The Evolve and Grow Podcast Show: Recent Episodes
Alison Warner
Sharing valuable tips, content and advice to help Construction and Trade businesses grow sustainably. Covering topics such as how to increase profits, how to scale and how to find and hire great people. Also featuring interviews with successful trade business owners and leaders in the industry.
In this podcast show Alison is joined by Tony Donovan, Founder of UK Protrades and Director of UK Tradesmen, a network of contractors, developers and professional tradespeople nationwide.
As a contractor Tony always found it difficult to source professional reliable trades people and as a problem solver he went about changing this. His skills in digital marketing, web design, branding and socials
enabled him to create a platform for trades to network free of charge. UK Tradesmen on Facebook now has over 2000 Followers.
UKProTrades has a group for every trade and the groups are made up of contractors, developers and professional tradesmen and women from across the UK and Ireland. Jobs are shared on the groups directly from the main contactors.
It helps all trades connect, they can access the interactive database mapline and interact with all trades local to them. It is designed to help if you are looking for an upcoming, ongoing or rush job. Members can search the database for trades in their locality and view their profiles, with references and details of qualifications and experience.
Anyone finding it difficult to hire good talent, will be interested in this podcast!
www.evolveandgrowcoaching.com
https://www.ukprotrades.com/
In this podcast show Alison is joined by Joy Zarine brand and business strategist, investor, speaker and bestselling author based in London, UK.
For over eighteen years, Joy has worked with industry leaders to design, build and market profitable and award- winning businesses.
Believing that life is too short for basic, boring or bad branding - Joy has gone on to build her own branding and marketing agency - launching UK-wide companies and consulting with global billion-pound brands.
A popular guest on the Build and Grow Academy, Joy always has some great practical advice for our trades community.
www.evolveandgrowcoaching.com
https://www.joyzarine.com/
@joyzarine
In this podcast show Alison is joined by James Sargeant a construction law solicitor with Quigg Golden. James began his career in construction before transferring into the legal world, which gives him a unique understanding of the industry.
James shares the common mistakes he sees business owners make, from having a lack of the necessary documentation in place to burying one’s head into the sand. They discuss the most common disputes that arise between client and contractor and how best to avoid them.
James provides no-nonsense advice around the simple things to ensure are in place to protect you should things turn sour and how best to avoid problems from escalating into a full blown war!
This podcast is a must listen to for any owner of a construction or trade business, it will be 30 minutes well spent!
www.evolveandgrowcoaching.com
https://www.quigggolden.com/
linkedin.com/in/james-sargeant-mciob-93511249
In this podcast show Alison is joined by James Sargeant a construction law solicitor with Quigg Golden. James began his career in construction before transferring into the legal world, which gives him a unique understanding of the industry.
James shares the common mistakes he sees business owners make, from having a lack of the necessary documentation in place to burying one’s head into the sand. They discuss the most common disputes that arise between client and contractor and how best to avoid them.
James provides no-nonsense advice around the simple things to ensure are in place to protect you should things turn sour and how best to avoid problems from escalating into a full blown war!
This podcast is a must listen to for any owner of a construction or trade business, it will be 30 minutes well spent!
www.evolveandgrowcoaching.com
https://www.quigggolden.com/
linkedin.com/in/james-sargeant-mciob-93511249
In this podcast show Alison is joined by Ian Hodgkinson, Founder of Hodgkinson Builders, the Bricklayers Academy and the builder behind the BBC series Brickies.
Ian shares how he started out on the tools at 16, going on to build a successful business and then on to helping solve the skills shortage by creating the Bricklayers Academy. This provides the training to budding bricklayers, giving them not only the practical skill, but also the discipline required to have a very rewarding and lucrative career.
Ian has built his organisations on the basis of strong principles and vision – they don’t just build houses, they genuinely make positive social change. This led to him being approached by the BBC to help them make the programme Brickies, which features his apprentices working on site in Derby and shows the reality of the job as well as the benefits of providing a great working environment to young people in construction.
www.evolveandgrowcoaching.com
https://hodgkinsonbuilders.com/
https://www.bricklayers.com/
In this podcast show Alison is joined by Adam Chapman, Founder of Heat Geek a company that provides training on heating design for heating engineers.
As a self-confessed Geek, Adam has an insatiable thirst for knowledge in the heating industry and has quickly risen to become a well-respected thought leader in the field. He began his career in within a commercial installation company in 2005 before moving to domestic heating installation, repair and servicing, and later starting his own business.
