When you’re a plumber, electrician, builder, roofer, heating engineer or other tradesperson, your time is valuable.
Your customers are paying for your skills and expertise, but how much of your working week is actually spent doing the job, and how much is spent running the business around it?
From answering phone calls and replying to enquiries to preparing quotes, arranging appointments and sending invoices, administration can quickly eat into your working day. And when you’re already busy, those small tasks can soon add up.
What Counts as Administration for a Trade Business?
For a tradesperson, administration can include:
- Answering customer phone calls
- Returning missed calls
- Responding to emails
- Replying to customer messages
- Taking details for new enquiries
- Preparing quotations
- Following up quotes
- Booking appointments
- Rearranging appointments
- Sending invoices
- Chasing payments
- Updating customer records
- Communicating with suppliers
- Organising your diary
- Dealing with paperwork
- Managing customer queries
Individually, many of these tasks might only take a few minutes but they build up as they happen repeatedly throughout the day.
Why Administration Can Be a Challenge for Small Trade Businesses
Larger businesses may have office staff or dedicated administrators to deal with these tasks.
For a sole trader or small trade business, the responsibility often falls on the business owner. You’re the person carrying out the work and the person trying to answer the phone, manage bookings, preparing quotes and sending invoices.
Ultimately, you need to keep your customers happy, make sure your business is organised, but you also need enough time to actually complete the work you’re being paid to do.
Administration Can Take Time Away from Earning
For many tradespeople, there’s a simple question to consider:
Could you be spending that time on another job?
If you’re spending several hours each week dealing with routine calls and administration, that’s time you’re not available to complete chargeable work.
Of course, not every administrative task can or should be outsourced. Some jobs require your personal involvement and expertise. But there may be routine tasks that someone else could manage on your behalf. That’s where outsourcing administrative support can make sense.
More Time for Growth
Reducing your administrative workload isn’t just about making your working day easier.
It can also give you more time to think about growing your business.
Perhaps you want to:
- Take on more jobs
- Increase your customer base
- Expand into new areas
- Employ another tradesperson
- Develop new services
- Improve your marketing
- Build stronger customer relationships
Or simply have a better balance. When you’re constantly caught up in administration, it’s difficult to focus on the bigger picture. Getting the right support can give you some of that time back.
How Paperclip Can Help
Paperclip provides professional telephone answering and business support that can be tailored to your requirements.
Our team can answer calls on your behalf, helping ensure your customers can speak to someone even when you’re busy working.
Depending on your needs, we can also support tasks such as:
- Answering customer calls
- Taking messages
- Handling routine enquiries
- Booking appointments
- Managing reservations
- Supporting customer communications
- Assisting with quotes
- Supporting invoice administration
This can help reduce the amount of routine work you need to deal with yourself, so that you spend less time managing the phone and more time doing what you do best.
Find out more about Paperclip’s business support services and discover how we could help you save time and provide a professional customer experience.
You may also like:
- Let us Take Care of The Calls While You Take Care of Your Patients
- 5 Ways Paperclip Can Help Small Trade Businesses Grow
- Supporting UK Leisure Businesses with Professional Call Answering Services
