What is a Tidy Partner? How’s it different to sub-contracting? 

To be frank, talk to one of our crews to understand how awesome it is to work with Tidy Slabs. In this article, we’ll give you a taster. Then, if you’re interested, get in touch. We’ll korero and show you what being part of the Tidy Slabs family means. 

Note: Michael Jordan once said, “If you do the work you get rewarded. There are no shortcuts in life.” In this model, we’re doing it smarter, so hard workers get more treats for their mahi.

5 benefits of being a Tidy Slabs Partner

1. You can make a salary plus six figures as Tidy Partner. If you’re a hard worker, you can make a packet, without taking much risk. 
2. You become a business owner without all the administration stresses. We feed you the jobs and you lay the slabs. Our head office does all the administrative work behind the scenes. 
3. You focus on one thing and you do that well - laying slabs and smashing it. 
4. You take control of your life, so when you do the mahi, you not only get a handsome salary but you also get way more control of your work-life balance
5. Opportunities for growth beyond laying slabs. We live and breathe getting better, whether we are watching Jocko Willink, watching Israel Adesanya, going on a course, or getting Ross to teach us how to stick a pig. Life is short and we need to learn and grow into our potential.

Who makes the most money?

Honesty is important, so when we talk about those who pay their own salary and then take 6-figures home on top of that. This only happens to motivated people who want to win. The best Tidt Partners are on-site with their crew. They work hard to get better with each job. They take pride in their mahi. (We’ve also noticed husband-wife combos do well.)

The Tidy Slabs Partnership model explained - long version 

Partnerships and teamwork are keystones of almost every great feat. Over the years, we’ve learnt people do best when they have clear lanes and they focus on what they do best. We don’t have props kicking penalties and we don’t put fullbacks in the scrum, we make sure everyone is in their sweet spot. This means if you’re on a slab team, you are not smothered with administrative tasks, chasing invoices, and all those other tasks that cripple too many small NZ businesses. 

We are all in it together, but we’re smarter about it. 

So, what makes a great partnership? 

• We value the same things: hard work, getting better, being inspired, and a good joke at smoko. 
• We like you and value your Mahi so much that we’d go to war for you (what we really mean is great camaraderie)
• Everyone works in their sweet spots e.g. we don’t have a slabby chasing unpaid invoices and we don’t have an estimator bending steel.
• We all have clear and transparent incentives so we are aligned. 
• Honest and genuine conversations so we understand what everyone needs to succeed
• No grey areas. 
• No dickheads.

We’ve got a great team and a caring culture because we put a whole heck of time and effort into aligning our people, our incentives and our outcomes. It’s a win-win-win! 

Isn’t this just sub-contracting?

Nah. To us, it’s a lot more than fancy marketing. We care more. It’s bloody hard being a small business in New Zealand. Our office team shields you from the harsh realities of running a business. You are on the ground delivering our promise to our customers: a beautiful-looking slab on time.

In this article we will answer lots of the questions we get asked…

1. Explain a Tidy Partner.
2. Explain why we created the model
3. Outline the benefits to our Customers, Partners and the industry.
4. Answer some commonly asked questions
5. Describe what an ideal Tidy Partner looks like to us
6. Give you the road map to become one

What is the Tidy Partner model?

At Tidy Slabs our slab installers are Tidy Partners because we are in a partnership to deliver an exceptional experience to our joint customers. We must have a rock-solid partnership.

We all play to our strengths. Our field teams do some other things really well, like coordinating and scheduling on-site activities, fostering relationships with surveyors, plumbers, digger operators, and inspectors, executing formwork and steel work, and continually improving their build process whilst training the young fella next to them.

