Prove You're Legit: Licence, Insurance and ABN Where Buyers Can See Them
Every buyer wonders 'are they actually licensed and insured?' Most tradies make them ask. Here's how to answer it before the question — in one phone clip and three visible details.
By Antony Loomans
16 June 2026 · 5 min read
The short version: “fully licensed and insured” is a claim every cowboy also makes. The proof is three details a buyer can check — licence number, ABN, certificate of currency — and one sixty-second phone clip of you holding the documents and reading them out. Put the details on your website, your Google profile and your quotes; put the clip everywhere a nervous buyer looks. Repeat when the certificate renews.
Picture the buyer at the kitchen table with your quote and a stranger’s doubt. They’ve heard the horror stories — the disappearing deposit, the dodgy job with nobody to chase, the “insured” bloke whose insurance turned out to be imaginary right after the ladder went through the ceiling. So before they call you, they go looking: is this business real? Licensed? Actually covered?
From the buyer research, this is what that moment sounds like:
“He is a sole trader, and doesn’t have a website, and no reviews on his FB page, which is a redflag for me. Does have a ABN, but no idea if he’s qualified or what qualifications to check on.” Homeowner researching a roofer, Greater Sydney
Read what’s actually happening there. The buyer wants to hire him. They’ve done more homework than most — found the ABN, checked for reviews — and they still can’t get to yes, because the proof isn’t where they’re looking and they don’t know how to find it themselves. That job is leaking away from a possibly excellent tradie, not because he isn’t qualified, but because his qualifications are invisible.
You can’t fix the buyer’s suspicion. It’s earned — the horror stories are real. What you can fix is how fast your business answers it.
The three details, visible everywhere
Your licence number — if your trade and state require one. Not “licensed” as a word: the number itself, which a buyer can check against their state’s register. Put it in your website footer, on your Google Business Profile, and on every quote.
Your ABN. It’s already public on ABN Lookup; publishing it just saves the buyer the search — and signals you know they’ll search. Same three places.
Your certificate of currency. This is the one most tradies don’t show and most buyers don’t know to ask for: the document from your insurer proving your public liability cover is active now, not when the website was built. You don’t need to publish the document itself — what you need is for the buyer to see that it exists, which is what the next move is for.
One afternoon puts all three in place. Check them against the documents, not memory — a licence number with a typo is worse than none.
The certificate clip — one take, sixty seconds
Words on a page say “insured.” A clip of you holding the paper says proven. This is the highest-trust-per-minute video you can film:
- Get your licence and your certificate of currency in your hand.
- Phone on a tripod or propped on the ute, normal work light, work shirt.
- Look at the camera, say your name and your business, hold the documents up, read out the licence number and the cover amount.
- Done. One take. No script needed past that — the document is the message.
It feels almost too simple. That’s because the work isn’t performance, it’s verification — and a buyer watching a real person read their real licence number off a real document gets something no amount of “fully licensed and insured ✓” badges can fake. Don’t polish it. Polish reads as marketing; the kitchen-table doubt isn’t soothed by marketing.
This clip is also the first and easiest entry in the claims video family: if you claim it, film it. Licence and insurance just happen to be the claims every single buyer is silently auditing.
Where the proof goes
Proof nobody finds is proof that doesn’t exist. The clip and the details go where the nervous buyer actually is:
- Your website — the clip on the home or about page, the licence number and ABN in the footer of every page.
- Your Google Business Profile — the clip in the video section, the numbers in the description. For most tradies this page gets checked before the website does.
- Every quote — licence number and ABN in the header, the clip linked in the email or text that delivers it. The moment the quote lands is the moment the “are they legit?” question peaks; answer it in the same breath.
- The follow-up — when a quote goes quiet, the clip is a perfect add-value send. (The follow-up that closes shows where it fits.)
Keep it current
A certificate of currency expires — that’s the “currency” part. When the policy renews, re-film the clip. Sixty seconds a year. Tie it to the renewal email from your insurer so it never depends on memory, and while you’re there, confirm the licence details on your site still match the register.
A stale proof is quietly worse than none: the buyer sharp enough to check the date is exactly the buyer the clip was for.
In the Tradie Trust Pack this is card 11 — the card is the move, this guide is the method. Stop saying insured. Show it. The card’s five steps fit on a dash; this page is the why and the where.
Want to know what a checking buyer finds about your business right now — before you’ve made any of this visible? That’s exactly what the free Visibility Check shows you, in about a minute.