sbarker_electrical

Electricians Race to the Bottom

Thu, 26 Jun 2025 12:06:03 GMT

Electricians Race to the Bottom: Does It Really Have to Be This Way?

As an electrician, you’ve likely felt the pressure. With competition around every corner, the temptation to lower your prices can sometimes be hard to resist, especially in slower times when the calls aren't coming in as fast. You might think, “I just need to get the work,” or “I’ll charge less than the local competitors (even if they are newbies or DIYers!) to win that job.” But in reality, this approach could be keeping you stuck in a never-ending cycle of price-cutting, stress, and ultimately ... burnout!

You might be stuck in the so called "race to the bottom" where the only way to win is by slashing prices until they no longer reflect the value of your expertise. The problem? When you lower your prices too much, you end up attracting the wrong kind of customers – ones who don’t appreciate your skills and are constantly looking for a cheaper deal. So, how do you escape this cycle and start charging what you’re worth?

The good news is – it doesn’t have to be this way, and you can break free. Here’s how.

1. Charge Enough to Show Your Value

The first step to escaping the race to the bottom is understanding that price isn’t just about what you charge – it’s about what your customer perceives your service to be worth. If you’re pricing yourself too low, you risk coming across as a cheap option, which is the last thing you want if you’re aiming to attract high-quality customers.

You might think, “But Simon, I just need to compete on price!” Well, here’s the thing – competing solely on price is a race you’ll never win. If you do Win ... you've also Lost!! Those cheap prices? They often attract the wrong kind of customers – people who will jump ship for the next bargain, no matter how good your service is. They are also the most critical mostly too and never appreciate your skills! They simple grudge having to pay for anything in the first place (Maybe their own DIY effort failed before they called you too!).

To break free and also work way less hours each week (Reducing stress in the process!) , you need to charge enough to reflect the quality and expertise you bring to the table. This doesn’t mean pricing yourself out of the market – it means pricing in a way that showcases your value, attracts the right customers, and allows you to run a profitable business. If you’re unsure of how to do this, check out the Pricing for Profit course, where I break down exactly how to price your services for maximum profitability while still standing out to your ideal customers.

2. Stand Out from the Competition

The electrical industry is crowded, and it can be difficult to make your business stand out. But you’ve got an advantage that many others don’t: your years of experience, your reputation, and your expertise . Leverage these to differentiate yourself.

Regardless of this experience, you can still stand out if you take the time to put some things in place.

Here’s how to stand out:

Emphasize Your Expertise: Don’t shy away from highlighting your years of experience. Share your story, your qualifications, and your journey in the industry. People trust experience, and they’re more likely to pay a premium for someone they know knows what they’re doing. Consider including client testimonials that speak to your reliability, expertise, and excellent service.
Showcase Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP): What makes you different from the competition? Do you offer lightning-fast responses? Do you specialize in certain services like EICRs or fuseboard upgrades? Make sure your potential customers know what sets you apart.
Create a Memorable Brand: Branding is key to standing out in a crowded market. A strong logo, a professional website, and an easily recognizable business name can go a long way in helping you build credibility and trust.
Invest in Quality Marketing Materials: Whether it’s your website, social media profiles, or marketing brochures, make sure they all reflect the high standards you want to portray. Cheap, low-quality marketing materials, floppy flyers and naff business cards from your own printer will only reinforce the idea that your service is a budget option. If you want to show you’re worth more, your branding should reflect that.

Again, Pricing for Profit dives into these ideas further. It’s not just about the pricing – it’s about building a whole system where your business stands out and attracts the right clients, ones who recognise the value you provide. Then works to follow up at lightning speed to avoid losing future work (even when you are flat out busy!), as discussed next ...

3. Speedy Follow-Up – Don’t Lose the Lead!

You could have the best pricing, the most professional branding, and all the right marketing strategies – but none of it matters if you don’t follow up quickly. The fact is, when potential clients reach out, they’re often shopping around. If you take too long to respond, they’ll move on to the next guy. If you've got your content in front of the BEST customers, they are most likely wanting to know who's ready and willing to start. They want communication and that will mean more to them than price. They just want everything to be quick and easy, in their language. So let's get on it fast ...