Adam founded the heating resource Heatgeek.com in 2016, and later the associated system design training course 'Heating mastery' in a mission to 'renew the heating industry'. The flagship training course is only 1 year old yet has already trained dozens of engineers in BIES (dept of Business, Industry Energy and strategy) and engineers within manufacturers including Vaillant, Viessmann, Grant and Daikin to name a few, and as well as 450 heating system designer and installers, many of them their competition.
www.evolveandgrowcoaching.com
https://courses.heatgeek.com/
https://mobile.twitter.com/_heatgeek
In this podcast show Alison is joined by Andrew Small the Industry Solutions Managing Director of Houzz, the world's largest community for home renovation and design providing people with everything they need to improve their homes from start to finish. On Houzz, people can find design inspiration, research and hire home professionals and get advice for their projects.
Andrew joined Houzz in 2015 and now leads the expansion of Houzz internationally. Prior to Houzz Andrew was in an executive leadership position in a UK venture-backed business in the home and property space having previously worked in finance, technology consulting and venture capital. He is passionate about disruptive technology and empowering homeowners and pros with software and tools to improve the renovation experience.
In this episode Alison talks to Andrew about Houzz Pro, an all-in-one software solution that empowers industry pros to stand out, win clients and manage their projects efficiently and profitably. Another topic for discussion is their State of the Industry report, in which Andrew shares the key trends and provides advice to owners of trade businesses as to how they can best ride this wave and make the most of this increase in demand.
www.evolveandgrowcoaching.com
www.houzz.co.uk/pro
@houzzuk
@houzzpro_uk
In this podcast show Alison is joined by Lorraine Bridges, Founder and Director of Bare PR. As one of only 200 Chartered PR professionals in the UK, Lorraine is extremely well qualified to share advice to owners of trade businesses who really care about their reputation.
Lorraine shares her good, bad and ugly experiences using the services of trades and valuable tips on how to ensure you are providing a service that stands out to your customers. And guess what? Often they don’t cost anything!
Sadly, we know that it is all too easy to let things slip and in the process gain a less than satisfactory reputation. Often this isn’t down to not caring, but is a sign of not planning for growth and being overwhelmed.
Don’t be ones of those trades who start out with the best of intentions, but end up providing a poor service. Invest in yourself, your business and take advice…….and there is no better time than here by listening to this interview.
www.evolveandgrowcoaching.com
https://www.barepr.co.uk/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorraine-bridges-chartpr/
@BarePRuk
In this podcast Alison shares her thoughts and experience on how to crack the issue of finding and hiring great people in a small construction or trade business.
In a previous life Alison headed up resourcing for one of the UK and Ireland’s global chain of coffee shops, so she knew all about getting the process right within this field. Taking this best practice into the world of construction and trades, she found that it didn’t always go to plan, and in this industry it is even more of a challenge.
In this podcast she shares what she has learnt by tweaking the process to fit the industry, as well as what she has seen first-hand that works with both clients and for leaders in the industry.
Given that recruitment is such a challenge right now, as a result of the perfect storm of Brexit, COVID and a 32% increase in demand for home improvements, this is a timely podcast to listen to.
www.evolveandgrowcoaching.com
In this podcast Alison welcomes Jordan Farley, Founder of Artisan Electrics on to the show. With 125,000 YouTube followers and 23k on Instagram, what started as a casual interest, ended up solving two of the biggest challenges trades face – attracting the ideal customer and the ideal employee.
Jordan took over the family electrical business from his Dad before selling it to go travelling and volunteering. Returning to the UK to start a new electrical business, in 2016 he posted his first video on YouTube to help his customers solve a common challenge, and it went viral.
Today he has 2 businesses, one the electrical and the other social media. He is one of the few trades that I have spoken to who appears to have cracked the recruitment challenge due to his social media following. We talk about this aspect amongst other things, with Jordan sharing some complete gems of advice for trades!
www.evolveandgrowcoaching.com
https://artisanelectrics.co.uk/
https://www.youtube.com/c/ArtisanelectricsUk
@artisanelectrics
In this podcast Alison welcomes Kerry and Wayne O’Connor, Founders of Get Stowed on to the show. This entrepreneurial couple who had a business making exhibition stands for conferences, quickly decided to pivot their business when the industry fell off a cliff during COVID, transferring their skills to making secure storage facilities for trades tools.
