Let’s face it, tax time is never easy and many of you will be feeling the brunt of this busy and often stressful time....
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Starting a business is bloody terrifying. Whilst it’s every tradies dream to start their own business, work for themselves, then retire comfortably — few have the bravery to try....
Out with the old, in with the new – never has this sounded more appealing than now, with the difficult 2020 finally behind us....
Fergus Pay is a secure credit card payment feature powered by Stripe that allows your customers to easily pay your invoices by credit card....
There’s a reason why aircraft safety briefings instruct you to put your own oxygen mask on first. You need to look after you. Most of us know this to be true, but when you’re running a trades business your own needs often end up at the bottom of the pile....
Trade Software Expert
Come on down, welcome to The Price is Right. Remember this classic television game show where contestants jumped with excitement on getting the call up?...
We all know you didn’t learn your trade in a day, it takes long hours digging foundations in the rain, sweeping up Gib dust and crawling under houses as well as copious amounts of bookwork to shape a competent Tradesperson....
Making sure there is money coming into your trades business in time to pay your bills seems like an obvious priority, but can be incredibly difficult to do when put into practice....
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The simple approach to managing overheads is to spend as little as possible, to keep net profit as high as it can be. Sounds nice in theory right, but the reality is sometimes you have to spend money to make money....
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If you’ve been following this series of blogs or you’ve heard me speaking at an event before, you’ll be familiar with my bucket analogy....
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As we’ve covered in earlier blogs, invoicing daily is vital to maintaining positive cash flow and it should be one of your main priorities - because the faster you get the invoice out the door, the faster money will come back in!...
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Check out our Top 10 Blogs of 2018 to help you start the New Year on the right foot. 10. How to quote right...
Trade Software Expert
As your business grows and you start spending less time on the tools and more time managing everything else, you become increasingly reliant on the efforts of your staff....
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Have you heard about the loss leader pricing strategy? Tried it yet? I have and let me tell you, never again! When I had my trade business I heard about loss leader jobs a few times over the years....
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I can’t emphasise enough how important it is to get quotes right if you intend of making a profit. On average, 30% of a trade business’s revenue comes from quoting, so if you want to grow your business and not go bankrupt you need to get it right....
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Think of your business as a bucket with holes in it. Money earned from jobs fills the bucket up, while various running costs create holes that let your hard earned profit escape....
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When work is a bit slow and you’ve got a few slow-paying customers to boot, one surefire way to keep cash flow healthy is by charging deposits....
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In previous posts, I’ve discussed the importance of invoicing daily and putting the right support systems in place to make this your reality. Without doubt, it will have a huge impact on cash flow....
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I’m a big advocate for ordering materials correctly and not overbuying, but I’m also realistic and understand that sometimes it’s not always possible in the real world....
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When a job blows out and goes over budget it’s easy to blame the tradies on site for being lazy, working too slow, or wasting time going back and forth with the office because they don’t understand the job....
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Cash flow is one of the four levers that need to be mastered in order to build a successful high-performing trades business. For something so simple, cash flow is one of the hardest things for many business owners to manage (confession: I was one of them who got it wrong too!...
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Cloud computing has become one of the most popular technologies in the business world. It has allowed small businesses to establish infrastructure with minimal investment in hardware and software....
Straight off the bat, I want to put a real stake in the ground and say a trades business should always work on a gross profit basis, not net profit....
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Think about this for a second: All the effort trade business owners put into their work, training staff, buying stock and so on basically counts for nothing until the moment you sit down to create an invoice....
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Whether you’ve got a team of 5 or 50, organising a trade business ain’t easy. If you’re knee deep in mud or sweating in a roof full of insulation all day the last thing you want to do is come home and bust buttons on a calculator....
Trade Software Expert
Managing materials is always one of the most difficult areas for a plumbing or electrical business to get a handle on. Your tradespeople are moving materials from van to van, unused stock is lying around waiting to be returned, and there’s always the odd item that goes missing....
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Tradies are known for working hard, long hours. Especially trade business owners, who find themselves working on the tools all day and catching up on quotes, invoices, and paperwork at night....
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In the days around the end of financial year it can be difficult for trades business owners to keep track of what they’ve done, what still needs to be done, and what changes to make for the new financial year....
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Let’s start with a familiar story… Mark the plumber is stoked at how plump his bank account is looking. He’s had a busy month, his team has ticked off a record number of jobs, and the invoices are coming in fast....
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In the early days of setting up your own trades business, you’ve got no choice but to wear a whole lot of different hats....
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I remember getting my first invoice paid when I’d just started out in my plumbing business at the ripe old age of 19. It felt like I was on my way....
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If you’ve owned a trades business for any length of time, you’ve probably had your fair share of dealing with subcontractors. Also known as subbies, there are a lot of benefits to hiring the right people to help you get through a busy patch, meet the requirements of a job that’s outside your usual scope, or fill the gap when it’s hard to find quality full-time tradies....
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Imagine for a second that your trades business is a bucket with holes in it. The only time you make money is when the bucket overflows, so the holes have to be small enough that the bucket can still fill and overflow....
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Where to start when you need new hires If there’s one gripe I’ve heard over and over again in my 25 years in the trades industry it’s this - you just can’t find good tradies....
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One of the many hard lessons I’ve learnt over my years in the trade industry is that sometimes, or many times, it is better to say “No,” to a job, rather than “Yes”....
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Tradies and timesheets. If you manage a team of plumbers, electricians or builders you’ve probably already learnt that the two don’t always gel....
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Operating cash flow, gross margin, debt-to-equity, sales close ratio… it’s easy to get bogged down by the number of different ways you can measure the financial health of your trades or service business....
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Growing a trade business can be terrifying. The idea always sounds great but the reality can be a bit of a sweat fest. Growth will mean you are suddenly playing with much bigger numbers than you used to....
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Here’s the thing. I’ve been around the block a bit. I’ve owned three trades businesses, sold one for a sizeable profit, and now I own a job management software company working to streamline work processes for trade businesses....
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Setting up software shouldn't be hard, we make it a walk in the park.