We acknowledge that the office-based team does some things really well (Think maintaining national relationships,  Foundation Design, Quoting, Ordering Materials, Accounting, and Quality Assurance) but probably couldn’t build a slab all that fast…

We are two halves of the same team—both halves require different skill sets and different tools/environments to prosper. Compare it to the forwards and backs on a rugby field. The forwards are in the office- they have a more controlled environment with defined roles - their job as a group is to feed quality go forward ball (a greenlit, ready-to-roll job) to the backs.  The backs (Tidy Partners) are in an uncontrolled environment, but luckily they are agile and have good hands - their job is to score the tries (smash out slabs).

We stick in our lanes and double down on our strengths, but we have also done something a little different in how we align incentives and reward our partners in the field.

If you look in from the outside, our Tidy Partners are Tidy Slabs. They drive vehicles with the Tidy Logo on the side, they dress in Tidy Uniforms, they are proud of the team they are a part of, and they share the same values and passion for the purpose that everyone at Tidy Slabs shares—but with one key distinction - they do not receive a wage or salary - but they don't work for free either. You could compare it to a Mainfreight Owner Driver type arrangement.

From a ‘legal perspective’, our Tidy Partners are subcontractors to Tidy Slabs. Our Partners have formed their own limited liability company, invested in their own tools and vehicles, and hired their own staff. They direct everything on-site and dictate how and when they work. When our estimators and engineers are pricing a job, they do so with a set of agreed labour rates for every activity that may fall within a slab. These rates are agreed and continually reviewed with the input of our Tidy Partners.

A Tidy Partner receives a pipeline of confirmed jobs from Tidy Slabs that have been quoted using our agreed labour rates. Tidy Slabs supplies the materials and the Tidy Partner then executes the work on site. As they receive a fixed labour amount, they are incentivised to complete the job on time - the faster they go, the more money they can earn. This approach aligns with Tidy Slabs' promise to build both efficiently and on schedule- this ensures the next job comes our way.

Why did we create this model?

Well, we didn’t create it, we tweaked it. On our journey, we learnt people deliver their best when they have skin in the game. Our model allows you to run your own business with less risk and without the normal stresses. Here are some similar examples

• Mainfreight driver/owner but you build your own Slabs
• Lawn mowing franchise but you are not a franchisee, so this is different.
• Uber Driver. We have a lot more soul to it than that. We are not an app that anyone can jump into. You are delivering a result as part of a team, with your team- not an app. 
• Labour-only roof installers, quite similar.
• Flooring installers - a very similar model
• Check out Ergeon.com in the USA. There are some similarities here

.What matters for us and why do we believe Partnerships are great? New Zealand is built on small businesses. 90% of all businesses have between 1-3 employees. There’s the good old Kiwi spirit to give it a crack, or fake it till you make it… It’s how we started! Unfortunately, as a country, we have some of the lowest productivity rates in the OECD. This lowers our wages and the standard of living. It keeps dropping. We believe our low productivity could be linked to the inexperience of the small business owners who go out there and give it a crack. There are so many things they should know but they don’t. We’ve built a business that supports small business owners - Our Tidy Partners. We provide a blueprint so they can deliver an exceptional service to our customers. They play to their strengths whilst our office team takes care of the paperwork side of things. We lob up sitters so they can hit sixes! To do this, we acknowledged that there are two parts to our team with two distinct skill sets.

1. Our office-based team designs, quotes, procures, project manages and QAs our slabs.
2. Our field-based team - our partners - execute on-site. 

We need to align the incentives between each group. When we pay based on output, our partners are rewarded for their hard work. If we play to our strengths and support each other, we deliver an exceptional product and experience to our customers. Together we will build strong and capable tradies and business owners. We are lifting the bar of the industry. We’re improving productivity. We’re increasing the income of our partners. We bring an enterprise-level service to slab buyers throughout NZ.

‍Benefits

What are the benefits to our customers we lay slabs for?