Here’s how to keep the momentum going:

Respond Within Minutes, Not Hours or Days: Time is of the essence. Ideally, even if you are super busy ... respond to customer inquiries within an hour (there are ways to do this even if it's not done by you). The quicker you respond, the more professional you appear, and the more likely you are to win the job. Have a system in place to ensure you’re responding promptly, whether it’s through a chatbot on your website, a dedicated business phone, or a virtual assistant.
Automate Where You Can: You don’t have to do everything manually. Set up automated emails or messages that acknowledge the inquiry and let the client know you’ll be in touch shortly. Simple Acknowledgements that say you've seen them and will be back asap is golden! Often they'll wait for you rather than going to the next person in the list. This builds confidence that you’re reliable and on top of things.
Follow-Up is Key: If the client doesn’t respond after your first message, don’t hesitate to follow up. A simple “just wanted to check in” can be the nudge they need to make a decision. But make sure you’re not bombarding them with multiple calls, Texts, DMs or emails – be polite and respectful. Keep your message simple and straight to the next action, rather than waffling about everything! You confuse, you lose!

Fast follow-up doesn’t just improve your chances of getting the job – it reinforces the idea that you’re reliable and professional. Pricing for Profit also covers how to streamline your follow-up process, helping you turn leads into customers without losing any of the hard work (and money) you put into attracting them in the first place.

4. Shift Your Focus from Price to Value

One of the biggest mistakes electricians make is focusing too much on price. Customers will often lead with, “How much do you charge for an EICR?” or “What’s your hourly rate?” While it’s important to know your pricing (and make it SUPER simple to Quote fast), you should be focusing on why your service is worth that price. There are a lot of ways to set this up so that the customer already knows this ahead of the call (Website, Social Profiles, Posts, Blogs, Videos, Printed ads, etc).

If you can make the customer feel like they’re getting far more than just a service – if they’re getting a solution to a problem, peace of mind, or long-term reliability – you’re not just another option ... You’re the solution.

Explain Your Value: Instead of only quoting a price, explain what goes into that price. Talk about your experience, the quality of your materials, the time you spend ensuring everything is done correctly, and the long-term value your customer will get. NOTE that if you've done this properly, your google reviews will start to mention these things from other people, which is much better than you singing your own praises. Getting google reviews is much easier than some people think.

Provide Guarantees: Offer warranties or guarantees on your work. This shows confidence in the service you provide and makes the customer feel secure in their decision to pay a little more for top-quality work.

Bundle Services: If you offer multiple services, consider bundling them together at a discounted rate (You won't lose out if pricing properly, as you've already travelled there so you won't lose out financially if you work it out correctly!). This can increase the overall value of your offering without directly cutting into your prices and profit.

5. Invest in Yourself – Continuous Learning Pays Off

No matter how experienced you are, there’s always more to learn . One way to stand out from the competition is by continually improving your skills. Whether it’s attending workshops, obtaining new certifications, or learning new techniques, investing in yourself and your business will pay dividends in the long run. Many Electricians are great technically, but lack a lot of the Business skills needed to make a difference. Often it's the small changes that give them a bigger boost too! Often you don't see the woods for the trees, so learning from others, rather than hiding what you do as a secret, or considering a mentor or coach or group of other Electricians from other areas who focus on the same end goal - This changes lives. It's also nice to see that you aren't the only one struggling and that someone in the group has your back and understands you in a way that your friends and family never will.

As I mention in my Pricing for Profit course, learning how to set profitable prices is just the beginning. The real game-changer comes when you know how to implement pricing strategies that work in your business context, empowering you to deliver more value and attract better clients.

Final Thoughts – Escape the Race to the Bottom

It’s easy to fall into the trap of constantly lowering prices to compete with the next Electrican. But in doing so, you risk undervaluing yourself and attracting customers who only care about the lowest price. Instead, shift your focus to offering quality, standing out through your expertise, and following up quickly to seal the deal.

