Time Thieves: The Invisible Profit Killer in Your Trade Business

Andy
And here’s the kicker, those sneaky minutes add up to thousands in lost profit every year. Most tradies don’t realize it until the bank account tells the ugly truth. 

Ange
So in today’s episode, we are exposing the time thieves in all the hidden ways, your hours and your profits are disappearing. 

Andy
If you’re flat out all week and still asking, where’s all the money, baby? Well, this episode’s for you. Let’s bust the time thieves and claim back your profits. You are listening to The Tradie Show. This is the podcast for trade business and contracting bosses like you who wanna lead with confidence, make more profit, and create a better lifestyle. 

Ange
We’re your hosts, Andy and Angela Smith, husband & wife team, and co-founders of Lifestyle Tradie. Are you ready to have some fun? 

Andy
Hell yeah! Want to cut your business costs without cutting corners? Buy4Tradies makes it simple. This is a buying group built by tradies for tradies, plumbers, sparkies, solar and air contacts, landscapers just to name a few. Join for free and unlock trade only deals on materials, fuel tools, finance, IT, and heaps more. There are no contracts, no signup fees, just real savings with trusted national suppliers. So if you are ready to keep more cash in your pocket and less in your overheads, jump onto buy4tradies.com au. That’s buy the number four, tradies.com.au and join for free today.

Ange
All right. It’s time to kick off things with some Hell yeah wins from our amazing Lifestyle Tradie members. Hell yeah! These are the legends who’ve been smashing it in their business. Proving that small changes can lead to massive results, and hopefully these give you some inspo on what you can do in your business. Ange, what do we have this week? 

Andy
Okay, we’ve got some great hell yes to share today. First up, a big shout out to Christina who operates an electrical company in Brisbane with her husband Rob, and she shares. Rob has been in San Francisco and Las Vegas for the week, and guess what? He hasn’t logged on for a week and our team is awesome. 

Ange
Wow. Isn’t that the dream fellas? To be in San Fran and Las Vegas without the phone ringing? That is a big hell yeah. What’s next, Ange? 

Andy
That’s so good. So next up is Pete, who runs a plumbing business in Melbourne, Victoria, and he writes. After 21 years of shit show in my head, I’m now dropping everything into a job management software and I’m finding it absolutely amazing. Staff have all embraced it too, and it’s working beautifully.

Ange
That is epic. And remember, it’s never too late to embrace technology, eh? Last but not least. What’s the next one, Ange? 

Andy
All right, so next up is Richard who owns an electrical business in Brisbane, and he writes about drinking Guinness and Irish cider in Ireland.

Ange
Why aren’t these bloody electricians? One’s in Las Vegas, one’s in Ireland drinking Guinness. What’s with it?

Andy
What is this?

Ange
Well, they say the electricians are the top of the tree for all trade. What do you say about that? 

Andy
Uh, well, I don’t know. We used to think it was plumbers, but I think it’s leading that way. I think most people are starting to see it that way. And that’s what it’s all about here, guys, helping tradies like you take control, make changes, and see the winds roll in. All right. This one’s a dead set profit killer to any trade business. It doesn’t matter if you’re a sparky, chippy plumber, hvac technician, landscape gardener to name a few. Not one trade escapes this problem and it needs some serious attention ASAP. 

Ange
That’s right. You can have the sharpest quoting system, not every cost to the cent and still be left wondering why there’s nothing left in the bank. The answer. Lost time. It’s invisible, it’s sneaky, and it’s stealing your profit every single day. 

Andy
Most tradies are great at tracking materials. You see when a box of screws is missing, but time that slips through the cracks and every untracked minute has a dollar value you can’t recover. 

Ange
That’s the point, right? You are super conscious of things that are tangible, things that you can touch and feel, but time you can’t see it. So it’s not something you think to monitor. 

Andy
Here’s what happens with most trade business owners that I know. Say you price a two day job with a solid 25% profit margin. It even has a time buffer of half a day just in case of bad weather, and you think you are sweet. But if the job blows out to three or four days because no one is watching the clock, that margin is well and truly gone, and because you are so busy chasing the next quote, you don’t even realize it.

Ange
Ouch. Exactly. As a trade business owner, you are so focused on meeting new customers and winning quotes. That as soon as the customer says, yes, you’ve got the job. It’s like you drop the ball. Now, I don’t mean you don’t do a good job, that you aren’t professional and that you don’t deliver everything you say you will, you do all that, but the one thing you don’t do is watch every job closely to make sure you deliver on time.

