116. The Phases of Business Ownership - Part 2: The Shift to Owner-Operator

You’ve done the hard yards to reach $1 million in revenue, and that deserves real credit. But this is where business gets tougher, not easier. You are no longer small enough to do everything yourself, yet not big enough to have the structure to make growth feel under control.  This is the phase wh…

115. Productivity Burners & The Simple Steps to Improve Focus Now

In a world engineered to steal your attention, productivity problems are rarely about time. They are about focus. Every notification, email and social media scroll pulls you away from the work that actually matters. The most effective leaders recognise this and treat their attention like a valuable…

114. Expensive Hiring Mistakes Business Owners Keep Making

Most trade business owners spend years learning their craft, yet almost no one ever teaches them how to hire. Recruitment becomes something they figure out on the run, usually when a job lands, the workload spikes and another pair of hands is urgently needed. That pressure often leads to rushed dec…

113. Could Your Business Run Without You for a Month?

Could your business run for a month without you? For most owners, the honest answer is no. Not because the team is incapable, but because the business has been built around the owner. Every quote, every decision, every problem flows back to one person. The result is a business that feels more like …

112. When Growth Nearly Cost Kade Everything

From the outside, Kade Bell-Chambers looked like every successful tradie, growing his business, working hard, money in the bank, and doing it for his family.  But behind the scenes, the story was very different. The business was consuming him, pressure was relentless, and the cracks were everywher…

111. The Phases of Business Ownership - Part 1: Your Journey to Profit & Freedom

Most trades businesses don’t stall from lack of effort. They stall from lack of clarity. This is the first of a three-part series that maps the predictable path every trades business follows, starting with the toolbelt phase where everything runs through you.  At the core of that journey are three…

110. Mindset Matters: How to Break the Working Addiction

Seventy-hour weeks. Late nights on the laptop. Family around you, but somehow still far away. For many business owners relentless work slowly becomes an addiction that hides in plain sight. Breaking that addiction starts with giving yourself permission to change your hours, step back from the tools…

109. You Want Improvement? You Need to Measure It

Businesses drift when they rely on gut feel, emotion or bank balances as scoreboards. They improve when leaders track the numbers that truly move the dial. Pipeline, conversion rates, gross margin and cashflow are not abstract financial concepts. They are controllable levers. Even a small lift in m…

108. The Hidden Cost of Being a YES Man

Sometimes, the most expensive word in your business is a simple, one-syllable word: “yes”. Unchecked yeses quietly drain profit, time, and energy, and most business owners never stop to measure the cost.  In trade businesses especially, momentum is everything. The phone rings, a builder asks for a…

107. From Backyard Business to Nationwide Industry Leader

From a small trail building operation to a national powerhouse, Dave Willcox has turned Common Ground into a blueprint for extraordinary purpose-driven business growth.  What began as a passion project has evolved into a fully structured national organisation, now operating under a complete manage…