When you charge what you’re worth and offer value that others can’t match, you’ll attract the right kind of customers – the ones who appreciate your expertise and are willing to pay for it. It’s time to stop racing to the bottom and start building a business that thrives on your expertise, not your ability to undercut the competition.

Want to learn how to price your electrical services for profit, and stop undervaluing your work? Check out my Pricing for Profit course for step-by-step guidance on how to price your jobs to make the profit you deserve, while attracting the very best, higher paying customers, then following up super fast to ensure you don't lose those jobs again!

Focus on believing in yourself

Thu, 17 Nov 2022 18:02:44 GMT

Focus on believing in yourself

If you run your own business, no matter what type of business it is, when you focus on believing in yourself you will have the confidence to make the right decisions, at the right time. More importantly, if you believe 100% in what you are doing, it will be much easier for you to reach the place you want to be in life, both professionally and personally.

In an earlier blog, I talked about focusing on your WHY and how taking time out to think about why you made the decision to set up your own electrical business is a bit like hitting a reset button. Going back to the beginning will show you how far along the journey you have come and will restore that self-belief that led you along this path.

In order to reach your end goal, you need to have complete faith in yourself and your ability to achieve the end result. But being a business owner is not without its challenges, and sometimes during the difficult times, we can lose confidence and ask ourselves “what on earth were you thinking?” If you feel overwhelmed or that you have lost your self-belief, why not download my free FLOWING Guide ? This seven step guide will teach you how to:

· Outshine the competition and master that WOW factor, through sharing my 36+ years of experience

· Become a local legend through word-of-mouth and five star reviews

· Build your business from the start and then scale it efficiently

· Be productive and improve your time management skills

· Do more in less time through procedures, tools, and systems

· Increase your income until you achieve that all-important work/life balance

Sounds, great, doesn’t it? So don’t delay, focus on believing in yourself and download my free FLOWING Guide today! In addition, you can also sign up for a 30 day trial membership of my Business Transformer course for just £1. The course is packed chock-full of helpful materials, advice and guidance to help you achieve your goals. Everything is broken down into easily manageable chunks, so you can take things at your own pace, one step at a time.

Why you need to focus on believing in yourself

Have you heard the famous quote by Henry Ford:

“Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right.”

In other words, your self-belief can be a decisive factor in whether your electrical business will be successful or not. If you do not believe in your ability to reach your end goal, how will you get there?

However, if you focus on believing in yourself, benefits to your mental health and mindset will follow.

· A positive attitude and can-do mindset

· Less negative thinking

· Better decision-making

· An increase in energy and motivation

· Feeling valued and/or appreciated

· Reduced feelings of anxiety and overwhelm

· The belief that anything is possible!

You will gain self-confidence. This will help you to deal with stress in your electrical business because you will be able to think clearly and make confident decisions for positive growth.

This clear thinking means you will stop sweating the small stuff and become better at prioritising tasks, allowing you to achieve more in less time.

You will have faith that systems, processes, and your staff can handle those less important tasks you would previously have taken on yourself. It is important that your staff see your self-belief and 100% commitment to your business. If you are not confident in your ability to reach your business goals, it can affect staff morale and their commitment to you, causing attitude problems and difficulties with staff retention.

What’s more, as you focus on believing in yourself, your family will be overjoyed as you start to put healthy boundaries on work time so you can spend more quality time with them!

Focus on believing in yourself – tips and tricks

If you feel that your self-belief is flagging or that you have lost the motivation to take your business forward, here are a few simple techniques that can help to restore it:

· Look back to when you started and see how far you have come

· Think about your strengths - how they have helped you deal with specific tasks in your electrical business and how you can use those skills more as your business grows

· Focus on your personal vision

· Concentrate on positive thoughts and avoid negative self-talk

· Break goals down into smaller sections to avoid being overwhelmed

· Don’t take on too much in one go, move forward one day at a time

· Avoid setting unachievable targets or focusing on ‘perfection’

· Celebrate your successes, no matter how small!

