The Business Owner Blueprint
You learned your trade. Nobody taught you how to run a business.
The Business Owner Blueprint is a practical 9-week program for trade business owners doing roughly $200k to $700k who are good at the work but feel like they're winging the business side.
Learn how to understand your numbers, price your work for profit, take control of your money and start running your business like an owner.
Apply for the next intake9 weeks · Live online · Maximum 12 businesses per intake
Built and led by John Grout, former electrical contractor who grew his business from a one-man operation to 40+ staff across multiple offices, with multi million dollar revenue, before successfully exiting.
Be honest...
You're flat out. So why doesn't it feel like you're getting anywhere?
You know how to do the work. That's probably never been the problem.
Customers call. Jobs get booked. Quotes go out. Invoices get paid. From the outside, you've built a business.
But behind the scenes?
- You don't really know whether you're charging enough.
- You quote more from experience and gut feel than actual numbers.
- You know you've got a P&L, but you're not completely confident explaining what it's telling you.
- You look at the bank balance to decide whether the business can afford something.
- Business and personal money aren't as organised as they should be.
- You don't know exactly what an hour of labour costs you.
- You work hard and make decent money, but sometimes wonder where the hell it all went.
- And when you need to make more money, your answer is usually: do more work.
Eventually, a pretty uncomfortable thought starts creeping in:
"If I can't get this business under control, would I be better off just getting a job again?"
You don't need to work harder. You need to understand the business you're already working so hard in.
Here's the problem
Your apprenticeship taught you the trade. It didn't teach you the business.
You spent years learning how to do your trade properly. Then one day you went out on your own.
Suddenly you were expected to understand:
Pricing. Cash flow. Gross profit. Labour costs. Overheads. P&Ls. Markups. Quoting. Bank accounts. Business planning.
Nobody sat you down and taught you any of it. So you did what thousands of good trade business owners do. You figured it out as you went.
And you probably figured out enough to get the business this far. But eventually winging it becomes expensive. The bigger the business gets, the more expensive the gaps in your knowledge become.
Working harder won't fix a business you don't understand.
That's why we created The Business Owner Blueprint. It's the business education most trade business owners never got.
Introducing
The Business Owner Blueprint
A 9-week practical business foundations program for trade business owners ready to stop winging it and start running the business properly.
This isn't designed for someone running a $10 million company with layers of management. It's designed for the stage before that.
You're probably doing somewhere between $200k and $700k. You're still on the tools most days. Maybe you're solo. Maybe you've got subcontractors, an apprentice or a small team.
The business is real. The opportunity is real. But before you add more people, more vans and more overhead, you need to understand the business underneath them.
Over nine weeks, John works with a maximum of 12 trade businesses to help you build the financial knowledge, commercial skills and owner's thinking required to take control of what you've already built, and create stronger foundations for what comes next.
Apply for The Business Owner BlueprintThe transformation
Nine weeks from now, your business should make a lot more sense.
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| Quote from gut feel | Know what you need to charge |
| Unsure what labour really costs | Know your true labour cost |
| Look at the bank balance | Understand what your numbers are telling you |
| Money sitting in one messy pot | Have a system for managing your cash |
| Busy without knowing what's profitable | Understand GP and job profitability |
| Expenses creep up unnoticed | Know where money is being wasted |
| "I want to grow" | Have actual business and financial targets |
| React to whatever happens next | Make more deliberate decisions |
| Feel like a tradesperson trying to run a business | Start thinking and operating like the owner |
This isn't about turning you into an accountant. And it isn't about getting you off the tools overnight.
It's about giving you enough financial understanding, business discipline and commercial confidence to make better decisions about the business you've already built.
The Business Owner Blueprint
The foundations of becoming a better business owner.
Know your numbers
Stop guessing what's happening with your money.
- Understand your P&L.
- Know what labour actually costs.
- Understand gross profit, overhead and net profit.
- Know where the money goes.
- Build a simple structure for managing cash.
- Identify the numbers that actually matter.
Result: You can look at your numbers and understand what's happening inside your own business.
