If we want to push our business forward and we want to earn a little bit more than the typical 200 quid a day,
we have to have a behavioral change and we have to change something.
What's the old saying? If we keep doing the same things, we're going to keep getting the same results over and over again.
So if we're going to be moving from working for builders in a subcontractor setting to then building your own domestic plastering business,
where that business model is going to be heavily reliant upon strong marketing,
whereas working for builders, it's more relying on the referrals and the reoccurring leads coming from builders.
But as Jake's identified, you don't want to be in a situation where you're being promised work by builders,
but then weeks are going by and the phone isn't ringing.
And then we've got no other lifeline now.
We've got no other eggs in any baskets anywhere else that we can jump onto because we've got no marketing plan.
So that's why it's so important.
If you're going to go down the domestic route and build a domestic plastering business,
we have to look at the marketing as kind of priority.
Number one, some of you might have seen that I put out an email earlier today and it was all about the Cork strategy.
And I'll briefly touch on it today.
But just going back to where's his post is.
I've got a couple of notes here because I've got a brain like a Siv and I'll only end up forgetting.
So he's got five years on the tools experience being taught by your dad.
I'm sure that has kind of fast tracked you through plastering across a lot of different skill sets and scenarios.
So I'm assuming you're competent at skimming.
I'm assuming you're competent using a straight edge.
I'm assuming you're competent at internal and maybe some bits of external plastering as well.
So we can all assume because you did mention about sometimes you doubt yourself.
We can all assume with four or five years working under your dad, who's obviously an experienced plasterer of 40 years.
We can assume that you're probably skilled up more than most plasters.
Who's had the same sort of years in the game because you've had your father there teaching you,
handing down these skills that he's acquired.
So in terms of doubting yourself, mate, we all doubt ourselves.
I doubt myself regularly.
I doubt myself all the time.
And one of our situations in the past where I've felt like a failure.
I felt like I've let my family down.
I'm doubting myself because there isn't enough work to go out and things like that.
What I come to realise is when I look back at those times is it was never me that failed.
It was always the plan that failed.
It was always me working a bad plan.
It was always when I was working a bad week strategy that I would end up failing and it wouldn't work out.
So it wasn't that I was failing.
It was at the plan that I was following and the strategy that I was following was weak.
And back then I didn't have a marketing strategy.
I didn't have any kind of systems in my business to help me manage customers, manage cash flow, keep an eye on lead generation.
I didn't have anything there.
All I had was my hand skills and a subscription with rated people.
I thought that would be enough to keep work coming in.
And I had worked with regular builders.
And I kept busy.
But there's a difference between being busy and being profitable.
And that's what the tribe is all about.
I think it's brilliant that your dad has taught you the trade.
And that's something to cherish and something to be really, really proud of.
But you have mentioned, both of you have mentioned to me the same thing that your dad's an old school.
And they probably wouldn't approve of you joining groups like this because it's why do you need that for?
You know, just rely on word of mouth, just rely on the builders.
But coming back to my original point, if we want to push the needle past the £200 a day, if you want to get closer to that £400, £500 a day,
we're never going to do it working for builders.
We're never going to do it working for builders.
We know that in our hearts.
So that's why we have to look at different strategies and skill sets to be able to get us closer to those earnings.
And it's not about being a greedy piggy.
It's about being able to say, OK, next week I want to work three days and then I want to spend the rest of the week either with my family,
you know, working on myself, working on my hobbies or working on my business.
It's having the choice.
It's giving yourself that choice so we're not constantly grafting six, seven days a week because we've got no other choice we have to.
And, you know, as your life becomes more complex and we start having children,
it gets harder and harder to be able to take those days out and take those days off when we want to.
Sometimes we just don't got a choice.
We've got we've got to keep working.
So depending on your personal situation, it might not be that you want more and more and more money.
So, you know, you want you want a bigger house, a bigger car, I want a boat.
It could just literally be look, I want to work three days a week.
That's what I want.
And that that was my strategy.
I wanted to be able to work three days a week or four days a week.
I wanted to bin off working weekends and I wanted to pick and choose the locations where I was working and the type of customers that I was working for.
That's what I wanted.
And I'm proud to say that I've managed to do that and build that in my plasticine business.
And it's all done through the strategies that I taught on this group.
