3 Steps to More Profitable Jobs (Without Taking on More Work)

Andy
Or if you’re in a maintenance trade, like maybe pest control. One day you’re doing residential treatments, the next you’re quoting big commercial contracts, and then someone wants a one-off job that’s miles away and it’s barely worth the drive.

Ange
And because you’ve never actually decided what work your business is built around, you end up saying yes to everything. 

Andy
Which means you actually market to no one. You attract everyone, and then you can’t qualify anyone out because you’ve never actually decided what your rules are. 

Ange
That’s what we’re going to do in today’s episode. We’re going right back to the start before marketing, before leads and before quoting. 

Andy
We are talking about how to decide what type of work you actually want your business to do so you can attract the right customers, the right projects. And stop wasting time on the wrong ones. 

Ange
So this is actually the first episode in a three-part series. Today we’re starting with attraction, how to decide what work you want, who your ideal customer is, and how to position your business, so the right people start reaching out. 

Andy
And in the next episode we’ll talk about quoting, because once you’re attracting better jobs, let’s make sure you know how to price and present your quotes so you actually win them.

Ange
And in the third episode we’ll show you what we call the profit multiplier. How to turn one good job into two or three through follow-up referrals and repeat work. 

Andy
Because when you get all three working together, attracting the right work, converting it properly, and multiplying the value of every job you win, your business starts to run very differently.

Ange
We’re talking better margins, better customers, and better jobs. And when that happens, business gets a whole lot easier and life gets a whole lot better. 

Andy
Stick around. You are gonna want to hear this. 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! 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, cash flow nightmares, no control. Does any of these sound familiar? 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!

All right. It’s time to kick things off with some Hell yeah wins from our amazing Lifestyle Tradie members. Hell yeah! These are the legends who have been smashing it in their businesses, 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? 

Ange
Oh, we got some great hell yeahs to share today, Andy. First up is a big shout out to Jared, who operates a painting company in Perth and he shares, I finally made the call to split my week into dedicated onsite days and dedicated office days. And created some proper structure so that each role gets the attention it deserves. This feels like a big shift forward. 

Andy
It’s a massive shift, mate, and we’ve been watching from the sideline to you are absolutely killing it at the moment, and everyone out there needs the right structure in place to make sure you’re working at the right things at given times. That is a big hell yeah! What’s up next, Ange? 

Ange
All right, so next up is Matt who operates an electrical business in Perth WA, and he shares, we got our new shirts finally looking fresh in some new get up. 

Andy
That is great, Matt. And you know what? These are just very small wins that everyone out there can do, but when you’re getting in front of customers, you’re looking fresh and you’re looking sharp. I guarantee you are gonna win more work. That is another hell yeah Matt, last but not least, who’s up next, Ange? 

Ange
Okay. This is Ashley who owns a roofing business in Adelaide with her partner Jamie. And she writes, we onboarded our first VA, Hired a new admin social media assistant, we hired a third year roofer to join the lads on the roof. And all in all, it’s been a super successful week with the team growth. 

Andy
That is a great hell yeah. When you have direction, when you have clarity, you know what the next steps are that are required. Absolutely love that. And that’s what we’re all about here. Helping tradies like you take control, make changes, sometimes small changes. But you know what? You are seeing the wind roll in day after day. All right. Let’s get into today’s topic because this is something we see over and over again with tradies. 

Ange
Yes. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a builder, a roofer, pest control, or running any other type of trade business. Most tradies start with marketing. They jump on social media, maybe run ads, rely on word of mouth, just trying to get more leads through the door. 

Andy
But the real problem is this. They haven’t even stopped to work out what makes them the real money in their business. So they end up saying yes to absolutely everything, every job, every inquiry, every opportunity that comes their way. 

Ange
Which means, they’re busy, but not necessarily making money right. So before we talk about avatars, before we talk about marketing in general, before we even talk about leads, we’ve actually got to start with one very simple question. What work is actually profitable in your trade business? 

Andy
And this is where we need to slow things right down, because once you ask that question properly, most tradies don’t actually have a clear answer. They’ve got a feeling, they’ve got assumptions, but they haven’t really looked into it enough. 

