A 90 minute working session with John Grout

Trade Business Audit

Your quote says 35% margin.
Your jobs say 22%.

The job board is full. The bank account isn't. We take your last three jobs and work out what you really made on each one: real gross profit, true labour cost, and the gap between the two, turned into one dollar figure you can't ignore.

Book my Trade Business Audit
$495 + GST90 min session + report
John Grout
John GroutBuilt, ran and sold a 40+ staff electrical business
$50KGuarantee
22 years building an electrical business 40+ staff across multiple offices 3 of your jobs pulled apart 1 page report you keep
Sound familiar?

You're not short on work.
You're short on profit.

Most trade business owners we sit down with aren't struggling for jobs. They're struggling to work out why all that work isn't turning into money.

You've just had your busiest quarter ever, and you still check the bank balance before you approve Friday's supplier run.

The job everyone called a good one finished on time and got paid. Then you remember the two extra trips for parts and the variation nobody invoiced.

You know exactly what you charge an hour. You have no idea what that hour actually costs you once the ute, super, phones, sick days and the 40 minutes between sites are in it.

Your accountant hands you a P&L three months after the fact. By then you've quoted another 40 jobs the same way.

You lie awake doing the maths on the back of a quote, and it never adds up the same way twice.

Turnover went up 30% this year. What you took home didn't move. And you've got more staff to worry about than ever.

If even one of those landed,
the problem isn't how hard you're working.

Here's what's actually going on

There's a gap between the margin you quote and the margin you keep

Every quote you send has a margin built into it. On paper, the numbers work.

But somewhere between the quote and the final invoice, money leaks out. Labour that costs more than you think. Materials that creep. Time on site that never makes it onto a timesheet. None of it shows up on a single job. It shows up at the end of the year, when there's less in the account than there should be.

Margin you quote
35%
→
Margin you keep
22%

Your P&L won't show you this. It averages everything together, so the good jobs hide the bad ones and you never see which kind of work is costing you.

On a business turning over $1.2 million, a gap of just 8% is $96,000 a year that you earned and never kept. That's the number we go looking for.
How the Trade Business Audit works

90 minutes. Three jobs.
One honest number.

This isn't a sales call and it isn't a lecture. It's a working session. You bring the numbers from your last three jobs, John sits beside you and works through them line by line.

01

Real gross profit

We rebuild each of your last three jobs from the quote to the final invoice and work out what you actually made, not what you hoped to make.

02

True labour back cost

We work out what an hour of your team really costs once super, leave, vehicles, tools and non-billable time are counted. For most owners, this is the number that changes everything.

03

Find the gap

We lay your real numbers next to what you quoted, pinpoint where the money is leaking, and put an annual dollar figure on it.

What you walk away with

Your one page Profit Report

After the session you get a one page report you can stick on the wall, hand to your accountant, or use to change how you quote on Monday morning.

  • Your real marginWhat you actually make on the work you do, worked out from your own jobs.
  • Your benchmarkWhere you sit against the gross profit range healthy trade businesses run at, so you know how far off you are.
  • Your annual dollar figureWhat the gap is costing you every year if nothing changes.
Included when you book

Plus three bonuses

Finding the gap is step one. These tools help you close it and keep it closed.

Bonus 1

Margin vs Markup Calculator

The mistake behind more underpriced quotes than any other. Plug in your costs and see exactly what to charge to hit the margin you want.

Bonus 2

Weekly Profit Forecast Tool

Stop waiting three months for your accountant. See where your profit is heading every week, while there's still time to do something about it.

Bonus 3

Profit & Time Fix Kit

The practical fixes for the two things every owner is short on. Use it to claw back the hours the business is taking from you.

The$50KGuarantee

We find $50,000 or it's free

If your business turns over more than $750,000 and we don't find at least $50,000 of wastage or opportunity, the session and the report are free.

You keep the report. You keep the bonuses. You don't pay a cent.

Applies to businesses with annual turnover above $750,000.

Who you'll be working with

John Grout has sat in your chair

John spent 22 years building an electrical contracting business. 40+ staff, multiple offices, multi million dollar revenue. He built it, ran it, and sold it.

He knows what it's like to have a full job board and an empty feeling about the numbers, because he lived it. The tools you'll use in this session are the ones he used to fix his own business.

He won't talk at you about theory. He'll sit with your real jobs, ask the questions your accountant doesn't, and show you exactly where the money went.

Trade business owners who've worked with John

Real trade business owners. Real results.

"Having a really good calm sounding board. I felt like we'd had a really turbulent month, and I was like, we've been busy but our numbers are gonna be terrible. Then we had a meeting with you and you were basically like, relax, that's actually pretty good."
Lucas
Vivid Energy
"We thought we had a bad quarter because our revenue wasn't that good, but our net profit was actually really high. We actually did really profitable jobs."
Kelly
Vivid Energy
Dave Kelly
★★★★★
"John transformed our business strategy and helped me focus on profit in every part of the business. I achieved more working with John than I had in the years I spent trying to figure it out alone."
Dave Kelly
Gippsland Home Inspections
Blake Gilbert
★★★★★
"John's business knowledge is unmatched. The structure he helped us put in place changed everything about how we operate. I'd recommend him to any business owner ready to take things to the next level."
Blake Gilbert
Elecell
Dave Lyons
★★★★★
"I wish I'd started working with John 8 years sooner. In two sessions he gave me tools I'd been guessing at for years. In our first 12 months I went from not enough work to a full schedule with new A-grade clients."
Dave Lyons
Platinum Electricians Townsville
Kris Lewin
★★★★★
"John has been my coach for five years. My business is more focused, efficient, and profitable. His practical approach has helped me simplify complexity, make better decisions, and achieve real results."
Kris Lewin
National Operations Network
What happens next

From booking to your number

Book and pay

Secure online checkout. Takes about two minutes.

Pick your time

Choose a 90 minute slot with John straight after checkout.

Send your three jobs

We'll tell you exactly what to pull together: quotes, invoices, supplier bills and timesheets.

Get your report

Work through it with John, then receive your one page Profit Report and your bonuses.

Book my Trade Business Audit
90 min working session1 on 1 with John$50K guarantee

The Trade Business Audit

90 minute working session with John Grout
$495 + GST
$544.50 including GST
  • 90 minute working session with John
  • Your last three jobs pulled apart
  • Real gross profit and true labour back cost
  • One page Profit Report with your annual dollar figure
  • Bonus: Margin vs Markup Calculator
  • Bonus: Weekly Profit Forecast Tool
  • Bonus: Profit & Time Fix Kit
  • The $50,000 guarantee
Book my Trade Business Audit Secure checkout. Choose your time with John straight after.

Questions

Who is this for?

Trade business owners who are busy, have a team, and can't say with confidence what they really make on a job. If you've ever looked at a big turnover number and wondered where it all went, this is for you.

What do I need to bring?

Your last three completed jobs: the quote, the final invoice, supplier bills and the hours your team spent on them. Rough is fine. We'll send you a simple checklist when you book.

My business turns over less than $750,000. Is it still worth it?

Yes. You still get the full session, the report and the bonuses. The $50,000 guarantee applies to businesses over $750,000 because that's the size where we know the gap is almost always at least that big.

Is this a sales pitch for coaching?

No. It's a paid working session and you leave with your numbers and your report. If you want help fixing what we find, we'll talk about it. If you don't, you've still got everything you need to act on it.

Stop guessing.
Know your number.

You're going to quote more jobs this month either way. Find out what they're really making you first.

Book my Trade Business Audit

P.S. If you turn over more than $750,000, the only way this costs you anything is if we find at least $50,000. Either we find it, or it's free.