Make money on the work
Being busy and being profitable aren't the same thing.
- Know what you need to charge.
- Price labour correctly.
- Mark up materials properly.
- Allow for overhead and profit.
- Find unnecessary costs.
- Review jobs after completion.
- Quote based on numbers instead of hope.
Result: When you send a quote, you understand why you've charged what you've charged, and whether there's actually room to make money.
Become the owner
Your business can only grow as fast as you do.
- Get clear on what you're building.
- Set meaningful financial, business and personal goals.
- Develop stronger disciplines.
- Learn how to deal with problems instead of avoiding them.
- Build confidence in your decisions.
- Start looking at the business from the owner's seat.
Result: You stop feeling like someone trying to keep up with the business and start becoming the person capable of leading it.
"John pushed me to make the hard decisions I'd been avoiding, held me accountable and supported me through some really tough times. My business has now successfully turned around, I know my numbers and have a great team."
What we'll do together
Nine weeks. Nine business-owner wins.
No lectures about theory you'll never use. Each week tackles a foundational part of running your business and gives you something practical to implement.
- Week 1
Know What an Hour Actually Costs You
Calculate the real cost of labour in your business and compare it to what you're currently charging.
You'll leave knowing: what an hour actually costs you, and whether your current pricing makes sense.
- Week 2
Finally Understand Your P&L
Take the mystery out of revenue, cost of sales, gross profit, overhead and net profit. You won't be studying some example company. You'll work from your own numbers.
You'll leave knowing: how to read your P&L and what it's telling you about your business.
- Week 3
Find the Leaks
Go through your costs and understand where profit is disappearing. Identify unnecessary overhead and expenses that aren't earning their keep.
You'll leave knowing: where you may be wasting money and what you can do about it.
- Week 4
Set a Rate That Actually Makes You Money
Work through labour rates, material markup, miscellaneous costs and target gross profit.
You'll leave knowing: what you need to charge and why.
- Week 5
Decide What You're Actually Building
"I want to grow" isn't a plan. Set meaningful longer-term and 12-month goals across revenue, profit, cash, business structure and your personal life.
You'll leave knowing: what you're working towards and how you'll measure it.
- Week 6
Quote for Profit, Not Hope
Build a repeatable approach to quoting around estimated time, true employment costs, materials, markup, miscellaneous costs, overhead and profit. You'll also review old quotes and completed work to see what actually happened.
You'll leave knowing: whether your quoting process gives the business a fair chance to make money.
- Week 7
Take Control of Your Cash
Stop treating your bank balance as your accounting system. Build a multiple-account structure and determine how money should move through the business.
You'll leave knowing: what the money in each account is actually there to do.
- Week 8
Build Your Business Owner Scorecard
You don't need 100 KPIs. You need the handful of numbers that tell you whether you're heading in the right direction.
You'll leave knowing: what to measure and what good looks like.
- Week 9
Build Your 90-Day Business Owner Plan
Bring everything together: your numbers, your pricing, your goals, your money management, your metrics and your priorities. Then determine what matters most over the next 90 days.
You'll leave with: a clear plan for what happens next.
Your coach
John learned this stuff the expensive way.
I started my electrical business with no roadmap.
I knew I wanted more than a job I'd created for myself. I wanted a highly profitable business, a team capable of running it without me, and enough financial freedom that my entire life didn't depend on me turning up to work every day.
Getting there wasn't easy. There were times I nearly lost everything. Times I wanted to walk away. Plenty of expensive mistakes.
I hired a business coach, invested heavily in my own development and spent years learning from people who were further ahead than me.
Eventually, I grew the business to more than 40 staff, operating from multiple offices with multi million dollar revenue, built a team that could operate without me and sold it.
It took me around 18 years to learn many of the lessons I now teach. The reason I created The Business Owner Blueprint is simple: I don't think you should have to learn every one of those lessons the hard way.
John Grout
- Former electrical contractor
- Built to 40+ staff
- Operated from multiple offices
- Multi million dollar revenue
- Built the business to operate without him
- Successfully exited
- Business coach to growing trade businesses
Advice from someone who's actually stood where you're standing.
