ISSUE #61 – APRIL – MAY – JUNE 2021
Scrolling To A Halt HOW TO STAND OUT ONLINE.
You Can’t Have A Hobby And A Business
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You’re A Tool! TIPS FOR KEEPING YOUR BODY IN TOP WORKING ORDER.
…WRONG! LEARN HOW TO HAVE BOTH ON
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FELICITY & BLAKE MOTYCKA GHOSTWOOD HORTICULTURE — VIP DIAMOND MEMBERS SUBSCRIBE TO LIFESTYLE TRADIE ON
FROM THE DESK OF
ANDY SMITH
TRADIES GOLD MINE: THE HOME RENO BOOM
APRIL – MAY – JUNE 2021 61ST EDITION
CONTENTS 09
No One Likes The Boss
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10 — Partner Spotlight: Our Friends TradieWives
Felicity & Blake Motycka
11 — Hendo’s Soap Box — Selling Up Isn’t A Pipe Dream...
Lifestyle Tradie Member Profile Ghostwood Horticulture
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Lifestyle Tradie Team Profile — Alex Henderson
16 — Partner Spotlight: AroFlo
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You Can’t Have A Hobby And A Business
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Manly R&R 19th - 20th March 2021 2
12 — TV Home Renovation Shows Sets Unrealistic Client Expectations
You’re A Tool — MGS Physiotherapy + Lifestyle Tradie
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Scrolling To A Halt L I F E S T Y L E T R A D I E .C O M . A U
FROM THE DESK OF
Hey Tradies!
renovations. People who would usually have spent the money on The year is off to a great start. a family holiday now realise that they couldn’t travel last year, With the Covid-19 vaccine or this year either. So they’re starting to make the rounds — maybe we can finally get back to redirecting the funds to home normal in 2022. It does however, improvements. leave us with an uncertain 2021 A TRADIE GOLD MINE. whilst we play the waiting game Realestate.com noted that waiting for the full vaccine the average Australian home rollout to commence. renovation budget is coming in at This is super frustrating as all we a whopping $63k based on lending want to do is GET BACK TO data from Suncorp bank. NORMAL! To get on this home improvements Now, it isn’t all bad news for wave, I suggest focusing and tradies. With overseas travel still targeting your marketing efforts a blanket ban and hesitations here; Have some fun with it, and around internal travel due to show your customers what they states’ swiftness shutting their could potentially do with their borders... People are looking travel budget. to what else they can use their “Travel is overrated, but a new travel budgets towards. kitchen isn’t…Your kitchen island As a result, we’ve seen a destination… The best destination MASSIVE spike in home is in your own backyard...”
Reach out to old customers to see if there are any potential leads! Check out our blog on SMS marketing, to learn how to successfully pull off a text message campaign to get the most out of your database! Honestly, we’ve already fared pretty well over the pandemic — from being listed as essential services and with most of us still being able to source work consistently. This is just ONE MORE silver lining for us during the pandemic. For more information on how to navigate this real estate reno BOOM, read on to our article “Home Reno shows set unrealistic expectations” to get your client management skills down! Page 12 So don’t let it go to waste! Here’s to a better 2021. Cheers,
Andy Smith
Have you connected with Lifestyle Tradie? Here’s two new ways to connect with Lifestyle Tradie:
Join our Facebook group, Kick-Ass Tradies www.fb.com/groups/kickasstradies
Subscribe to our YouTube channel www.youtube.com/LifestyleTradie
Why not jump in and get started!
LIFEST YLE TRADIE MEMBER PROFILE — GHOSTWOOD HORTICULTURE
LIFESTYLE TRADIE
MEMBER PROFILE FELICITY & BLAKE
GHOSTWOOD HORTICULTURE
VIP DIAMOND MEMBERS 1. Tell us a about your business, life and family. [Felicity] My Partner Blake and I co-own Ghostwood Horticulture and joined Lifestyle Tradie in 2019. Blake has qualifications in irrigation and arboriculture and his structural landscaping licence. He started his landscaping business working with his brother and Dad — a family affair! I have 15 years of IT industry experience under my belt. Plus senior roles in customer service, marketing and product/business management, and degrees in psychology and business.
3. Tell us a little about your life before joining Lifestyle Tradie? (What wasn’t working, what was holding you back or was in your way?) Before we joined Lifestyle Tradie, we had our heads in the sand. I worked in a corporate role, and Blake was putting one foot in front of the other, just getting by. We didn’t know our numbers (but we knew they were terrible), and the team had shrunk from five down to two. All of our jobs were landscape maintenance in Sydney — with Blake leaving home at 4 am every morning to travel to work. He returned at 5 pm to get the kids ready for bed and then fell asleep himself. It was exhausting!
We live on our 5-acre property in the beautiful Southern Highlands of NSW with our daughter Chloe (7) and son Charlie (5). We moved out of the ‘big smoke’ five years ago and love being close to fantastic camping spots and 4WD tracks — and having a vast ‘backyard’ with ponies, chickens and a border collie!