Andy
See, the thing is just because you feel flat out being busy doesn’t mean you are profitable. If you’re not managing hours as tightly as you manage your stock. You could either be working for free or worse going backwards. 

Ange
Okay, Andy, let’s name these thieves so everyone can catch them. What’s one of the worst time thieves that you see?

Andy
Sadly, it’s all too easy to answer. Poor job communication. And what I mean is you, as the owner has had great communication with the prospect. You were quick to quote, the written communication was clear, and you even excelled in following up the right way. The customer absolutely loves you. 

Ange
And you win the job. Congratulations!

Andy
Exactly. But you aren’t the one doing the work, and although you give the team a brief on what to do, you fail to tell them you only build in three days to do the job. This is a classic problem. They only know half the plan. 

Ange
So they just do what they’re told, which is get it done. But because you as the owner are too busy chasing new work, no one is watching the job closely, and that three day job quietly stretches to four or five, and your margin is toast.

Andy
But what’s even worse, you probably even congratulate the team for a job well done. The customer has paid their money and given you a glowing testimonial. You think you are smashing it. 

Ange
But you aren’t, if you’d been watching time has crept up on you as a silent killer to steal away your profit. 

Andy
And just like that, you are left doing work for free without even knowing it.

Ange
So a simple way to prevent this is to include a checklist at the start of every job to hand over to the tradesperson and the team responsible for completing the work. They need a really tight scope of work, which must include an expected timeframe. 

Andy
And if the job is expected to go for weeks or even months, each part of the job needs to be broken down accordingly as their own mini projects like preparation work is separate to rough in, which is separate to drainage on a new build, and each has its own scope of works that includes a list of materials and timeframe attached.

Ange
Yes. This simple pre-work chat with your team on the job puts you all on the same page and can ultimately save you days across a year. But because it’s not a routine, it never happens. 

Andy
Okay, so let’s move to Time Thief number two. The quick supplier trip. 

Ange
Ah, it’s never quick. Someone realizes halfway through the job that a fitting’s missing. So off they go for a 45 minute round trip, if traffic’s kind. 

Andy
And when it’s a warm day, every tradie, he puts his hand to do that 40 minute trip in the air conditioned vehicle.

Ange
True.

Andy
Meanwhile, the rest of the crew are left standing around while the job has literally ground to a halt. 

Ange
And guess what? You are paying wages for people to stand there and scroll on their phones.

Andy
Now, if you charge by the hour, then for you it’s okay maybe to dash to the supplier. The customer is paying for the time. But if you’ve quoted the job and you expected all the materials to be ready on day one, what seems like an innocent trip to the supplier is costing you time. 

Ange
Which is costing you money. And if you have a team all costing you like 50 bucks an hour, it adds up and fast. 

Andy
The fix to this is simple. You gotta make sure you’re checking the quote with plenty of time to order ahead. And we have all the materials delivered on site or ready for pickup before the job starts. The trick is to be prepared.

Ange
Okay, so let’s tackle Time Thief number three, the Rolling Disaster Zone. Your unorganized vehicle. 

Andy
We’ve all seen it, right? Tools pile up, fittings everywhere, the van’s an absolute mess. Every search for a drill bit is a mini treasure hunt. 

Ange
But you all have a tradie friend whose van is a nightmare. You don’t even wanna open the door for fear the whole content’s are gonna come crashing out of the door. It’s been pushed in there so tight. 

Andy
Ah, we’ve all seen those guys. Maybe that’s one of you, but I hope it isn’t because God only knows how you locate anything. 

Ange
And here within lies the problem, how do they find anything? They take like three times longer than they should because a van is a complete mess. To find the box of smoke detectors should literally take five minutes, but instead it takes you 15 because you are playing Jenga just to get across to the box. 

Andy
Yeah, having the right stock in the same location across your fleet of vehicles can save you hours. 

Ange
So this topic is so important. We’ve done an episode about it called From Chaos to Cash, the Inventory Fix Every Tradie Needs. We literally break down exactly how to set up your van. So everything has a home and everyone knows where it is. We’ll put a link in the show notes so you can check it out. Okay, so let’s look at Time Thief number four. 

