving the job to somebody else!

Now what is going on here? If you spend your money on marketing, you put your ad in the paper. Someone rings you’re making an appointment and you don’t show up. Three guys did that remember? Three plumbers did that. What’s going on there?

I’m a business coach – it frustrates me you’ve wasted your marketing money. You had a job opportunity, discounted it, or discarded it, or not bothered. Or you’re too stupid and lazy and disorganized to show up when you said you’re going to show up. It’s rude, wasteful, and it’s a bit kind of pointless. This woman took 3 days off work, waiting around for tradies who didn’t show up.

I implore you: don’t let this be you. This stuff isn’t very difficult. If you make an appointment to see someone, show up. If you don’t think it’s a very good job, don’t make a bloody appointment in the first place, say “I don’t do jobs that small, call somebody else..sorry” make nice. It’s better than not showing up.

Better still, put some systems in place so that these decisions get made more easily. Schedule properly. If you’re on a job and you don’t want to go and have your “quote meeting” with somebody call them up and say “I’m not gonna make it, I’ve got my hands up to the u-bend ins shit ” or whatever is going on for you. Don’t just leave somebody hanging.

This isn’t difficult right? If you don’t want a job, tell someone when they phone. It’s an easy decision to make. Make yourself a rule about what the right kind job is for you and then stick to it and tell people on the phone instead of not showing up for your calls. If it is because you’re disorganized, get yourself organized. Either hire somebody to organize you, that’s what I do, I have someone to organize me. Or get yourself organized, get a system in place, you just put your calendar on your phone. It’s not a difficult thing to do.

I’m sorry I complained. It frustrates me to see money going to waste, being spent on marketing to get a call and then wasted. Guess what? I’m a business coach I can help you with some of that stuff. The Tradies Toolbox coaching program is on it’s way. You’ve probably heard about it by now, I’ll probably tell you all about it again. There’s a webinar coming up on the 4th of August and there’s a workshop coming up in October which I’ll be telling you about soon. Two whole days of excitement and fun. See you!

(P.S. watch out for Jon’s cock up in the video – he says 4th of August but the webinar is on the 5th. That’s why we don’t let Jon deal with the details!) 🙂