Women are the backbone of trade business — Guest starring Verity Hare, founder of TradieWives

Verity
Yeah, I don’t think he even ever thought about it, to be honest.

Ange
Really?

Verity
Um, it was me. I was sort of like, you know, he was obviously on the trade all day and doing you know, all of the physical work, and then he’d come home, quote, invoice, get back to people like social media didn’t even have social media. The website was a mess. So I was sort of like, I can help with this and I can help with that. And he was, oh, oh, that’d be really helpful if you could sort of, you know, do that. And so I sort of did it part-time and then, you know, sort of got busier and busier and, and then I went full-time and, and sort of helped him, you know, with everything that he needed. And yeah, it sort of evolved from there.

Ange
So when you say hospitality, to me, that means you’re around people all the time. All the time. Every day. And so you actually chose to give up being around people. As a tradie wife, we tend to, at the beginning, like to work from home. Right? Yeah. Like a lot of tradie wives work from their house.

Verity
Yeah.

Ange
So you went from that to working just with Craig in the house.

Verity
I did .

Ange
How’d you cope?

Verity
Thank goodness he was out of the house a lot of the time. But it was hard, like, and I’m quite a social person as well, so to go from, yeah, chatting with everyone every day to nothing. It was hard. It was quite isolating. Yeah, luckily I was still sort of working. I think for years I kept working on the weekends, the one day a week just, you know, keep social and at a local coffee shop,

Ange
At a local coffee shop. Um, everyone knows Mary in our area.

Verity
Everyone would come and get their fix and yeah, I’d sort of get there on a Saturday morning and be like, oh, talk to me, everyone. Talk to me. I just have so much to say. That’s a course because I’ve been quiet all week, so it’s, yeah. It was sort of a funny transition.

Ange
I remember those days. So I was working as the national sponsorship manager at Dairy Farmers. And, um, traveling a great deal. And I remember the day that I gave up my career. In essence to, well that style, doing that particular type of work. To come into work with Andy cuz for years he’d been saying, come and help the business grow. I really need you now. And I remember leaving a really busy marketing department. Where I was going from the marketing department of say, a couple of hundred people. And one day I’d either be with lots and lots of people like that, or I’d be talking to the farmers out at agricultural shows. And then I’d be talking to the board of directors and presenting to them about what it was we were doing with sponsorship at a national level to just me inside a house. In a room with no windows. And no one to talk to. It’s hard because Andy wasn’t even around. He was out on the tools. So I remember those days too, of standing sitting there thinking, is this what my life is gonna be like now? And part of me really accepted it. Because I was really happy to make that jump and part of me was like, socially that was really quite difficult.

Verity
Yeah. It’s really hard. It’s really hard, especially when you’re used to being around people, to just go to be alone. It is hard. Well, especially yeah.

Ange
When you are like us and,

Verity
Yeah. That’s hard. Like to chat. I love to chat.

Ange
And there’s no one to talk to, but the walls. Yeah, that’s so is that one of the reasons that drove you to start the Facebook group TradieWives?

Verity
It is. Yeah, it definitely is. I wanted to connect with other women who were in the same boat as well. It was all good for me to say, yeah, I’ll come and help you. I’ve got all this experience. I didn’t have experience in trade, and so when I started, Craig sort of went from a sole trader to a company, started employing people, redoing the website, all the stuff they needed doing. We had to get a new accountant. I had to learn Xero. And I just didn’t know where to look for help. I didn’t know who to ask. I used to email the local landscapers and be like, hi , I’ve just started working for my husband. You know, I really need help with this employment thing. Would you, would you mind pointing me in the right direction? Like, who do you guys ask for help? No one ever replied, ever.

Ange
No way.

Verity
And so time went on and then I was sort of like, you know, , I reckon there are so many other women doing what I’m doing. I wonder if I start a Facebook group, you know if other people will join. And I thought, gosh, it’s such a stupid idea. No one will join. I had to add a friend of mine, cuz you had to have at least one person in the group for it to be legit . She was like, you know what, even if you just get 20 people, you know, that’s 20 people to bounce ideas off. And lo and behold, .

Ange
11,000. Yeah.

Verity
12,000 plus thousand plus people laid up. There must have been other people feeling like me. So it was, yeah, it was awesome to connect.

Ange
I think a lot of tradie wives, they come into this role and they, because they’ve come from whatever experience, hospitality or HR or whatever, whatever their walk of life was previously, they do come into this world and they bring their own experience, but they don’t know the rest of it, so they, they tend to just wing it, don’t they?

