Turn chaos to control in your trade business with technology. As a trade business owner, your job is to guide your employees. Teach them the systems and processes they need to follow to get the job done. Show them what to do and when, keeping them accountable for every task they’re given. Both efficiently and effectively. What you want is a well-oiled streamlined machine, but without direction and boundaries, you and your team are literally flying blind.
Whether it’s your tradies out on the road or on site, or your admin staff back at the office, everyone loves a day that ‘runs smoothly’, right! So how about I share with you how you can do this in your trade business.
Have you ever walked into your office to see post-it note upon post-it note tacked to a computer? Or scribbled notes on pieces of scrap paper shoved into the diary while onsite with your tradies? It’s organisational chaos. You have no idea what your admin staff are working on or what changes need to be made for a customer in the field. You don’t even know whether they are or aren’t being done (ouch!).
What happens when your team loses a post-it note, losing vital information? That task or customer request is lost forever. Perhaps you are like many tradies who often think “there must be an easier way to do this,” yet you never get around to actually looking into it.
We’ve all been there.
Over our 20+ years in business, we’ve learnt to stop doing things the hard way, and start doing them the smart way.
We discovered there were 6 specific areas of business where technology can help us to flick the switch from chaos to control that we have fondly called ‘The Tower Of Power’. They are the technology ‘must-have’s’ to power your trade business.
Let us share with you one of these levels that helps to keep staff on track with order and direction. This one area specifically works best for your admin team and has a major flow on effect with your team.
Let me explain what I mean.
It’s another normal busy Tuesday at work. Sarah, our dispatch manager has watched the boys all arrive in time for their 7am job on the GPS. In reviewing the job board, the day is almost full with a couple of available spots this afternoon. A little room for that ‘emergency’ customer that calls today.
“Perfect” she thinks, ‘a smooth day’. But then it happens……
For absolutely no reason (other than she must be a legend to think these thoughts), Sarah gave a random thought about the fleet of cars. ‘Wonder when their rego is due’. After some quick research she is left wide eyed. Sh@!t…. one of the vehicles was due for rego last month!
How was it left so LATE? Why wasn’t it noticed by someone earlier?
The smooth relaxed day quickly turned into a stressful squeeze to move customers around, and 15 phone calls later between Sarah and Ben the tradie, the vehicle was put through its paces for rego, pink slip and insurance!
Something as simple as knowing in advance about rego could have prevented a loss of income, a rattled tradie, and risking the disappointment of customers in moving their appointments.
What could they have done better?
This simple task could have been entered into a project management tool and allocated to someone specific as their responsibility. Like Sarah.
This quick and efficient piece of technology would have brought up Sarah’s tasks in the morning and reminded her on a daily basis of what needed to be done, in advance. Situations like this are completely preventable if only the right technology is adopted into a business and used on a daily basis.
It provides direction about what tasks need to get done, ear-marks a specific person to take responsibility (love accountability), provides the flexibility to allocate the task to a certain day and you can even set it as a daily, weekly, monthly or annual repeat. There is an area where you make notes and have the satisfaction to ‘tick’ it off when it is done.
A perfect birds-eye view of the tasks for the team are on a calendar, and because it’s a cloud based product, you, as the owner, can log on and check what’s going on from the comfort of the recliner by the pool or in between meetings with your customers.
This single piece of technology has prevented our admin team from ‘forgetting’ important actions, stops the need for post-it notes, and provides one cloud based location to capture and review all tasks as a team.
Accountability
Accountability is just one of the requirements as a business owner with the solution being a cloud based project management tool. It is one level of our ‘Tower of Power’ that make up the ‘must-haves’ to power your trade business.
What’s next?
- Join our Kick-Ass Tradies Facebook Group, for access to trade business specific conversations, tips and resources, plus a like-minded community of tradies.
- Book a 15-minute Game Plan Call with Andy, owner of Dr. DRiP plumbing and co-founder of Lifestyle Tradie, to clarify your priorities and get clear action steps.
Visit Next Level Tradie for our schedule of live events.