2. What do you love most about what you do? We love working outdoors and creating beautiful spaces. When a client is excited about seeing their garden transform, it makes all of the blood, sweat and tears worthwhile! 4
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LIFEST YLE TRADIE MEMBER PROFILE — GHOSTWOOD HORTICULTURE
On top of that, we couldn’t find any staff who cared enough about the job to take it seriously — which meant that Blake was doing everything himself. Plus, the business model wasn’t working anymore; we had clients for 10-15 years but weren’t getting any new clients, so frustrating!
4. What specific results have you achieved since joining Lifestyle Tradie?
6. What are the top three things you have learnt about business that you would recommend to other tradies and why? Tip 1. Know your numbers! If you don’t know your numbers, how do you know if you are making money?
Tip 2. Don’t wait until you are desperate before you hire staff. Only hire the best team to represent Since joining Lifestyle Tradie, we’ve shifted our business your brand because bad staff are a stressful to almost 100% landscape construction in our local area nightmare to manage!. rather than Sydney’s maintenance work. Tip 3. Implement a Job Management System and The few maintenance clients we still have in Sydney, we forget the invoice books and the paper diary! subcontract to Blake’s brother. As a result, Blake hasn’t Blake finally did this after I bugged him about it been to Sydney in months —and he loves that! for six years, and he wishes he listened sooner! We are on track this year to double last year’s revenue, and we are profitable for the first time in a long time. Plus, late last year, we onboarded a new apprentice, and he’s shaping up to be a superstar!
Less paperwork + better cash flow = less stress!
7. Tell us something quirky about yourself that your buddies don’t know? We were interviewed by Kerri-Anne Kennerly on ‘Mornings with Kerri-Anne’ because of how we met — at a fitness/match-making boot camp!
8. If we were sitting here one year from now celebrating what a great year it’s been, what have you achieved (together)? (business/life). I entered the Gold Coast Marathon in July 2020, which ended up being cancelled, so hopefully, one year from today, I’ll have run my first (and only!) marathon! We will also have taken a ‘dream family holiday’ which we set as a goal two years ago — we may have to change it from an international to a domestic location.
5. Where do you see your business in five years? Our business will have grown in turnover and profit, [Felicity] I am currently a 2nd-year apprentice, so in five years, Blake and I will both be licensed landscapers!
with a consistent profit every month, and we’ll be booked out 2-3 months in advance.
We’d like to have a couple of teams working on construction jobs whilst we both design and quote new gardens and focus on sales and marketing — all the fun bits and none of the boring bits! We don’t have huge revenue goals like “ONE MILLION DOLLARS.” We want to have fun, employ an amazing team, and make enough money to cover our business and personal expenses for a comfortable lifestyle. Life is too short for anything else! A P R I L – M AY – J U N E 202 1 – I S S U E # 61
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LIFEST YLE TRADIE TEAM PROFILE — ALEX HENDERSON
LIFESTYLE TRADIE TEAM PROFILE
ALEX HENDERSON I’m Alex, a Trade Business Coach with Lifestyle Tradie! You’ll be seeing my mug a lot, so I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself. Just like you, I’ve been a trade business owner. At 26, I started my cabinet-making business. I worked stupid hours, had no processes, and faced serious burnout. I realised that something had to change, so I sought out a business education program. I surrounded myself with people who’d been there and done it, and during that journey [about ten years ago] — I met Andy and Angela. I became a fan of systems and simplicity. For the first time I started checking my numbers, and discovered where I was and where I wasn’t making money. Inspired by the Dr. DRiP story I even re-branded and “Captain Cabinets” was born as I found my niche in the industry.
I pushed myself to form better business practices, stop doing everything myself and even have a life outside of work! And that new life came in the shape of an innocent challenge, to ride 500klm (in 5 days) from Bangkok to Khao Lak — for the charity Hands Across the Water. And raise $10k in the process. Spurred on by my competitive nature and some friendly banter, I readily accepted and began training. The charity ride opened my eyes, and I realised that life’s not about working longer hours than the next bloke. On top of that, taking a week out of my business was both a test and a reward in itself. 6
It demonstrated that I didn’t need to manage every aspect of my company, and that it could operate without me being there. With a new outlook on life, I returned to Thailand again the next year and have personally raised over $30,000 for the cause — And just like that, riding bikes had become a new passion! Taking a step back and critically evaluating my life and business was a game-changer for me. Ultimately I sold my business in 2017, and now I’m stoked to join the team at Lifestyle Tradie. It’s my dream job to now be able to help fellow tradies like you achieve your goals too. No one said it was easy, and no one ever got to the top of the mountain by falling there. By surrounding yourself with the right people and taking consistent action and knowing your personal priorities and values you can live the life of your dreams. Hopefully, my story will inspire you to take that first step, and I’m looking forward to working with you and your trade business. Cheers,
Alex Henderson L I F E S T Y L E T R A D I E .C O M . A U
YOU CAN’T HAVE A HOBBY AND A BUSINESS
YOU CAN’T HAVE A HOBBY AND A BUSINESS It’s easy to find yourself ‘all work and no play’ when running your own business. Every waking moment spent ensuring its success, grinding hard, and getting the job done. In the end, you stopped doing the things you love. All because you don’t have time or feel guilty that it’s time you SHOULD be spending on your business — not at the beach or on the golf course.