Andy
Alright, let’s cut to the chase. When was the last time your business worked for you, instead of running you into the ground? If you are sitting there thinking, yep, that’s me, then we need to talk. I’m Andy Smith and I’ve been where you are. Long hours, cashflow nightmares, no control, does any of this sound familiar? But here’s the thing, you don’t have to keep living like this. There’s a way out, and it starts with a game plan call. It’s just 10 minutes. We are going to identify the bottlenecks holding your business back and map out a clear, straightforward plan to get you moving forward. Think of it as your shortcut to make more profit, more control, and more time to actually enjoy your life. And if you are stuck with cashflow issues, team headaches, or just feel like you’re drowning in endless work, well guess what? I’ve got you back. So here’s what you need to do. Head to lifestyletradie.com.au. Hit the big green game plan call button, or just scroll down on your phone. Listen, if a 10 minute call could save you hours of headaches, why wouldn’t you take it? Make the move. Let’s turn things around and get your business working for you, not against you. Hell yeah!

Ange
Let’s call this one the time Drift.

Andy
This one flies under the radar because it’s made up of tiny habits. An extra smoke out here, a slow pack up there rolling into 10 minutes late after the survey coffee shop. Yeah, all these things really do add up. 

Ange
10 minutes doesn’t sound like much, but added up. 10 minutes late to start, 10 minutes of extra break, 10 minutes to leave, that’s half an hour gone every single day, and I’m only talking about one bloke. 

Andy
One of our members, Matt, a painter from WA, tracked his team for a month. His four person crew was losing over seven hours a week to time drift. That’s almost a full working day every week vanishing without a trace. 

Ange
And those lost hours aren’t just wages. They push jobs over schedule. They delay the next booking, and they frustrate customers. It’s a double hit to profit and to your reputation. 

Andy
The fix isn’t cracking the whip. It’s about clear expectations and simple structure. Set start and finish times that everyone commits to, have a quick morning check in to kick things off on time and use a shared calendar so everyone knows the day’s targets.

Ange
So when Matt introduced a five minute morning huddle and a tighter break rule. He clawed back an entire day of productive work each week without anyone feeling rushed. 

Andy
That’s the power of noticing the small leaks. They don’t just cost you minutes, they cost you thousands of dollars every year. 

Ange
Okay, let’s talk about the biggest time thief of them all. This is number five. It has no systems. 

Andy
This one’s huge in so many trade businesses, the whole system lives in the owner’s head. That means nothing moves without you. And everyone else is just standing around guessing. 

Ange
Which is why the team ends up making it up as they go. There’s no written process, no checklist, so every job runs differently.

Andy
For example, here’s what should happen once a quote is approved. Lock in the job date with the customer five days out. Order all the materials to arrive on site, allocate the team, book the skip bin, and confirm all deliveries the day before. Easy, right? 

Ange
But when that’s not written down and shared, steps get skipped, someone forgets to place the material order, or they order too late and the supplier can’t even deliver it on time, and suddenly the whole job is pushed back. The customer is cranky and everyone’s scrambling, wasting time. 

Andy
Exactly. Without a clear process. The sequence changes every time, and that’s when frustration kicks in and everything takes longer, which means you are burning profits. 

Ange
So one of our members, Steve, a Sparky in Victoria, used to start every day like that flying by the seat of his pants. We helped him create a simple checklist, read the quote, order materials, and confirm delivery. Now his days are calm and jobs start on time. 

Andy
Systems don’t have to be difficult, but they do need to be captured and shared. Stop thinking the team knows what to do when all you have done to date is verbally explain what you want. 

Ange
If the goal is control and wanting the team to do things your way, then you are best to teach them right from the start in a way they remember. You have to get the steps out of your head and write it down so that others can see the process. Build a flow chart, a checklist, or a standard operating procedure and get really clear on your expectations.

Andy
The key is that everyone follows the same steps every single time. That’s how you save time and protect profit. 

Ange
Those five time thieves are super common in a trade business. And the good news, you can stop the bleeding. Once you know where the time is slipping. You can claw it back fast. 

Andy
Yeah. This isn’t about piling on more work. It’s about tightening a few key habits, so you win back hours every week and keep the profit you’ve already earned. 

Ange
Okay, so let’s share a few specific things you can do today to tighten up the ship. First, set a time allocation for every job and tell the crew. Two, many tradies write a number in the quote and never share it. If your team doesn’t know the target, how do they hit it? 

Andy
Exactly. And in Dr. Drip, we operated using a flat rate pricing and every job had a code. If it started with 45, that meant it should take no longer than 45 minutes. This quick reference informed every tradie, the time allocated. No guesswork and no excuses.

