Strong client-contractor relationships are a must for successful tradespeople.

They help to generate repeat business, word of mouth, and great reviews — everything you need to keep a steady stream of jobs headed your way.

1. Honesty is the best policy

Any strong relationship starts with honesty and trust. Never mislead or lie to your clients, and if you need to deliver bad news, be upfront and transparent about the issue. Your clients will value your honesty and can help you to find a resolution if they know the truth from the get-go.

It’s a good idea to be clear with your clients about what a typical working day looks like for you. Start and finish times, potential noise levels, and the experience level of your staff are good places to start.

Take time to discuss your client’s ground rules if they have any. If you think that these rules are unrealistic, or you may find it hard to follow them, let them know early on so that you can come to a compromise together.

2. Provide details

While you may be an expert in your field, it’s likely that your client isn’t. Take the time to break down the details of the job and provide further explanation if needed. It’s always better to spend a bit more time going over the facts of the job, than to re-do a job because your client wasn’t clear on what you’d agreed on.

It’s a good idea to confirm any important details that you and the client have agreed on in writing. This way, if there’s any confusion about what was said, you’ve got something to refer to and send back to the client.

• • • Take time to explain how you will protect the property you’re working on, such as:
    • How you will protect items of furniture and surfaces.
    • Whether you will wear shoe coverings.
    • If any household items should be moved during the project.
    • Closing and locking external doors upon entering and leaving the property.

This will go a long way in showing your client that you care about their property. It may seem simple, but it’s a small detail that many tradespeople miss, so it’s a great way to stand out from the crowd.

3. Enforce solid contracts

A solid contract that details the roles and responsibilities of everyone involved in a project forms the basis of a good working relationship. One of the essential things to consider when you first set up a trade business is to draft contract agreements for your work.

A solid contract should include:

• • • Detailed scope of work: expectations, time-frames, and list of tasks.
    • The tradesperson’s responsibilities: things like tool stowage and clearing up after work is completed at the end of the day.
    • The client’s responsibilities: does your client need to provide access to their property at specific times? Do certain facilities need to be made available? Whose responsibility is it to move furniture before the project starts?
    • The total, final price of the work: have you provided a quote and does the client agree with your pricing?
    • Compliance requirements: planning, building regulations, party walls, utility companies.
    • Schedule of payments: will the materials be paid for in advance? How and when will the final bill be paid? Do you take an initial deposit before project commencement? Agree on how much is to be paid and when, and lay it out clearly in the contract.
    • Disputes: explain how disputes are typically resolved.

Even if you’re just completing a small job for a homeowner, a written contract sets out the boundaries for the project and can diffuse any potential disputes later on down the line. Make sure you spend time going through the contract with the client — that way you can make adaptations as needed and ensure that everyone’s satisfied with what’s being agreed upon.

4. Work together

Working together with your client on a project is beneficial for both parties. The key thing here is to understand precisely what your client’s needs are so that you can deliver them to the best of your ability. Ask your client plenty of questions and know what their project pain points are. Having upfront conversations like this will avoid problems later down the line and demonstrate your trustworthiness.

To make sure that you and your client are on the same page, create a list of questions to ask your client to manage expectations. Some general ideas for questions include:

• • • Can you tell me about your budget for this project?
    • What would be the best results you would like to see?
    • Are you looking for an estimate or a fixed price for this project?
    • What worries you the most about this project?
    • What are your expectations regarding communication and progress updates?
    • What areas of your home can we not touch or enter?
    • When are you looking to start this project and when is your ideal completion date?
    • Are there any key milestones, important dates, or time constraints to be aware of?
    • Are there any other contractors involved with this project?

5. Encourage communication 

Regular communication throughout the duration of a project delivers reassurance to your clients. Establish who your main point of contact is and work out their communication style. While some clients may want to be kept up-to-date with everything going on on-site, others may be happy for you to do your thing and simply make contact when certain jobs have been completed.

Miscommunications can be the source of many disputes. What starts as a simple misunderstanding can escalate to bigger problems down the line and have the potential to damage your reputation.

Always keep the path of communication open and encourage questions from your clients. Willingness to demonstrate the project’s progress offers peace of mind and forges strong client-contractor relationships.

6. Embrace technology

Using the right technology can boost your client-contractor relationships in many ways. Chances are, like most busy tradespeople, you can’t find enough hours in the day to deal with all the other aspects of your business like finances and payments.

