Being brilliant at the actual trade is the easy part. The bit nobody teaches you is the business around it — pricing a job so it's actually worth doing, getting paid without chasing for months, deciding whether to go limited, and taking on a second pair of hands without it all going sideways.
That's what this is for. No corporate waffle, no advice written by someone who's never held a tool — just the money and business side of running a trade, explained straight. Whether you're a sole sparky, a growing building firm, or somewhere in between.
The stuff that actually catches trades out
Three things sink more trades businesses than a lack of work ever does. Quoting too low because you're guessing rather than costing the job properly. Carrying customers who pay 60 days late and treating it as normal, when it's really an interest-free loan you never agreed to. And staying a one-van operation forever because nothing's written down clearly enough to hand to anyone else.
None of them are about being a better tradesperson. They're about running the business like a business — and every one of them is fixable once you know it's there.
The best tradespeople don't go bust for lack of skill. They get stuck because the business side never got the same attention as the craft.
