The Business Behind Blue-Collar

Who This Monthly Series Is For

The Business Behind Blue-Collar is built for residential contractors and the professionals who work directly with contractor businesses, including CPAs, banks and lenders, attorneys, marketing firms, payroll providers, software partners, supply companies, and local government representatives who actively support the trades. It is for owner-operators and growing teams who want more structure, clearer numbers, and a business that does not rely on the owner for everything. This is not a generic networking event, a job fair, or a room for vendors looking to prospect outside the trades. If you care about helping contractor businesses run stronger and more structured, you are in the right place.

Info: Arrive, check in, grab a drink, and connect with other residential contractors and trade professionals. This time is intentionally unstructured to allow for casual conversation before the program begins.

Info: Jay Nelson opens the evening by setting the stage for why TradeWins exists and why many contractors were taught the trade but never taught how to intentionally build the business underneath the work. This segment focuses on the difference between being busy and having a structured business, why owner dependency is so common in the trades, and how weak financial visibility quietly creates stress across marketing, sales, and operations.

Info: Noah Skiles, CPA, shares how a lack of financial clarity keeps owners stuck in the middle of their business even when revenue is strong. This session breaks down the difference between revenue, cash flow, and real profit, highlights the key KPIs that matter in a residential trade business, and explains what changes when owners can clearly see and understand what the money is doing.

Info: Jay brings the conversation back together by connecting financial clarity to structure and decision-making. This segment explains how data and KPIs fit inside a Business Operating System, why every core function must be strong, and how clear numbers support delegation, accountability, and building a company that does not run entirely through the owner.

Info: The evening closes with open discussion, questions, and real-world conversation. This time is designed to connect the ideas back to real contractor decisions, talk through implementation challenges, and allow space for one-on-one conversations to continue.

Info: Most contractors don’t struggle because they’re bad at the work. Many are skilled, busy, and profitable. The real challenge is that very few were ever taught how to intentionally build the business underneath the work. Structure, systems, clear numbers, and defined roles are what allow a trade business to grow without running entirely through the owner. The Business Behind Blue-Collar exists to help contractors understand and build that missing layer. This monthly series is not a sales pitch or a theory-heavy workshop. It’s a practical, operator-led conversation about how real trade businesses are structured, run, and grown over time. Each session is designed to create clarity around real decisions contractors are already facing and to learn alongside others in the trades. For those who want to go deeper, TradeWins also offers structured education beyond these monthly conversations, including an upcoming in-person course through Ivy Tech. Details are shared at the event.

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Host or Publisher TradeWins: A Blue-Collar Collective