Some benefits of using technology include:

• • • Making communication simpler.
    • Planning jobs quickly.
    • Simplifying the payment process.
    • Raising invoices with ease.
    • Providing accurate estimates.
    • Creating project visuals.
    • Securing future jobs

Modern tech can be confusing, but it’s important that you don’t find yourself falling behind. Explore whether job management software like Tradify, which handles enquiries, quoting, and invoicing, is suitable for your business. Tracking your jobs with pen and paper might be fine at the start of project conversations, but at some point, you’ll need to keep things a lot more organised — clients will expect this of you — it’ll help to deliver the project on budget, on time, and to their satisfaction.

7. Client-contractor relationships that last

Without heading down the live chat software route, there are other ways to provide exceptional customer service and stay ahead of your competitors.

Building strong client-contractor relationships is not hard to achieve with the right mindset. By encouraging two-way conversations where possible, and being honest about deadlines and project progress, you’ll foster a transparent partnership with your clients to create an excellent service.

The following content was originally published by Tradify. We have updated some of this article for our readers.

In tough economic times, small businesses can struggle.

Big multinational chains often have the scale to undercut local competitors and survive even when times get tough.

What can small businesses do to retain and attract customers in a competitive market?

Identify your business’s advantages

Think about what your business can offer that a multinational operator cannot. For example, you might have the edge on:

• • • Local knowledge
    • Close relationships with customers
    • Personalised service
    • Easier parking
    • Specific products and services
    • Immediate availability of products
    • An excellent loyalty scheme
    • Community support
    • Local events

If you’re not sure what your big selling points are, ask your customers.

Show off your advantages online

Leverage your business’s selling points through your online presence. While it might be prohibitively expensive to build a whole new office or store frontage, your online shop-front can be impressive at a fraction of the price.

Step up your social media activity, paying particular attention to sites where local people are active. Invest in outstanding photography, too.

Invest in reviews

Can you find a way to nudge your best customers into providing online feedback? Positive reviews are a vital tool for small businesses to grow their customer base.

• • • Make it easy for people to leave reviews – send them an email reminder with a link included.
    • Address negative reviews immediately and professionally.
    • Consider an incentive to provide a review, such as a free extra item immediately or a $5 discount code off their next order. Alternatively they could go in the draw to win a bigger prize. This may also encourage them to shop with you again.

Be boutique

Lean into being small. Customers are willing to pay more for businesses that employ great people, provide quality service and a high-end experience. Invest in providing a polished experience for all your customers.

Appeal to ethical customers

Many shoppers are happy to pay more for sustainable, ethical products and services. Have measurable sustainability credentials and show them off whenever you can.

We’re here to help

For more ideas that are tailored to your business, we can help. Drop us a note or give us a call – we’d love to hear from you.

The following content was originally published by BOMA. We have updated some of this article for our readers.

Projecting your cashflow pipeline forwards is vital.

To be able to navigate the future path of your cashflow, you need to start forecasting – so you can map out your financial position over the coming months and can take the appropriate action to safeguard your cash position.

Plus, when you have access to detailed forecasts you can scenario-plan, search for cost-savings and look for strategies that will preserve your cashflow position.

Forecasting your future cash pipeline

Remaining in control of the cash coming into (and going out of) the business is the real focus, so you can accurately predict your financial position and can resolve any issues.

