Most tradesmen don’t fail because they’re bad at the trade.
They fail because they keep doing the same shit… and expecting different results.

In this episode of the Off The Tools Podcast, Wayne Bettess and Andy Jones break down 9 practical, proven things that will radically improve both your business AND your life — but only if you actually take action.

This isn’t theory.
Every single point has been tested, implemented, and lived by lads inside Off The Tools. 🛠️

Inside this episode, we cover:

🔹 Why raising your standards must come before raising your prices
🔹 Picking a lane based on your strengths — not ego
🔹 How recurring revenue gives you breathing room (and sleep)
🔹 Why systems beat hustle every single time
🔹 Getting paid upfront and protecting yourself with paper trails 📄
🔹 Why hiring admin earlier than feels “comfortable” is a power move
🔹 Marketing consistently — even when you’re flat out 📈
🔹 Thinking lifetime value, not one-off jobs
🔹 And why upgrading the man is just as important as upgrading the business 💪🧠

If you’re busy but broke…
If you’re grafting but not getting ahead…
If you want more time, freedom, profit, and control…

👉 This episode is your wake-up call.

🎯 Listen with a notebook.
🔥 Pick ONE thing.
🚀 Take action.

Because nothing changes unless you do.

If you’re working flat out, knackered every night, and still wondering where the money went…
This episode will hit you like a brick. 🧱

In this special Pricing for Profit session, Wayne and Andy break down the exact reason most tradesmen are under-earning — and show you how to fix it using real numbers, not guesswork.

This isn’t theory.
This is the system Wayne uses in his own multi-van heating businesses and the same one Andy used to go from a £65 boiler service to running a fully systemised, highly profitable company in just a few years. 🔥

Inside this episode:

• 🧮 Why guessing your prices is destroying your business

• 📊 How to calculate what you must charge just to survive

• 💷 How to work out what you should charge to actually make profit

• 🧑‍🔧 Why most engineers earn the same as employees — but with 10x the stress

• 💥 The truth about “just bung us £40” jobs

• 🧱 Why every business has phantom costs (vans, tools, mistakes, breakdowns, sick days)

• 🚐 Why your van, drills and flue gas analyser must be paid for by the customer — not you

• 📉 How lads charging £60–£70/hour are slowly going backwards every year

• 📈 How to use supply & demand pricing (winter vs summer)

• 🧠 Why mindset is the real reason you’re scared to charge more

• 🔁 How to phase out low-paying customers without blowing your business up

• 🧾 Why software, systems and professional quoting let you charge more

• 🤯 How one decision (like Google Ads or hiring staff) should change your prices

Wayne also walks you through his free Pricing Calculator — the tool that shows you:

• what your business really costs to run

• what you need to charge per hour, day and job

• how much profit you should be making

• and what happens when you add staff, marketing or overheads

Andy explains how he charges £199+VAT per hour in the North of England — and why most lads could be charging way more if they stopped copying each other and started using real numbers. 🔥

If you want:

• more money 💷

• less stress 😮‍💨

• better customers 🤝

• more freedom 🏖️

• and a business that actually works…

You have to stop guessing your prices.

🎧 Listen now.
📊 Use the calculator.
🔥 Start charging what you’re actually worth.

https://pricing-calculator.offthetools.co.uk/

Ever feel like school told you you’d never be anything… and you carried that into adult life? 😤
This episode is going to hit hard.

Wayne and Andy dive deep into the link between school, self-worth, pricing, confidence and business success — and why so many incredible tradesmen are massively under-earning because of beliefs formed when they were kids.