Trade business owners are typically control freaks. You felt you could run a better business than your last trade boss, so you went out and did it. Now the weight of the world is on your shoulders, and you're either going to sink or swim. The truth of it is, those who learn to swim and keep their businesses afloat long-term don't do so by spending every waking hour working on their business. They have a successful trade business because they learn how to prioritise, systemise, and delegate. By doing so, they can break themselves, spend time with their family and personal hobbies. This builds vital mental health and allows you to be more level headed when making business and life decisions. The Balance - Small Business magazine notes; “Just having a hobby — even when it is not directly related to your business—can make you a more successful entrepreneur. Many hobbies have the potential to provide benefits that can improve your level of success as an entrepreneur.”
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Running yourself into the ground. Those who obsess, dwell and spend all their time on their business often have poor mental health because they’re tired and overworked. Decision-making becomes more frantic, you’re ‘flying by the seat of your pants’, and you sink in the end. The Harvard Health Journal, in their article ‘Mental Health Problems In the Workplace’ notes a correlation between poor mental health and poor work performance; “Although symptoms may go unnoticed, the economic consequences are tangible.” So find a hobby that you love, or start doing something you used to do but stopped — like playing a team sport, golf, yoga or even knitting! A hobby is anything you do because YOU LIKE DOING IT. We all have one hour each week that we could spend doing something we love. It’s about consciously making an effort, setting time aside for you… Most importantly, knowing that you work hard and deserve this break, you shouldn’t feel guilty. You can take a step back, gain perspective and make a sound choice. Not to mention having some fun! Taking time away from the business and enjoying life is vital because, after all, you started this business, so you’d have the freedom to choose. The overall sentiment here is that you are in control, deserve to have a hobby and take a break! 7
19th & 20th March 2021 • Manly
After a full year of being apart, it felt SO GOOD to see you all in person. A huge part of the Lifestyle Tradie experience is being able to come together and connect at events like R&R. It’s a space for us to come together as a community, and build meaningful business, and personal connections with fellow trade business owners. Our guest speakers were truly on fire this R&R... The always-on Mike Michalowicz took us on an eye-opening profit journey with his book “Profit first.” We were in awe of his simple, but clever methodology — it was so easy to understand and implement it seems CRAZY that it’s not the standard way of collating profit in a business. Together we cried as Sam Bloom took us on her journey of heartbreak, and being on the verge of giving up. As trade business owners, we can sometimes feel like the world is against us, so to gain a little perspective, and take in comfort that we all have highs and lows in our life journeys was incredible. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house. We’re still coming down from the sugar high of Lisa McInnes-Smith! She inspired us to take stock in our decision-making process, and to better understand the limitations we put on ourselves, and how they are holding us back. Now not only are we smooching our partners for six seconds, but we’re taking time to build a stronger, more resilient mentality in order to grow our trade businesses to be it’s absolute best.
But the best part of all... Our social events! Daniel San stuffed us with course after course of delicious food, until our top buttons popped, but we worked it off with a night of dancing at Out Of Africa. But overall the entire Lifestyle Tradie team would like to extend the biggest hug and appreciation to all the members who came to R&R and brought that amazing community experience. Andy and Angela would like to share their most heartfelt thank you’s to all who made this event possible, and to all the members who made it memorable.
Do I need to be liked? Absolutely not. I like to be liked. I enjoy to be liked. I have to be liked. But it’s not like this compulsive need to be liked. Like my need to be praised.
NO ONE LIKES THE BOSS We’ve all got a sh*t boss story; That boss that showed up to site hungover every Monday, the boss who couldn’t remember your name, the credit hogging boss. We’ve all been there. It’s the bloody reason we started our own trade business for some of us, so we never had to work for a crappy boss again! Well, now you’re the boss, and it’s not easy, right? It’s hard to build a relationship with your employees based on trust, respect, and be liked by them. At the end of the day, none of us wants to be the butt of the lousy boss joke. So the question is — where’s the line between being a boss and being a mate?
