Nobody Gives You Permission to Charge What You're Worth
I've been in the bad trade business. I know what it feels like. And I know exactly what someone needed to say to me back then.
There was a period in my life when everything was pressing down at once. Young kids at home. Legal issues running in the background. Lawyers to pay on top of everything else. And a business that wasn't where it needed to be.
When you're in that position, the way you make decisions changes. You stop thinking clearly about what's right for the business and start thinking about survival. Every quote became about winning the work at any cost, just to create some stability. I knew I could be charging more. I knew the rates weren't right. But it felt reckless to push them when I was already on the edge.
So I kept winning work at reduced rates, working harder than I should have been, slowly grinding my way out of a hole I'd partly dug myself into.
Why Tradies Undercharge Their Work
Something I see constantly in tradie communities is the hourly rate conversation. What are you charging for a hot water changeover? What's everyone getting for a bathroom reno these days? What do the sparkies charge compared to the plumbers?
On a plumbers group recently, someone posted asking what everyone was charging for a hot water service changeover. The responses ranged from $400 to $1,000. And somewhere in the thread someone told the bloke charging $1,000 that he was a prick for it.
This is how tradies are setting their prices. Asking strangers on Facebook and averaging out the responses. Letting someone who has no idea about their costs, their location, their overheads, or their income target tell them what they should charge.
You would not put your retirement savings in the hands of a random Facebook commenter. But you'll put your financial future there. Every single job you price is a retirement contribution or a step backwards. And right now a lot of tradies are stepping backwards without knowing it.
The Tradies Who Charged More Than Everyone Else
A mate of mine worked for a well known plumbing company in Melbourne. The founder was known in the industry as the Dollar a Minute Man. Back in the late 1970s he was charging $60 an hour when everyone else was charging far less. People thought he was insane.
Ten years ago he was charging $420 an hour. Plus a callout fee of $280 for the first 15 minutes.
He eventually sold the business for a price in the millions and retired. He knew exactly what it was worth and he wasn't sorry about any of it. Yes, he copped some bad reviews along the way. But he found a way to manage that too.
Most tradies out there would not even be able to hand that quote over to a client. They would genuinely die of shame. And that gap between what he charged and what most tradies charge is not about quality of work. It is entirely about permission.
The Dollar a Minute Man gave himself permission to charge what his business actually required. Most tradies never do. They set their rate based on what feels acceptable, what the bloke down the road charges, or what some stranger on Facebook said was fair.
Why Trade Business Coaching Is Really About Perspective
This is where things get interesting for me. The numbers and the systems are important. Getting the pricing right, the books in order, the website converting. All of that matters.
But the real work is different. It is about perspective. When I sit down with someone and we go through their business, I am not just looking at a spreadsheet. I am looking at a person who has been operating with a set of beliefs about what they can charge, what they deserve, what is possible for their business. And most of those beliefs are wrong.
Not because the person is bad at their trade. They are usually exceptional at it. But because nobody ever sat down with them and said, here is what your business actually needs to make money. Here is what you are worth. Here is what you could be doing differently.
I am full of stories like the ones above. Examples, comparisons, different angles on the same problem. And what I have found is that most people do not need to be told what to do as much as they need to be shown that it is possible. That someone else has done it. That there is a different way to think about it.
