By Greg Allan, tradesman and creator of Data First Coaching
Does a glazing business actually need a business coach, or just more work?
Most glaziers who call in a coach are not short of jobs. The diary is full of shower screen measures, reglazes and insurance work after a breakage, yet the gross profit margin barely moves from one quarter to the next. A coach is not there to find more leads; a coach is there to show why the margin on all that glass is not growing.
A glazing business that is busy but not growing often has a problem further back than the quote. It might be the lead time on a glass supplier order that pushes a job past the customer's patience, or a measure visit that takes too long because the van is not stocked for standard shower screen and splashback sizes. The invoice looks fine. The margin tells a different story.
What goes wrong when a glazier picks the wrong coach?
Many glaziers who try coaching once get handed the same worksheet as a plumber or a painter: generic pricing templates and generic marketing checklists, nothing about toughened glass lead times, frame measurements or how a commercial shopfront job actually gets won. The advice sounds sensible in the room and does nothing for the business once the coach has left, because it was never built from this glazier's own numbers.
A coach who has never run a trade, let alone a glazing business, tends to answer every problem the same way: hire someone, raise prices, post more on social media. None of that is wrong exactly, but none of it says where the real problem sits. If a glazier's time between measure and install is blowing out, hiring another installer just moves the same bottleneck onto a second van.
What should a glazier look for in a business coach?
A glazier choosing a business coach should look for someone who has actually run a trade business, who starts from your own job and finance data rather than a generic template, and who treats gross profit margin as the number to protect every month, not just something checked at quoting time. Greg Allan built his own trade business before coaching others, which is part of why Data First Coaching starts this way.
Look too for a coach who talks in systems rather than motivation. An AI agent is software that does a piece of office work the way you would do it yourself, with your prices, your wording and your rules, whether that is chasing a measure booking, following up an insurance claim after a breakage, or keeping a glass supplier order moving. A coach who can show you where an agent fits into your own job flow is working data first, not from a slide.
What questions should you ask before signing up?
Before paying anyone to coach your glazing business, ask what they will look at first: your numbers or your story. A coach worth paying will want to see your gross profit margin by job type, how long a shower screen, splashback or balustrade job sits between measure and install, and where breakage and warranty rework actually come from, before they tell you anything about pricing or marketing.
It is also fair to ask whether they use AI agents in their own practice, to see how a trade business can hand off invoicing follow ups, supplier chasing or job scheduling without losing the glazier's own voice in the customer's inbox. A coach who only talks about mindset and goal setting, with nothing about the systems running the business day to day, is unlikely to move the numbers that matter.
What are the warning signs of a coach to avoid?
The clearest warning sign is a coach who leads with a sales pitch rather than a question about your business. Other signs include advice that would read the same for a plumber, an electrician or a painter, a plan built entirely around chasing more leads when the install calendar is already full, and an answer to every problem that is simply to hire more staff.
A glazier working flat out on shower screens, splashbacks, mirrors and emergency boarding does not usually need more leads; the business often needs the office work, the quoting, the glass supplier chasing, done faster so the crew already on the books can grow the margin they are working on. A coach who cannot see that difference has not looked closely enough at the glazier's own numbers to know.
How does Data First Coaching approach this?
Data First Coaching starts with the glazier's own numbers, not a conversation about goals. Greg Allan built his own trade business before coaching others, and his Trade Business Intelligence reads a glazier's job and finance data, from measure to install, from reglaze to insurance work, alongside ten years of coaching trade businesses, to find where a problem such as a stalled margin or a slow quote turnaround actually starts. The how, the systems and the builds that come from that are worked through inside the Academy, with other members. The Academy is for owners who are open minded, innovative and willing to share, because the Trade Business Intelligence is powered by every member, for every member.