Verity
Yeah, absolutely.

Ange
So I, I definitely agree. It is a huge learning curve at the beginning to feel like that, even though you have so many strengths with what, you know, there’s an incredible amount of information to learn, to be able to get what we class as the business model, right?

Verity
Yeah.

Ange
So, yeah, you, and you’re trying to make these decisions by yourself. We talk about isolation. Yeah, we talk about it in both senses that the guys in the same boat as us as the, as the female, and with us with Lifestyle Tradie. The guys are out on the tools who have gone to TAFE and they’ve learnt their rules and regulations, but they’ve, in this four to six years of going to college, they’ve actually never learnt principles about business. Which is crazy, because 99.9% of them would say, I wanna start my own business. But then they go out on their own and they have to do everything. They wear every hat. So they are making decisions by themselves, and it’s all, I don’t know, they, they just think they’ll give it a go, but so many people have walked before them and they don’t lean on them. And then over the course of time, they get great success because, The type of people they are, they naturally pick up work. They’re good trust building. They’re good sales. Yeah. Or whatever they are. They get to a point where they don’t share their knowledge. So they have failure, but they also have incredible success. But they make decisions alone, which is really quite dangerous, I feel. Because they procrastinate, which means they don’t do things. And then they wonder why they’re not making great money at the end of the year.

Verity
Absolutely.

Ange
And so he’s in this world of isolation. Making decisions alone. But I feel like she’s, their partners are in exactly the same position. People forget that these females have come into this business either by choice or not by force, maybe they’ve had a baby as often. What we’ve, yeah, by default. Great, great sentence. , they’ve often had a baby, for instance, is what we see a lot in the industry. They’ve had a baby. They’ve come, you know, they’re now at home with this one child and they do have time on their hands. So they say, I have this skill set of marketing or whatever. I can actually help. And often their default, the guy goes, just do my bookkeeping. That’d be great.

Verity
So much, Craig. Thank you. Awesome. I know. Thank you so much. I really love bookkeeping.

Ange
Um, which some people do love bookkeeping, so that’s great. But if that’s a new role for someone, then that’s hard. And like what you just said, you are now at home alone trying to make all these decisions about the business and trying to do the best you possibly can, but you are not, you are not taught either.

Verity
No.

Ange
You don’t have these skills, this skill set that is really required. So you two are in isolation. Completely. It’s really hard.

Verity
Yep. Trying to just work out what the best thing is to do with just no idea really of, like I said before, what to do, where to ask for help.

Ange
It’s been amazing that you have been that person. Yeah. Who had the gumption to put it out there and actually start this Facebook group and, and create this incredible community where these women really lean in and have somewhere to ask questions about pretty much everything.

Verity
Everything.

Ange
Don’t they? Pretty much everything.

Verity
Look, nothing’s off limits in the group to be innocent.

Ange
So what do they talk about?

Verity
Oh gosh. Yeah. Like nothing’s off limits, you know? And actually it’s been really interesting to see these changes since, uh, I first started three years ago of the conversations. At the beginning, it was a lot of not enough work, people not paying their bills. People struggling with cash flow to then Covid coming in. Obviously a bit of fear around that, what you can and can’t do. Job keeps that sort of thing to them, no, I’d like to say coming out of it, but it seems like we’re all back in it again. Yes. But in this phase, there’s too much work because people obviously aren’t traveling, they’re renovating their places. There’s a lot of work. But no one wants to work. Staffing’s a huge issue and there’s a material shortage. So it’s sort of like the work’s there now, but people don’t have the resources to do the work. So it’s been an interesting transition through the years, you know, of how the industry has kind of shifted, you know? But aside from that, it’s also a bit of comic relief. .

Ange
Yes.

Verity
I think people come in there to vent, to have a laugh and, yeah, to support each other. And there’s a lot of stuff around, you know, mental health issues as well. Relationship breakdowns, which is, it’s easy to happen. You know, when you’re working together and you’re not communicating, it’s easy to sort of get into a bit of a funk as well.

Ange
So it’s amazing actually how raw and honest. These tradie wives can be.

Verity
That’s right.

Ange
And it’s really lovely to see that they feel so supported by this community and they feel comfortable to ask what they ask in there, either by name or anonymously through you.

Verity
That’s right.

Ange
But to get some outpouring advice like what you said, whether it’s business related, so that they’re getting some tips and tricks. Yeah. But I agree with you. Sometimes we are talking about what recipes I cook today, right? Yeah. What recipes do we cook to make life easy? So I feed my husband well.