This isn’t about GCSEs.
It’s about mindset, value, and knowing what you’re really worth. 💷

Inside this episode:

• 🏫 Why the school system is designed for girls — not lads

• 🧠 ADHD, energy, movement & why tradesmen never fit in classrooms

• 🛠️ Why being “bad at school” often means you’re perfect for the trades

• 📉 How school failure turns into low pricing and low self-belief

• 💷 Why plumbers & sparkies can earn more than solicitors

• 📈 The supply & demand shift happening in trades right now

• 🏠 Why new homeowners can’t even hang a shelf anymore

• 🔥 Why skilled trades are becoming more valuable every year

• 📚 Why education doesn’t stop when school ends

• 💭 How limiting beliefs keep you stuck charging £60 when you should be charging £150+

• 🧮 Why if you haven’t raised prices in years… you’re actually earning less every year

• 🦁 Why confidence is the real superpower in business

Wayne shares his own story of being written off at school…
Andy explains why the world is flipping in favour of skilled tradespeople…
And both of them hammer home one brutal truth:

👉 Your lack of GCSEs does NOT decide your income.
Your mindset does.

They also talk about:

• 📖 The books that changed their lives (Rich Dad Poor Dad, Winning Through Intimidation)

• 💬 How to stop folding when customers try to beat you down on price

• 🧱 Why you need to build a business that pays you what you deserve

• 🚀 Why tradesmen who step up now will dominate the next 10–20 years

If you’ve ever thought:

• “I’m not clever enough”

• “I can’t charge that much”

• “That won’t work in my area”

• “My customers wouldn’t pay it”

…this episode will challenge every one of those beliefs. 🔥

🎧 Hit play.
🧠 Shift your mindset.
💷 Start charging what you’re actually worth.3

This episode is a masterclass in what’s possible when a tradesman stops playing small. 💥

Wayne and Andy sit down with Lee Davis, founder of Innovative Heating Services, to unpack his full journey — from 17 years at British Gas, to starting with just one van and a mate, surviving COVID with zero government support, making every mistake in the book… and then finally buying out a local competitor and becoming one of the biggest heating companies in his area. 🏆

This isn’t theory.
This is the real trenches.

Inside this episode:

• 🧰 17 years at British Gas → Why Lee finally took the leap into business

• 😬 Starting with nothing but a van, a mate & a mobile number

• 🦠 How COVID nearly crushed the business — and how he survived anyway

• 📉 Working insane hours for less than minimum wage in the early days

• 📞 Running everything through WhatsApp, paper job sheets & chaos

• 💸 The shock of the real cost of employing engineers (NI, vans, tools, merchant bills)

• ⚠️ The “Success Trap” — looking busy, but making no real profit

• 🧠 Joining Off The Tools & the mindset shift that changed everything

• 📊 Moving to proper job management software + Xero

• 💷 Doubling prices and learning to charge without guilt

• 📵 The power of getting off the phone and using a VA

• 🏢 Opening a showroom and hiring his first real office manager

• 🧾 Why receipts, bookkeeping & real reporting changed his profit overnight

• 🔁 Dropping bathrooms, builders & low-value work

• 🔥 Moving into boilers only and scaling installs from 20 a year to nearly 80

• 🏗️ The bold move: buying a rival gas fire & heating company

• 🚀 Instantly doubling vans, engineers, apprentices & market share

• 👩‍💼 Now running multiple engineers, office staff, service plans & automations

• 🎯 The 2026 target: more engineers, more office staff, more expansion

And most importantly…

💬 Lee breaks down exactly what he would do differently if he started again today — including systems, pricing, mindset, accountants, software, staff and community.

This episode is for you if:

• you’re stuck in survival mode 😮‍💨

• you’re busy but broke 💸

• you’re scared to hire 😬

• you feel trapped answering every call 📞

• you want a business that runs without you 🧑‍💼

• you want something to sell one day 🏦

Lee proves this:

👉 You don’t need to be special.
👉 You don’t need investors.
👉 You don’t need luck.
👉 You need systems, pricing, mindset & the right people around you.

💬 Want help building your business properly?
Visit offthetools.co.uk and book a free chat with Wayne or Andy.
Or jump into the Off The Tools Facebook community and get around people who are actually doing it. 🦁🔥 https://www.facebook.com/groups/offthetools/

If you’re serious about making more money, running a smoother business, and finally feeling in control — this episode is for you. 🧠💷

Wayne and Andy break down exactly why the new Off The Tools webinar series is a game-changer for tradesmen who want to stop guessing and start running their business properly.