· Read through the glowing five star customer reviews to remind yourself that your business is successful and appreciated by others

· Make sure you are well-grounded and enjoy time away from the business with family and friends

· Surround yourself with positive people

· Identify areas where your business can improve

· What knowledge or skills do you need to take on board to continue moving forwards?

· Identify courses that will help you on your journey such as Business Transformer for Electricians and Trades

Remind yourself that you can’t achieve it all in one day and that everyone suffers setbacks from time to time. The important thing is to not dwell on the setbacks because these will put you into a negative frame of mind and may prevent your electrical business from growing in the way you want. Instead, focus on believing in yourself and getting back on track by doing some of the exercises I have outlined above.

Another activity that can help you to focus on believing in yourself is to join a group of people doing the same thing. Talking to peers about setbacks and seeing how they have overcome challenges will show you that you are not alone on this journey and that others have succeeded. Check out my Facebook Electrical Business Community , which has inspirational quotes, tips and tricks for running a successful electrical business and how you can avoid common pitfalls.

I hope that I have shown you that if you focus on believing in yourself, the hard work will pay off, and your business will succeed. If you need some guidance and would like to open your mind to learning more techniques to move your electrical business forward, sign up to Business Transformer today.

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Your health and energy in your electrical business

Wed, 09 Nov 2022 15:11:05 GMT

Your health and energy in your electrical business

Your health and energy really matter when running an electrical business. I have touched on this subject before, but it is such an important topic that it deserves a dedicated blog. So, I am going to talk about how low energy levels and not feeling 100% can impact your success and give you some simple tips and advice to boost your health and energy in your electrical business.

I have said before (okay, many times!), that achieving a successful business is a process, it isn’t something you can do overnight. Because it takes time and energy, you need really look after yourself because risking your health is a threat to your business too! If you are in tip-top condition, getting enough sleep and exercise and eating properly, you will have the physical and mental energy and strength to deal with those everyday little niggles that crop up. And they will crop up, that is one thing you can be certain of when running an electrical business!

Your health and energy in your electrical business

Make it a priority!

Your health and energy in your electrical business should be a priority. If you are not operating at your best, your focus, creativity and concentration will suffer and could lead to problems, such as:

Safety: We all know that lapses in concentration for an electrician can have dangerous consequences

Staff problems: Taking out your frustrations and negativity on your team can lead to problems with absenteeism, retention, and your reputation.

Dissatisfied customers: Nobody will offer repeat work to a bad-tempered, unfriendly workman and this could be reflected in reviews, even if you did a good job! It could damage a good reputation that has taken you years to build.

Missed opportunities: Your creativity and ability to think ‘outside the box’ will suffer if you are fatigued, so you may miss solutions and new opportunities.

If you feel your health and energy in your electrical business is not as it should be, you may like to join my Facebook Electrical Business Community . This group of like-minded people provides support to fellow electricians with tips for success and inspirational quotes to make you focus on why you are doing this. If you need more practical advice for running an electrical business, why not download my free FLOWING Guide , which is filled with techniques to help you make your business a success.

Your health and energy in your electrical business

Tiredness

Everyone knows that when you work for yourself you tend to work more and more hours to try to make your business a success. Staying late in the office to catch up with admin, fitting those extra little jobs in during the weekend. Before you know it, you are working 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. You cannot possibly keep this up!

I know this because I have been there and done that. You need to understand that time is a finite resource and the more of it you spend in your business, the less time you have for those things you promised yourself you would do when embarking on this journey:

· Spend more time with family and friends

· Go to the gym/get fitter

· Take a few more holidays

· Cut down on takeaways and eat better

· Achieve that all important work/life balance

Constant tiredness will affect your mood and your ability to concentrate and may lead to you becoming run down and susceptible to cold and flu viruses. You can get caught up in a cycle of tiredness and illness that can lead to lots of bad habits as you try to stay on top of things, for example:

· Eating sugary foods for that instant energy hit

· Drinking too much coffee

· Turning to alcohol to ‘switch off’

· Doing less exercise

· Craving carbohydrates

· Being less social

Does this sound like you? If it does, you have to prioritise yourself and your health and energy in your electrical business. Block time off in your calendar every week to do some exercise, preferably outdoors (see more below.) Make sure you eat regular healthy meals and snacks to avoid that instant sugar high and the inevitable tiredness that follows. Make sure you develop a good bedtime routine so that you get enough high quality sleep. You may like to read this article from Crafted Beds on how to establish a good bedtime routine .

