TradesPlasterers

Build a Plastering Business That Pays You ProperlyYou can hang and set faster than anyone on site. That is not the same as running a business that pays you.

This is for the owner of a plastering business: the one still hanging sheets by day and pricing the next job at 9pm. It covers the money, the systems, the crew and the margin, so the business works as well as your finish does.

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A painted scene of a plasterer reaching up to set the joints of a new plasterboard ceiling, the sheets still showing their stopping patches

The week this is about

Running A Plastering Business Looks Like This.

The rate you quoted two years ago is still the rate

Sheets went up, compound went up, the ute went up. Your per square metre rate did not. You are still doing the same volume work for the same builder at a number you set before your labour cost moved twice under the award.

You wear the blame when the frame is out

The studs are bowed, the ceiling battens are out of level, and nobody says a word until the sheets are on and the joints show. Then it is the plasterer who gets called back, unpaid, to fix somebody else's setout.

The builder pays when the builder feels like it

Your progress claim went in a month ago. The site manager says it is with head office. You have already paid your crew, paid for the sheets and paid the delivery, and you are financing somebody else's job out of your own account.

Another year of this and you are still the fastest setter on site with nothing behind you: no margin, no crew you can leave, and no business worth selling.

A trade business owner working alone at the kitchen table late at night, laptop open and paperwork spread across the table, work boots and tool bag by the door

How we help

Nine Ways We Help Plasterers.

Every one of these is a way plastering business owners get out from under the business and start running it properly. Start wherever it hurts most.

Training

Plasterer Business Training

Structured training that turns what plasterers know on the tools into a business that runs properly.

Coaching

Plasterer Business Coach

Greg Allan in your corner, holding plasterers to the plan. By application.

Systems

Plasterer Business Systems

Systems plasterers build on their own data, so the work runs properly without them standing there.

Software

Plasterer Business Software

Software plasterers build on their own data, instead of renting tools built for every trade at once.

Business apps

Plasterer Business Apps

The simple screens plasterers build for their crew and customers, on their own data.

AI for Plastering Businesses

AI agents that do the office work for plasterers, their way, so people stay on customers and the crew.

Marketing and leads

Plasterer Business Marketing

How plasterers get the phone ringing with the jobs worth having, not just the cheap ones.

Pricing and profit

Plasterer Business Pricing

The number plasterers should actually be charging, worked out properly rather than guessed.

Hiring and team

Plasterer Business Hiring

How plasterers build a crew that does it right without being watched.

A trade business owner watching his child play sport on a Saturday morning, coffee in hand and phone face down — Nights and weekends back

A trade business owner and his partner in the kitchen looking at a tablet showing the numbers going up — Work that actually pays

A trade business owner shaking hands with a new apprentice in the work yard — A good hire who stays

A trade business owner standing calmly in the yard while his crew load two utes behind him — Out of the middle of everything

Worth knowing

Two Things Every Plasterer Running A Business Should Know.

Plasterers sit at CW/ECW 3 under the Building and Construction General On-site Award MA000020, so your labour cost floor is set by the award, not by what a builder wants to pay.

Source: Fair Work Commission, Building and Construction General On-site Award MA000020

The workplace exposure standard for respirable crystalline silica is 0.05 mg/m3, and since September 2024 the rules cover all silica-containing materials, not only engineered stone.

Source: Safe Work Australia, Working with Crystalline Silica Substances guidance

Greg Allan mid-explanation with his hands open, talking to a trade business owner across a desk

Why Greg

You speak to the owner who has already done it.

Greg built Response Electricians in Perth into a 30+ staff business with 1,950+ five-star reviews. A general manager runs it.

He has trained 9,000+ trade business owners across Australia and New Zealand.

He grew a coaching company to 35 staff, a CEO and 15 coaches, then cut it back so every owner deals with him directly.

Most coaching companies hand you to a salesperson, then to a coach who has never run a trade business. Here you get the owner.

Read how Greg built a trade business that runs without him

What changes for you

The old way. The new way.

Illustration: a trade business owner standing over three office staff buried in paperwork at night. — The old way
More customers meant more people doing the computer work, and more wages nobody invoices.

Illustration: a tradesman shaking hands with a homeowner in her driveway, his phone showing jobs quoted and invoiced. — The new way
You stay with your customers and your team. The office stops landing on you.

The old way

More jobs. More paperwork. Less of the owner left.

Most trade businesses grow the same way.

More jobs means more quoting, invoicing, chasing and scheduling.

None of it gets paid for.

So the owner does it at night, after a full day on site.

Or hires an office person to do it.

The office grows. The wages grow. The margin does not.

And the owner is still the one everything waits on.

Where we take you

More work. More profit. More of you left.

The phone rings with the jobs you want, at the price you set.

You grow when you're ready, never faster than the business can carry.

Every job is priced to make money, so the busy months show up in the bank.

The best tradies in your area want to work for you, and they stay.

The chasing, the paperwork and the 9pm admin stop landing on you.

The business runs the day. You pick which parts of it you're in.

Bigger, without the headaches. Getting bigger stops meaning getting busier.

9,000+tradies trained4.9★Google rating4.9★App Store rating

Questions

Plasterers Ask Us These.

Do I need a licence to run a plastering business in Australia?

It depends on the state. Queensland issues separate QBCC plastering drywall and plastering solid licences. New South Wales splits dry and wet plastering into two Fair Trading classes. South Australia requires a building work contractor's licence at any value, and Western Australia has no trade licence, only builder registration over $20,000. The Learning Hub covers setting the business up around whichever applies to you.

How do I know if my plastering business is actually making money?

Turnover tells you nothing. The ATO publishes small business benchmarks for plastering and ceiling services, showing what the expenses-to-turnover ratio looks like across the industry, so you can see where yours sits. Then you need your own numbers weekly, not once a year from the accountant. Profitable Pricing Masterclass and the Learning Hub finance training show you how to read them.

What do I do when a builder will not pay my progress claim?

Use the Security of Payment laws. In New South Wales a valid payment claim starts a statutory clock, with progress payments due within twenty business days, and you can suspend work two business days after giving notice of non-payment. Adjudication exists for the ones that still will not pay. Business Foundations covers the contract and claim habits that stop it happening.

Do the silica dust rules apply to a plastering crew?

Yes, more than most plasterers think. Plasterboard itself is excluded from the engineered stone definition, but render, fibre cement and many jointing compounds contain crystalline silica, and since September 2024 the rules cover all silica-containing materials. That brings dust control, training, a risk control plan for high-risk processing and health monitoring into your business. The Learning Hub systems training helps you build it into the daily routine.

Straight answers

Answers for Plasterers.

A new question from plastering business owners, answered every day.

How do I choose a business coach for my plastering business?

Every answer for plasterers

Other trades

See all twelve trades

A painted scene of a trade business owner home before dark, sitting on the tray of his ute while his son runs to meet him

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