These aren’t fluffy Zoom calls.
They’re hands-on, practical, screen-shared walkthroughs of the exact tools Wayne and Andy use in their own multi-van heating businesses every single day.

And best of all?
👉 You don’t need to be on camera.
👉 You can sit there with your AirPods in.
👉 And you can ask questions live in the chat.

Inside this episode:

• 📊 Why the Pricing for Profit webinar blew people away

• 🧮 How Wayne’s Pricing Calculator shows you what you should be charging

• 📝 Why Quotient is the best quoting software in the trade game

• ⚡ How to send quotes in minutes — not days

• 🖼️ How customers can choose upgrades, options & quantities themselves

• ✍️ Digital signing, T&Cs and protecting yourself from disputes

• 🧾 Why professional-looking quotes help you charge more

• 🛠️ What ServiceMate does for job management, certificates & diaries

• 📱 Why engineers love the mobile app on site

• 📆 How booking confirmations, reminders & “on-the-way” texts reduce no-shows

• 🧠 How SalesLion puts your marketing & follow-ups on autopilot

• 🔁 Boiler service reminders, review requests, referral asks & repeat work

• 🤖 AI chat widgets, website enquiries & centralised customer comms

• 📈 Why this software stack puts your business on steroids

They also explain the full webinar schedule:

• 📅 Pricing for Profit – On-demand now

• 📅 Quotient (Quoting & Sales) – 10th February, 7pm

• 📅 ServiceMate (Job Management) – 10th March, 7pm

• 📅 SalesLion (Marketing & CRM) – 7th April, 7pm

If you’re still:

• sending quotes days late 😬

• chasing customers for answers 📞

• missing calls and losing work ❌

• doing admin at night instead of being with your family 😮‍💨

• or guessing what you should charge 💷

…these webinars will change the way you run your business.

🎯 No fluff.
🛠️ Just tools that work.
🚀 And systems that scale.

👉 Register now at https://offthetools.co.uk/webinars and get yourself on the webinars before everyone else in your area does. 🦁🔥

New year. Fresh head. Big opportunities. 🚀

In this episode of the Off The Tools Podcast, Wayne and Andy kick off 2026 by diving into one of the most important — and most ignored — skills in business and life:

👉 Setting real targets… and actually hitting them.

This isn’t fluffy “New Year, New Me” nonsense.
This is about visualising, planning, and executing so you don’t end up in December thinking “how did another year just disappear?”

Inside this episode:

• 🎯 Why targets beat vague “goals” every time

• 🧭 Why you need a destination before you can plan a route

• 🧠 The power of visualisation (and Wayne’s real £90,000 debt story 😳)

• 📄 Why writing things down massively increases your chance of success

• 🛠️ How tradesmen get stuck just “fighting fires” all year

• ⏳ Why lack of planning keeps you broke, stressed, and stuck

• 💷 How year-end reflection exposes pricing & profit problems

• 🏋️‍♂️ Body, Business & Balance — why all three must move together

• 🧒 Time with family, holidays, fitness, freedom — it all starts with targets

• 📆 Why now (January) is the best time to reset and raise your standards

Wayne and Andy also share their personal 2026 targets, including:

• 👨‍👦 Training Wayne’s son to become a qualified engineer

• 🔁 Growing service plans for long-term security

• 📵 Getting stricter on phone boundaries and family time

• 🏋️ Building the best physical shape of their lives

• 🥋 Andy’s jiu-jitsu, marathon training & dive instructor goals

• 🏢 Scaling their heating businesses and Off The Tools Alliance

Plus…

🎁 Wayne explains how you can get access to a free goal-setting workbook inside the Skool app to help you map out your own year.

If you want 2026 to be:

• more profitable 💷

• less stressful 😮‍💨

• more structured 🧱

• more family-friendly 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦

• and actually heading somewhere instead of nowhere…

This episode is your starting line. 🏁

🎧 Hit play.
🎯 Set your targets.
🔥 Let’s make this your best year yet.

