5 Essential Habits of Australia's Best Paid Tradies

You work hard. But are you getting paid for it? The highest paid tradies in Sydney earn around $30 an hour more than the average. That adds up to $60,000 a year. How do they do it? These are the five things we see the most. 

1. Stop giving away your profits to suppliers

The biggest difference between successful tradies and unsuccessful tradies is that they keep more of what they earn for themselves. Like your concrete sales rep? Great. Like them enough to pay them $10,000 a year out of your own pocket? Didn't think so.

The price of 25MPa concrete varies by up to 35% across Sydney so make sure you check for the best price before ordering. MaterialsLink can get you quotes without the hassle of ringing around— give us a try. 

Here's an example of a small 5m3 concrete job where the builder kept almost $250 for themselves rather than giving it to a supplier:

2. Don't cut prices, engineer value

Customers will often ask for a discount and there's nothing wrong with that. The highest paid tradies won't just cut prices though, they'll say:

"Sure we can make it cheaper for you, what should we take out?"

This makes your customer assign value to what they're asking for rather than assuming you were overcharging them the first time around.

3. Make sure you're actually getting paid

Quoting a job at a healthy margin is great but it doesn't mean much if you're never actually paid! The best paid tradies minimise this risk by doing the following:

• Have customers pay for materials up front (when you order with MaterialsLink, we make this as easy as sending your customer a text message)

• Agreeing task based payment benchmarks up front and invoicing on time

• Ensuring previous invoices are paid before completing further work

4. Use your time efficiently

Every minute you spend on admin is a minute you're not earning or enjoying. There are so many great tools out there to help you win work, manage jobs, order materials and arrange your finances. Use them to your advantage— your competitors already are. 

5. Provide great service

Sounds simple but this point is common to almost all of the best paid tradies. When customers are happy they'll pay you more, pay you faster and pay you again in the future (whether for their own use or through referrals). Oneflare reports that businesses with a profile rating of 90 or above win 50% more jobs. 

So go the extra mile: 15 minutes with a broom might be worth thousands of dollars in future work.