• Our customers receive top-notch service and communication but feel like you are dealing with a small, down-to-earth NZ business at the same time.
• Our customers will always have an “owner” on the ground executing your job, and in most cases, if you are a volume builder, you will have the same installer every time, allowing a strong, relationship to be formed.
• You will benefit from a national support office behind the small field team to ensure top-notch administration, communication, and quality throughout.
• Our customers benefit from our slab design service that ensures we have the most efficient slab design before we even allocate it to a Tidy Partner - this may just save you the most money.
• All slabs will have an independent pre-pour Quality Assurance Audit before the concrete is poured.
• All slabs receive an independent post-pour Quality Assurance Audit after the concrete is poured to identify any defects and help the installer remedy them before you need to worry about them.
• Our customers benefit from our national process of continuous improvement, which means we are constantly refining our slab design and build process and sharing it with all of our partners and customers nationwide. This means we can respond to building code changes quickly and effectively. It always results in the cheapest and fastest slab delivery, unmatched by the one-man band operators.
• This model is ultimately cheaper for our customers as it correctly aligns all of our incentives, it benchmarks best practices across all partners and collectively lifts the bar.
• Nationally negotiated buying rates from all suppliers means we not only get priority treatment at the concrete plant but also more competitive rates than most. 

‍What are the benefits to our Tidy Partners?

• You will be surrounded by a group of people who are hell-bent on helping you win and care about your productivity, profitability, safety and sanity.
• You will have an ongoing pipeline of work that is already designed as efficiently as possible, priced, and confirmed that the client wants us to do the job. No time wasted dealing with tyre kickers or pricing work you won’t win.
• You will have access to defined systems and processes to help run your business and build a slab as efficiently as possible.
• Because the work is repeatable, you spend more time doing and less time thinking. This equates to greater productivity from your team. 
• You will have a Project Manager who helps you win each day by lobbing up the jobs and then supporting you while you execute.
• Your work will go through a Quality Assurance process that not only ensures all of your work is checked by fresh eyes before concrete goes in, but then helps you to remedy and learn from any mistakes that may occur. 
• You will have a health and safety system that not only keeps you and your team safe but also reduces your admin and opens the door to Kainga Ora and Retirement village-type jobs that may be out of your reach due to the safety admin burden.
• No chasing unpaid invoices (we always pay on time or early).
• You will benefit from the consistent support and accountability we provide to all our partners nationwide - it ensures our collective reputation is upheld in all regions we work, which in turn generates more workflow. 
• You may be a small business owner, but you will also be part of a wider community of people with the same values and mission as you. We bring the Tidy Partner community together often to share in the social aspect and learn from each other. 

‍What are the benefits to our industry?

• We double down on the reality of small businesses in NZ and lean into it. People want to be their own bosses, and that is okay. We can help them be the best boss and achieve success.
• We take good tradesmen/field operators and help fill in their gaps—the parts they can’t invest in without scale or the parts they can’t always do justice to while smashing out the mahi on site (Admin, Communication, Health and Safety, Quality, Presentation, etc.).
• As a group, we play to our strengths and hold each other accountable while providing the support needed to continue to grow. 
• We are then able to raise the bar in terms of customer experience and productivity. This ultimately results in better tradesmen/business owners, more productivity and prosperity for the Tidy Partners and their staff (and cheaper and faster slabs delivered for the industry!).

Commonly asked questions

“Is it a franchise?” No,it is technically not a franchise. The office team quote and win the work, you will execute it - we are one team. But, like a franchise, we do try allocate you a specific geographic area and a set of repeat customers to service. We then give you a blueprint to follow to succeed.

‍“Don’t you just sub out the slabs and clip the ticket? Surely that makes it more expensive for the customers?” As it turns out, it’s more cost-effective for slab buyers and slab builders. We are aligned and all aiming for the same outcome, we build faster. When Slabs are built faster, more slabs are built. This means there's more income for the Tidy Partner. We fix the labour component and don’t need to build any more risk into the project. This keeps our margins lean and keeps the price low for the slab buyer.  A national procurement program means we can leverage volume and be leaner in our material costs.