Key ways to get more from your forecasting

• • • Run regular forecasts – The financial landscape is changing on a daily basis at present. A cashflow forecast is not a document that remains static. Variables and external drivers are literally changing each day, so it’s vital that you run frequent forecasts and react swiftly to any projected cash issues as they become apparent.
    • Use the latest cashflow forecasting apps – cashflow forecasting apps, like Fluidly, Float, Futrli Predict or Fathom integrate with your accounting software. They give a drilled-down view of how your cash inflows and outflows will pan out over the coming months – information that will inform and justify the decisions you make during these extremely challenging times.
    • Explore the right revenue streams – most sectors will have seen their sales change over the last 18 months. To overcome this, there’s a real imperative to explore revenue streams and new opportunities for income. This could be offering a new product or service, or working with a new partner. The idea is to find ways to increase the money that’s coming in the door and balance out your unavoidable expenses.
    • Get proactive with cost-cutting – if you can reduce cash outflows to a minimum, that will have a real impact on the health of your future cashflow. Pare back your operations and aim to reduce things like unnecessary software subscriptions, or over-ordering of basic supplies. Negotiating cheaper rates with suppliers, if possible, will also help.
    • Review your staffing needs – it’s never great to make anyone redundant, but you can also look at ways to reduce the costs of staffing and resourcing without getting rid of staff completely. Reducing working hours or redeploying staff in different roles are all options that reduce payroll costs, while also looking after your staff.
    • Run a variety of scenarios – changing the financial drivers in your forecast model allows you to scenario-plan different strategies and options. Many of these will be in a long-term plan once conditions improve. Scenario-planning lets you answer questions and will give you some hard evidence on which to base your decision-making and strategic outlook over the coming months.
    • Look at various ways to access funding – if forecasts show a giant cashflow hole coming up, you’re going to need additional funding to get through this crisis. We can assist your business to investigate funding opportunities from grants, banks, loan providers, alternative lenders and crowd-sourcing funders.

Talk to us about setting up cashflow forecasting

Forecasting is an important step to give you the business intelligence to support your decision making.

Get in touch to improve your control over cashflow.

The following content was originally published by BOMA. We have updated some of this article for our readers.

There’s no escaping the fact that many industries are facing a talent gap.

3 in 4 employers are reporting difficulty finding the talent they need in 2024, according to stats from Manpower.

Experienced hires are increasingly hard to find in the current job market, across a multitude of sectors. This lack of suitable talent could well be having an impact on your resourcing, your growth and the underlying efficiency of your business.

So, what can you do to leap over the talent gap and find the people you need for the future?

Finding the talent you need to meet your goals

Your people are such an important asset to the business. So, when you can’t find the right skilled employees to fill your roles, that can be a significant problem.

There are multiple reasons for this talent shortage, including the significant impact of the Covid pandemic, reduced migration and a workforce that lacks the skills for some emerging roles. But to overcome this shortage, you need to think on your feet and find innovative ways to source the best possible people for your vacancies.

To overcome the talent gap, you can:

• • • Promote from within and use your existing talent – sometimes we can be so busy looking for new talent that we forget to consider our existing employees. If you have team members who are looking to advance, upskill or take on more responsibilities, think about promoting these people and putting them into new, more challenging roles.
    • Explore the freelance market – you may be hoping to hire a permanent employee for your role. But why not try working with freelancers or contractors to fill the role? Freelancers are experienced and can generally start relatively quickly, without having to give notice. Engaging a freelancer also has the advantage of saving you a fair amount in holiday pay, sick pay or other benefits you’d need to pay out to a full-time employee.
    • Raise brand awareness and market yourself as an employer – do people know your brand and what you do as a business? If you can get proactive about raising awareness of the business, this can give you an advantage when it comes to attracting the right candidates. Get a reputation as a great employer, with excellent benefits and working conditions, and you’ll attract more attention than your competitors.
    • Talk to your network and find the talent you need – word of mouth is a powerful thing. By talking to other employers and contacts in your network, you can make it known that you’re hiring. And the more people that know about your vacancies, the more likely it is that someone who fits the bill will hear about your job. If a great worker is looking for their next challenge, it may just be that they’re working with one of your customers, suppliers or business partners. So, get talking and put out the feelers.
    • Consider where roles could be automated to aid growth – automation technology is advancing at a terrific pace. It may be that there are certain low-level jobs that can be taken on by software automation tools or artificial intelligence (AI) assistants. For example, a voice AI assistant could become a digital agent in your contact centre, taking calls, fielding queries and passing customers to the correct human contact.

Talk to us about your talent issues

There’s no magic wand that can be waved to make teams of talented people appear out of thin air. But by thinking outside the box, you can find new and innovative ways of sourcing the talent you need – whether it’s word of mouth advertising or software automation.

With our network of business clients, we can help you get word of your vacancies out into the marketplace.

The following content was originally published by BOMA. We have updated some of this article for our readers.

Three steps to ensuring data is meaningful for your business

Raw data describes the facts and figures that a business processes every day. Over time, every business hoards a certain amount of data and it only becomes meaningful to a business after it has been processed to add context, relevance and purpose.

For example, in a restaurant, every order will be recorded. However, a restaurant won’t learn much by looking at each one in isolation. However, analysis of the orders will reveal trends and patterns, such as peak dining days or biggest-selling menu or bar items.

