When you first start your Tradie Business, your motivation is sky-rocketing. You have a shining new Ute (or not so shining may be), a great business name that you just got registered and some professional-looking hi-vis workwear. By 4:00 pm the first day, you realise that alone is not going to work.
You need a way to get the word out for your business, get licenses and certificates in order, talk to suppliers, create a business bank account, get insured, get an accountant (or your wife to do the book-keeping) and when the work eventually begins pouring in you realise that one pair of hands is not enough.
You hire a few people, train them out of your own pocket and when they finally begin to work without supervision, smoko breaks or sick leaves and you stop to take a breath, its EOFY!
You have not recorded vehicle depreciation or renewed worker compensation and group certificates had totally slipped your mind.
Shit.
Before you find yourself nodding to all of those, you already know that this is just the tip of the ice berg. The real challenge is about to begin.
Here are some of the biggest problems tradies have been ranting about and with the current situation of the industry, we believe they can’t be any truer.
We all bump into one of those every now and then. They want a quality job done by a qualified Tradie at a handyman’s rate. Sorry mate, that’s not how it works.
Eye bags, a cup of coffee and late night invoices. Too many Tradies have been there! With the skill shortage in Australia, most hi-vis guys and girls are losing their work-life balance with more work lined up than they can handle.
Not to suggest that one should come at work with their eyes streaming with conjunctivitis they caught from their dog, but just because you are entitled to take sick leaves, doesn’t mean you must take them, even when you are not sick. Holdups are created on site that actually end up costing Tradie employers a lot.
Nothing is more frustrating than your work stuck up as you wait for suppliers. It’s not in your hands, but who will explain this to the clients? There are few things worse than clients running out of patience.
We hear this too often, the quicker you send your invoices the quicker they get paid. But you only have so many hours in a day and by the time you get time, they have already piled up. What’s worse? More time wasted running after customers who don’t pay. When mechanics and hairdressers get paid instantly, why do plumbers and electricians have to wait for 2 to 3 months to get their money?
Can you name anything more annoying than constantly being buzzed by the staff, suppliers and the clients when you are already in the middle of the job?
Bottlenecks! Arrgg! You know when and how to schedule the team working under you, but you feel stuck when you are a plumber or an electrician and you are still waiting for the other guys to finish their job so you can start yours.
Good work is not cheap. Cheap work is not good. Full stop! Too many cow boy Tradies try to undercut your rates and fly away with a job you wanted so bad. Well mate, let me tell you something. You won’t last long.
There are times when your phone does not ring that often with your staff sitting idle and then there are times when you have too much work than you can handle.
Ever took a big cash job only to find out that you have no real money to pay the bills? Yes. Cash is king, especially so for Tradies. Not invoicing customers, over-head expenses, not realising hidden costs, poor credit terms and the list goes on.
Yes all projects are important but you need to finish what you have started before going to the next job. Customers expect you to drop everything and start their job straight away.
Ever hired a subby only to wish later on that you had not? Tradie employers feel they are better off dealing with the workload themselves than hiring a subby who would do a sub-standard job while making customers uncomfortable all the time.
If you have been ranting about the non-serious attitude of your apprentices, you are not alone. Taking too many breaks, only interested in beer o’clock, not ready to put in their blood and sweat, carelessness and an obsession of being the boss, really gets trades business owners.
Maddening calls from people that you don’t know and don’t ever want to know either! If you have still not registered to DNCR you are also probably taking calls thinking that it’s a potential client only to find out that it’s an annoying telemarketer!
Is there anything that sucks more than doing the same, or ever better quality of work than your male counterpart and then watching him walk away with twice the wage than yours? Talk about being fair!
Nobody cares about the time spent on calls, miscommunication, quoting, client meetings, plan approvals, waiting to get supplies or going back to fix those little things that were missed out the first time.
Who in the world created the idea of free quoting? Let’s hang him! It costs you money, time and effort to go out and quote a job, and if you don’t get it, customers don’t even say a mere: “thank you for your time.”
That’s pretty much the life of every tradie, day in and day out. If you can’t relate to any of the above, consider yourself lucky.
While you might not be able to sort every single one of them, fortunately there is help available to make some of these rants a thing of the past.
Note: The article was created after discussing with over 50 tradie wives, about the biggest challenges their partners face in running their business.
Here at i4Tradies, we help Tradies get back their work-life balance with a complete cloud based customer experience management system that can take care of every aspect of job service delivery. From responding to quotes to job scheduling, employee GPS tracking, visual job recording, electronic invoicing and lead generation with simple social media management. Get a 2 Weeks Free Trial with i4Tradies and watch how you can enhance efficiency and transparency for your business.
Let us show you how i4Tradies can help you achieve remarkable results for your Trades Services business and your customers!
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Written by
Content Manager and Community Strategist at i4Tradies | Social Media Evangelist | Writer | Editor
Support@i4Tradies.com.au
(AU)
1800 i4Tradies (1300 543 990)
