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Business coach for cabinet makers in Australia
Short answer: If your cabinet-making or joinery business turns over $1M+, The Tradie Owner gives you a coach who has actually built and run a trade company, so you fix margin, lead times and workshop overheads instead of just working harder.
You're a great cabinet maker. That's exactly why the business is hard. The skills that make beautiful joinery are not the skills that price a job for real margin, keep a workshop full without blowing lead times, or get you off the tools. Once you're past $1M a year, the bottleneck stops being your hands and starts being the business behind them.
Who this is for
This is for the owner of a cabinet-making or joinery business turning over $1M or more. Kitchens, wardrobes and custom joinery, commercial fitouts, shop drawings and install for builders. You run a workshop, you've got a CNC or a beam saw and an edgebander on finance, and you've got more work than you can comfortably deliver. What you're short on is time, clear margin on every job, and a plan to build something that runs without you on every measure and every install.
You're in the right place if:
- You quote bespoke work but you're not sure which jobs actually made money
- You're still the best, and often the only, person who can design, quote and check-measure
- Lead times are blowing out and clients are chasing you
- You're flat out but the profit doesn't match the hours
- You want to stop being the highest-paid tradie in your own business
What to look for in a cabinet-making business coach
Most business coaches have never run anything that makes a physical product to order. Cabinet making is job-based manufacturing. Every job is a one-off with its own design time, material take-off, hardware, machining and install. A coach who only knows retail funnels or mindset will not help you cost a kitchen. Look for someone who can:
- Read a P&L and a job costing sheet, not just talk motivation
- Understand deposits, progress claims, retentions and the cash gap between winning a job and getting paid
- Know the difference between supply-only and supply-and-install margin
- Talk your language on GST, BAS, super, and subbies versus employees
- Prove they've actually built and run a trade business at scale, not just coached one
Where the money leaks in a cabinet-making business
The leaks in cabinet making are specific, and they're usually hiding in plain sight. This is where a good first session earns its keep.
Quoting bespoke jobs by gut
Every job is different, so a lot of owners price by feel or by matching the last similar job. That means you don't know your real margin until BAS time, if ever. Bespoke joinery hides cost everywhere: design and revision time, sheet material and edging, hardware like Blum or Hettich, CNC and nesting time, finishing, delivery and install labour. Get the quoting system right and margin shows up on jobs you're already winning.
Workshop overheads eating the job
Rent, machine finance, dust extraction, power, insurance and stock sitting on the racks all run whether the workshop is flat out or half empty. Poor nesting wastes board. Board prices move. If your overhead isn't loaded properly into every quote, you're paying to do the work. We work out your true shop rate so every job carries its share.
One person doing design, manufacture and install
In most cabinet-making businesses the owner designs, quotes, drives the workshop and turns up to install. That's three or four roles in one person, and it caps the business at whatever you can personally deliver. Splitting design, manufacture and install into clear roles is how you lift capacity without lifting your own hours.
Lead times, deposits and the cash gap
Deposits that don't cover the material outlay, progress payments that lag the work, and lead times that blow out because the workshop is the bottleneck. That's a cashflow squeeze even on a busy business. Fixing your deposit structure and your production flow protects the cash and the client relationship at the same time.
How it works
It's built to be low-risk and fast to prove.
- Your first session, guaranteed to find at least $100,000, or you don't pay. We go through your numbers, your quoting, your workshop and your jobs, and we find at least $100,000 of opportunity. If we don't, you don't pay for the session.
- A written 60-day plan. You walk away with a specific plan for the next 60 days, in priority order, built around your workshop and your jobs. Not theory. The actual moves.
- Ongoing coaching. Once the plan is working, we keep going. Margin, capacity, hiring, systems and getting you off the tools, one quarter at a time.
Why an operator beats a career coach
Luke Tadich started as a paramedic, then built and scaled Australia's leading sports-court construction company from the ground up. He's quoted the jobs, run the workshop and site side of a growing trade business, made payroll, and dealt with the exact bottlenecks you're hitting. In 2023 he was named Melbourne and Australian Young Entrepreneur of the Year. He's not a career coach reading from a script. He's an operator who has done it, and now helps other trade owners do the same.
That's the difference. A career coach gives you frameworks. An operator who's built a trade business tells you what actually moves the needle in a workshop, and calls out the stuff that only sounds good in a book. Want the full picture on how the coaching works? Read the [trade business coaching pillar](/trade-business-coach), then book your first session.
Common questions
What does a business coach for cabinet makers actually do?
The job is to find money you're already leaving on the table and help you keep more of it. That means fixing how you quote bespoke work, loading your true workshop overhead into every job, sorting lead times and deposits, and building roles so you're not the only one who can design, measure and install. The goal is a business that makes more and needs you less.
How big does my business need to be?
This is built for cabinet-making and joinery owners turning over $1M or more a year. At that size the money leaks are big enough that fixing quoting, overhead and capacity moves real dollars, and there's enough of a team to build systems around. If you're under that, the advice would be different and we'll tell you straight.
How much does it cost?
The exact fee is worked out on your first call. It's a fraction of the $100,000 we guarantee to find in that first session, and if we don't find it, you don't pay for the session. It's set up so the numbers make sense before you commit to anything ongoing.
I'm flat out in the workshop. Will this eat time I don't have?
Being flat out with thin margin is exactly the problem we fix. The first session is a few focused hours, and the 60-day plan is built in priority order so you work on the few things that free up time and cash first. Done right, coaching gives you time back, it doesn't take more.
Every job I do is a one-off. Can a coach really help with that?
That's the norm in cabinet making, and it's exactly why systems matter more, not less. You can't standardise the product, but you can standardise how you quote it, cost it, schedule it and install it. That's where the margin and the capacity come from.
What makes Luke different from a normal business coach?
Luke has actually built and scaled a trade business in Australia, not just coached from the sidelines. He was named 2023 Melbourne and Australian Young Entrepreneur of the Year. He talks numbers and workshops, not theory, and he'll tell you what really moves the needle for a cabinet-making owner.
Want someone to find the money for you?
In our first session I'll go through your numbers and find at least $100,000 of opportunity in your business, guaranteed, or you don't pay.
Book a free 30-minute call