A lot of building businesses are run by a woman, and almost nobody says so out loud. She does the numbers, the admin, the scheduling and half the decisions, and she was never handed a system to do any of it with.
Most conversations about women in construction are about the tools, the site and the trades, and they should be. This one is about the office, because that is where a great many women in this industry actually sit, and it is where the money is won or lost.
On the paperwork, on the loan, and carrying the same risk. Often with less say in the numbers than the person on site, and no clear seat at the table when the big calls get made.
Invoicing, progress claims, BAS, chasing payment, paying subbies. She can see the cash gap coming weeks before anyone else does, and is rarely asked.
Scheduling, contracts, variations, compliance, the client who rings at seven on a Sunday. When any of it is in her head instead of in a process, the business cannot grow past her.
Support is not the point. Systems, numbers and authority are the point. The support is what makes them stick.

Jess coaches women, and only women. That is the whole of her practice, and it is the reason this program exists separately from everything else Builders Coach does.
She works on the parts of a building business that land on the woman running it: the numbers, the marketing, the admin, the processes and the systems. And on leading in an industry that is still overwhelmingly male, which is a real skill and almost nobody teaches it.
Behind her sits the Million Dollar Builder system, the margin, pricing, sales and operating framework Kurt Hegetschweiler has been refining with residential builders since 2004 and testing across thousands of building businesses. You get the system that already works, and a coach who understands what it is like to be the only woman in the room.
The same field-tested material Builders Coach uses with every building business, delivered one to one for the person actually doing the work, plus the parts that usually get left out.
The numbers and the sales process are usually where the biggest gains sit, but not always. If your front end already works and the problem is the admin, the team or the marketing, that is where the work goes. It is personalised coaching with Jess, not a course everybody moves through at the same pace.
Real gross margin per job, breakeven, and the difference between margin and markup. Cash in before cash out, so the business stops financing its own jobs. Confidence with the figures, not just access to them.
Job costing, contracts and variations, scheduling, and an operations manual that lives outside your head. Plus the marketing side, so the enquiries coming in are the ones you actually want.
Holding your position with subbies, suppliers, clients and your own team. Being taken seriously on the numbers. Saying the hard thing in a meeting and having it land. This is the part no generic program covers.
It is personalised one-to-one coaching with Jess, and there is a small group of women in the same position to talk to. Both matter. The systems change the business, the room changes how alone it feels.
Some of the strongest building businesses we work with are husband and wife teams. One is across the site, the trades and the build. The other is across the money, the clients and the process. When both halves are working off the same numbers and the same plan, it is a serious combination. When they are not, it turns into the same argument on a Sunday night, every week.
A lot of what Builders Coach for HER does is get both people looking at one set of figures and one process, so the business stops being carried by two people pulling different ways.
Whether your name is first on the licence or not, you are making the calls that decide whether it is profitable.
Finance, admin, scheduling, contracts and clients. You know where the problems are, and you have enough say in the business to actually fix them.
Not a bookkeeping course. Knowing what each job actually made and why, and being able to say so in a meeting and hold the room.
The systems only work if they get used, and using them means changing how the business prices, sells and operates. That part is the same for everybody.
Builders Coach has been working with women in residential construction for years, well before it became a conversation the industry was having out loud. If your association, network or branch is putting on a women in construction event, Jess presents.
Typical sessions: knowing your numbers, pricing and margin for the person doing the invoicing, systems that let a building business grow past its owners, and holding your position as a woman leading in construction.
Thirty minutes with Jess. Where the business is now, what is getting in the way, and whether Builders Coach for HER is the right fit. No cost.
We will never pass your details to anyone else. Or email info@builderscoach.com.au
Jess Norton. Every session, one to one. She coaches women and only women.
The framework behind the coaching is Builders Coach's, built by Kurt Hegetschweiler over twenty years with residential builders. The person in the room with you is Jess.
You need enough influence to change how it runs. Most of the women in the program own or co-own the company, and the rest are running the money and the systems with a real say in the decisions.
If you cannot change how the business prices, sells or operates, coaching will frustrate you rather than help you. Better to know that up front.
Yes, and it usually works better that way. Some of the strongest building businesses we work with are husband and wife teams. The point is that both people end up working off the same numbers and the same process.
It is the reason the program exists. Nobody arrives fluent in gross margin and breakeven, and you will not be made to feel behind for asking.
Yes. Jess presents at association events, branch meetings and workshops. Email info@builderscoach.com.au with the date and the audience.