Most tradies know their turnover. Few know which jobs actually make money. Every finished job has hours in it nobody charged for, the second trip for a part, the twenty minutes hunting for the right fitting, the quote that did not cover what happened. Trade efficiency is finding those, one job at a time, with tools simple enough to use on a Friday afternoon.
The eight wastes — the eight ways time and money leak out of a job.
Not a programme. We pick the piece that fits what is bugging you this month, do it together on your real jobs and figures and you take it home.
Materials, labour, subbies and the extra trips against what was invoiced. Not a spreadsheet exercise, a conversation about one real job and what it teaches the next quote.
The eight wastes, walked through a job you have just done. Waiting, transport, over-processing, defects. Most tradies find three in the first ten minutes.
A place for everything, so nothing is hunted for twice. The single most-used tool in my mentoring, because the result is visible on Monday.
Past the symptom to the cause. The callback is rarely the tradesperson’s fault; it is usually a handover or a missing step.
Illustrations of the kind of work that happens in a session, described by trade. Free mentoring through Business Mentors NZ is confidential, so these are examples, not case studies.
Owner and ops manager list the wastes on last month’s jobs. Rework from unclear briefs and travel between sites top the list. The job sheet is reworked so the brief travels with the job and jobs are grouped by area.
Job profit reporting shows labour priced too cheaply against materials that were fully recovered. The margin problem turns out to be one line, not the whole business.
Back-costing a run of jobs shows which stage blows out every time. The next quotes carry a line for it and the owner stops absorbing the difference.
Every finished job contains lessons. I help pull those lessons out so the next quote is more accurate and more profitable.
I am inside trade workflows every day as a bookkeeper and I build and use AI on them. That is the only way to know where a small trade business gains from the new ways of working and where it does not, you have to be on the ground using it. So Exploring Tradie has no prescription. We explore, one piece at a time and keep what works.
Volunteer mentor with Business Mentors New Zealand for seven years. Handouts on this thread are coming, free.
Try this. Ask your own AI about me. Download the briefing pack and ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot or Gemini can talk you through what I do, what it costs and whether I am a fit for your business.
Download the AI briefing packTell me what is bugging you this month and we will spend two hours on it.
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