Verity
That’s right.

Ange
Yeah. And my family. How do you balance life? Like how do you look after the kids where they’re around your feet? Keep up with the work and, and how do I deal with my husband when he’s perhaps having some issues in business? And they do get into struggles with relationships and stuff like that, don’t they?

Verity
Yeah. And a lot of tradies, you know, and I, I don’t think it’s talked about enough. A lot of tradies are struggling with burnout and serious mental health issues where they’re just feeling like they don’t have anywhere to turn. So it’s actually such a privilege that people feel safe enough to share that with me. And the group, the group are amazing. They’re just so supportive. And you know, if anyone ever had a problem and came in and said it, everyone jumps on and helps them and gives them the right advice. And you know, they go away feeling so much better and like there is a bit of a light at the end of the tunnel because again, like we talk about the isolation, if that happens and you don’t have a good support network, it can spiral. So, yeah. So I feel very privileged that people feel safe enough to be able to share that, you know?

Ange
Absolutely.

Verity
And get help.

Ange
So yeah, they really do open up to some of their deepest, darkest secrets.

Verity
Yeah, they do.

Ange
It’s interesting that you touch on that. The fact that you are, and there is no doubt that you are the glue with regards to this community and, and I know every single tradie wife would be saying, thank you for starting this community, because I think it’s a really important place where people do feel heard. Because I know as a tradie wife that, there were moments in those early days that I would say, no one understands my life. Yeah. No one understands them, they pretty much just look at you and go, oh, you just have such a great life. You can do whatever you want when you want. But they don’t understand the struggles that you have. And from the outside looking in, they probably do think you have this incredible life, but they don’t understand that you don’t really know what you’re doing.

Verity
No, that’s right. Exactly. Yep. Um, and you can’t just drop everything to go to coffee.

Ange
No. So, and some that’s so true. And we feel the same way with our members with Lifestyle Tradie. So being able to teach them how to operate a more successful trade business and see them make better profit, be less stressed, and live a better life, it’s so incredibly rewarding. But what we absolutely love is being the glue for that community too. So for trade business owners, they really need to be around people who are striving to be better so that they can actually all learn from each other. And it’s really unique to see trade business owners sharing their secrets of success. Cause like I was saying before, we often see these guys who have incredible success, but they’re really, really closed with their knowledge. Yeah. And I remember seeing that with Andy in the early days. He was doing really well with Dr. Drip back in the day before all the issues happened. And he wouldn’t, he didn’t wanna tell anybody. He didn’t want to share his knowledge. And I guess the output of that in the long term was that Lifestyle Tradie began because we just went, this is mad. We went through so much. Bad stuff in that business that you do come out the other side going, I’ve gotta prevent people from experiencing this.

Verity
This is exactly.

Ange
It’s gotta be stopped. Yeah. Because this is the entire trade community.

Verity
That’s right.

Ange
So I, I love that because I know that feeling in Lifestyle Tradie being that the lynchpin, I suppose, that brings everyone together and seeing how everyone bonds and shares knowledge and the guys can lean on each other and feel like they’ve got a really trusted source of people, that they can ask advice from. And the women as well.

Verity
Yeah. So that’s right.

Ange
I can imagine how you’re feeling as well.

Verity
Yeah, absolutely. Yes.

Ange
Yeah. I know a lot of our members in Lifestyle Tradie. Yeah. I know The women are all inside tradie wives , and they do say how hilarious It is at times. Yep. Um, but also how serious, you know, how serious life can get.

Verity
Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. It’s a good balance I think.

Ange
So having worked with trade business owners for the past 12 years, we’ve noticed the rise in women taking a more leading role in business. Do you think this is good for a trade business?

Verity
Yeah, I do. I think husband and wife teams are unstoppable. I think, you know? Yeah. You know, it’s really interesting to see as well, a lot of the women, you know, like we were saying before, it used to be, oh, you know, you’re just at home doing my books, life, just do my books and look after the kids or whatever. But now it’s like they’re stepping up as an actual business partner. And it’s interesting, a lot of them want to actually learn the trade. Yes. As well to go on site and help their husbands on site. I think that’s awesome. And I think as well, like I really think you have to sort of want to do it because it can also go the other way if you don’t wanna do it and you feel like you’re just thrown into it cuz you have to do it. It can kind of spiral and you can kind of resent the role. But if you have the drive and you have the right support, I just think it is such an awesome thing to be a husband and wife team.