Knowledge of the business comes from the relationship between the singular pieces of information. That restaurant owner may know to do their biggest stock order on a Wednesday by analysing their covers and establishing that sales increase by 38% on Thursdays.

The pace of business in today’s technological times requires businesses to be able to react quickly to changing demands from customers and environmental conditions. The ability to be able to compile, analyze and act on data is increasingly important. In some instances, a high volume of data may need to be accumulated and analyzed before trends and patterns emerge.

When you aren’t compiling accurate business data, you can only rely on gut feel and assumptions about past performance to inform your future business decisions.

If your business is already using cloud software for accountancy, project management system or CRM, it’s likely that you’re sitting on a goldmine of data. If properly utilized, this data can greatly aid running a successful business. You’ll have valuable insight into your sales, expenses, profit and staff efficiencies that can help you answer critical questions and drive smart business decisions.

Every business is unique, but here are three quick tips to help you drive data in your business.

1. Data is only powerful if there is context – can you stop to answer these questions?

• • • What is your primary objective (business or personal)?
    • What is happening in the business?
    • What isn’t happening?
    • How can you influence what happens by analysing and responding to your data?

Figure out what you’re currently trying to achieve before anything else. It’s important to periodically go back and ask yourself these questions and what goals develop from the answers, as answers evolve over time.

You may have started out with your primary objective as running the best restaurant in your area. However as time has passed, your primary objective might now be to take time away from the business to spend more time with your children.

2. The only way your data can help you drive your business is if it’s accurate and organized appropriately – ask yourself:

• • • Are your financials up-to-date?
    • Do you have any unreconciled transactions?
    • Are you tax compliant?
    • Are your staff trained on what systems and processes to use for different parts of your business?
    • Are your cloud systems being correctly utilised?
    • Are you using AI tools to analyse and respond to your data?

The worst thing you can do is to attempt to analyse incorrect data and attempt to make decisions for the business based on it! Tools like Spotlight Reporting can help you with the reports you need for business decisions.

3. Understand what the data necessities are and what the niceties are.

• • • What would you most like to understand about your business?
    • What figures pinpoint success for you?
    • What are your objectives over the next six to twelve months, and two to five years?

Remember, to focus on what truly matters and build from there. If you want help with the process, we can accumulate, analyze, report and advise on your data; or show you which tools to use.

The following content was originally published by BOMA. We have updated some of this article for our readers.

It takes guts to start a business. It also takes a strategic mindset to succeed.

Business owners are no strangers to weighing risk and navigating uncertainty, but the recent economic climate has dialled everything up. Many business owners face the uncomfortable position of having to remap carefully thought-out succession plans and exit strategies and to consider selling their business before they’re ready and, possibly, for less than it’s worth.

Transition may be a better option

Rob Young, Managing Director of Platform 1, works with business owners on ensuring they get the best possible return when selling their business. Rob’s advice is to start by thinking about what options you have first.

There are five different ways to sell:

1. 1. Close the business down and sell the assets
   2. Sell to a family member
   3. Sell to an employee
   4. Just a straight sale to an outside party
   5. Gradual buy-out – The Platform 1 model.

The Platform 1 model is a gradual buy-out program. It involves finding a manager to take the reins early on.

Gradual buy-out a process that involves:

• • figuring out what kind of individual would be right to run the business; finding that person, and developing them.
  • Creating a plan where the new manager buys in gradually over 3 to 6 years. The objective is to get the owner out of the business physically as quickly as possible by transferring relationships and processes to the incoming person, so the owner becomes more of an investor rather than a manager.

Preparing for sale – what’s important

• • Get your house in order – Ensure you have systems and processes in place so the business isn’t reliant on you, but can run as a standalone entity.
  • Maximise your profit – Make sure that you are not taking decisions to minimise your tax liability – because what you’re trying to do is create a profitable business.

Don’t put off your succession plan – even if you are not ready to sell

It’s a good idea to think about this long before you need to sell so that you maximise the value of the business and achieve a better outcome. It’s also worth remembering that retirement doesn’t need to be doing nothing. If your business can run as an asset without your involvement, you don’t have to sell it completely, so not selling down 100% of the business is a viable option.

Talk to us today about your succession plan

If you don’t already have a succession plan in place, we can help so that you have options when you need them.

The following content was originally published by BOMA. We have updated some of this article for our readers.