You have registered the ABN, bought the tools and lined up the first jobs. Now you need to look like a business. Good branding for tradies is not about a big launch. It is a handful of well-made printed pieces that make a new operation look like it has been around for years.
The temptation is to order everything at once: cards, shirts, vehicle signage, stickers, a banner. Do not. Start with the things that earn back their cost fastest, in this order.
Where should branding for tradies start?
With the vehicle. It is the single biggest upgrade a trade business can make. A plain white ute says you just started. A ute with clean door logos, contact details and a line about what you do says you are a business. The work might be identical. The customer's confidence is not.
Start with door lettering and decals and a rear window decal. That is enough to look established. If you run a trailer, that is prime space too, and our guide to ute, van and trailer signage explains how to use it.
Before you order: measure the flat areas of your doors and rear window, avoiding handles, trims and deep curves, and send us those sizes with a photo of each side. That is what we design the decals to. You or an installer you choose then apply them.
Uniform your team, even if it is just you
One person in a branded polo looks like a business. One person in a random tee looks like someone who does jobs on the weekend. It sounds harsh, but customers notice, especially homeowners letting someone into their house.
Start with enough shirts to rotate through a work week, usually three to five each. A quality blank like the Pique polo with a properly printed logo is all you need. Match the colour to your brand if you have one. If you do not, black or navy with a white logo works on almost everything. If you work on roads or busy sites, read hi-vis, polos or tees first.
Put a corflute sign out at every job
When you are working at a job, put a corflute sign out the front. Your name, what you do and your phone number. That is it. Every job site becomes an ad to the neighbours, the posties, the dog walkers and anyone driving past.
They are affordable enough to replace when they get damaged and light enough to throw in the back of the ute. Keeping a small stack ready makes you look organised. The tradie with a sign out front looks like they do this for a living. For the wording, see what actually needs to go on trade signage.
Business cards that do not embarrass you
Tradies hand out cards more than almost anyone: on site, at the hardware store, at the pub, at the kids' footy. A card on heavy stock with a clean layout gets kept. One that feels like printer paper gets lost in the glovebox.
Do you still need them? Yes. People still ask, and a physical card is harder to lose than a text with a number in it. Our take on whether tradies still need business cards goes further. Keep a box of business cards in the glovebox, the tool bag and your wallet.
Stickers on the work you leave behind
Branded stickers on your toolbox, your invoices and your finished jobs. Small, simple, consistent. A sticker with your logo on a switchboard cover, inside a meter box or on a serviced unit is a reminder that lasts for years, and the next person who opens it knows who to call.
Die-cut stickers get more economical the more you order, and every one you leave behind keeps working.
Rule of thumb: use the same logo, colours and phone number on all of it. When the ute, the shirt, the site sign and the card all match, people remember you after one job.
What can wait until later?
Embroidered jackets, promotional products and banners are all good investments eventually, but none of them is essential on day one. Get the fundamentals right first. Once the business is running and cash flow is steady, add the extras.
What drives the cost of the kit?
Put together, the starter kit is simple: vehicle door graphics and a rear window decal, a handful of branded shirts, a stack of corflute site signs, a box of business cards and a run of stickers. It is a modest spend next to your tool kit, and it keeps working on every job.
What moves the cost of each piece is predictable: the size and number of decals, the garment and how many print positions, the size and quantity of signs, the card stock and finish, and how much design work your logo needs to be print-ready. Live pricing is on each product page across everything we make, so you can price the whole kit and trim it to your budget. If you have to stage it, do the vehicle first and the site signs second.
Common questions
What is the first thing a new tradie should get printed?
Vehicle signage. Door logos and a rear window decal work every day, in every driveway and car park, without any effort from you.
How many work shirts does a tradie need?
Enough to rotate through a work week, usually three to five per person. Start there, confirm the fit, then add more.
Do I need a logo before I start?
It helps, but it does not have to be elaborate. A clean name in a strong typeface, used the same way on every piece, is enough to begin. We can also design one for you.
Start with the ute: car lettering decals are priced live on the product page. Send us your sizes, then upload your logo or have us design it.