Ange
And you know what? That simple code kept everyone accountable. What it also did was highlight who in the team perhaps worked at a slower pace than the others, right? 

Andy
Yeah, that’s true too. Some tradies are just plotters, more methodical, where others just move at a rate of knots. When it was highlighted that a tradie wasn’t getting a particular job done in the allocated time allowance, we had to address this one of two ways. Either they needed more training to ensure they were confident with the particular style of work so that they spared up, or we had to adjust the time allocated to this type of job to cater to the slowest person and hence adjust the price to ensure we were still making profit. 

Ange
So I think the most important point of what you just shared is the fact that you knew that someone was taking longer than the allocated time. So not only did you communicate how long they should be taking, but you knew when they didn’t hit the brief and could actually do something about it. 

Andy
Exactly. Knowing this information is incredibly powerful. You can’t fix something you don’t know about. And the point is here is this, give every job a time allocation and make sure the team knows about it.

Ange
All right, so the next tip is do a quick daily check-in just even two minutes tops. 

Andy
Especially for the longer jobs. Where are we at? Anything slowing it down? Need extra gear? It’s like resetting the GPS so no one drifts off course. 

Ange
It also gives your team a chance to flag problems early before you’re halfway through a job that’s already running late.

Andy
And then you’ve gotta track how long the job actually takes. 

Ange
Oh, yes. And now you need to start using your job management software. So in maintenance, we had a step where the tradie would tick a box on their tablet at the beginning of a job to signify that he was starting and collecting the money at the end would basically flag when they’d finished. We basically knew how long they took. 

Andy
And we watched those time sheets. And when you notice a pattern, like a certain job type is always running a bit long, you can fix the quoting or the process before it costs you again. 

Ange
And the last tip. A short debrief when the job’s done. 

Andy
What went well, what chewed up time, feed that info back into the next quote, so you’re sharper every time. 

Ange
Love that because you literally can’t manage what you don’t measure. The first step is shining a light on where the hours really go. 

Andy
But If you are constantly busy, but the profits aren’t there, hunt down these time thieves. The difference can be tens of thousands of dollars a year.

Ange
Take control of your time and you’ll take control of your profit. 

Andy
It’s tradie dilemma time, brought for you by Buy4Tradies, the buying group helping tradies like you save serious coins or materials, fuel vehicles, tools, and other services. If you’re not using it, you are probably paying too much. This is our Q&A segment where you let us know what you’re having trouble with in your business and we’ll give you our best advice to sort it out.

Ange
So today we have a question from Max who owns a landscaping business in Perth WA and he writes, I have a team of five qualified tradies and they call me daily with questions that they should know the answer to. How do I get them to stop calling me for answers?

Andy
Uh, it’s really interesting ’cause as business owners we are control freaks and we actually train our staff to reach out to us all the time.

Ange
You love it, don’t you?

Andy
But once you start getting a bigger business, you think about making your own decisions, mate. So I just have to do something very simple. When someone would ring me with a question, I would say to them, well, what do you think the answer is? And they go, well, that’s why I’m ringing you. I said, well, have a think about it and ring me back with two answers. So then they’d ring me back and say, well, I could either do this or I could do that. And I’d go, well, which answer do you think is the right one to do? And they’d say this, and majority of the time, as you said here, Max, they know the answer. You go exactly. And what you are doing is training them to make their own decisions. Because most of us as business owners, we’re such control freaks. We get them to ring us every second of the day. We’ve gotta put it back in their court, their tradies, they know their trade, they’ve gotta make decisions. Sometimes they may make a little mistake here and there, but this is where you’ve got to make them think like a business owner. Otherwise, you’ll just be holding everyone’s hand, driving yourself nuts and just receiving phone calls all day with stupid questions. 

Ange
And this is how you get yourself out of your business and stop being such a control freak. You have so many other decisions to make inside your business. Let your qualified tradies make those decisions themselves. It’s a reason why you’ve employed them. So thanks for writing in with the question, Max. And remember, if you want Andy and I to answer your most challenging question, then send them our way. 

Andy
Time really is money. Check where your hours disappear this week and you’ll be shocked about what you find. 

Ange
Stop the time thieves. Take control of your hours and you’ll take control of your profit. 

Andy
Subscribe to The Tradie Show, wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Rate and write us a review or for more information about Lifestyle Tradie, head to lifestyletradie.com.au.