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 in Australia or New Zealand: 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.

Have a chat with Greg

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

Seven 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 Coaching

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

Systems

Plasterer Business Systems

The documented process that lets the work happen properly when plasterers are not standing there.

The free app

Plasterer Business App

Lessons, tools and a room full of other owners, free for plasterers with an active ABN.

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

Why you get me

I built the coaching company everyone else runs. Then I took it apart.

Most coaching companies work the same way. You enquire, you get a salesperson. You sign up, you get a coach who has never run a trade business.

I know, because I built one. I grew the Academy to 35 staff, a CEO and 15 coaches. It ran without me.

And I hated it. The bigger it got, the further I was from the owners I started it for.

What gets me up in the morning is getting under the hood of a trade business and helping the owner hit their goals in the least time possible.

So I restructured the whole thing.

When you enquire, you speak to me. If you are accepted into the Academy, you work with me. Directly.

And with agentic AI, the results come sooner than most owners can imagine.

Places are limited. I only take on owners who are committed and ready to do the work.

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

Who you will be talking to

I built Response Electricians in Perth into a 30+ staff business with more than 1,950+ five-star reviews.

A general manager runs it day to day. I live in Byron Bay.

I have trained 9,000+ trade business owners across Australia and New Zealand.

What AI actually changes

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 your computer work, and you paying for all of it.

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. Agents run the office your way.

The old way

Grow, then hire people to do the computer work.

Every new customer brought more quoting, invoicing, chasing, scheduling and reporting.

So you hired people to do it. Office staff, bookkeepers, admin.

None of it is billable, and every hire costs wages, sick leave and another person to manage.

Profit and time only grew as fast as you could add people.

The new way

Keep the human work. Give everything else to agents.

Your people do what only people can do: looking after customers and leading the team.

Everything else goes to agents that do it your way, instantly, any time it is needed.

No sick leave. No capacity problems. They scale as far as the business does.

So the only people you add are the ones facing your customers and your team.

A human-centred business that runs on systems you build in minutes. Nobody still running the old way can compete with it.

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.

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

Have a Chat With Greg About Your Business.