Why you attract the wrong clients II | 97

Electricians! This is a follow on from part one... 

I got offered a “dream job” from a house flipper — until their coach told me what I should charge. Months later, the place fell apart.

This one’s about spotting red flags early, walking away from bad clients, and knowing your worth before someone else prices it for you.

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Transcript

I like a cherry on top when I go to the man who cuts my hair. Welcome to Simplified Sparky Marketing.
 I’ve hidden a riddle in that intro, so if you decode it, you’ll figure out who I’m talking about.

This story came back to me this morning while I was making a coffee. It’s a follow-up to yesterday’s podcast about that AI-renovation bloke, and it’s about a house flipper. Someone quite well-known — you’ve probably seen them on Channel 9 or Channel 10 — one of those “buy a dump, do it up, flip it for profit” types.

Back around 2017, I got a call from a young couple who’d just bought a property near where I was living. They wanted work done — new PowerPoints, switches, lights, kitchen reno, the lot. Over the phone it sounded like a big, juicy job. So I went round for a look.

When I got there, they were friendly enough, but straight away something felt off. They pulled out a folder, neatly organised, with pages and pages of details. It was like a project brief. I thought, “What’s this about?”

Inside were itemised lists — Bunnings light switches, four PowerPoints, fittings, and even a “labour allowance.” Then I saw the number: $1,000 for labour.

Even back then, when my pricing was shocking, I knew there was no way. This was two days’ work at least. So I asked them, “Where did you get that number?”

She said, “Oh, that’s what our coach told us.”
 And that’s when it clicked — the riddle from the start.

They were part of one of those property flipping programs where some “guru” tells them how to squeeze every cent out of a job. Their model was simple: cheap fittings, cheap trades, and a quick cosmetic facelift — new floorboards, lick of paint, a few lights, a couple of PowerPoints. Just enough to make it look fresh so they could rent it for more, then sell it later.

I told them straight, “Look, I can’t do it for that price. For that reason, I’m out.” Proper Dragons’ Den moment. They were polite, but they were stuck on what their “coach” said, like gospel.

This ties back to yesterday’s podcast. You’ve got people — like the AI guy — teaching others to devalue trades. And the sad part is, they find plenty of tradies who’ll do it for peanuts. You know the type — the bloke working for himself but really just subbing on $50 an hour, thinking he’s killing it. They don’t realise they’re actually holding the industry back.

Fast forward six or seven months. I get a call from a local real estate agent about an issue in one of their rental properties. No bells rang straight away, but the address sounded familiar. When I rocked up, sure enough — it was that apartment.

They said there was a problem with the hot water and the oven not working. I went in, and mate, it was a sight to see. The bathroom tiles had been painted, but with one dodgy coat. Every time someone turned the taps, their fingernails scratched the paint off the wall. The kitchen had greasy light fittings catching dust like fly traps. The switchboard was the original one — they’d just jammed a few extra breakers in it.

I pulled the oven out and found a rat’s nest of junction boxes behind it. Looked like they’d hidden the mess and pushed the oven back in. Tested everything — the oven had power, the hot water was working fine. The issues were probably user error, but it was a disaster behind the scenes.

Then came the real kicker — sending the invoice to the real estate. I charged fairly for the time and testing. They called back and said, “But you didn’t really fix anything, did you?”

That was the end of my real estate career — and I was happy to see it go.

Here’s the thing: I actually loved that kind of small, service-style work. Quick jobs, in and out. But there’s no real money in it unless you’re sending an apprentice and running it like a volume operation — which isn’t worth the headache.

So I walked away from that type of client, and it was one of the best moves I ever made.

That’s business. You get stung, you learn, and you move on. And every bad experience brings you closer to the clients you do want — the ones who respect your time and pay you properly.

It all ties back to knowing your target market. Who’s actually paying your bills? Who’s giving your business and your family stability? And are those the people you really want to serve?

That’s the question.

Have a cracking weekend, and I’ll catch you next week.