Ange
Well, they say things like, oh yeah, we make money on most jobs. When you dig into it, some jobs are literally carrying the business and others just keep them busy. 

Andy
Exactly. And this is the shift. It’s not about more work, it’s about the right work. Because once you get clear on what’s actually profitable, everything else starts to make sense. 

Ange
This is right. We’re talking about the types of jobs you take, the customers you work with, even how your weeks are structured. 

Andy
And until you get that clarity, you’ll keep doing what most tradies do, and they are saying yes to everything and wondering why they’re working so bloody hard, but not getting ahead. 

Ange
This is what we talk about as being the trap tradies. Think more work will fix the problem, but if the work isn’t profitable, all you are doing is building a bigger, more stressful version of the same business. 

Andy
So before anything else, you’ve gotta start here. What work in your business is actually the most profitable? Not what you’re good at, not what you enjoy, not what people ask you for. What actually makes you the money, baby? 

Ange
Yes. This is something we teach often. We’ve referred to it with our members as the profitable products and services first, because this in your trade is the engine of your business. If this part isn’t right, nothing else fixes it.

Andy
Let’s make this real. Say you’re a roofer, you might be doing some small repairs, fixing a few leaks here and there, doing a couple of insurance jobs on the side, and then maybe doing some re-roof, some roof replacements. And on the surface all feels like it’s all good work, right? 

Ange
Because it’s all work, right?

Andy
Well, not exactly. When you actually sit down and look at the numbers, what do you think we usually see? 

Ange
I know this, I’m guessing that the full roof replacements are the most profitable. 

Andy
Well, really it comes down to what you quote and what you charge, but you’re right. The roof replacements are generally more profitable, better margins, better customers, and a better scope of work.

Ange
So I imagine if you are taking on every job, it kind of looks a bit like this. Your weekend’s up with a small repair here, a leak call out there, a messy insurance job, then maybe one good job in between and your whole week is chopped up. 

Andy
Yeah. You constantly switching between jobs, constantly quoting, constantly reacting, and you never actually build enough momentum around the work that makes you the money. 

Ange
So this happens in all sorts of different trade businesses. Let me give you an example of maybe a pest control. You might be doing one-off residential jobs, maybe an end of lease treatment, maybe even a commercial job with ongoing maintenance plans. 

Andy
But when you really break it down and look at it properly, and if you’re charging the right way, you might find this reoccurring maintenance is usually the most profitable, predictable income, better customers and less chasing work. 

Ange
But you know what’s going on? Instead of actively marketing for this type of work and prioritizing it when it comes in, they just take whatever comes in. 

Andy
Yeah. The challenge is most people just take on any work, as we’ve said, and then all of a sudden you’re so busy with this average work that isn’t maybe as profitable, that you’re actually knocking back your high paying jobs. At Dr. Drip, we never did that. Our most profitable work was block drains and hot water, and if these came in, we’d never say no to a customer. It didn’t matter how busy we were. These got priority. We’d bump other smaller jobs and change the different days to make sure we did our block drains. We did our hot water units. This stuff was where the big dollars were for us. 

Ange
Yeah, it totally made the difference to the profit at the end of the day, right? 

Andy
Yeah, it does. That’s what makes you the big bucks. That’s what makes you the money that you can pay your staff, you can market, you can run a successful business because you are always making sure when the top jobs come through, you do them first and you make that money. And now here’s the bit that most tradies don’t love hearing.

Want to cut your business costs without cutting corners. Buy for tradies makes it simple. This is a buying group built by tradies for tradies, plumbers, sparkies, solar, and air context, 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. But just because you enjoy a particular type of work, it doesn’t mean your whole business should be built around it, especially if it’s not profitable.

Ange
Yes, you need to know what are your most profitable services? And focus completely there. 

Andy
So let’s go back to plumbing and Dr. Drip. And most of you know that blocked drains are highly profitable, right? But the thing that I wanna say here is there’s a lot of people I come across that go, oh my God, I’m not touching sewer. I’m not doing that dirty work. I’m just not doing it. And that’s a big chunk of profit in a plumbing business that they’re missing out on. I think the thing is, if you don’t love it, you don’t have to do it forever, but your business should. 

