two criteria that make you an expert in your trade

I started a research project to serve the construction and skilled trade industries about a year ago.  I have interviewed and spoken with hundreds of trade professionals about what they do and why they do it. I also work with skilled trade business owners all over the US and Canada to help them streamline and grow their businesses.

I tell you this not because this is an article about me and what I do, but it’s about them and what they need.

The one thing most of these hard-working, boot-strapping, entrepreneurial-minded craftsmen (and women) need is confidence.  The type of confidence that comes from seeing themselves as experts.

You should consider yourself an expert in your trade if you meet the following two criteria:

1.  If someone asks you a question about your trade, you can answer that question.
2.  If someone asks you a question about your trade and you don’t know the answer, then you know where to find the answer.

That’s it.  If you meet both of the criteria listed above, then you are an expert.

You have all the confidence you need to perform the technical tasks of your trade.  You are confident that the short-term sacrifices you are making will lead to long-term gains.  And you are more than confident to walk away (in many cases…run away) from what society tells you is a better career path to pursue.

You don’t lack confidence in your abilities.  You lack confidence selling yourself as an expert.

You know how to build, create, craft and design.  Some of you went to school for this knowledge, but all of you learned infinitely more by putting work in place and serving your clients than any classroom or technical advisor could ever teach you.  All the while getting beat up on your price, expected to work for free, and being looked down upon because you chose to work with your hands instead of in a cubicle.

Your customers do not meet the criteria listed above.  You do.  You are the expert, and an expert is really what your clients want.

I know your customers say they have a certain budget, but what they really want is an expert to educate them on a process that provides them with value.  The clients that are only concerned with a budget, don’t really want an expert.  Let your competition have them.

I know society thinks that you went into construction because you couldn’t do anything else.  They will realize their mistake when they need to finish out that room in their basement so their college-educated children can move back in with them because the local coffee shop doesn’t pay their children enough to afford their own rent.

Be confident in your expertise.  Sell yourself as an expert.  Your clients want an expert.

Are you an expert in your trade?  

Do you need help implementing systems to grow your construction business?

Click here to send me a message, and let me know your goals for the next 90 days.  I would love the opportunity to speak with you about your construction business and work with you on putting a plan together to get you the results you want.

Or…

Click here and sign up to download my FREE book – the Paperwork Punch List: 28 Days to Streamline Your Construction Business.