The bottom line is: A boss is respected, a mate is liked. Devora Zack, author of Managing for People Who Hate Managing stated: “Attempting to be friends with your employees makes providing feedback and performance appraisals difficult and puts you at risk for claims of favoritism,” This is one of the critical reasons why you need to set clear boundaries between yourself and your employees. Because once those seeds of distrust are planted, it’s extremely difficult to rebuild the employee > boss relationship. A P R I L – M AY – J U N E 202 1 – I S S U E # 61
- Michael Scott
Don’t be Michael Scott. If you’ve ever seen the hit TV-show “The Office” it’s essentially a handbook of now NOT to act as a Boss. Michael, the office manager, mishandles EVERY situation, because his need to be liked by his employees overtakes his duties as a boss. It’s human nature to want to be liked, however when you’re in a leadership position, you need to consider the impact it’s potentially having on your team. Forbes Magazine notes in their article ‘Employees Need a Leader Not a Friend’: “As a leader, it feels good when the team is relaxed, comfortable, and having fun. You’re viewed as a “fun boss,” that people relate to. However... leadership requires more. You can’t help people grow, mature, and perform without pushing them. If you don’t lay out expectations for the team, push people out of their comfort zones, and hold people accountable, you’re failing in your most important role as a leader. Trying to be everyone’s best friend is a fundamentally selfish act.”
Your role as the boss is to guide and mould your employees. Friends are great because they accept you for who you are, and support you in your decisions. Bosses are there to push you to strive for better and call you out when you’re not meeting those expectations. That is the biggest difference between being a boss and a mate. Overall, none of us are perfect. But if your tradies see you actively putting in the effort to be a good boss, they will reward you for it.
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PARTNER SPOTLIGHT: OUR FRIENDS TRADIEWIVES
PARTNER SPOTLIGHT
OUR FRIENDS Running a trade business can feel lonely and isolating. There are so many things to juggle and sometimes it is hard to know if you are making the right decisions, and often you find yourself suffering in silence. My husband owns a Trade business on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. Like many tradie wives, I, Verity, ended up leaving my full-time job to help run the business when it became overwhelming for him to manage on his own. I come from a marketing, and advertising background which I felt would give us a leg up on the competition. Marketing can seem daunting to many. It can make or break a business, so I thought that I could add real value with my professional marketing experience and help grow the company to its full potential. The trouble was… I had no previous experience in running a small business. Tradies hold their cards tight to their chest; it seemed no matter where I looked, it was challenging to find trade-specific assistance and support for running and growing a trade business. Although I was in many great business groups on Facebook, I always had tradespecific questions that I found difficult to answer. It was incredibly frustrating and honestly disheartening that it seemed there was such a lack of communication between trades.
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One morning in the shower (where the best ideas start), I thought I would start a group to connect with other Tradies partners who were in the same boat, and so TradieWives was born! I soon realised there were so many other women feeling just like me. There was such a great need to connect, not only with each other, but also to businesses who offer muchneeded support to Trades. My dream was to create a safe place to share ideas, struggles, laughs and insights into how to run a trade business. I wanted to minimise those barriers of isolation and create a community of likeminded people to support each other.
If you are a Tradie wife or partner, we’d love for you to join us! The community continues to grow rapidly, and we have some big plans for 2021 including some face-to-face events (Covid permitting). We can also promise lots of relatable laughs from an industry that can be quite stressful to navigate.
CHECK US OUT ON
www.fb.com/groups/TradieWives www.TradieWives.com.au L I F E S T Y L E T R A D I E .C O M . A U
SELLING UP ISN’T A PIPE DREAM As trade business owners, we’re so proud of our businesses. It’s a direct reflection of us, and our hard work. All the hours, blood, sweat & tears put in to ensure we stand on our own two feet and succeed in this world. For some trade business owners the idea of growing the business to a point where they can sell it, is the goal, but it’s a daunting one. It seems unattainable, a pipe dream. I’m here to tell you, it’s not.
From Alex Henderson Lifestyle Tradie Business Coach
I built my business “Captain Cabinets” and poured every fibre of myself into ensuring its success, so I would have the freedom to choose my own path in life. Selling the business was always in the back of my mind, but always at some time down the road, or “maybe in ten years time”…
Then, the time came.
I’d noticed in myself that I’d taken the foot off the accelerator in the business, and I knew it was time for a change. I sat down and evaluated my priorities and values and how the next 5-10 years of my life would look and made the final decision to list the business for sale and step away completely.
My experience of selling up.
I was actually pretty critical of myself during my time running the business, always thinking that I’d never quite done enough. But once I decided to sell up, I stopped and looked at the business that I’d built and realised it was all there, ready for someone else to take over. Having all my systems and processes in place, is what I believe helped me sell the business. Most cabinet makers just sell machinery and assets, but I was able to clearly demonstrate to potential buyers that they just had to follow the processes that we already had in place and the business would continue to run smoothly. I got two valuations — one from my broker, and one from my accountant. Having a good accountant who is experienced in this field could add tens of thousands to your sale, and reduce your tax too! Then, I engaged a broker and found it’s just like selling a house. But like picking a real estate agent, do your research and find one who you think will work hard to get you the best result. A P R I L – M AY – J U N E 202 1 – I S S U E # 61
Be patient, it takes time.
