Why this exists
Most people in the trades learned their craft the right way, from someone who knew it, on real jobs, over years. Almost nobody gets that same education on the business side.
You learn pricing by underbidding a job. You learn contracts when one goes bad. You learn about taxes in April, from an accountant, in a hurry. It's an expensive way to get an education, and it's the only one most tradespeople are offered.
The Midlands Trade Association exists to offer a better one.
What we do
We hold free sessions where a specialist teaches one business topic to a room of trade professionals, then breaks the room into small groups to work through the specifics. No membership requirement. Show up, learn something, use it.
What makes this different
There are already good networking groups in the Midlands. This isn't one of them.
Networking gets you contacts. Education gets you a business that can handle the work those contacts send you. We're built entirely around the second thing. You'll meet people here, and that's great, but it's a byproduct, not the reason to come.
Who this is for
- Just went out on your own and are figuring out the business side in real time
- Running a small shop that's hit a ceiling and needs something you don't currently have
- Established, doing fine, and want to get sharper on one specific thing
Every trade is welcome. There's no size requirement and no geographic boundary. If you can make it to the meeting, you belong in the room.
Who we are
The Midlands Trade Association was founded by a group of Midlands business and trade professionals who kept running into the same gap: plenty of places to make connections, nowhere to learn the parts of the business nobody teaches you.
We're building this in the open. As the organization formalizes, we'll publish our structure and leadership here.
Leadership and entity status: to be published.
We'd rather leave this blank than fill it with names that aren't settled. It goes up here when it's real.
Our specialists
Everyone who teaches at MTA volunteers their time. They're professionals in marketing, accounting, law, insurance, finance, and other fields who work with trade businesses and know what they're actually dealing with.
In exchange, they get to meet the room. They don't get to sell to it.