FREE ACCESS TO SKOOL COMMUNITY APP

Want to scale your trade business… but keep telling yourself “I make more on my own”?
This episode is going to blow that story to pieces. 💣

Wayne and Andy dive into the real, practical side of scaling a trades business — not the Instagram version. We’re talking engineers, office staff, wages, vans, tools, hidden costs, pricing, risk and mindset… all the stuff most lads avoid until it bites them.

Recorded in early December 2025 (while Wayne’s freezing down south and Andy’s even colder up north ❄️😂), this one goes deep on what it actually takes to grow beyond “just you in a van”.

Inside this episode:

• 🔧 Why “I make the same money on my own” = a pricing & setup problem

• 📊 The real cost of putting an engineer on the road (and why it’s NOT just their wage)

• 💷 Salary vs true cost — PAYE, pension, van, tools, insurance, tyres, breakdowns, sick days & more

• 🧮 Why you MUST factor in “phantom costs” (repairs, fuck-ups, training days, overruns)

• 💣 How lads end up turning over £1m and earning less than a good employed engineer

• 💰 Why an engineer should be a profit centre, not just “keeping customers happy”

• 🪣 The “two buckets” analogy — why you can’t catch more water with one bucket

• 🧱 Foundations first: pricing, systems, software, back-end support… THEN scaling

• 🧠 Mindset: fear of risk, bad past experiences, and why most owners stay stuck small

• 🔄 Why the first hire is the hardest — and why every one after gets easier

• 🏗️ What a real business looks like vs just being self-employed

• 🧓 Future you: why staying solo gives you nothing to sell or pass on at retirement

Plus:

• Wayne breaks down why your van, tools and gear MUST be priced into your hourly rate (not paid for out of your back pocket)

• Andy explains why most horror stories about staff come from lads who were undercharging in the first place

• They both hammer home why scaling done properly = more profit, more security, more options — not just more stress

If you:

• feel capped out and knackered 😮‍💨

• are scared to take on your first engineer 😬

• have tried staff before and “it didn’t work” ❌

• or want a business you can sell or step back from one day 🏡…

…you need to listen to this.

Sort your numbers.
Build the foundations.
Then scale properly.

💬 Got questions about pricing, hiring, or using the Off The Tools Pricing Calculator?
Hit up Wayne at wayne@offthetools.co.uk or Andy at andy@offthetools.co.uk, or jump into the Off The Tools / Plum Chat Facebook groups and get involved. 🦁🔥

In this episode, Wayne and Andy tackle a brutally honest topic most tradesmen don’t want to hear:

👉 If you’re still answering your own phone… you’re holding your business back.
Full stop. End of.

This week’s conversation dives deep into why taking calls yourself destroys productivity, kills your pricing confidence, and keeps you trapped as the “local guy who does everything” instead of a real business owner.

Inside this episode:

• 📵 Why answering your own phone instantly caps your growth

• 💁‍♀️ Why women outperform men in admin, customer service & call handling (stats don’t lie)

• 🧠 The emotional bias that makes YOU terrible at quoting — and why office staff fix it

• 💼 How a female voice on the phone elevates your brand, reputation, and perceived value

• 🔧 The difference between a tradesman mindset and a business owner mindset

• 🕒 How many hours you’re wasting every week flicking between jobs and admin

• 🤯 The hidden lost revenue when you miss calls or call customers back “later”

• 📈 Why outsourcing your calls isn’t a cost — it’s one of the best investments you can make

• 🧩 Why you MUST have a job management system before getting admin support

• 🔥 The real reason customers won’t pay your new prices… and how admin staff fix it

• ☎️ How missed calls sabotage every pound you spend on marketing (listen to last week’s episode!)

This is a big wake-up call for tradesmen who:

• want to charge more 💷

• want to appear more professional 🧑‍💼

• want to scale a real business 🚀

• want more time back with their family ❤️

• want to stop being chained to the phone like a 24/7 emergency hotline ☎️🔥

If you want less stress, higher profits, and a business that grows without you doing everything…

Get off the phone.
Get someone in the office.
Grow like a real business.

💬 Got questions about hiring, systems, or call handling?
Drop Wayne or Andy a message or jump into the Off The Tools community on Facebook. 🦁🔥