Selling a business takes time. I had a few false starts and silly offers with crazy vendor finance terms, but ultimately it was in the 6-8 month range. I was actually in Italy when the offer I ultimately accepted came through! If you’re thinking about starting your selling up journey, my best advice is: Buy the Ultimate Freedom Pack! It will add so much value to your business to show any prospective buyer! From time to time I do miss being in the big chair and now that I’m working with trade business owners and I can see the potential they all have I reminisce. But I prefer the business side of things over making dust and have always got a kick out of helping others. Selling up doesn’t necessarily mean retirement. I took a long holiday, smashed out a few life goals and have now settled down into my new chapter of educating trade business owners, like you, to succeed. It’s all about doing what you love and listening to what YOU want. 11
TV HOME RENOVATION SHOWS SETS UNREALISTIC CLIENT EXPECTATIONS
TV HOME RENOVATION SHOWS SET UNREALISTIC CLIENT EXPECTATIONS We’ve all seen reality home renovation TV shows like ‘ The Block’, ‘Selling Houses Australia’, ‘Better Homes & Gardens’. Us tradies watch in awe (or horror) as they completely renovate a four bedroom, two-bathroom house PLUS a full deck and landscaping in under four days. To add insult to injury, they make it look so simple and easy— like it took barely any effort, and boast about how they did it on a budget that seems suspiciously cheap. As tradies, we watch this screaming over how “there’s no bloody way that waterproofed that bathroom in half a day… look how sh*t that vanity looks it’s not even straight!...I bet they didn’t undercoat that paint it’s just slap-dashed on.”
These TV shows give the impression that micicales can be worked on a shoestring budget, in just a few days. It’s so unrealistic that it’s almost funny. So, it’s no wonder clients’ jaws drop and they look dismayed when us tradies say it will take weeks... if not longer... to finish their one job, and will cost an arm and a leg. “But surely you can get it done faster...or cheaper” they protest as we struggle to explain how it is just not achievable. And in the end, we feel like we’re letting THEM down, how crazy is that!
Our clients watch these shows, and suddenly have stars in their eyes. They don’t have the technical know-how to understand the impossibleness of what we just witnessed. They only see that Shaynna Blaze from Selling houses did a whole bathroom in a day, so surely a professional plumber can too.
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TV HOME RENOVATION SHOWS SET UNREALISTIC CLIENT EXPECTATIONS
It’s all TV magic. These shows work with highly professional teams, working around the clock in unison to deliver a TV ready finish — all for that all important before and after WOW moment. Often they have retail partners and advertisers who either offer massive discounts, or pick up the tab for them in return for them promoting the brand and cooing at how amazing it looks. On screen the homes look finished to perfection. With the help of a professional stylist and lighting teams — the rooms glow and look almost unrecognizable. But in reality, it’s a bit of a bodgy fix. Nothing has had the time or care it deserves, it’s a rush job, and under that shiny surface, we hedge our bets that it’s not up to scratch. The only benefit to these shows, is it does generate more work for tradies.
• IT’S HIGHLY INSPIRATIONAL. They’ve watched it on TV, seen how excellent a facelift could look for their home and get the motivation to get the home renovation they’ve always wanted. It gives them solid ideas to work from, so they can show you exactly what they’re trying to achieve.
• THEY’RE EASY TO MARKET TO.
These types of shows have people HOOKED. If you can tailor your marketing, and be smart with your strategy, this is a great demographic to target. WOW them on your website with amazing before and after photos of other home renovation projects, so they can see that YOU are the best person to deliver them their dream home.
Don’t over promise to get the quote approved, and then underdeliver. The most important thing of all is to manage your clients expectations. There’s no point in promising a final product like they’d see on TV, it’s just not good business. You need to be clear and firm with your pricing and delivery dates — and if Billy-Bum Crack says they can do it in half the time for half the cost. ... Well it will be half as good. We can cross our arms, and grumble about how these TV shows are bull and our clients should know better. But at the end of the day, these shows are GROWING in popularity and are probably not going away anytime soon.
So how does this help tradies? The general public sees how with just a few fitting changes, maybe some paint and a bit of elbow grease, how their home could look like new. It’s so aspirational, but feels so achievable.
• THE RENO LOOKS SO EASILY DONE ON THE TV, PEOPLE THINK THEY CAN JUST DIY.
But after they’ve started the demolition themselves, and start pulling out fittings... they realise it’s not as easy as they think. So after they’ve made a right mess, then they seek a professional tradie (us) to come in and fix it. A P R I L – M AY – J U N E 202 1 – I S S U E # 61
Instead, focus your energy into building trust with your customers, and proving to them that YOU ARE the person for the job and can deliver their dream… within reason. At the end of the day, we are the tradies, and we are here to educate our customers. Through being transparent around costing structures, sharing detailed timelines and keeping expectations realistic, you can build a fantastic relationship with your customers and develop a great reputation within the industry, without over promising or buying into the TV magic.