What I did with Cork and if you I'll put a link in so you can go and actually check it out.
What I did with Cork, my business and my reputation was already very, very strong for plastering in Coventry.
So when I started to introduce things like internal wall insulation, dump proofing, sound proofing and now recently Cork, when I've started to introduce these components, because my brand was already very, very strong.
And my foot was already in the door with a lot of the insulation.
So for example, wall insulation can cover sound insulation.
So when I started to introduce sound insulation into my business, I was already doing thermal insulation.
So customers would say, oh, you know, these alcoves are so noisy.
I'll be plastering, you know, one of the walls and they'd be saying these alcoves are so noisy.
I wish there was something we could do to reduce the noise.
And then I could say, oh, actually, we've got a product in which we'll take the noise down by about 60%.
It's only 30 mil thick.
And I'd start to talk about some of the products, not selling the products, just educating the customers on the products.
And then naturally they'd say, oh, great, you know, yeah, give me a price for that.
And I started to do the same with the Cork.
So if I was there, plastering, they'd mention about Black Spot Mild.
I could say, listen, we've got this Cork product or we've got this wall insulation product that will fix that problem for you.
And then I could give them a quote there.
So I could say because I was already plastering in old homes, which are full of these problems, you know, they're not very good with sound insulation between properties.
They're not very thermally efficient and they have all these problems with cold spots, etc.
So that's why I feel plasterers in an absolute prime position to be able to tap these profitable services.
So I hope that kind of gives you the confidence you need.
And, you know, straight from the horse's mouth, I'm doing this every single day and it's making me, you know, some decent money.
And I've been in a situation where I've worked for builders maybe for a decade in my own business.
I've took on lads in my own business where I thought, right, I've maxed out my own earnings.
Now I need to start employing people and I can make a little bit on them.
I went down that avenue and it wasn't for me.
You know, it's very, very stressful.
My working hours went through the roof.
I had to take on a lot more work.
There's a lot more sales.
There's a lot.
Managing people was stressful in itself.
And if you speak to anybody that employs staff, they'll tell you that one of the hardest things is
finding, keeping and managing stuff is one of the most stressful elements of any business.
It's very, very stressful.
So for me, my goal was to eliminate that element altogether.
Just just get rid of stuff.
So I wanted to target projects that I could work on just on my own, on my own terms.
But I wanted to be able to earn at least five or six hundred pounds a day doing so without relying on other people to get my profit margins up.
Are you with me?
So that's why I started to specialise into these different avenues.
So these little videos that I put out, it's not just helping one member.
It's helping all of you that are kind of at the beginning of the journey.
And you're not quite sure what you should do first.
We need to build trust.
OK, that's what we that's that's the takeaway from this video.
We have to build trust.
That's what you have to do.
Nobody knows who you are and nobody cares.
OK, that's the the brutal truth of it.
Nobody knows you.
Nobody cares that you've got a business.
So the whole point of when we're creating content online is we're building content that helps people fix their problems that they have in their homes.
OK, it's not about us.
It's not about our business and how great our business is.
It's about how can we show these customers that we have the solutions to fix their problems?
Because they're already on Google.
They're already on there now searching that we need to show them that we have the solutions to fix the problems that they have.
OK, and if we can do that effectively through video content, if we can prove to the customers that we can be trusted through Google Business Profile, because anyone can make a video and say, oh, you know, we're so trustworthy.
We're so reliable.
Come in, you know, come and hire us.
We're so great.
But people aren't stupid.
So the second thing they're going to do after they've watched the video is they're going to go and check you out.
And when they check you out online, you need to have social proof in place so that they can physically see what other customers have said about your business.
OK, they need to know is this guy for real?
Can he be trusted?
Does he do a good job?
Is he going to, you know, hit and run just to end on guys?
If you're still quiet now in February, because some people are still quiet now, go and work on these systems that I've just spoke about.
Go and work on these exact systems, because now is your opportunity while you are quiet to work on these systems.
You're not going to get an opportunity in the summertime.
You'll be flat out.
You'll be wishing you could take a day off to do it.
So listen, I hope that's helped guys today.
We'll speak again, guys.
Have a top weekend.
Any thoughts on what I've said?
Hit the comments, hit the chat.
All the best.