If your trade clients are getting leads but still losing time in quoting, scheduling, job tracking, invoicing, reporting, or spreadsheets, I build the layer that fixes it. You keep doing what you do. I don't pitch you. Your client keeps you in the picture.
Most trade owners have a marketing person and a bookkeeper. The bit they're missing is the operational workflow, the layer that owns the actual business between the enquiry and the invoice.
Brand, campaign SEO, ads, lead gen. The work that gets a trade owner the phone call.
Quote, schedule, deliver, photo, sign-off, invoice, reminder, chase, profit. The layer between the lead and the books.
BAS, reconciliation, payroll, tax, financial reporting. The work that catches the result on the way out.
If you're one of these, your trade clients are probably already telling you the symptoms I fix.
You see the late invoices, the missing receipts, the re-keying tax at month-end, the GST returns chasing reconciliations that never quite balance. If your client's books look like an admin problem more than an accounting one, that's me.
You hear the "Sunday admin" complaint, the missed-calls frustration, the new-hire wage-lag pressure, the "I don't know what each job made" admission. You can name the problem on the call but the systems to fix it sit outside your scope. That's me.
You drive the leads. The leads don't convert because the website is slow to capture, the form is broken on mobile, the quote follow-up takes a week, or the after-hours enquiries land in Messenger and die there. If the post-lead workflow is breaking your numbers, that's me.
You see the trade owners on the counter every week. You know who's growing, who's hiring, who just bought a new ute, who's complaining about admin. Trusted introductions from suppliers carry more weight than any cold outreach I run.
Trade businesses applying for finance need books that line up. Trade businesses chasing larger insurance coverage need records that prove their operating discipline. If your clients are growing past where their spreadsheets can keep up, that's the gap I fill.
You make the site look right. If you don't build the booking flow, the quote form logic, the dashboard, or the integrations, you can hand that work to me without competing for the design work. The split is clean.
If you can name the complaint, I can name the package. Full deposit back if I miss the spec. They own what I ship.
Three steps. Predictable. You stay in the loop the whole way.
Send me an email with the trade owner's name, business, and the specific problem you've heard them mention. Sample copy below if useful.
Reply to both of you, thank you for the intro, offer the trade owner two slots for a Trades Tech Leak Audit. No pitch in the reply, just slots.
30-minute call, one-page written finding inside 48 hours. Three prioritised fixes ranked by impact. If there's a fit, I recommend one of the five packages. If there's no fit, they keep the findings anyway.
No surprises. They know it's a 30-minute call plus a 1-page written report, no obligation, no pitch unless they ask for one.
About 4 in 10 audit calls end with me sending the trade owner to someone else. Saving us all six weeks of mismatch.
Wrong size, wrong industry, wrong stack, wrong moment. The "no" comes on the audit call. Your relationship stays intact either way.
Published terms, not a wink and a handshake. In writing before your first referral, same as everything else I do.
of the first 12 months of any Ops Care plan your referral signs, paid month by month as their invoices are paid, tracked in a shared sheet you can open any time.
Standalone build instead of a plan? 10% of the build invoice, paid when it's paid. If they sign nothing, you owe nothing and they keep the free audit report.
You bill what you bill. I bill what I bill. The client wins twice, and the accounting or marketing work stays entirely yours.
The shared tracking sheet shows the referral, the plan, the invoice status and your payment. No chasing me for "where's it at".
Some partners can't or won't take referral fees; professional rules or preference. Fine: say so, and I'll pass the equivalent through to your client as a discount and tell them it came from you.
Short, names a specific problem, names me, frames the audit as no-obligation.
To: {{ trade owner email }} Cc: hello@boltonops.com.au
Subject: Quick intro · Brad at Bolt On Ops
Hi {{ trade owner first name }},
Wanted to introduce you to Brad Stribley at Bolt On Ops. Brad helps trade businesses fix admin leaks: quoting, job flow, profit visibility, automations. He runs his own trade businesses (Oscar White cleaning, Ranges Cleaning) so he speaks the language.
I thought of you because you mentioned {{ specific problem }} last time we caught up. Brad offers a free Trades Tech Leak Audit, 30-minute call plus a one-page written report. He'll tell you the top three things to fix, even if there's no project at the end.
Brad, meet {{ trade owner first name }}. Cheers, {{ Your name }}
Prefer not to write the email yourself? Fill this in and I'll confirm the wording with you before anything goes to your client.
Send the intro, or point them at a free Tech Leak Audit. Either way I reply inside one business day.