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YOU’RE A TOOL — MGS PHYSIOTHERAPY + LIFEST YLE TRADIE
YOU’RE A TOOL
MGS Physiotherapy + Lifestyle Tradie
Your body is your most valuable tool, so invest in it! Andy’s been seeing the Physio’s at MGS Physiotherapy for over 30 years and follows their guide religiously. Over the years, they’ve educated Andy on how to get his body in peak working condition so that he could be in the best physical shape to run his plumbing business, Dr DRiP. We spoke with Matt Geister, one of the owners of MGS Physiotherapy, to get some professional advice on how tradies can avoid injuries and keep ourselves in great working condition.
Matt’s top tips for avoiding injury: 1. Prepare your body. Matt notes that preparation is key; Increasing your body’s flexibility, core strength, and stability helps your body handle the loads required within your general workday. There are so many effective and safe Gyms, studios and trainers around such as Code 5, F45, Vision or Crossfit Gyms. An experienced PT or EP is the best thing for your body — Matt recommends “anywhere a trained professional is guiding you is the best option if you are able to partake in it regularly”.
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2. Be body aware. When you feel a little ‘niggle’ or some early-stage symptoms of impending injury, don’t ignore it; listen to your body and address its needs. Please seek professional advice, start stretching, icing or resting to look after a potential injury when it first starts to bother you before it becomes a full-blown injury! 3. Being aware of your limitations Many tradespeople are guilty of doing tasks the ‘quick and fast way’, which is not necessarily the right way. For instance, when moving bags of concrete, traditionally there has been a stigma of don’t be soft and just lift it — rather than taking the time to get the trolley out or asking for help and sharing the load. Matt sees this all the time at his practice, where tradies injure themselves because they “just wanted to get it done quickly, were under other time pressures, or their apprentice was too far away.” At the time they sometimes don’t think about the potential repercussions of their actions until it is too late. Operating like this leaves you at higher risk of injury, such as a slipped disc which can take up to six weeks to heal. Imagine if you or one of your staff was off for six weeks; what kind of financial impact would that have on your business?
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YOU’RE A TOOL — MGS PHYSIOTHERAPY + LIFEST YLE TRADIE
4. Stretch it out. Building muscle and core strength is excellent. But if your muscles are tight, you still leave yourself at a higher risk of injury. Learning to stretch your glutes, hip flexors, hamstrings, chest, and pecs will help take the load off the spine. Teaching your hips to be able to handle deeper squat positions and more mobility can avoid painful impingement conditions occurring. Tradies’ work is so varied, that they need to be the MOST body-conscious and be stretching consistently to minimise their risk of injury.
How to work exercise into your routine. We hear you. You’re up at the crack of dawn, you spend eight hours a day on the tools, and you come home exhausted. The last thing you can think about is hitting the gym, so Matt suggests bringing the gym to home. Matt noted to us; “I’m a big fan of the self-motivated exercise. If you’re someone who’s great with selfmotivated exercise, TRX is one of my go-to’s… especially when combined with a chin-up bar and some kettlebells”. With the right routine that includes stretching, this setup can give you a full-body workout and strengthen your core without spending big on a gym membership. It’s low impact and isn’t super time consuming because it’s in your own home and it covers the entire body parts as opposed to just floor based push ups, sit ups and plank eg.
Do I have to do this EVERY DAY? No! Matt’s recommendation is to action your routine a minimum of 3 - 4 times a week. We get it, especially with young kids at home; it can be hard to find the time. You don’t need to work out for a full hour either; a solid 20minute session following a routine, with a 5minute stretching cool off, can do you wonders.
Repetitive injury strain “We get a lot of tradespeople who suffer from elbow tendonitis from overuse injuries. A tip for avoiding this is just mix it up, so you’re not always using your
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dominant hand all the time and give periods of rest in between.” - Matt goes on to recommend a few basic on-site stretches for overuse injuries. Overuse injuries can often come from the tools tradies use every day. A great way to help keep the forearms and elbows moving are ‘median nerve stretches’ like putting your palm flat against the wall and extending your arm, which gives a nerve stretch in the arm. Glute stretches are also great. Matt joked that you could pop down the ute rear tray and throw your leg up on it during smoko. This simple stretch will get right into the core of your glute and relax the muscles. You may bare the butt of some of your fellow tradies heckling and jokes, but trust us, you’ll be the one laughing in the end.
Matt’s overall recommendation: do everything smarter. Think about the long term impacts of your actions — just because you CAN carry those bags of concrete because you’re young and fit doesn’t mean you SHOULD. Good nutrition is also a given to achieving peak body performance. We all know the classic saying “you get out what you put in”. Is the Meat Pie and Can of “V” really necessary for a 7am breakkie start? Getting yourself into good, safe working habits whilst you are young is the best way to ensure you can have a long career and keep yourself safe from serious injury. As trade business owners, you have a duty of care for your staff and should encourage these practices and strongly discourage bad ones.