Your health and energy in your electrical business

Exercise Outdoors

We all know the benefits of exercise, don’t we? Regular exercise can increase energy levels and combat tiredness by reducing tension in your body, as well as boosting your mood. But you need to prioritise it as part of a daily (or even every other day), routine. Although going to the gym has become more popular recently, research published in Sciencedaily.com showed that exercising outdoors was better for you than indoors and had a greater effect on anxiety and self-esteem, especially if near water.

So, if you are lucky enough to live near the sea, a reservoir, river or canal, take advantage of it and the double whammy of an energy and mood boost. What’s more, if you can manage it during daylight hours, you will top up your levels of vitamin D (a lack of vitamin D causes tiredness.)

Exercising outdoors is good for you physically, psychologically, and emotionally. It will help to reduce feelings of stress and anxiety from running an electrical business and will improve your energy and mental resilience.

Your health and energy in your electrical business

Combat Stress

Once you have established a bedtime routine and prioritised outdoor exercise a few times a week, it is a good idea to think about your mental health. Building a successful electrical business can be stressful, so you need to think how you can free your mind from your business problems for a few minutes every day. We all get stressed from time to time, and practising techniques to reduce it will benefit both your business and your family life, because it is those closest to us who tend to feel the brunt of our low moods and negativity.

Exercising regularly and eating well will give you a good start, but you may need something extra, just to help you to let go. Tai chi, yoga, breathing exercises, mindfulness or even individual or group therapy can give you the techniques to reduce your stress levels.

I hope that this blog has encouraged you to think about your health and energy in your electrical business and shown you how they are linked to your success. If you need help getting back on track, sign up for a 30 day trial membership of Business Transformer for just £1. My online courses are packed full of useful materials and tips to help you focus on why you decided to go-alone in the first place, along with step-by-step instructions showing you how systems can help you to manage your time successfully.

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How do you earn as a local electrician in the UK?

Tue, 08 Nov 2022 08:06:08 GMT

How do you earn as a local electrician in the UK?

The issue of pricing and how much to charge is a thorny one for local electricians. It crops up in social media posts as a frequent topic for discussion in groups and forums. So, how do you earn as a local electrician in the UK - in a small town or a large city?

It has always been a reasonable assumption that to make more profit and earn more money for yourself, you need to raise prices and charge more for jobs. But, when you look at your local competitors and see they are charging less than you, the fear kicks in that customers will choose cheaper quotes, and you may end up with no work at all!

The problem with undercutting competitors’ prices is that it can become a ‘race to the bottom’, and this is a race nobody wants to win, right? The only prize for the winner of this race is stress from not earning enough to cover costs, and you will end up with nothing to show for all your hard work – if your business survives, that is!

How do you earn as a local electrician in the UK and avoid winning the race to the bottom? This blog explains how to position your electrical business to stand out from the competition and make sure that you are the preferred electrician in your area, even when your prices are higher and there is a lot of competition for business!

Put in the groundwork!

Of course, you can’t just pluck a price from thin air! Before you can decide what to charge, you need to work out how much money you need from your electrical business, on a personal level. Although this will be different for everyone depending on personal circumstances, the first step is to work out how much you need to earn for:

Essentials – monthly survival. This will decide your basic monthly earnings.

Nice to have – regular treats you don’t need to survive. Once your business starts to make a profit, add a figure for treats.

Luxuries – things you promised yourself you would have when your business became successful. When your business becomes a roaring success, add a figure for luxuries.

