When news broke about SpaceX’s massive valuation and market moves, the standard financial headlines focused heavily on astronomical dollar figures, board members, and executive wealth. Analysts immediately pointed to how the success solidified record-breaking fortunes at the upper management level.
Then came the secondary headlines, almost delivered with a sense of shock:
“SpaceX made thousands of employees rich… even the welder.”
Even the welder?
As if it’s a surprise that the person physically building the rocket ship became wealthy.
The welder isn’t an afterthought—they are the backbone of the entire operation. They are joining the raw materials and critical components that must withstand brutal launch forces, extreme pressure, and blazing re-entry through the atmosphere. One bad weld doesn’t just mean a quality issue; it could compromise the entire mission.
The executives may have drawn up the plans, raised the venture capital, and set up the corporate entity. But the welders, technicians, and production workers turned those abstract plans into something that could actually leave Earth.
So no… it is not surprising that “even the welder” became wealthy. The welder deserved every single penny. The people physically building the rocket should share in the success just as much as anyone sitting in an executive corner office.
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Tradespeople Are Not “Just” Employees
We have been working with a lot of trades businesses lately, and it is great to see the skilled trades finally getting the recognition they deserve.
These are highly skilled professionals who build our homes, repair our critical infrastructure, keep complex systems running, and solve mechanical problems most people wouldn’t even know how to diagnose.
Tradespeople are not “just” employees punching a clock. They are often the single reason the entire business works.
Yet, traditional compensation models in the trades rely almost exclusively on flat hourly wages or rigid day rates. While predictable pay covers basic living costs, it creates a massive structural disconnect. When a trade business expands, hits record profit margins, or lands massive contracts, the workers on the job site rarely see the upside even though their daily craftsmanship made it happen.
When you introduce equity, profit-sharing, or ownership incentives to trade workers, their psychological connection to their work changes:
- Quality over speed: When a welder, plumber, or electrician knows that precise work prevents costly rework and builds the business’s reputation, they have a direct financial stake in delivering elite craftsmanship.
- Autonomous pride: Ownership eliminates the need for constant, overbearing supervisory management. Workers monitor quality standards themselves because they view the firm as their business.
- Drastic drop in turnover: Retaining experienced, ticketed tradespeople is one of the hardest challenges in the industry today. Equity vesting keeps top-tier talent from walking across the street for a temporary $2-an-hour raise.
- Active problem solving: Instead of just “doing what they’re told” until the clock hits 5:00 PM, trade workers with equity actively look for ways to streamline workflows, reduce material waste, and protect equipment.
Shared Success in Private Trade Businesses
You don’t need to be building interplanetary rockets or running a venture-backed tech giant to apply these principles. Small and medium-sized trade enterprises (SMEs) across Canada can use the exact same model to reward their crews and build massive enterprise value.
In reality, private trade company owners have access to several flexible equity structures:
- Employee Share Ownership Plans (ESOPs): Allows workers to gradually buy into or earn real shares in the business.
Employee Ownership Trusts (EOTs) with tax exemptions - Phantom Equity & Profit-Sharing: Gives crews the financial upside of stock ownership tied to company performance without giving up voting control of the business.
- Management & Crew Buyouts: Creates a direct pathway for senior tradespeople and foremen to eventually buy out the founder over time. If you want to explore structuring a smooth transition, learn more about
selling your business to your staff
For Canadian Controlled Private Corporations (CCPCs), specific tax structures allow eligible employees to defer taxation on stock option benefits, making ownership a realistic path to true wealth creation for trade workers.
How Sharing Upside Boosts Business Valuation
From a business brokerage perspective, a trade business that relies entirely on a single founder micromanaging a disengaged workforce is high-risk. Buyers don’t want to purchase a job; they want to buy a self-sustaining system.
When a trade business shares upside with its workers, it creates an elite, deeply loyal team that stays intact through ownership transitions.
- Higher Multiples: Prospective buyers pay a premium for trade businesses with high staff retention, stable crews, and strong operational culture. Understanding
how to value a business - Built-in Succession: If you are planning for retirement, your best buyers might already be wearing hard hats on your job sites. An internal buyout rewards long-term loyalty and preserves the company’s legacy.
- Stronger Margins: Highly motivated crews work smarter, protect tools, avoid waste, and deliver better client experiences—directly inflating baseline earnings (EBITDA), which drives up the overall sale price of the company. Knowing
what happens to employees after an asset sale
The Bottom Line
The story of a welder becoming a multimillionaire shouldn’t be a rare anomaly, it should be the blueprint for how we think about skilled labor. Wealth creation doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game where business owners succeed at the expense of the people doing the heavy lifting.
When the people who build share in the success, the business gets stronger, quality skyrockets, and everyone wins.
How VI Business Brokers Can Help
At VI Business Brokers, we help trade business owners across Vancouver Island structure their businesses for maximum enterprise value. Whether you are looking to implement value-building strategies, set up succession plans, or prepare your company for a confidential sale, we provide clear, expert guidance.
Contact us today to learn how to unlock the true value of your business and build a legacy that rewards the people who helped you build it.