Seek professional advice. Stretching and strengthening are vital to keeping your body in work-ready condition. However, it’s not always enough — seeking professional advice from a GP, chiro or Physio like our friends at MGS can be a significant next step to ensuring you don’t end up out of work from an injury. As a trade business owner, you have to see yours and your staff’s bodies as your primary source of income. Teach your tradies how to look after themselves, and ensure that safe working practices are implemented and enforced within your business.
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PARTNER SPOTLIGHT
How to encourage technology adoption and minimise tech resistance in your workplace Any business owner can tell you that integrating new technology into a business can do wonders for everything from efficiency to profitability. But what they rarely mention is that with every new addition comes the potential for tech resistance. Encouraging technology adoption can be a tricky prospect in any workplace, and businesses within the trades, services, and construction sectors are not exempt from these pressures. However, increased reliance on digital automation has firmly shifted this focus to individual tech-savviness, and as a business owner, you now need to expect a certain level of proficiency from your employees. This is unlikely to change either, as modern industrial workplaces continue to be fragmented by technology and more employees begin to operate without direct contact with home base. So why then are employees often so quick to resist adopting new technology when the benefits of doing so far outweigh the work that goes into upgrading their knowledge?
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In the first article of this two-part series, we’ll examine tech resistance by discussing which factors lead to employee refusal, who is most likely to be affected, and what’s holding them back. Read on to find out why your workers are dragging their feet and refusing to adopt new tech.
Understanding the factors that lead to technology resistance. Employee age isn’t everything when it comes to tech resistance. A common myth (likely stemming from later generations having been exposed to more advanced technology from a young age) is that older workers are far more likely to exhibit tech resistance than younger members of a team. Within the trades, services, and construction industries you’ll find that while this can sometimes be the case, it’s often not what’s going on beneath the surface.
The longer your employees have had to grow comfortable with existing systems, the harder it will be for them to adopt new technology without immediately exhibiting some degree of resistance. While it is true that this can sometimes align neatly with age, don’t make the mistake of confusing one for the other. Instead, take a closer look at your employees and you’ll no doubt find that even younger team members can be very tech resistant at times. The age of your employees should never dictate their capacity to take up and become proficient with new technology.
‘Lack of urgency’ – What it is and why it affects technology uptake.
A problem you’re likely to experience when encouraging technology adoption is employees failing to see the importance of learning new systems and then Instead, ask yourself, ‘is the problem resisting change as a result. how old my employee is, or simply how set in their ways they’ve become?’
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PARTNER SPOTLIGHT: AROFLO
The exact reasons for this resistance can vary widely depending on factors such as the size of your workforce, your business structure, and even the type of tech you are trying to integrate. Broadly speaking, however, the most common situations that lead to a lack of urgency in employees are:
• BEING TIME POOR
Working with very little time to spare from your day can sometimes blind employees to the potential that new technology has in making their lives easier. The less time they have, the more likely they are to drag their feet in learning new technology as a result.
• STILL BELIEVING THAT THE ‘OLD WAY’ WORKS FINE
If you feel like your employees are stalling the process of adopting new tech, consider whether they might think that what they have now is good enough or even better than the new alternative? Remember, as the boss you have far more operational oversight than your employees and they might not yet fully understand what they stand to gain from adopting a new piece of technology.
• BEING INFLUENCED BY THE ‘GROUP MENTALITY’
Never rule out the potential for your employees to come together and decide what is best for themselves without your input. All it takes is one vocal member to say, “that can wait until next week” and suddenly everyone agrees that adopting new tech is no longer as urgent as you’ve made it out to be.
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Knowing the difference between technology resistance and technology anxiety. It’s worth keeping in mind that not all cases of employees refusing to adopt new technology can be strictly categorised as ‘tech resistance’. Sometimes the thought of adopting new technology can scare employees, a feeling they might not choose to share with either you or their peers without some prompting. Reasons for technology anxiety can include:
• Fear of losing one’s job if they fail to learn a new technology. • Fear of losing one’s job as a direct result of more technology being added to a business.
• Fear of looking incompetent to peers or superiors whilst learning or utilising new technology.
• Fear of failing to use technology properly and causing harm or compromising their work.
These fears pose a serious threat to your business and in some cases can completely prevent employees from adopting new technology willingly and successfully. Solutions to this problem are usually developed in-house but take care to ensure that every one of your employees is on the same page before progressing to any kind of implementation. What do we mean by ‘on the same page’? Join us next issue when we discuss these solutions and outline the steps you can take to ensure that your employees are always ready to accept new technology.
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SCROLLING TO A HALT
SCROLLING TO A HALT Our social media news feeds are stuffed full of advertising, so it’s no wonder that we have become so desensitised to adverts. On top of that, the volume we are exposed to daily is increasing — making it difficult for companies to cut-through the wake of adverts and stand out to their target audience. In 2019, LinkedIn noted that we see approximately 5,000+ adverts PER DAY, with that number set to rise. Compare that to the 1970s, when it was estimated to be a few hundred per day.
