Trade Mastermind review (2026): what Joseph Valente's academy offers, what it costs, and a simpler alternative
Trade Mastermind is Joseph Valente's business training academy for plumbers, renewables installers and construction trades, sold through a £97 plus VAT discovery day with academy fees quoted on the day. It has 1,364 Trustpilot reviews at 4.8. Growth Bull is a £69 a month tool for the reviews and rankings part, with no training to attend.
Written by Tom Riley, founder of Growth Bull
9 min read Prices checked October 2026
Trade Mastermind is Joseph Valente's business training company for trades owners. It sells three "7 Figure" academies (Boiler, Renewables and Construction) built around a 12-step system, and the way in is a £97 plus VAT Discovery Day in Peterborough. Academy fees are not published. On Trustpilot it has 1,364 reviews and a 4.8 score, which is the strongest public record of any trades coaching business we looked at.
Growth Bull is not a competitor in the usual sense. It is software, £69 a month, that gets Google reviews from every paid invoice and shows where you rank. This review is for the plumber or builder weighing one against the other: a school that teaches you to grow, or a tool that does one part of growing for you.
Written by Tom Riley, founder of Growth Bull. Where Trade Mastermind is the better choice, we say so. Facts and prices checked 1 October 2026.
For the wider picture, see the done-for-you agencies and coaches for tradespeople compared, and for a coaching programme with published prices, our TradeCoach review.
Growth Bull vs Trade Mastermind
Trade Mastermind is a well-reviewed, high-commitment business school for trades owners who want to scale to a large company, while Growth Bull is a £69 a month tool that gets Google reviews and shows your map and search rankings without a classroom or a sales day.
Choose Growth Bull if
you want more Google reviews and a clear view of where you rank in your town, for a fixed monthly price you can cancel any time.
Starting price: £69/mo
Choose Trade Mastermind if
you are set on building a multi-million pound trade company, you want a structured 12-step programme with in-person events, and you have the budget for a multi-year academy.
Starting price: £97+VAT day, fees on the day
Side by side
What each company says about itself, on its own website, next to ours.
Both screenshots show the public websites as they looked on 1 October 2026. The Trade Mastermind screenshot belongs to Trade Mastermind and is shown here for a fair, like-for-like comparison.
At a glance
Growth Bull ahead: 4Trade Mastermind ahead: 2Level: 2
| What you get | Growth Bull | Trade Mastermind |
|---|---|---|
| What you are buying | Software: review requests, Rank Map, Keyword Tracker, AI Visibility | Business training academies and events, in person and online |
| Gets new Google reviews automatically | Yes, one text and one email after every paid invoice | No, it teaches marketing rather than running it |
| Teaches sales, hiring, finance and exit | No | Yes, a 12-step system from business plan to exit strategy |
| Map and search rank tracking | Yes, Rank Map and Keyword Tracker on Complete Growth | Not offered |
| Published price | Review Builder £69 a month, Complete Growth £129 a month | Discovery Day £97 plus VAT; academy fees not published |
| Commitment | None, 7-day free trial, cancel any month | Academy programmes of 12 months or more; finance available up to £15,000 |
| Public reviews | Growth Bull is new; see the live examples on our site | Trustpilot 4.8 from 1,364 reviews |
| Company | UK, prices in pounds and dollars | Trade Mastermind Limited, Peterborough, incorporated 2017 |
The tick marks the stronger option on that row. Prices per month, checked 1 October 2026.
Who are Trade Mastermind and what do they sell?
Trade Mastermind is run by Joseph Valente, who won BBC's The Apprentice in 2015, entered a partnership with Lord Sugar and built what the company describes as the largest independent boiler installation business in the UK. Elite Business Magazine records that he founded Trade Mastermind in 2020. The limited company behind it, Trade Mastermind Limited (company number 10884870), was incorporated on 26 July 2017 under the name JV Empires Ltd, became The Trade Group Limited in 2021 and took its current name in September 2024. It is active and registered in Peterborough.
The product is education. The site's line is that plumbers start plumbing businesses and until now nobody taught trades businesses about business. The 12-step signature system covers business plan, strategy, company structure, marketing, sales, operations, supply chain, recruitment, HR, finance, management reporting and exit strategy.
That is packaged into three academies:
- The 7 Figure Boiler Business Academy, for plumbing and heating firms, which is the one Valente's own background comes from.
- The 7 Figure Renewables Business Academy, for solar, EV charging and heat pump installers.
- The 7 Figure Construction Business Academy, for builders and other construction trades.
The route in is the Discovery Day: a full day, 9am to 5pm, at Brightfield Business Hub in Peterborough, run monthly, where the system is taught and the academies are offered. Onboarding to an academy then includes an in-depth session and access to an online learning portal, with live workshops alongside.
What does Trade Mastermind cost and what is the commitment?
Trade Mastermind publishes one price, the Discovery Day ticket at £97 plus VAT. Academy fees are not published on the website; they are discussed at the event. The site offers finance through iwocapay for orders up to £15,000, and testimonials on the homepage refer to 12-month academy programmes, so the commitment is a year or more and the fee is in the thousands rather than the hundreds. A search result we saw mentioned a much higher figure for a multi-year academy, but we could not load a page to confirm it, so we treat the fee as not published.
