Why You’re Stuck (And How to Escape the Trade School Time Trap)

Lucky 30 weeks down in the books - thank you!

🔥 Can you believe it?! This is newsletter week 30, and we’re about to break 1265 subscribers—amazing! Even crazier, 231 of you have taken the leap and started the WIOA process. And get this—my X account just crossed 7,400 new friends. Who would've thought building a brand around trade schools could be this exciting?

Shout out to my peer group.

The Hardest Truth About Success

I used to think more money was the solution to everything.

If I just worked harder, put in more hours, grinded through every problem myself… THEN I’d break through.

Spoiler alert: I didn’t.

Instead, I hit a ceiling. I was buried in work, answering every email, solving every issue, wearing all the hats. My business was growing, but my time was shrinking. Sound familiar?

Then I came across Dan Martell’s book, "Buy Back Your Time." And it hit me like a ton of bricks:

“You don’t grow your business to make more money. You grow your business to buy back your time.”

That’s when I realized that trade schools should be built this way, too.

The Trade School Time Trap

Most people who want to start a trade school fall into the same trap I did:

• Doing everything yourself. (Because no one can do it as well as you, right? 🫠)

• Wasting hours on tasks, someone else could do.

• Working IN the business instead of ON it.

That’s why so many trade school owners get stuck. They’re trapped running a job instead of owning a business.

How to Build a Trade School That Runs Without You

Here’s how I applied Dan Martell’s Buyback Principle to my trade school:

1️⃣ Audit Your Time – List everything you do daily. Now, circle the tasks that drain you or don’t move the needle. (Be honest.)

2️⃣ Delegate the $10 Tasks – Answering emails, scheduling students, admin work—pass it off. (I used to think I was saving money by doing it all myself. Nope. It was costing me time and freedom.)

3️⃣ Automate What You Can – Enrollments? CRM. Student follow-ups? Pre-recorded videos. Payments? Auto-billing. The less you manually do, the more you can scale.

4️⃣ Focus on Growth Moves – Instead of spending time on admin, I shifted to:
✅ Getting trade schools WIOA-approved for funding
✅ Building better marketing & partnerships
✅ Coaching others on how to scale enrollments.

And guess what? My school didn’t just survive—it grew past $2.4M while I worked less.