Ange
Okay. You need to explain that a bit more. 

Andy
Well, if it’s highly profitable and it’s one of the most profitable jobs that a maintenance plumbing business can do, then you’d be silly not to build a business around that. Even if it’s someone else doing it, it’s highly profitable and it’s a skillset your customers want. They don’t wanna be clearing these dirty drains. That’s how you scale a business. You’ve gotta find out how you make the money, how you do the jobs. Then potentially when you’re off the tools, you are not necessarily even doing that work. You can get one of your team to do it if you wish. 

Ange
Right. That makes complete sense. So now, once you’ve worked out what’s actually profitable, everything now starts to click. 

Andy
Because now you can ask. What problem does this work actually solve? 

Ange
Exactly. So now we can get into marketing. This is where a lot of tradies just stay way too surface level. They talk about what they do and not about the problem that they solve. 

Andy
Yeah, that’s right. And maybe let’s look back at the roofing company as one of the examples we used earlier. They go, we do roof repairs and replacement. What is the real problem here? 

Ange
Well, I would’ve said people are worried that their roof is maybe leaking water or that it’s damaged and now it’s causing more expensive issues. 

Andy
Water damage, structural issues, big repair bills. So what does your messaging in your marketing actually become? We replace aging roofs before they become a major structural problem. And that’s a completely different message, isn’t it? 

Ange
Yeah, I agree. That’s the same with like a builder. Instead of writing something like we do renovations and extensions, the real problem is potentially families outgrowing their homes.

Andy
Exactly. So you could say something like this, right. We help families transform their homes so they can stay where they love living. That hits that emotional connection and that attracts better customers as well. 

Ange
Right. Great point. Now that we’ve worked that out, we can talk about who wants this type of problem solved. We are now talking about who is the avatar. 

Andy
You’re not just picking random people, right? You’re defining what project they’re doing, what stage they’re at, what they value, and what they’re worried about. 

Ange
Yeah. Let’s think about a builder, they might decide the scope is something like an architect designed extensions with budgets over 300,000. They want clients who want a single point of contact, and they definitely want people who value quality over price. 

Andy
And that’s your A grade customer, right? But what happens when you don’t do this? 

Ange
Well, this is where it gets tricky. You get everything. Yeah. Owner builders, price shoppers, people with no plans and people who just want a rough idea.

Andy
You get D customers and you spend all your time running around quoting all these jobs that never end up going ahead. 

Ange
Now, that’s very interesting, but let’s change tact for a second because this is where marketing changes, because most tradies market by default. 

Andy
Like generic posts. Generic services and trying to appeal to everyone.

Ange
Yeah. They have things like we do bathrooms, kitchens, decks, renovations. Crew, that’s not marketing, that’s just a list. 

Andy
Yeah. Authority marketing is different. It’s intentional. It says this is who we work with, this is what we specialize in. And this is the problem we solve. 

Ange
So let’s go back to the roofing company and let me show you what bad marketing looks like. It’s communicating a sentence like we do all types of roofing work. 

Andy
But authority marketing looks more like this. We specialize in full roof replacements for homeowners upgrading aging properties. 

Ange
Aha. And now the right person pays attention and the wrong person moves on, and that’s exactly what we want.

Andy
So if you’ve done all of this properly, you can finally start qualifying properly because now you know what you’re looking for. 

Ange
Yes. So when you talk about qualification, instead of saying something like, yeah, no worries, we’ll come and have a look. You can actually ask questions like, what stage is your project at? Do you have plans drawn? What type of work are you looking to do? And what’s your timeline? 

Andy
And straight away you can tell, is this a real project or is this going nowhere? 

Ange
Yes. And you know what? A grade customers actually expect these questions. They don’t want their time wasted, and they also don’t understand your trade well. So ask me the right questions and we can work out if we are the right fit really quickly. 

Andy
And just remember, you’re not being difficult. You are being professional. 

Ange
This is true. So if we zoom out, this is actually pretty simple, but most tradies, skip it. 

