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Straight answers for builders.
One question from building business owners, answered every day, starting from the numbers rather than a guess.
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What health and safety duties does the owner of a building business have in New Zealand?
What health and safety duties a builder carries as a PCBU in New Zealand, and why a site incident can quietly erode a job's margin.
How does a building business tell a subcontractor from an employee in Australia?
How a builder tells a subcontractor from an employee under ATO and Fair Work rules, and why it matters more to your job margin than the test alone.
How does a building business tell a contractor from an employee in New Zealand?
How a New Zealand building business tells a contractor from an employee, with the official tests, tax and safety rules, and sources to check.
Which award covers the staff of a building business in Australia?
Which Fair Work award covers a builder's crew, and why most builders still lose margin even when they price it right. The sources, and Greg's take.
What registration or licence does a building business need in New Zealand?
What registration, NZBN and LBP licence a building business needs in New Zealand, and why compliance costs must be priced into every quote, not overheads.
What licence does a building business need in Australia?
What licence a builder needs in each Australian state, with links to the regulators, and why the licence alone never protects a job's margin.
What should I ask a business coach before hiring one for my building business?
What to ask a business coach before hiring one for your building business, and why the quote to handover margin gap is the real test.
How much does a business coach cost for a building business?
What a business coach costs a builder matters less than the margin gap hiding in every quote. See what to check before you pay for coaching.
How can AI actually help a building business, not just answer questions?
AI for building businesses explained: why agentic AI that does the admin beats a chatbot, and how builders use it on fixed price and cost plus jobs.
What are the best builder business apps?
Builder business apps that just track dates and documents miss the point. See what protects gross profit on every fixed price and cost plus job.
What is the best software for my builder business?
What software should a builder use? Why the answer starts in your own job data, not an app built for every trade, and what AI agents can take on.
What business systems does a builder actually need?
What business systems a builder really needs, and why the habit of capturing everything in one place matters more than the software you pick.
Is a business coach worth it for a building business?
Is a business coach worth it for a building business? Greg Allan explains where profit really leaks on quoted jobs and how data first coaching finds it.
What numbers should a builder track every week?
The weekly numbers that show a builder where quoted profit disappears, before the bank account tells the story. See what to track and why.
What does a business coach for builders actually do?
A business coach for builders should do more than motivate: find out what one actually does, from hiring numbers to where your week goes.
Who is the best builder business coach for a building business?
What a good builder business coach actually looks at first, and why gross profit margin, not more jobs on the board, is the number that fixes cash flow.
How do I choose a builder business coach?
What makes a good builder business coach: what to ask, warning signs, and why starting from your own job and finance data matters more than advice.
Data First Coaching
The Builder Business Coach Who Starts From Your Data.
Data First Coaching is the trade business coaching method created by Greg Allan, founder of Tradies Success Academy. Before any advice is given, the Trade Business Intelligence Agent reads the owner's own job management and finance data, so the coaching starts from what the numbers show this week, not from what the owner can remember or explain. It finds the root cause of a problem, then puts in the system that fixes it.
How most coaching works
Most coaching starts with the owner explaining the business.
- The first hours go on the owner describing the business to a coach.
- The picture is out of date within weeks, because the numbers move every week.
- So the advice treats what the owner happened to notice, which is usually a symptom.
- Too often it comes from someone who has never run a trade business, or has only just started one.
- The owner pays for the explaining, then pays again when the advice does not fit.
Data First Coaching
Data first starts from your numbers, not your memory.
- The Trade Business Intelligence Agent reads your job management and finance systems first.
- It sees your quotes, jobs, time on site and money as they are this week, not as you remember them.
- It finds where the problem actually starts, not where it shows up.
- You put in the system that fixes it at the root, and the data shows whether it worked.
| Typical coaching | Data First Coaching | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it starts | You explain the business | Your own job and finance data |
| How current it is | As at the last meeting | Updated as your numbers change each week |
| What it fixes | The symptom you noticed | The root cause the data shows |
| Who coaches you | Often someone who has never run a trade business | Greg Allan, who built a trade business a general manager now runs |
| The answer to growth | Usually another wage | Agents on the office work, people on customers and the crew |
| Your software | Another subscription or agency | Tools you build on your own data, around how you work |
Fix the root cause, once
The data names the real problem, so the system you put in fixes it once instead of patching the same symptom every month.
Own your software
Build your own tools on your own data, shaped around how your jobs run and how your customers buy. Cancel the subscriptions and agencies that were never built for your business.
A more human business
Agents do the non-billable work: the quoting, invoicing, chasing and reporting. Your people spend the day on customers and the crew, so relationships get better and the team performs.