I have watched 3 guys leave great trade jobs to start their own shop this year. Two are thriving. One came back.

Three Canadian tradespeople I know personally left wage jobs to start their own shops in the last 12 months. Two are thriving. One closed up shop last month and went back to the wage job. They have nearly identical technical skills, similar markets, similar starting capital. The difference is not what most people think it is.

I am going to call them Mike, Dave, and Tom. Those are not their real names. The stories are real.

Mike (thriving)

Mike was a senior plumber at a mid-sized Alberta shop. Made about $95K a year. Left in February to start his own residential service business in Calgary. By month four he was clearing more than his old wage, by month eight he had hired a second tech.

What Mike did right:

• Saved 8 months of personal expenses before he quit. No mortgage stress, no panic pricing in the first quarter.
• Niched aggressively. He picked one thing (water heaters and tankless conversions) and built his whole marketing around it. Did not try to be everything to everybody.
• Charged what the market would pay, not what he felt comfortable charging. This is the single biggest mistake I see new owners make. Mike priced 15% above his old shop, not 15% below. The pricing patterns are exactly what I broke down in what 50 Canadian plumbers actually charge.
• Did his own admin until he hated it, then hired an admin person at the 6-month mark. Not a tech. Admin first.

Dave (thriving)

Dave was a journeyman electrician in Edmonton, made about $90K. Left in May. Different model than Mike. He partnered with another electrician he had worked with for 6 years. The two of them brought a small book of existing customers each, plus a builder relationship Dave had been nurturing on the side.

What Dave did right:

• Did not start cold. He had work lined up before he gave notice. Two builder projects committed, plus 30 service customers from his side work.
• Picked the right partner. Both contributed equal capital. Both took identical draws. They wrote down who owned what and how disputes would get resolved before any work happened.
• Took on debt strategically. Bought a second van on financing, hired a third electrician within three months, used the financing to scale faster than Mike. He also hired his first apprentice within the first year, which positioned him to access the Team Canada Strong funding when it launched.

Tom (came back)

Tom was an HVAC tech in B.C., made about $80K. Left in March. Closed the business in November. Now back at a different shop, making roughly his old wage.

What went wrong:

• Undercapitalized. Tom had about 6 weeks of personal savings when he quit. By month two he was pricing jobs to win them, not to be profitable. By month four he was working 70 hours a week to cover his draw.
• No admin system. Did all his quoting on his phone at the end of the day. Lost track of invoices. Spent his weekends doing QuickBooks instead of marketing. This is exactly the trap I described in tracking your admin hours.
• Tried to be a generalist. Took every call that came in. Residential service one day, light commercial the next. Never built a repeatable workflow because no two jobs looked the same.
• Pricing was reactive. Whatever the customer pushed back on, he discounted. Within three months his average ticket was below his old employer's.

Tom is not a bad tradesperson. He is one of the best technicians I have worked with. But technical skill and business ownership are completely different jobs. Tom went back to a shop where he could focus on what he is great at. That is not a failure. That is a clear-eyed call most people would not have the courage to make.

The pattern

After 8 years working with Canadian trade businesses, I have watched this story play out maybe 40 times. The Mike and Dave outcome and the Tom outcome.

The Mikes and Daves share three things:

1. They had financial runway. Not a fortune. Just enough that the first three months could be spent building the business, not scrambling for cash.
2. They had a customer plan before they had a business plan. Either a niche they could name, or a list of customers they already knew.
3. They built operating systems early. Not fancy ones. Even a notebook and a checklist counts. The point is repeatability.

The Toms I have watched share two things:

1. They left because the wage job sucked, not because the business plan was ready. Push factor, not pull factor.
2. They priced to win the work, not to run a business. Always the same outcome.

What I tell every tradesperson who asks

"Should I start my own shop?" is the wrong question. The right questions are:

• Do I have 6 months of personal expenses saved?
• Can I name the first 20 customers I will serve?
• Do I have a system for quoting, invoicing, and following up, or am I going to wing it?
• Am I leaving because I want to build something, or because my boss is a jerk?

If the answers are yes, yes, yes, and "build something," you are ready. If any of them are no, give yourself 6 more months at the wage job and fix that one. The trades will still be here.

The Mikes and Daves were not better technicians than Tom. They were just more honest with themselves about what they were walking into.