Get Stowed was born off the back of Wayne having the painful experience of having his tools stolen from his van a few years previous. The business manufacturers bespoke storage solutions for trade businesses, so that the tools are not visible as well as secure. Here is what Kerry has to say about how this change came about:
“After A levels my Saturday job in retail evolved into a full time job and after a few years I made the move to office work starting as a Receptionist at a security manufacturer. Over the next 9 years I worked my way up taking on sales admin, field sales, onto account management and ended up as their UK Sales Manager. After this I took on a new sales role working with a large multi-national company in the security sector for a couple of years, but it had always been an ambition to run my own business....Wayne set up the exhibition business in 2008 and I started to help out with his admin tasks when I was on maternity leave. It soon became really evident that our skillsets complemented each other very well and I came fully on board with the exhibition business in 2010, and we haven't looked back since! The skills I learned with working in the security industry, where I was dealing with trades people and distributors every day have directly transferred to what we're doing now with Get Stowed.”
www.evolveandgrowcoaching.com
https://www.getstowed.co.uk/
In this podcast Alison is delighted to be joined by Mark Millar, the Presenter of Channel 5’s new primetime series DREAM KITCHENS AND BATHROOMS WITH MARK MILLAR.
Mark is also one of the most popular and recognised faces on BBC1’s DIY SOS. He has been project managing the extraordinary builds since 2006, and his cheeky antics coupled with incredible building skills have made him a favourite with the audience.
Mark is often invited to appear on radio shows as a DIY expert and has appeared onChildren in Need many times.
In this most interesting of interviews, Mark shares his passion for the industry and insights into how owners of small construction firms can begin to engage new talent. A very topical subject right now in the UK!
Mark is clearly hugely enthusiastic about the construction industry and has a great sense of humor! Don’t miss this one!
www.evolveandgrowcoaching.com
Instagram @mark63millar
In this podcast Alison is delighted to be joined by the CEO of Rated People, Adrienne Minster.
Over the course of her career, Adrienne has successfully built and scaled businesses in a wide variety of settings, ranging from start-ups to large corporates. She is passionate about building high-performance teams and working with organisations that have potential for transformation and growth.
Rated People is the UK’s leading online marketplace for homeowners to find skilled, local tradespeople. More than 9 million jobs have been posted to date and over 50,000 tradespeople are able to use the platform to find new work opportunities. During her tenure, Adrienne has taken the company to profitability and the business has recently been recognised as one of The Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work For in the UK.
In this engaging discussion, Alison and Adrienne discuss why right now is a huge opportunity for trades businesses to prosper and grow, and the kinds of things owners should be doing to ‘ride the wave’. Hear about what Rated People are doing to support their customers do this and where the construction and trade industry is going next.
This is THE podcast to listen to!
The lovely team at Rated People have a special offer exclusively for listeners of the show. If you’re a tradesperson (or trades business) wanting to give Rated People a go for help building your business.
All you need to do is go to www.ratedpeople.com/tradesmen and hit the green ‘Enquire now’ button to find out more.
Then quote ‘GROW50’ when you’re chatting to the team to get yourself £50 free credit to spend on new work opportunities through the platform. Offer lasts until the end of September.’
www.evolveandgrowcoaching.com
www.ratedpeople.com/tradesmen
In this podcast Alison is joined by Ciaran Brennan, Co-Founder and Commercial Director of cost management software provider Live Costs.
With an extensive trade background as carpenter and business owner, having worked in both Ireland and Australia, Ciaran founded Live Costs together with his brother. Their mission is simple, having seen many business owners become increasingly frustrated with labour intensive processes involving Excel, they wanted to provide a simple solution that gave construction and trade businesses immediate visibility on where they are winning and losing money on jobs.
In the interesting discussion, Ciaran is very open with how through making the mistakes he made as a business owner of a construction business, led to him doing what he does today.
www.evolveandgrowcoaching.com
https://livecosts.com/
In this podcast Alison welcomes her guest Lee Brown aka The Peaky Plumber and Founder of The Peak Group, a plumbing and heating firm based in Huddersfield.
Lee is ex armed forces, has been a heating engineer for over 25 years and believes you should never stop learning.
Lee hasn’t just grown a very successful plumbing and heating business, he has built a brand that attracts other engineers to queue up to work for him, in addition to being actively involved in charity work, building heating systems for worthy institutions.
Some great advice from someone who literally has been there and done it!
www.evolveandgrowcoaching.com
In this podcast Alison welcomes her guest Michael Steckler, CEO of Tradify, a job management app used by thousands of trade businesses around the world to simplify their job quoting, scheduling, management and invoicing.
Discover how Tradify can help reduce your admin, make you more efficient, customer focused and spend more time on the things you do best.