Ange
I, a hundred percent agree with that sentence. Women bring an edge to a trade business and I do believe that if you keep those lines of communication open, I could talk about this subject for hours. So I see this as like front of house and back of house. Yeah. So he, to me, Been on the tools front of the house seeing customers, and she really takes ownership of that admin side. Yeah. What a class of back of house, of a business. Yeah. And one cannot function without the other.

Verity
Yeah, that’s right.

Ange
And there’s definitely some tradies out there, these blokes, and I know I’m stereotyping saying it’s a, it’s a bloke’s business. Yeah. But you know, that’s kind of generally at the, at, you know, what we see, he can do it all, but he still needs help. So whether it’s his partner or whether he feels and she feels she doesn’t want to be involved, he’s still gonna need help. Yeah. From someone. Yeah. So this front of house and back of house really need to work harmoniously together. And I a hundred percent agree if she is this partner in business. Yeah. Loves this business and sees a future cuz she realizes this can be an incredible business. As long as she gets her hands in there.

Verity
That’s right.

Ange
And gets dirty. And actually has a voice. She’s got so much to share. So many creative ideas. And a different take on the business. That if the two of them put their heads together, they are really a force to be reckoned with, aren’t they?

Verity
Yep, that’s right. Share equal roles. And I really think that it’s, it’s such an awesome thing.

Ange
I see a lot of women who have come into their business in the early days and perhaps haven’t come by choice. And the language I actually hear them use is his business. He does this, he, it’s all, all around that, versus I see a language change when something inside of her has embraced the fact that she has a huge part of this business and her language starts saying our business. Yeah. Yeah. Do you find that makes a difference to how you see your business?

Verity
Yeah. I originally, I think because Craig was in business years before I met him, so he’d had the business since he was about 21, I think. So he’d been going for years and years. So I did sort of feel like an imposter when I started . Oh, you know, it’s Craig’s business. Yeah. I’m just helping him. You know, he’s built this, he’s done this. That’s sort of his thing. But it probably took quite a few years for me to start saying our landscaping business. Sometimes I still go back and say, what’s Craig’s Landscaping business? But I think a lot of, you know, from the conversations I’ve seen in the group, a lot of the women are the same. They’ll say, oh, you know, my husband’s business. Or the other women jump on and go, no, it’s both of yours.

Ange
Totally.

Verity
You know, it’s not just his. You are doing as much as he is, he’s now, you know, you should see it as your own, something you’re building together.

Ange
Yes. It’s definitely a mindset thing. It’s interesting that you highlight imposter syndrome. I resonate with that. That does make a lot of sense. And having worked with tradies for such a long time, I do think that is a deep rooted thought process, that people don’t know how to articulate. Although you actually have, which is really cool. Yeah. Because she does need to really take ownership of that role. And I do see that happening, which is really awesome when she comes in and says, I’m really gonna get my hands on this and let’s make this incredible together because this is our future and we can, we can make something awesome. We even noticed that when we start working with members of Lifestyle Tradie, and he’s a little unsure, it’s really important for us to get her involved. When we know she actually works in the business, the two of them must be sitting in front of us before we start talking about this journey with Lifestyle Tradie, because she is a decision maker. And like I was saying before, the front of house and back of house of a trade business must work harmoniously and the two of them must be on board to make change and to actually work together to get the business model right. They need to be able to understand the concepts of what needs to change together so that they’re both working in the same direction.

Verity
That’s right. It’s really important. Yeah, it is.

Ange
So Verity, I notice in tradie wives that there’s a great deal of conversation about struggles of balance. So what I mean by that is she, the wife feels like she’s doing everything, she’s really picked up her pretty much half, if not more, within operating the trade business, but she’s also taking it care of kids if she has them and she’s doing majority of kind of that life admin, you know, House coordinating social activities. She’s doing all the cooking. And cleaning of the house. Like she really is taken on a lot. And often all of these tasks fall to her because he’s too busy with the business. And they, she almost think that that’s okay. But it’s probably not okay. So in your opinion, do you think it’s important that a husband and wife trade business team strike a balance between what happens between the house and work? And if so, what’s your advice?

Verity
Look, I wish I had the answer , but also it is hard. It is so hard to find that balance. I think you have to sit down and communicate, you know, what needs to be done and who’s gonna do what. How are you gonna share the load and have that conversation, because otherwise you just get stuck as this part business owner, you know, you’re both owning the business, you’re both doing your equal share, but then also the wife is doing, like we said, the cooking, the cleaning, I think that all has to be to be shared. And I think that comes just down to communication and, and having the right support so you don’t feel like it’s a complete overwhelm, especially for him as well, because you know, sometimes it just comes down to complete overwhelm and exhaustion. So I think you do just have to have the conversation and say, okay, you are gonna do this. I’m gonna do this, and this is how we’re gonna work together.