At the end of this task, you should know how much you need to earn annually, monthly, weekly and daily at these three stages of your business, determined by how many weeks per year, days per week and hours per day you want to work (I use spreadsheets for this). Please remember to be realistic but at the same time don't think too small! You have set up your business to provide you with a nice life. Nobody wants to be a busy fool who never gets a break and can’t retire when they should have done so long ago.

Once you have decided your worth and what you need to do to achieve it, an amazing thing happens! Suddenly, competitors’ prices don’t matter anymore . You are standing out as a local electrician, with your own pricing. Yes, this is scary, and you may think that you will never be able to charge more or afford those luxuries, but don’t worry, I will show you how later!

How do you earn as a local electrician in the UK - Advantages of a pricing strategy

You will be amazed what happens as a local electrician with a pricing strategy in place. You will find:

· You can charge more than competitors

· People will pay your prices

· They will be nicer people than those who haggle

Over time, you will see patterns emerge of what customers to search for, the type and value of their home, their profession, their age, etc. By uploading your customers on to Google Maps or viewing the jobs you have completed in ServiceM8 (or alternative Apps), you will see how to target similar customers whether by social media groups, magazines, postcards, paid adverts or videos. NOTE that you'll be duplicating more of who convert already (rather than just those that enquired but never went ahead!).

Higher paying customers tend to be nicer, less stressed, and more loyal than those angry customers who constantly haggle on price and don’t appreciate your worth. They are also more likely to recommend you to others and give you positive reviews on Google or other platforms. This will increase your reputation and ranking and raise your profile both as a local electrician and on the internet.

Quote techniques

There are things you must do and things you must avoid when providing a quote.

Be clear (using a proper, repeatable format which is quick to create)

Upsell – bundle products together such as EICR and PAT testing at a special price or offer AFDDs on socket circuits or domestic fuse board upgrades for slightly less. This is your version of "would you like fries and a drink with that?".

Stick to the quoted price. If you discount, it will look like you were trying to rip them off!

Don’t

Automatically discount the price when someone asks if it can be done cheaper. Just ask what item they would like to remove, or if they would like you to complete the job in stages to suit their budget.

Don’t fret if they say no. Some people might, but others will say yes. Trust the system and fill your schedule with work that meets your needs as well as those of your customers. How do you earn as a local electrician in the UK? Certainly not by reducing your prices, not making enough money, working long hours, and getting stressed out!

How do you earn as a local electrician in the UK – Customer experience

Okay. So you have done all of the above and now your electrical business is profitable, you are no longer exhausted and have free time and money for family activities. Woohoo! The next step is to double your prices (Incrementally). If you do this, you only have to work half the hours, or halve your customers to make the same money. How can you do this? By focusing on the customer experience. Happy customers are the key to a successful business, so make small changes wherever you can, such as:

· Working clean

· Tidying up

· Smoothing out the enquiry and quote experience

· Acknowledging customer enquiries

· Make payments super-easy

· Look professional (branded vans/clothing etc.)

You will be doing exactly the same job as your competitors but making the whole experience from initial enquiry to job completion a breeze for customers. This is where you can really raise your electrical business above the competition , and customer reviews and recommendations will reflect their positive experience.

How do you earn as a local electrician in the UK – Tried and tested results

I tested this out in both a small town where I was one of five electricians, and in a large city with more than 300 accredited local electricians! Guess what? In spite of pricing at the higher end of the spectrum and with an imminent recession, my diary is full of profitable work that earns five star reviews from loyal customers.

For those of you that don’t know me, I am Simon Barker and I have been an electrician since 1988 , with the first 19 years’ experience in the car industry, semiconductors, and with other world-class manufacturers. I then started my own company in 2007 and spent some time as a software developer after achieving my maths/computing degree. I love systems and how they can make my business so much easier to run. Systems give me free time during evenings and weekends to spend with my family, rather than doing admin!

As you can see, I have a long track record and I would love to give you some completely free resources, so you can learn even more pricing techniques that enable your business to stand out. You can get my free FLOWING guide to setting up and growing your electrical business. What’s more, you can sign up for my email updates (See bottom of Page) , which will let you know when I post new blogs or videos, as well as making sure my tips for running a successful electrical business find their way into your inbox.