John isn't an accountant explaining your trade business from a spreadsheet. And he's not a generic coach who's never run one.
He's been the person doing the work. He's hired the first people. He's dealt with cash-flow pressure. He's made bad decisions. He's built management. He's had to learn how to lead. He's grown a significant trade business. And he's exited one.
The point isn't that John has all the answers. It's that when you're sitting there thinking:
"What the hell am I supposed to do here?"
there's a very good chance he's dealt with some version of it before.
Real trade businesses
Don't take John's word for it.
Prior to working with John I thought I had things under control. But then had to face major and unexpected problems that forced me to consider just shutting the business down. Having someone in my corner who knew the trade industry and wasn't afraid to tell me the truth is what made all the difference. John pushed me to make the hard decisions I'd been avoiding, held me accountable and supported me through some really tough times. My business has now successfully turned around, I know my numbers and have a great team.
John's business knowledge is unmatched. I would recommend his advisory services to any business owner who is ready to take their business to the next level. The structure he helped us put in place changed everything about how we operate.
I wish I started working with John a lot sooner. In just two sessions John introduced me to tools I should have had from day one, including exactly how to cost each employee and make a profit on every job, not guess at it. When I hit some of the hardest challenges of my business, John helped me work through every one of them.
Why only 12?
This isn't another Zoom call with 100 trade businesses watching someone talk.
The Business Owner Blueprint is capped at 12 businesses per intake. There's a reason.
You're not here to listen to John talk about how he built his business. You're here to work on yours.
John needs to know who's in the room. The group needs to be small enough to ask questions. And you need enough accountability that you can't disappear into the background for nine weeks.
This isn't content consumption. It's implementation.
Bring your:
- Actual P&L
- Actual expenses
- Actual pricing
- Actual quotes
- Actual numbers
- Actual problems
How it runs
Learn it. Implement it. Get accountable.
- 1
Learn
90-minute Business Owner Workshop
At the beginning of each week, John teaches the week's foundation and works through how it applies to a real trade business.
- 2
Implement
Put it into your business
Between sessions, complete the implementation work using your actual numbers, quotes, expenses and business. Use the private community whenever you're stuck.
- 3
Accountability
End-of-week Owner Check-In
Come back, report what you did, ask questions and fix anything that's blocking implementation. Then move to the next foundation.
Your program
Everything you need to build the foundations properly.
9 × Business Owner Workshops
90-minute live sessions with John covering each core business foundation.
Weekly Owner Check-Ins
Implementation accountability and Q&A so the work doesn't disappear into another notebook.
Private Community
Ask questions and get support between sessions.
Lifetime Access to Recordings
Miss something? Go back. The training remains available after the program finishes.
90-Day Business Owner Review
Three months after completing the program, come back for a review with John.
Maximum 12 businesses
Small enough that John knows your business and you can't hide.
The Business Owner Toolkit
The practical tools used throughout the program.
- True Labour Cost CalculatorKnow what an hour of labour actually costs.
- Profit Leak FinderReview your P&L and identify unnecessary overhead.
- Profitable Pricing CalculatorBuild pricing around real costs and target profitability.
- Job Profit CheckerCompare what you thought would happen on a job with what actually happened.
- Profitable Quote ChecklistA pre-send check before the quote goes out.
- Money Management SystemSet up the bank accounts and allocations that give your cash structure.
- Business Owner Goal PlannerTurn long-term ambitions into measurable business and personal goals.
- Business Owner ScorecardTrack the numbers that matter.
- 90-Day Owner Action PlanTurn nine weeks of learning into the next 90 days of execution.
Ready to stop winging the business side?
12 businesses per intake. Application takes approximately 3 minutes.
The investment
Before deciding whether that's expensive, ask a better question.
What's not knowing this stuff already costing your business?
- Undercharging labour.
- Poor material markup.
- Unnecessary overhead.
- Jobs priced without knowing your true costs.
- Money sitting in the wrong place.
- Decisions made from your bank balance instead of your numbers.
You don't need to fix many of those mistakes before $3,200 becomes a very small number.
