Tim and Brad have been mates for as long as they can remember. This bond only got stronger as the pair became tradies, and eventually business partners for their company – Habitat Carpenters.
“We’ve been best mates forever,” Brad said.
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“We did our apprenticeships with the same blokes 20 years ago. That’s been good because we work the same way, think the same way and want the same things which has helped Habitat grow quickly.”
Quality view
Habitat Carpenters main clientele lie on the Mornington Peninsula, where they offer full-fixed price package start-to-finish for residential builds.
“We both framed growing up and doing custom builds on the Peninsula,” Brad said.
“In that world, we found together we had a knack for building those kinds of houses.
“As Habitat came in, we dove into that world pretty much starting at that $2 million range of house.
“As we’ve moved through the pricing, we’ve found we’re able to move into the top echelon of what’s getting built on the Peninsula.”
Not only has being based in one of Australia’s hottest building destinations paid off, but it’s also allowed Tim and Brad to develop a team of locals who enjoy rocking up to work on a picturesque coastline each day.
“When we started Habitat, our big thing was we didn’t wanna drive,” Brad said.
“We didn’t want to going into town, getting stuck in traffic … we kept that mentality for the guys we brought on that they don’t have to drive more than 40 minutes.
“That keeps us between Mornington and Portsea pretty much.”
Supercoach(es)
Habitat Carpenters sits at about 20 team members, around five of which are usually apprentices.
“With the style of work we do it’s very qualification-heavy,”
Tim said.
“Our apprentices need as much of a chance to work alongside our qualified guys and take as much knowledge on as they can.
“If you have an apprentice-heavy team, they all just end up being labourers and they don’t learn on the jobsite.”
Growing their team and business has been massively aided by Carpentry Australia.
The pair have been involved with the association for some time, but got the whole Habitat team on-board in the last 12 months or so.
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Free t-shirts aside, Brad and Tim really appreciated Carpentry Australia’s role in helping them take the leap from tradies to business superstars.
“Carpentry Australia helped us get connected with Business Benchmark Group (BBG) – our business coach – that was a real turning point for us in becoming business owners,” Tim said.
“That really helped us shift our identity from being carpenters to being business owners.
Brad added that it “gave our team the best opportunity to be the best carpenters they can be.”
“Giving them really solid and safe jobs has been a real mindset of ours, and we’re able to do that because of Carpentry Australia.”
You can find out more about Habitat Carpenters on Instagram
@habitat_carpenters