When you’re running your own trade business you’re constantly faced with an ever-growing to-do list, so it’s hardly surprising that you feel like there are never enough hours in the day to get everything done. And you’re still not making money!
Too many tradies think that if they don’t take on every job or do everything themselves they won’t make money.
This is usually not the case!
In reality, the reason all your time’s getting sucked up is because you’re making one of
these three mistakes….
- You’re taking on every job that comes your way
- You’re spending too much time on things you can’t charge for
- You’re not charging enough
In order to create more real time for yourself, it’s truly important to understand WHERE your time’s going each day. Not just “get to the job site and see how the day pans out hoping you’ll get everything done”. Too many tradesmen do this and their time gets wasted in many ways.
My now semi-retired partner is a sparkie. When we first met he’d have to be on site by 7.00am and often wouldn’t be home until about 5.00pm. After 8 or so hours on the tools, then sitting in Sydney traffic getting to and from work and between job sites, he’d be pretty shattered. Too tired to do his invoicing, leading to arguments with me since we needed the second income to help pay our mortgage and other day-to-day bills. So instead of relaxing on the couch and watching the news he’d have to sit at his computer late at night and there was the day gone. And he wasn’t making much money.
So this is one of the reasons I started my business – to help other tradies get more hours in the day so they can spend more time doing what they want.
If you want more hours in the day, then you need to realise that you can’t take on every job and do everything in you business. This applies to all trade businesses….
- carpenters
- plumbers
- electricians
- bricklayers
- painters
- plasterers
- waterproofers
- landscapers
- (insert any trade business)
On top of this there are lots of online tools available to help you save hours in the day, especially at BAS time.
From the very beginning, when we start working with a new business we look at how the business is run and what systems are in place (if any). In order to create results, you need to bring systems into your trade business so you will finally stop wasting precious time on stuff that doesn’t make you money. This is the basis for everything we do.
We use the same framework for all the trade business we work with, with results that inspire me to want to help even more tradies. For example:
A plumbing business who admitted that without our help he would “more than likely be in a lot of debt, stressed and divorced, and not enjoying the process/perks of owning our own business”.
I see a lot of tradies missing out on the potential of their business simply because they do not have enough time.
Let’s change that…
While there’s no one single strategy that’s an overnight fix, here are 4 questions you need to ask yourself:
- How much does it costs to run your business?
- Are there jobs you’re doing you could outsource?
- What trade business-specific online tools could you be using to save you time?
- Where would you like to be spending your time?
This last one might be the most important to get you motivated and moving on this!
If you’re not sure how to get started with these, I’d love to invite you to reach out to bettina@tradiesbookkeeping.com.au or on 0424 467 921, so I can help you map out a plan to nights and weekends back step-by-step.