Billions of Dollars in Grants that No One Talks About

This Texan Helped Launch 48 Trade Schools in a Year

There’s over a billion dollars in trade school grants, and no one’s talking about them. 

But Hector Resendez is.

After scaling and exiting two schools of his own, Hector launched Trade School Secrets: a consulting firm that helps business owners build and scale trade schools using little-known federal grants.

He’s built 48 schools in the past 12 months. No ads. No outreach. Just podcasts, referrals, and word of mouth.

I sat down with Hector to talk about how he stumbled into this under-the-radar opportunity, what people get wrong about grants, and how a Google Doc and Stripe account got him to his first big win.

1. Who are you and what do you do?

I’m Hector Resendez, founder of Trade School Secrets. We help struggling school owners scale, and we help businesses attach schools to their operations to solve their staffing problems.

2. What’s your backstory?

I was VP of a financial firm until private equity came in and offered me a ‘demotion’ or a buyout. I took the money and used it to ride out COVID. Then I bought an insurance franchise, but that failed.

During that time, a friend needed help insuring his truck driver school. That’s when I found out trade schools were a thing. The State of Texas was paying him to train people, and it blew my mind.

I learned about the grants, launched a school, and scaled it to $2.4M in year one. Later, I sold it and signed a non-compete. That turned me into an advisor. Best thing that could’ve happened.

3. How did you get your first client?

People knew me as “the guy who scaled a school with just grants.” I did some speaking, and other school owners started asking for help. Most of them were great at their trade but stuck working in the business, not on it.

After exiting, I did one podcast. That led to 10 clients overnight. I joined Twitter. I joined Tribe. From there, it never stopped. I’ve now helped build 48 schools across the country with zero cold outreach.

4. What’s worked to attract and retain clients?

Just spreading the word about this grant. There are billions available to help people go to trade school for free, but almost no one knows about it.

I’ve also learned to only take the right clients. Right now, that’s business owners with 5-10 employees who want to scale and solve hiring by building their own pipeline.

5. How’s the business doing today, and what’s next?

I started with just a Google Doc and Stripe account. No website, no automation.

Now I’ve got a five-person team, all 1099, each with a specialty. We just landed a billion-dollar company that wants to build 25 trade schools. They own 60 companies total, so that’s forced me to staff up fast.

Long-term, I’m thinking about launching a fund or building a team that’s fully capitalized to go build schools at scale.

6. Any “oh shit” moments?

Kind of. I’ve had clients pay in full and then just… not start. I thought they’d ask for refunds. But they always own it. They’re just too busy.

So technically, I’ve had zero failures. But three clients haven’t done anything yet. I’ll let you decide if that counts.

7. What do outsiders get wrong about your space?

Everything.

There are at least three major grants people don’t know about:

• WIOA: Pays for people to go to trade school.

• OJT: Pays a portion of new hires’ wages for their first 300 hours.

• IWT: Gives $3K grants to upskill your current employees.
  

They’ve been around since 2014, but it’s so complicated that no one uses them. Which is why I get to exist.

8. Favorite tools?

We use G Suite, Go High Level, Loom, and Replit (my offshore team is building a dashboard there). Canva for flyers. And Alex Hormozi’s Skool platform for our internal school, where all of our content lives.

9. Most influential books or content?

Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell. That book helped me staff up when big clients came in. I used to tell myself I was just a one-man show. But once I hired specialists and raised my prices, I actually bought back time.

Now I work 30–32 hours a week and manage 50+ clients.

10. If you had to start a new business today, what would it be?

I’d start a blue-collar staffing company for second-chance hires. There’s a huge need for it. No one’s doing it right.

11. Best advice for other entrepreneurs?

Accountability.

Join a peer group (like Tribe). Tell someone your goals. Meet weekly. That’s what unlocked everything for me. I failed hard with the insurance franchise, but it opened the door to all this. You just need one win.

Final Takeaways

1. Trade schools are one of the best-kept secrets in business, especially when paired with grants.

2. You don’t need fancy tools or a big budget to get started: Hector started his business on Google Docs and Stripe.

3. Podcast appearances are an incredible marketing channel. They allow you to reach an audience that the host has already built trust with.

4. Accountability beats inspiration. A weekly check-in can change your whole trajectory.