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Business coach for builders in Australia

By Luke Tadich · The Tradie Owner

Most builders don't have a work problem. You've got more jobs than you can comfortably run. What you've got is a margin problem, a cash-flow problem, and a bottleneck problem, and the bottleneck is usually you. Every quote, every variation, every subbie blow-up still lands on your desk. A good business coach for builders fixes that. Not with generic mindset talk, but by getting into your job costing, your contracts, and your team.

Who this is for

This is for builders and construction companies already turning over $1M or more. Residential builders, custom homes, renovations and extensions, commercial fit-out, civil, and landscape construction. You're well past survival. You're winning work and running a crew. The catch is that the business runs on you, and the profit at the bottom never seems to match the turnover at the top.

If you're still an owner-builder doing one job at a time on the tools, that's a different conversation. The work here is about the jump from a flat-out builder to a business that runs jobs without you standing on every site.

What a builders' business coach should actually understand

Building isn't like other businesses, and a coach who's only ever run an agency or read the books will miss what actually costs you money. Before you hand anyone your numbers, make sure they understand the trade you're in.

• Fixed-price contracts and how variations either protect your margin or quietly destroy it
• Progress claims, retentions, and the gap between doing the work and getting paid for it
• Subcontractor pricing, reliability, and how subbie margins move over a long job
• Estimating, and the difference between margin and markup (the mistake that sends busy builders broke)
• HIA and MBA contracts, licensing, and the compliance side you can't ignore
• How to build site managers and PMs who run jobs to your standard without you on the phone all day

If a coach can't talk about a progress claim or a variation without you explaining it first, they're learning your business on your dime.

Where the money leaks in a building business

In a building business the profit leaks from a handful of predictable places. Almost every builder we speak to is losing money in at least three of them.

1. Uncharged variations. The client asks for a change, you say no worries, the work gets done, and it never gets billed. On a big job that's tens of thousands walking out the gate.
2. Under-quoting and margin-vs-markup errors. You win the job at a price that was never going to make money. A 20% markup is not a 20% margin, and that gap compounds across every job you take.
3. Subbie pricing that isn't locked. Prices creep between your quote and the job starting, or a subbie walks and the replacement costs more. Your fixed price doesn't move, so you wear the difference.
4. Late progress claims. The work's done but the claim isn't in, so you're paying subbies and suppliers out of the next job's deposit. Profitable on paper, broke in the bank.
5. No job costing after handover. You never compare what you estimated against what it actually cost, so the same estimating mistake quietly repeats on the next ten jobs.
6. You as the bottleneck. Every quote, every decision, every site problem runs through you. Growth just means more hours, not more profit.

Fix three of those six and the numbers move fast. That's usually where the first $100,000 comes from.

How The Tradie Owner works

The Tradie Owner is run by Luke Tadich and built for $1M-plus trade and construction owners. It works in three steps, in order.

1. The first session. A paid, working session where we go through your numbers, your contracts, and your pipeline and find at least $100,000 of opportunity. Uncharged variations, quoting margin, cash-flow timing, the jobs and clients quietly costing you money. If we don't find $100,000, you don't pay. That's the guarantee.

2. The 60-Day Game Plan. You walk away with a written plan. Not theory. The specific moves to make over the next 60 days, in order, with the dollar figure attached to each one so you know exactly what it's worth.

3. Ongoing coaching. From there it's a flat monthly rate to keep the plan on track, hold you to it, and work the next problem as the business grows. You keep the coaching for as long as it's paying for itself many times over, and not a day longer.

Why a builder beats a career coach

Luke isn't a career coach. He's an ex-paramedic who went on to build and scale Australia's leading sports-court construction company, and was named 2023 Melbourne and Australian Young Entrepreneur of the Year.

That means he's sat where you're sitting. He's priced fixed contracts, managed subbies, chased progress claims, and made the jump from doing everything himself to running a team that runs the jobs. When you talk about a variation blowing out or a subbie letting you down, you're not explaining an industry. You're talking to someone who's lived it.

If you want the full picture of how the coaching works, start with our [trade business coach](/trade-business-coach) page. If you're ready to find your first $100,000, book your first session. The worst case is you spend a session and find nothing, and you don't pay a cent.