The Struggle Continues
Helen met Grant and the two moved to Wauchope. Having to lose her job once again, Helen finally decided to start her own cleaning business.
“I walked for hours doing letter box drops and because I am such a detail oriented person I designed check lists for each cleaning job. Real estate property managers started to contact me to clean for them and basically the work just took off,” Helen recalls.
It was successful and Helen was able to enjoy some time off which she would then spend helping Grant with his books. Unfortunately, just when her cleaning business was at its peak, Helen suffered a serious injury at the gym breaking one of the facet joints in her back throwing a wrench in the wheel.
The unexpected Job
Journey as an Electrical Apprentice
“In the early stages of working with Grant I considered an apprenticeship but quickly dismissed the idea as I am not a classroom learner. My ultimate learning environment has been on the job and standing there trying to figure it out. Also the $14,600 price tag for an apprenticeship did not help either as we faced mortgage payments and everyday living expenses like every other Tradie,” Helen explains.
Luckily, in June 2018, the government announced free apprenticeships and the duo discussed this opportunity again. Despite knowing it would be a huge commitment and a real stretch out of her comfort level, the brave girl still decided to give it a shot and enrolled in TAFE Port Macquarie as an electrical apprentice.
If you asked her how her first class was, “overwhelming” would be an understatement!
“My first class of DC Theory they were talking about math formulas and algebra. Oh my gosh – I was completely lost,” Helen says. Since then every day has been a struggle, yet the first year electrical apprentice is not yet ready to give up!
Life as a Tradie Partner
For Helen, a typical day starts at 3:45 am.
“I get up and do bookwork, ensure that the jobs and all materials are ready for the day. Then I will review my TAFE work followed by a gym session or run. At 7:30am – I head off to work that consists of – crawling through the roof or under a house, installing cables, fitting off power points, replacing lights, installing TV antennas, installing / replacing smoke alarms. At 4:00pm the job ends and the management begins. Invoices, book-keeping, scheduling and returning calls. Every fortnight I have a personal training session at the gym. There are times where I will do an afternoon spin session in our garage or a cardio workout on the rowing machine. 8:00 pm, Bedtime.
What keeps Helen going every day!
Proudest Moment
Other passions
About Tradie Life
Tradie Life is a growing community group run by i4Tradies. It’s a place for you to talk about whatever’s important to you as a tradie. Be it your personal life challenges, questions on how to improve your business, your journey so far, volunteer work, being a female tradie, work-life balance, what you like to do when you are not working. Pretty much anything that matters to you and you want an answer to it from veteran tradies who have walked in your shoes.
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