Coming off the tools divides opinion, and that is fair. But whichever camp you sit in, there are three reasons it benefits both the business and the life around it, and only one of them is about money.
This guide covers the three reasons: your health, your wealth and the ceiling on trading time for money, and yourself. It then covers how to actually step away without the business stalling.
- Your Health
- Your Wealth
- and Yourself
Read on to find out more about these benefits.
Coming off the tools briefing
You Can Only Sell So Many Hours
Scale pillar
Some love the work, the hands-on part and the people on site. Others cannot stand coming home filthy and tired every night. Which camp you are in changes how the decision feels, but it does not change the arithmetic underneath it.
Why does staying on the tools cap the business?
Because working on the tools means trading time for money. You can only ever earn a certain hourly or daily rate, and there are only so many hours, so the ceiling is fixed no matter how good you are.
There is a health argument too. Anyone who has been in the trade a while has either had an accident or knows someone who has, and another ten years on the tools makes that a question of when rather than if.
How do you actually step away?
There is a three step plan that gets most owners there, and it works best gradually.
- Get honest about which parts of the job genuinely need you.
- Build the people and the systems to cover the rest.
- Step back in stages, checking what breaks and fixing that before going further.
Worth asking When you left school a trade may have seemed like the only option. That is rarely still true twenty years later, and it is worth deciding what you want the next twenty to look like.
Explore the Scale pillar resources1. Your Health
1) Health
If you’ve been in the trade for a while you’ve no doubt either had an accident at work yourself or have known someone who has.
In 2017/ 18 the HSE published the following figures which are shocking to read:
Key figures for Great Britain (2017/18)
- 1.4 million working people suffering from a work-related illness
- 2,595 mesothelioma deaths due to past asbestos exposures (2016)
workers killed at work - 555,000 injuries occurred at work according to the Labour Force Survey
- 71,062 injuries to employees reported under RIDDOR
- 30.7 million working days lost due to work-related illness and workplace injury
- £15 billion estimated cost of injuries and ill health from current working conditions (2016/17)
If you continue on the tools for the next 10 years, it’s really just a matter of time before something unfortunate happens. Most people put this to the back of their minds, but it’s a reality that should be confronted.
If you had an accident that put you out of work, how would you provide for you family and pay the bills?
Even if you didn’t have a serious accident, how many older tradespeople do you know that walk around with poor hearing, or a bad back, knees etc. Working on the tools really takes its toll on your health long term.
2. Your Wealth
2) Wealth
Working on the tools means you are trading time for money. You can only ever earn a certain hourly or day rate as clients expect to pay the going rate.
Unfortunately, rates do not seem to be rising at the same rate as the cost of living.
If you have a family to look after, the standard average tradesperson wage will no doubt be a struggle to live on.
Here are the current Tradesperson rates for 2017/2018 *Office for National Statistics: –
- Carpenters: £120 – £150
- Bricklayer: £155
- Labourer: £100 – £160
- Electricians: £150 – £200
- Plumbers: £150 – £200
- Builders: £120 – £200
Rates in London & other cities could be at a premium to these, but then again so are living costs. Although some trades have the opportunity to earn additional money whilst working on a price, that figure will still generally be capped by client expectations.
If you stay as a tradesperson it will seriously affect your long-term wealth with no real way of getting ahead.
3. Yourself
3) Yourself
When you first left school going into a trade may have seemed like the only option you had. However, after working on the tools for many years, lots of tradespeople can become despondent & want more out of life.
You can look at property developers & business owners running successful construction companies & feel a tinge of envy. Not that it’s all rosy for them, they’ll certainly have their own pressures, but they are not coming home filthy and physically exhausted every evening.
Many just want a little more out of life. More money, more time freedom and a sense of achievement in running their own business.
So considering coming off the tools could be a decision based on yourself and your own aspirations for the future you really want to build.
How to get off the tools?
How Do You Step Away From the Tools?
But how is this possible? How can you manage to step away from the tools and still encourage your business to grow?
There is typically a three-step plan that you can implement to reach your goal of getting off the tools.
- Make a financial plan
- Build a great team
- Put in place effective systems
It can also be helpful to speak to a construction business coach about the best way to put this plan into action in your own business. If you are not quite ready for that step then you can read this article to give you some top tips on How to come off the tools.
If the above reasons resonate with you and you’d like guidance on how to successfully transition to running your own construction company and come off the tools, then reach out on the contact details below.
Email: greg@develop-coaching.com
Call: 0208 610 9674
