You started your building business for freedom.
So why does it feel like you’re working harder but getting nowhere?
Most builders who start their own business thinking they’ve bought themselves freedom, have actually bought themselves a very stressful, badly paying job.
If you’re working 12-hour days, missing family time, and lying awake at night worried about cash flow, you’re not alone.
The business that was supposed to give you flexibility has become a prison, and you don’t know how to get out. And when you try to get help, most business coaches don’t understand the unique challenges of running a building business.
In this conversation, Amelia and Duayne get brutally honest about the trap so many builders fall into, and more importantly, how to climb out of it. You’ll discover why working harder isn’t the answer and how to identify exactly what needs fixing in your business first.
Watch the video now, or read the transcript below. Be sure to also subscribe to the Live Life Build YouTube channel.
Amelia
Do you feel trapped by the business that you’ve created?
You’re running a building business, it was supposed to be the ultimate thing of having freedom, autonomy and flexibility, but instead you probably feel like you’ve bought yourself a very stressful and badly paying job and that you’re ultimately trapped now with nowhere to go and no way to actually improve things.
Duayne
I can definitely talk about this one from personal experience. All I ever wanted was a building business, and the building business actually ended up taking away everything that was important to me.
I talk about it all the time, like my oldest daughter, Lottie, she very rarely saw me for the first two or three years of her life. So I missed out on a lot of family functions and weekends because of business.
Because of what I was doing and not knowing what I didn’t know, and just constantly treading water to keep the cashflow coming in, the bills getting paid, trying to keep everybody happy. It trapped me, and it can be a very difficult situation to get out of because I just didn’t know where to turn.
Amelia
It’s such a common occurrence for builders, isn’t it? Because you’re not taught how to run a business.
When you become a builder, you start doing the work that you’ve been trained to do, but then there are all of these other expectations on you to actually wear all these different hats to make the business run effectively. And yet you don’t necessarily have skills or experience in it.
All you’ve got is the evidence of how other builders have done it. And most of them have done it badly. And you think that just basically spending more time and trying to work harder is going to be the thing that makes it all happen for you.
Then you find that actually, no, all you’re doing is losing your opportunity to spend time with family, have freedom, and nothing feels like it’s getting ahead. You’re just really, really stuck and going around and around in circles. And it can feel so dark and desperate because you can feel like there’s no way out.
“All I ever wanted was a building business, and the building business actually ended up taking away everything that was important to me.”
– Duayne
Duayne
Well, exactly. And on top of that, even when I tried to get help, the people that were trying to help me were basically telling me to do the same things that I’m already doing.
They weren’t actually helping me with my mindset and my mental health and the systems and the processes that I need to get out of that trap and so it can be a very lonely place because if you haven’t worked in our industry, if you haven’t run a building business, if you don’t understand our clients, it’s very difficult to have the conversations that need to be had, to get you out of that place because people just don’t understand.
Amelia
And I think it’s really common too, that when you are in this place, when you’re just feeling like you’re totally trapped, you don’t know what to work on first… like, it just looks like you’ve got a whole heap of fires to put out and you can be really unsure about what is going to be the thing that I need to start paying attention to, to try and turn this around.
So, what I love when we work with builder members inside ELEVATE, one of the very first things that we do is take them through our 6P Elevator model. It’s a wheel of life coaching model.
We’ve identified 14 areas that we believe every building business needs to be focusing on to improve, to grow, and to be profitable and sustainable long-term.
Just by working through that 6P Wheel, scoring yourself out of 10 in each of the segments on the metrics that we give you, all of a sudden you can have a great clarity about…
“Okay, these are the top three areas that I actually need to start working on because I know then that I’ve got a pathway. I’ve got a roadmap now.”
And of course, then we back you up with all of the training sessions, the tools, and the templates to be able to know what you need to do in those areas that you’ve identified.
It’s really important to get your hands on all that information because when you’re feeling trapped and you don’t know where to go, you’ll start to question yourself about…
“Can I have more? Can I have the business I want?”
And the truth is, you can.
You can have the business you want. You can have more. And you’re allowed to build your business the way that you want to build it.
The reality is simple: You don’t have to stay trapped.
What Duayne shared about missing those precious early years with his daughter hits hard because it’s happening to many builders right now.
But here’s what we know after working with hundreds of builders: this story doesn’t have to be your story forever.
You started your building business because you wanted something better. More control, more income, more time with the people who matter. You’re allowed to have that. You’re allowed to build your business the way you want to build it.
The difference between builders who stay trapped and those who break free is having a clear roadmap to identify what’s actually broken in your business and the right tools to fix it systematically.
If you’re ready to stop feeling trapped and start building the business (and life) you actually want, ELEVATE is designed specifically for builders like you who are tired of working harder but getting nowhere.
Inside ELEVATE, you’ll work through the same 6P Elevator identifying exactly which of the 14 critical areas need your attention first, then getting the systems, tools, and support to fix them systematically. No more guessing what to work on. No more spinning your wheels.
Because the business that’s currently trapping you? It can be the one that sets you free.
Ready to reclaim your freedom? Learn more about ELEVATE here.