The only way to keep our brains functioning without going into drooling overload is to pay attention selectively.
So how the hell does that relate to owning a trade business? Good point. You want to be that shiny red car that the customer sees and remembers. The second that they decide they are going to, for instance, renovate their bathroom, you want to ensure that YOUR plumbing company is the brand that they see and recall. This is called being 'top of mind', and it's a tough place to get — but not impossible! You need to be creative and unique with your marketing and spend your money wisely.
Barron’s Dictionary defines selective attention as the “tendency of a consumer to pay attention only to messages that address a need or interest or are consistent with the consumer’s attitudes, opinions, and beliefs.”
Social media is where most businesses spend their marketing dollars.
Have you noticed that when you decide to buy a car and start looking into red Mazda MX5’s, you suddenly see them everywhere? It seems that overnight everybody had the same idea as you and rushed out to buy one.
As mentioned, our social media feeds are already packed with adverts. The implementation of cookies and data tracking, are allowing the adverts we see to be more targeted to our interests, wants and needs — in a bid to cut through the clutter and grab your attention.
Weird right?
That’s why the second you punch in “Red Mazda MX5’’ to Google, suddenly every second advert in your social media feed is for cars, or car related products. Your phone is tracking your search history, in order to provide you with targeted advertising. (creepy right??)
Well, the psychology is fascinating. You started seeing them because you cognitively chose to pay attention to that car.
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SCROLLING TO A HALT
These elements when combined, grab your attention and make the advertising quick and easy to understand. So it’s easy to understand why similar marketing principles should be applied to your social media marketing. We also tend to remember funnier things better than factual information, so keeping your advert short, punchy and humours is a sure-fire way to break through that attention barrier. So overall, to be a true scroll stopper you need to push past the selective attention barrier. The best advice is to just have fun with your marketing. Don’t overthink it, just create content that you believe resonates with your ideal customers wants and needs. Research suggests our collective global attention span is narrowing because of the abundance of information presented to us. Therefore in order for your advert to stand out, you need to get smart. One way around selective attention, especially on social media, is humour — we are more likely to pay attention to funny adverts, and social platforms are a great platform for humour as it’s easy to like and share. Humour is a way for businesses to make an emotional connection with consumers. It tugs at our emotions, eliciting a positive emotion like laughter, which creates an impression.
You want them to notice you, and keep noticing you!
Marketing always feels daunting, and like throwing money into a black hole. But when you can break it down into small bite sized chunks, and understand the psychology behind it, suddenly it doesn’t seem so scary, and you can start creating scroll stopping adverts.
If you can get a potential customer to stop, and look at your advert because it’s funny that’s a massive win! Because they stopped scrolling and selectively CHOSE to pay attention to your advert.
The billboard methodology. Scrolling through social media is similar to zooming along a highway. When you’re speeding along a highway at 80kms you have approximately three seconds to see and digest billboard advertising. Given the miniscule time frame, it’s a basic marketing principles billboards therefore, should have a maximum of;
• Five words. • One simple image. • Logo positioned at the bottom right-hand corner. • Bright colours. A P R I L – M AY – J U N E 202 1 – I S S U E # 61
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NEXT ISSUE
Quote Like A Pro
Mid-year Drag
You spend big to get the customer to give you the opportunity to quote on the job.
Do you feel like you start the year full of ideas and hope?
But then after you’ve sent them the quote… How often do you follow up with them? Once? Twice? And then what, nothing?
Then by mid-year you’ve lost all motivation, and your short-term plans have been thrown out the window? We feel that!
The truth is, most quotes get approved on the EIGHT OR NINTH contact.
We chat about how to keep on top of your goals, and keep the motivation train moving through the mid-year lul.
“We never miss a job and we never miss a product [cost] now. Everything gets billed out. So the difference in turnover and cash flow has been huge.” Tyler, AXT Plumbing
Get started with a Free Trial at fergus.com Fergus ad 210x74.indd 1
Phone: 1800 704 822 Email: info@lifestyletradie.com.au Web: www.lifestyletradie.com.au
22/03/21 6:12 PM
Lifestyle Tradie Magazine is published by and © copyright by Andrew & Angela Smith, Lifestyle Tradie Group Pty Ltd 2021. All Rights Reserved. This newsletter and any accompanying material are for general information purposes only. It is the responsibility of the reader to comply with any local, state or federal laws. The Publisher has taken all reasonable measures to ensure that the material contained within this newsletter is correct. The Publisher provides no representation and gives no warranty as to the accuracy of the information and does not accept any responsibility for errors or inaccuracies in the information contained herein and shall not be liable for any loss or damage arising as a result of any person acting in reliance on information contained herein.