For even more tips and tricks of the trade, you can also check out and subscribe to my YouTube channel and Facebook Group . I would love to hear from you and find out other issues you would like me to talk about.

I hope that this blog has given you some answers to the question how do you earn as a local electrician in the UK?. I would love to help this industry grow because the pool of people within the industry is shrinking and I believe that there will alwyas be many opportunities to prosper as an electrician , whether as a job or with your own business. So, come and join me and let’s do this. Let’s make a difference to our industry together. Let me help you to get your electrical business FLOWING!

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Have you fallen out of love with your electrical business?

Fri, 15 Jul 2022 15:35:26 GMT

Have you fallen out of love with your electrical business? Focus on your WHY

Do you feel like it is Groundhog Day, and you are facing an uphill climb every week? Let’s face it, we have all been there and felt like that at one time or another. All businesses have ups and downs, and it is impossible to be 100% positive, 100% of the time! When you have been running a business for a long time, sometimes things can get stale. The frustrations take over your working day and you start to feel helpless and stressed out by the smallest problem. Or if it’s a new business it can sometimes feel a little overwhelming. This is when you need to focus on your WHY. Why you started out on your own in the first place and what it is about running your own electrical business that you love so much.

If you feel you have fallen out of love with your electrical business, joining a group of like-minded people may help you to focus on your WHY. Why not head over to my Facebook Electrical Business Community , which offers positive support and has lots of tips for success, including inspirational quotes to help remind you of the important things in life and why you started on this journey. Or, if you are finding the day-to-day running of your electrical business a struggle, you can download my free FLOWING Guide which is filled with practical techniques to help your business be successful.

Focus on your WHY

We all have different reasons for doing what we do. Maybe you became interested when you were a child and were fascinated by how electricity worked? Or perhaps you wanted to create your own working environment, rather than working for someone else? Or you could have been seeking a better work/life balance and more time to spend with your partner and family?

Whatever the reason, taking time out to focus on your WHY is a bit like hitting the reset button on a device. It takes you back to your original vision, your reason for starting out on your own, your inspiration for making that leap of faith. You are reminded of why and how it all started, your drive, passion and vision. When things start to feel a bit repetitive and more of a grind than a pleasure or when things have been challenging and you have found it difficult to keep going, it is time to reconnect with those original feelings.

If you focus on your WHY, it will help to motivate and re-energise you when you are down or struggling. It will:

• Restore your sense of purpose when your resolve is flagging

• Renew your passion for reaching your long-term goals, and help you to commit to them

• Take away the stress and ‘fog’ in your mind, giving you clarity on what you want to achieve, so you can let go of distractions

• Remind you why you started and bring back the enjoyment of running your own electrical business

• Help you to see how far you have come and restore your faith in your own ability

• Give you the strength and determination to learn from any challenges you are facing, rather than being defeated by them

If you feel you have fallen out of love with your electrical business, there are a few practical steps you can take, which should help you to reenergise physically, as well as refreshing your focus on your WHY:

1. Make sure you eat properly

2. Get enough sleep

3. Exercise regularly

4. Set time aside for friends and family

5. Schedule time away from the business for you to relax and recharge

You have come a long way from where you started to make your business a success, through sheer hard work, commitment, determination, focus, and great decision-making. Renewing your purpose will give you energy and positivity, putting a stop to that jaded feeling. If you feel bombarded by negativity at the moment, read my blog about focusing on positivity in your electrical business here.

Focus on your WHY - Personal Vision

It is very important to set out your personal vision, right from the start. It’s also very important to realise that your WHY and your vision may well change over time. So, revisit it regularly. By taking some time out and writing down how you see your dream life in each of the following areas:

Family and friends: How do you picture your family life and friends in an ideal world?

Personal finance: What assets do you have? What do you earn? How much do you have in savings?

Health and fitness: What health problem would you make right? What physical activities do you see yourself doing? Are some of these with family and friends?