‍“If you pay a fixed labour rate for the slab, surely that incentives speed over quality?” In some way yes it would. Our in-house quality assurance system brings a huge amount of accountability. Most people who buy our slabs are high-volume repeat customers. We are incentivised to deliver a slab that is to specifications so that these customers keep choosing us over the competition. We can’t do that with a low-quality slab. Long-term client relationships make the process easier for everyone.

‍“Aren’t you just pushing the liability down? And removing the obligations of an employer?”Subcontracting just happens to be the contractural model of choice for most people in our industry. We would happily have a team if could align the incentives the same way. We’ve tried it. People are better when they have skin in the game. It is not our intent to push liability down. It’s the opposite. We want to share in the reward together. It’s our job to help our Tidy Partners perform well and deliver on expectations - when they do, we all win.

‍“Are they captive employees?”Although our Tidy Partners are subcontractors who wear our uniforms and have our logo on their trucks, they are not captive employees. We provide them with a pipeline of work and support them to execute how they choose. Ultimately, Partners provide all the manpower and all of the tools of the trade required. Partners decide how and when they will do the work. They are well and truly owners of their own business. We are there to support them.

Attributes of a Great Tidy Partner

• Sincere
• Agile
• Relentless
• Humble
• Organised
• Great communicator
• Growth mindset

Who would make a good Tidy Partner

• Labour-only slab installers who are currently subcontracting to other slab companies BUT you are either not aligned with the mothership, or are not receiving adequate workflow.
• Owners of full package slab companies who want to simplify their business and go back to basics - come and join us and who knows? Maybe you will make more money with less stress.
• Labour Only builders who recognise the value in specialisation and want to dive into the slab game. Focus on repeatable work, increase productivity and profit.
• Project Managers that would want to get back on the tools, run their own ship and push their earnings up.
• Practical white-collar workers who want to get out of the office and work with their hands and are quick learners.

Who would NOT make a good Tidy Partner?

• If you are a builder who is passionate about your craft, loves timber finishing work, loves tricky high-end builds/renovations but is running out of work and thinks slabs might be easy for you to fill in gaps between jobs - this is not for you. You have to be all in on slabs and our systems.
• If you have a big crew that you are trying to keep busy and think it might be a good idea to set a couple of guys up as slab installers on the side as a fill-in - this is not for you. The beauty of the model is that all of our incentives are aligned - the owner must be on the ground executing and a 2-3 person team works the best.
• If you are a slab installer but don't yet have your LBP and someone signs off your work. We believe in lifting the bar of the industry and so should you. Get your LBP. 
• If you are hell-bent on flying your own flag as a business owner, don’t believe in our mission, and are not constantly trying to better yourself - Tidy Slab will be painful for you!

What does it look like for our Partners?

• The owner is an LBP
• 2-3 man field team.
• 1 x Truck + All tools
• Trailer + Boxing system provided.
• Output target: 125-150m2 of slab per person per week.
• Revenue target: $25k - $45k per month.
• Profit after overheads and owner salary  - $100k + (when it clicks, this could be much greater)
• Work-life - 45 hours per week, but with great flexibility.
• The best results happen if the Tidy Partner is always on-site with the crew.
• The most effective Partners are a husband/wife combo that plays to their strengths.

The Tidy Partner Roadmap

1. Keep it simple - start by giving us a call - but do yourself a favour and do some research on us and what we believe in - make sure you align before getting in touch. 
2. If we see some alignment, we will start by just giving you a job to execute. Not a Tidy Partner yet, just a subcontractor, but you're on the way. 
3. If that one works, we will give you another job. 
4. If the alignment is clear, we will eventually invite you to become a full-time Tidy Partner.
5. We will sign-write your vehicle, onboard your staff into the team, provide uniforms, allocate specific customers for you to service, and commit to filling your workflow full-time.
6. Get in touch to start the journey.