Andy
You don’t start with marketing. You start with what is profitable? What problem does that job solve, and who’s this job for? 

Ange
And then you design your marketing. 

Andy
And then you qualify properly. 

Ange
Now that you’ve worked out the most profitable work and who that ideal avatar is, you found yourself on site providing a quote. Let me ask you this, are you winning your quotes every single time?

Andy
Because once you start attracting better jobs, you’ve got to be able to convert them Now. 

Ange
Because this is where we see tradies fall down all the time. They finally get a great lead and lose it at the quote stage. 

Andy
So in this next episode, we are breaking down how to price and present your quotes so customers actually see the value and say yes. Because there’s no point attracting better work if you’re still losing them when you’re standing in front of them and when it counts.

It’s tradie dilemma time brought to you by Buy4Tradies, the buying group helping tradies like you save serious coins on materials, fuel, vehicles, tools, and other services. If you’re not using it, you are probably paying too much. This is our q and 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
Okay, so today we have a question from Sam who owns an air conditioning business in Sunny Cairns, and he writes, Hey, Andy & Ange. So the business is growing, which means my role is different and I’m with the team less and less. What tips have you got to stay connected with the team? 

Andy
Yeah. As you’re a growing business mate, it’s tough, right? They’re used to you being in the trenches with them, but at some stage you gotta be working more on the business instead of in the business and being out there with them. But for them, they loved it when you’re on the tools putting in the hard slog, but there’s gotta be that different connection as you move forward. And they’ve gotta realize for this business to sustain and pay for everyone’s wages, you need to step up as a business owner and drive the sales more and drive the office more. We like to try and get a real team culture. We still had our team meetings. We made everyone understand I’d have one-on-ones with everyone, so they got the understanding that I wasn’t on the tools anymore. I couldn’t be on the tools anymore, and it was a natural progression. They still had this thought in their mind that when they hit the fan, I was gonna rock up in my work boots, my tradie shirt, and get down and dirty with them. I had to change the mindset around that as well, and I changed the way I turned up to work. I had dress shoes, dress pants, a really nice shirt, and I wasn’t a tradie anymore. I was actually seen as a business person. I told them I was a business person. So listen, this is something that you’ve gotta make them understand. You’ve gotta set the right culture up in your business and you’ve gotta still organize those times. If it’s toolbox meetings, if it’s coffee catchups, if it’s you turning up on site more and saying hi, bringing them slushies in the hot cans, weather, whatever it is, you still gotta have that connection with them ’cause that’s what they want, but they’ve gotta understand you are the boss. And you’ve gotta be working on the business more and driving the business to get the success. And most people, deep down understand that. 

Ange
Fantastic. I’m sure that has given you lots of insight, Sam, and thanks for writing in with your question. And remember, if you want Andy and I to answer your most challenging question, then send it our way to podcast@lifestyletradie.com.au. 

Andy
So if you take one thing out of today’s episode, it’s this. Stop spending money on marketing, bringing in all types of jobs. Start first with knowing what actually is the most profitable work to do in your business. Then build everything else around that. 

Ange
Because once you are clear on the work, that’s gonna put money in your pocket, you can work out the problem you solve and who you wanna work with. 

Andy
Then everything gets easier. Your marketing improves, your inquiries improve, and you stop wasting time on the wrong jobs and time wasters.

Ange
Exactly. Now, in the next episode, we’ll pick this up right where this leaves off. Once you’re attracting better jobs, we’re gonna show you how to quote them properly so you actually win the work. 

Andy
Because attracting the right work is only half the equation because if you’re still losing jobs at the quote stage. That is not ideal and we are gonna fix that next. 

Ange
And most importantly, if we’ve just hit a nerve and you’re keen to learn more about how to work out your most profitable services so that you start attracting the right types of customers, then can I suggest you come and meet Andy and I in person. We’re coming to a capital city near you very soon with our free live one day event called Stress Free Tradie, and we’d love to meet you in the flesh. Check out lifestyletradie.com.au/events/ and book today. 

Andy
We look forward to seeing you then with your partner in touch.

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