In our view the sales model is the thing to understand before you book. The Discovery Day is both the training taster and the sales event. Trustpilot's own summary of the reviews notes that some attendees felt the pitch at the end created pressure. If you go, go knowing that, and decide your budget before you sit down.
What do customers say about Trade Mastermind?
Trade Mastermind has 1,364 reviews on Trustpilot with a TrustScore of 4.8 out of 5: 94 percent five-star, 2 percent four-star and 4 percent one-star. The about page claims over 600 five-star reviews, which the Trustpilot count has long since passed.
Most reviews are written straight after a Discovery Day and praise the trainers by name. One recent five-star review reads "Nick was superb, great depth of knowledge and delivery was very very good" (Steve, Trustpilot, September 2026). The small share of one-star reviews, and the Trustpilot summary, point to the sales pitch rather than the content.
We could not retrieve Google or Facebook review counts from public pages, so they are not published here. The Trustpilot record on its own is strong.
Who does Trade Mastermind suit?
Trade Mastermind suits a trades owner who already has work coming in and wants to build a proper company: a sales team, installers on the payroll, systems that run without them. The 12 steps are about that, from company structure through recruitment and finance to exit. The testimonials on the site are about going from one or two boilers a month to many a week, and from a van to a million pounds of turnover.
It suits a sole trader much less well. If your problem is that you are good at the work and nobody can find you on Google, a 12-month academy teaches you a great deal you do not yet need and leaves you to run the marketing yourself afterwards.
Where Growth Bull fits instead
Growth Bull does one of the 12 steps, the local marketing basics, and does it automatically. Growth Bull's Review Builder connects to Xero, QuickBooks, Sage, FreeAgent, HubSpot or Pipedrive and sends one text and one email asking for a Google review after every paid invoice. More reviews, from real customers, every week, without a module to complete. It costs £69 a month, with a 7-day free trial and no contract.
Complete Growth at £129 a month adds the proof. Rank Map scans a grid of points around your town and names who holds number one for your trade, so you can see the map pack (the box of three businesses with a map at the top of Google) change as reviews come in. Keyword Tracker follows your search positions. AI Visibility asks ChatGPT, Claude and Google's AI who they recommend in your town and tells you if it is you.
What Growth Bull will not do is teach you to hire, price or sell. If you are ready for that, a coaching programme is the right purchase, and Trade Mastermind's reviews suggest the training is good. Many of our customers would sensibly run both: the academy for the business, the tool for the reviews.
Verdict
In our view, Trade Mastermind is the most established trades business school in the UK, with the review count to show for it, and a fair choice for an owner who wants to build a large company and can fund a multi-year programme without knowing the price before the Discovery Day. Ask for the fee and the contract terms in writing before you sign anything on the day.
If what you actually need is reviews and rankings for a small firm, start smaller. Growth Bull's Review Builder is £69 a month with a 7-day free trial at growthbull.io/signup, or book a call with Tom and we will tell you honestly whether you need more than that.
Questions people ask
How much does Trade Mastermind cost?
Trade Mastermind publishes one price: the Discovery Day ticket at £97 plus VAT for a one-day event in Peterborough. Academy fees are not published on its website and are presented at or after the Discovery Day. The site offers finance through iwocapay for orders up to £15,000, which gives a sense of the scale (checked October 2026).
What is the Trade Mastermind Discovery Day?
The Discovery Day is a full day, 9am to 5pm, at Brightfield Business Hub in Peterborough, run monthly. It introduces the 12-step system and the three academies: Boiler, Renewables and Construction. Trustpilot's summary of reviews notes some attendees felt the sales pitch at the end was intense, so expect to be asked to join.
Who is Joseph Valente?
Joseph Valente won BBC's The Apprentice in 2015 and went into a partnership with Lord Sugar. He built a large boiler installation business and founded Trade Mastermind in 2020 according to Elite Business Magazine. The limited company, Trade Mastermind Limited, was incorporated in 2017 under an earlier name.
Is Trade Mastermind worth it?
That depends on what you want. With 1,364 Trustpilot reviews at 4.8, most attendees rate the training highly, especially the trainers and the events. In our view it is worth considering if you want to build a company with staff and a sales team. If you want more reviews and better rankings for a one-van business, it is a lot of money and time for that one outcome.
Does Trade Mastermind do my marketing for me?
No. Trade Mastermind teaches you to build a marketing and sales function. It is not a done-for-you agency and it is not software. If you want the Google review and ranking part done automatically, a tool such as Growth Bull's Review Builder runs it for you from your invoices.
What is a simpler alternative to Trade Mastermind?
For the marketing basics, Growth Bull's Review Builder is £69 a month with a 7-day free trial and no contract. It asks every customer for a Google review after their invoice is paid. Complete Growth at £129 a month adds map, keyword and AI visibility tracking. You keep your evenings; there is no event to attend.