Ange
I think it’s dangerous to stereotype these days. She does all this housework and the cooking and stuff like that. And I do think it’s important for the tradie guys to understand that we are well aware that the physical load and how draining that is to be out on the tools every single day is intense. But they underestimate their mental capacity. And how draining that can be too for us as females. Sitting at a desk with no contact. Staring at a computer screen often with children around your legs. Knowing that the house looks like an absolute bomb. Yet you still haven’t put dinner on the table and the clothes haven’t even been hung out and you’ve It was a load you put on first thing in the morning. And he comes home and goes, well, what’s for dinner? It’s like, uh, oh my God. Are you serious? What’s for dinner? So I a hundred percent agree that it is totally about communication to help him also understand that this is our business, not his business. And that you are 150% and that you wanna make it amazing together. But to do that, he needs to understand what life is like and you know, the best way to do that?

Verity
What?

Ange
Get him to come and spend a day at the house so that he understands that when the kids are really little and the bomb happens around the house, but when he comes home, and the house looks incredible, that just didn’t happen within a split second. It’s good for him to see what actually happens. And he goes, oh my God, this is intense. So I agree. Open communication, define who’s doing what. So that he grasps within a business, what, what is, what is he gonna do and what is she gonna do so that those two do not collide ever. And my advice would be to have meetings like you were an employee. So, the two of you are employed by the business, so in my mind, it is important to actually have these, have this time, whether it’s one meeting for an hour a week, or whether it’s half an hour each morning. Whatever works for you. To ensure that you are, you have this list of projects that you’re trying to get through. And you check in with each other. How’d you go with that thing? I’ve done this. How can I help you better? So that you can actually move forward with change in the business and then. Having a conversation about this, she said, I’m not cooking seven nights a week. It’s too much. I need you to do at least three. He might buy takeout those three nights,

Verity
But at least it’s something, you know?

Ange
Yes. It’s the mental capacity of going, oh my God, I have to think about what we are gonna have tonight, and then I have to go to the shops and buy all that stuff and then bring it home and unpack it in, put it all away and then cook the whole, like, it’s such a clean, clean process.

Verity
And then, yeah, it’s like Groundhog Day, every listening crank, , um, , it’s like Groundhog Day every day. And it’s quality of life too, you know? Like you have to think long term, aside from all this business stuff, you’ve gotta live, you gotta enjoy your life.

Ange
Yes. Really good point. Because at the end of the day, your salary comes from the business. So I’m, I’m doing it with my hands, so I know the listeners don’t understand. It’s like, figure eight, right? Everything that happens inside a business comes inside to life. So we notice often that if trade businesses are having issues with money and finance, for instance and so they’re arguing, they’re now sitting in front of their children at the dinner table asking questions about the business and talking about where, why they didn’t follow up with a client to get the money in, for instance. Yeah. So everything that happens in the business doesn’t switch off the moment you come inside that house. So it’s really important to set ground rules of, don’t talk about the business in front of the kids. You’ve really gotta stop and have these clear delineations about what’s actually happening in the business separately about responsibility and now also what’s happening inside the house. Yeah. So that everyone knows that we’re all on the same page.

Verity
Exactly. Yeah. You’ve gotta have some downtime as well.

Ange
Absolutely. Love downtime. So Verity, what kind of support does TradieWives offer to its members?

Verity
So, as we’ve said, business support, but also a lot of support with, you know, just day-to-day sort of venting and struggles and it’s sort of just a community where you have a great group of people around you who just totally get it. They totally understand what you’re going through. They’re so willing to help. And we also have a professional services directory, which we are so thrilled that you guys are a part of. It is so awesome to have you on board where you can find, you know, business support, business mentors, you know, web designers, accountants, bookkeepers, that sort of thing. All the things that I wish that I had access to when I first started working with Craig. And it was really important to me to be able to connect with the community. The right support and the right advice because while everyone’s so awesome at sharing their knowledge, sometimes for that particular person, it needs to be specific advice and it needs to be professional advice. So it was really important to have a team where I know that I can direct the community to, to get the right support and advice for them.

Ange
It’s knowing, isn’t it?

Verity
Yeah, it is.