The Business Owner Blueprint
$3,200 + GST
Pay in full, or 3 monthly instalments of $1,100 + GST.
- 9-week live program
- Weekly implementation and accountability
- Business Owner Toolkit
- Private community
- Lifetime recordings
- 90-day review
- Maximum 12 businesses
Is The Business Owner Blueprint right for you?
This is for you if...
- You're running a service-based trade business.
- You're doing roughly $200k to $700k in revenue.
- You're still heavily involved on the tools.
- You're solo, use subcontractors, have an apprentice or are starting to build a small team.
- You're good at your trade but know your business knowledge hasn't caught up.
- You want to understand your money instead of relying completely on someone else to explain it.
- You're willing to bring your actual numbers.
- You're coachable.
- You're prepared to implement what you learn.
- You want to build something better than another job for yourself.
This probably isn't for you if...
- You're looking for advanced strategies for managing a multi-million-dollar trade company.
- You only want more leads and don't care what happens to the money after you win the work.
- You want someone else to fix the business for you.
- You won't look at your numbers.
- You aren't prepared to do the implementation work.
- You think you already know everything.
That last one is important. We don't need everyone. The cap is 12.
And we don't disappear after week 9
Come back 90 days later and show John what happened.
Learning something isn't the same as living it.
After the program finishes, you'll have 90 days to operate the business using what you've built. Then you'll come back.
The 90-Day Business Owner Review is included in the program.
- What happened to your margins?
- What changed in your pricing?
- Did you control your overhead?
- Did you follow the money-management system?
- Are you tracking your numbers?
- Are you moving towards the goals you set?
- What's your next bottleneck?
FAQs
Straight answers.
Do I need to understand finance before joining?
No. That's the point. This isn't designed for accountants. It's designed to give a trade business owner the financial understanding required to run their business with more confidence.
Is this an accounting course?
No. You aren't learning how to become an accountant. You're learning how to understand the numbers that affect the decisions you make as a business owner.
What size business is this designed for?
The sweet spot is roughly $200k to $700k in annual revenue. You might be solo, using subcontractors, have an apprentice or be starting to build a small team. The more important question is whether you've built the foundations yet.
What trades can join?
The program is designed for service-based trade businesses.
I'm still on the tools. Is that a problem?
No. That's who this program was built for. You don't need to be off the tools to become a better business owner.
I'm terrible with numbers. Will I be out of my depth?
No. John teaches this stuff practically. You'll use your own business and your own numbers so the concepts actually mean something.
I've already done another business coaching program. Is this different?
Possibly. The Business Owner Blueprint isn't designed around sitting silently on a giant group call consuming more information. There are a maximum of 12 businesses. You'll work from your actual numbers and implement something into the business each week. If you've learned plenty of business concepts before but still don't understand your numbers, pricing or cash, this may be exactly the gap you've been missing.
What happens if I miss a session?
Every session is recorded and you'll retain access to the recordings. You can also use the private community to ask questions and get back on track.
How much time should I allow each week?
Allow approximately 2 to 3 hours each week between the live workshop, the check-in and implementation. Some weeks may require slightly more depending on the state of your business.
How much does it cost?
The investment is $3,200 + GST. You can pay in full or across 3 monthly instalments of $1,100 + GST.
What happens after the nine weeks?
You'll retain access to the recordings. You'll then return 90 days later for your Business Owner Review with John.
Your next move
You don't need to get better at your trade.
You're already good at what you do. The next stage requires a different set of skills.
You need to understand the money. Know what to charge. Know where the profit goes. Know what you're building. And start making decisions as the owner of the business, not just the person doing the work.
You can spend the next five years figuring that out through trial and error. Or you can learn from someone who's already done it.
The Business Owner Blueprint
Let's see if it's right for your business.
There are 12 businesses in each intake. Answer the questions so we can understand where you're at and whether the program is the right fit.
9 weeks. 12 businesses. Build the foundations properly.
$3,200 + GST. Pay in full or across 3 monthly instalments.
No obligation. We'll review your application to make sure the program is right for where your business is currently at.