In this episode of Jimmy Talks Construction, Jimmy sits down with Ben Graham, Director of Civil Contracting Solutions QLD, for a brutally honest conversation about building a civil construction business in Queensland.

Ben shares his journey from working on tier one basement projects in Brisbane to being told he couldn’t work in the city for 12 months — and what it actually took to start again from scratch with a 5.5-tonne excavator and tipper combo while raising young kids.

This episode gets into the realities most contractors only talk about off camera:

– Walking away from tier one work and starting over

– Finding work with no following (door knocking, noticeboards, and flyers)

– The expensive lessons that come with bad finance decisions

– Why rates in QLD can destroy margins if you’re highly leveraged