Michael, based in New Zealand, also shares with Alison, the results of their recent global survey PULSE, which reported on levels of confidence in the industry, following COVID and the key differences between Australia, New Zealand and the UK.
www.evolveandgrowcoaching.com
Trade and Builders Business Growth Facebook Group
In this podcast Alison welcomes her guest Wayne Bettess, Founder of The Off The Tools Podcast Show and Your New Boiler.
In this interview Wayne shares his interesting journey, learning the hard way initially, how to run and scale a successful plumbing and heating business. He also tells the story of how upon discovering that there was very little advice out there for trades on the business side of things, set up his own online community. This led to the birth of the Off The Tools Podcast show, and a Facebook group with almost 3,500 members.
Wayne shares how he has overcome common challenges in the industry such as how to recruit quality engineers, how to ensure you remain sustainable and his philosophy on customer service. All very worthwhile a listen if you are just starting out or have been running a business for years.
www.evolveandgrowcoaching.com
Trade and Builders Business Growth Facebook Group
In this podcast Alison welcomes her guest Francis Rodino, Founder of Lead Hero, a marketing technology and services company dedicated to helping trades businesses automate, accelerate and grow their businesses.
Their mission is dedicated to helping trades business owners free up their time, regain control and generate more revenue from their marketing spend.
Francis shares with us the common problems he sees business owners encounter when trying to market their business, how to solve this and how technology is playing an even greater part in the future of the industry.
Do you want more leads?
Do you want a better quality of lead?
Are you frustrated by not knowing the exact return on investment you are getting from the different marketing you do?
Listen to the expert and discover more about what Lead Hero can offer.
www.evolveandgrowcoaching.com
Trade and Builders Business Growth Facebook Group
In this podcast Alison takes us through the proven systems and processes that are essential for a construction and trade to be efficient and the owner to have peace of mind!
How healthy is cashflow?
Do you know which of your jobs are profitable?
How do you manage the scheduling of jobs?
All of these things can be improved, providing you have the right systems and processes in place.
Time management can be one of the biggest challenges running a busy trade business, so Alison also shares four different systems of managing your time more effectively.
www.evolveandgrowcoaching.com
Trade and Builders Business Growth Facebook Group http://bit.ly/2molad6
In this podcast Alison is joined by Bill Hill, the CEO of the Lighthouse Construction Charity, the only charity that provides financial and emotional support to the construction community and their families.
Bill shares with us some alarming stats on the industry, and the groundbreaking work they are doing to improve mental wellbeing, as well as the steps you can take as an Employer to ensure that your employees feel supported.
https://www.lighthouseclub.org/
www.evolveandgrowcoaching.com
Trade and Builders Business Growth Facebook Group http://bit.ly/2molad6
Instagram: alisonwarnercoach
In this podcast Alison is joined by Jason Ruddle, Managing Director of the UK operation of Lets Build, project management software for the construction industry.
They discuss how a small building firm, through embracing technology rather than shunning it, can increase efficiencies and therefore competitiveness in an industry, that has up until now been slow to adapt.
https://www.letsbuild.com/
www.evolveandgrowcoaching.com
Trade and Builders Business Growth Facebook Group http://bit.ly/2molad6
Instagram: alisonwarnercoach
In this podcast Alison is joined by Ashley Weight and Ross Evans, Founders of ShuttersUp, one of London’s most successful and fastest growing Plantation Shutters companies.
Having become best friends at school, Ashley and Ross worked through the night on the London Underground and in their own business during the day, just to get it started.
Through sheer grit, determination and hard work, they are now the proud owners of a successful business that has created a unique working culture, where everyone has the opportunity to provide input and shape it’s future.
In this podcast, Ashley and Ross also share with us how they responded to the recent challenge of Covid-19, giving us valuable tips and advice, which we can all learn from.
www.evolveandgrowcoaching.com
Trade and Builders Business Growth Facebook Group http://bit.ly/2molad6
Instagram: alisonwarnercoach
www.shuttersup.co.uk
In this podcast Alison has the privilege of being joined by Dr Ivan Misner, Founder and Chief Visionary Officer of the Global Networking Organisation, BNI.
Called the “Father of Modern Networking” by CNN and one of the “Top Networking Experts” by Forbes, Dr. Misner is considered to be one of the world’s leading experts on business networking and has been a keynote speaker for major corporations and associations throughout the world. He has been featured in the L.A. Times, Wall Street Journal, and New York. Times, as well as numerous TV and radio shows including CNN, the BBC and The Today Show on NBC.