Ange
It’s really powerful to have a support network around you to ensure that you’re doing the best you possibly can with the decisions that you need to make.

Verity
Exactly.

Ange
So if I was a tradie wife and I was listening to this and I am for the first time hearing about TradieWives, how do I join?

Verity
So you can go to the website, www.tradiewives.com.au, and go to the join tab and there’s a link there. Or you can just search on Facebook for TradieWives and, and find us there.

Ange
So what advice would you give to any husband and wife team listening right now?

Verity
It would be to play to your strengths. Both of you work out what it is that you’re good at, what it is that you want to do, where you excel. Do that. Outsource the rest If you can, don’t try and do it alone. . It’s hard. Get a good support network around you. Be surrounded by like-minded people. Share the load and just, yeah, have fun. I think it’s, it’s so awesome to build something together and you know, when you do have the right support for it, it’s, you’re unstoppable.

Ange
You are unstoppable. Trade as a business is incredible. And your business can be incredible. What you just said about knowing your worth is really important. So if you put a price tag on your head of say, a hundred dollars an hour, what could you be outsourcing? Whether it’s within the business or even in your life with a cleaner or gardener or something that your time is better spent elsewhere, what we call profit producing tasks. So, yeah, absolutely. Really good tip. So what’s next for TradieWives? What plans do you have for the future?

Verity
Oh gosh, sky’s the limit at the moment. We have so many ideas. Mainly we are sort of in the process of developing like a premium sort of membership platform where it’s specifically targeted to growing your business. So we are gonna have a lot of online exclusive webinars, courses, resources to sort of help you grow your business and learn as you go. So that’s, that’s on the go. And then also, obviously covid permitting, we’d love to start doing events and get to actually meet everybody that we’ve been speaking to for so long. But, um, every time we plan something, we go into another lockdown. So,

Ange
I’m sure it’ll happen. I definitely hear lots of conversation about people saying, when am I gonna actually meet you face to face? There’ll be lots of cuddles and hugs on those days, won’t there?

Verity
Oh, I, I’m so excited for the day that it happens. I just, I just can’t wait. And I hope that it’s, I hope that it’s soon.

Ange
I agree. I think you, we, we do end up learning so much about everybody’s lives from reading everyone’s posts. Don’t we? So now Verity, we always ask guests to play a little game in these segments. And I’m going to throw you three questions and we are going to answer or you are gonna answer them in 30 seconds or less.

Verity
Yep.

Ange
All right. Are you ready? Okay. 3, 2, 1. What’s the biggest mistake you’ve made in business?

Verity
Uh, not listening to my gut instinct.

Ange
Ooh. Yes. Yeah. There is something to be heard for that,

Verity
Absolutely.

Ange
Isn’t there?

Verity
Yeah, absolutely. You always know the answer somewhere deep down.

Ange
That’s right. Did you ever think TradieWives’ Facebook group would get this popular?

Verity
Uh, no, definitely not. Never in my wildest dreams.

Ange
Especially when you just told me that you made a friend join at the beginning.

Verity
Yeah. I thought it was gonna be me and her, that was it.

Ange
Well, it could have been the two of you and me.

Verity
Yeah, that’s right. Exactly.

Ange
We just were the three of us. We could’ve had so much fun.
Verity
Oh yeah. Good. It would’ve been amazing. .

Ange
We don’t, it’s definitely better with 1200 thousand people.

Verity
Well, that’s right. Yeah. Lots of activity.

Ange
Excellent. So what’s the best thing about being a tradie wife?

Verity
Um, I think the flexibility. The endless potential and to be able to build something with your partner. I think that’s so special to be able to both have common goals and, and to achieve things together and share the highs and lows and yeah, it’s, it’s special.

Ange
You can definitely be a power couple. Verity, it’s been absolutely amazing to have you here today. There’s no doubt that TradieWives are a huge driving force behind trade businesses all around Australia and globally. You’ve created such a fantastic community for women to come together and feel supported and help each other, and I’m sure each and every one of them would wanna thank you for being so brave to start this group in the first place. So on their behalf, thank you so much. I totally believe women are taking a stronger role across all trade businesses, and if we support each other through the good and the bad times, it’s only gonna help the industry as a whole. So thanks again. This has been so much fun.

Verity
Oh, it’s been awesome. Thank you so much for having me.

Ange
Well, that’s it from us today, Andy’s back in the studio with me next week, and we are chatting about why your hourly rate might be pricing you out of the game. This is a big one for any trade business owner, so make sure you subscribe to the show so that you never miss an episode. Catch you then.