In this podcast, Dr Misner shares his considerable experience and advice with owners of construction or trade businesses, as to how they can use networking to grow their business.
www.evolveandgrowcoaching.com
Trade and Builders Business Growth Facebook Group http://bit.ly/2molad6
Instagram: alisonwarnercoach
www.bni.com
www.ivanmisner.com
In this podcast Alison has Tony Hawkes, a Commercial Finance Broker with 35 years of experience with Lombard Direct on her show. Tony shares with listeners how by accessing funding construction and trade businesses can escape the never ending cycle of constrained cashflow and under investment in order to grow.
The Finance and Leasing Association has revealed that in 2019 borrowing increased by 6% and asset finance has become one of the fastest growing areas of the funding marketplace for business owners.
Many people think only of the traditional route of going to the bank for funding, but in today’s marketplace there are many other ways of raising finance, which Tony simply explains in this podcast.
www.evolveandgrowcoaching.com
Trade and Builders Business Growth Facebook Group http://bit.ly/2molad6
Instagram: alisonwarnercoach
Tony Hawkes:
https://www.afsuk.com/
tony.hawkes@afsuk.com
In this podcast Alison has Mike Beck, Founder of Trade Underfloor Supplies as a guest on the show, to talk about the growth of the renewable energy market and how you can begin to incorporate new products and services to make the most of this growth market.
Did you know that the underfloor heating market is predicted to grow by 4-6% year on year to the end of 2024?
Are you aware of the RHI scheme and are you promoting it as a unique selling point to your customers?
Do you want to be one of the leaders in the market and learn how to capitalize on this growing trend?
Make no bones about it, those Plumbing and Heating companies that embrace these changes will be the successful companies of the future.
www.evolveandgrowcoaching.com
Trade and Builders Business Growth Facebook Group http://bit.ly/2molad6
In this podcast Alison chats to John Newland-Jenner of JNJ Building Solutions about the challenges that builders typically face when growing their business and how he has overcome them.
Many builders try to grow, but end up in a vicious circle of growth and decline. John initially held the view that it was impossible to grow and maintain great customer service. That was until he signed up for a BUILD and grow programme, which in his words changed his whole mindset around the business and what was possible.
In this podcast, he shares the key changes he has recently made within his business and how it operates, which has enabled him to build strong foundations and experience manageable, profitable growth.
www.evolveandgrowcoaching.com
Trade and Builders Business Growth Facebook Group http://bit.ly/2molad6
In this podcast Alison takes us through how to build a business by playing to your strengths, whilst surrounding yourself with others who play to theirs.
Are you forcing yourself to do the things that you really don’t enjoy? Do you know who you need around you in order to scale? There is no such thing as a good all-rounder. It is only by recognizing where you add the most value and build your role around these things, can you really start to grow your business.
Do you hate the admin and love being around people? Or perhaps your preferences are systems and processes, and sales/networking aren’t as energizing for you? Get an insight into what profile you may be on this podcast, and what to do next.
www.evolveandgrowcoaching.com
Trade and Builders Business Growth Facebook Group http://bit.ly/2molad6
In this podcast Alison takes us through the four elements of any business; Sales and Marketing, Customer Service, Team and Finance/Systems. All successful businesses will measure these closely and keep them ‘in balance’.
Alison give examples of Construction and Trade businesses that had one or more of the areas out of balance, how this showed up and what they did to put this right so that they could grow.
Do you get back to everyone that enquires? Do your customers all have a really good experience? Are you investing in the right areas? And lots more questions to get you thinking!
www.evolveandgrowcoaching.com
Trade and Builders Business Growth Facebook Group http://bit.ly/2molad6
In this podcast, Alison talks about the importance of knowing your numbers in your construction or trade business and explains the key metrics to measure in a simple way.
Gross Profit, Overheads, Net Profit – all these terms can appear overwhelming if no-one has ever explained them to you, but it is vital that you are tracking them in order to understand how your business is doing. If you are making decisions without using these metrics and based on your gut, this could be dangerous!
Often there are easier ways to increase profits, other than just growing sales, Alison shares a real-life example of a business that dramatically improved profitability by approaching it in a smart way.
www.evolveandgrowcoaching.com
Trade and Builders Business Growth Facebook Group http://bit.ly/2molad6
Alison Warner is the Founder of Evolve and Grow, a business coaching company that specialises in helping Construction and Trade SME’s grow their business sustainably.
She is also Author of Amazon bestseller Build and Grow, How to go from Tradesperson to Managing Director in the Construction and Trade Industries.
In this podcast, Alison shares how she learned to budget at the age of 6, her journey into the world of business and how she ended up creating the UK’s only business coaching company that specialises in Construction and Trades.
www.evolveandgrowcoaching.com
Trade and Builders Business Growth Facebook Group http://bit.ly/2molad6