Education and development: What formal education would you like to complete or undertake? Personal development, spirituality, business development courses? How do you see yourself improving and learning?

Home and property: What does your home look like? Right down to the number of rooms, wall colours, where your home is located. Do you want a portfolio of properties to rent out?

Business: What is your vision of your electrical business? Will you have more than one business?

Holidays and travel: What kind of holidays do you see yourself enjoying and where will you travel to?

Material possessions: Gizmos and gadgets. What would they look like if you had them all now? Cars, bikes, clothes, gadgets, etc.

Write down the components of this personal vision in great detail within each category, as if everything had already happened – what they consist of and how they make you feel. It is important that you undertake this exercise with pen and paper, because it gives you that physical connection to your vision. It may take some time to complete, but you can go back and amend bits of it over a week or so until you feel it is right. The final task is to rate the life you are experiencing now against your personal vision with marks out of ten in each category. This allows you to reflect on where you are now, shows clearly what is lacking in your life and where you need to improve, and where you are doing well.

Focus on your WHY – Vision Board

Your vision board is a visual or graphic representation of everything you wrote down in the previous exercise. Search for images that depict your goals and collate them on to one sheet of paper or one digital image you could use as your onscreen wallpaper. This page is a snapshot of everything you are aspiring to, your future goals, your ideal life. You need to make sure you place your completed vision board somewhere you can see it every day. Every time you see it, it will visualise your WHY, reminding you of your personal vision and providing the motivation and purpose for you to achieve your ideal life.

If you feel like things are getting stale and you have lost your way, you can sign up for a 30 day trial membership trial of Business Transformer for just £1. Whether you are just starting your journey as an electrician, or whether you are ready to grow your electrical business, there is a whole host of materials to help you along including step-by-step advice on writing down your personal vision, putting together a vision board and why you should focus on your WHY.

Focus on positivity in your electrical business

Fri, 15 Jul 2022 15:03:32 GMT

Focus on positivity in your electrical business

Okay, I get it, you are wondering what an earth a ‘woo-woo’ subject like positivity has to do with running an electrical business. But whether you are thinking about it, have just started your journey or want to grow your business, having a positive mental attitude is crucial to its success. I always say that building a successful business is a process, something that takes time. In this blog, I am going to share with you some advice along with practical steps you can take to make sure you focus on positivity in your electrical business.

Who you hang around with matters

My first piece of advice may sound callous, or even calculating, but the truth is that you may need to let go of some relationships. You should make sure that all your team members are a good fit for your business and that they are working with you to build both your business and a good reputation. For example, do you have employees who constantly moan, drag down the rest of the team, and no matter how hard you try, they always focus on the negative rather than the positive side of things? And you certainly don’t want them being negative in front of customers!

You don’t really have the time or the energy to cheer them up as well as run your business – it is exhausting! For example:

You ask one of your employees to take on something new because you need their help in this area, or you may feel that they are ready to take on a bit more responsibility.

Do they:

A. Immediately say that they have never done it before with a shake of their head or say that it looks too complicated? This would be the response of a negative person.

B. Say it is an opportunity to learn a new skill or task or look at it from a different perspective?

This is a positive response from someone who is willing to help you achieve your business goals.

Who you hang around with matters, so if you feel people are holding you back or if spending time with them undermines your confidence or makes you feel bad about yourself and what you are trying to achieve, then it may be uncomfortable, but you need to move away from those relationships. It is important that you surround yourself with go-getters, hard workers and positive thinkers who are supporting you in your business goals.

If you focus on positivity in your electrical business, you will feel that your employees are on your side and that you are working together as a team to make your business successful.

Focus on positivity in your electrical business - your health and wellbeing

It is not easy to focus on positivity in your electrical business if you are feeling tired and stressed out or are working too many hours just to keep your head above water. You need all the energy you can muster to plough back into your electrical business, so it is important that you focus on your health and wellbeing. Try not to let your hobbies slide and make sure you fit in 30 minutes of exercise at least five times a week to help you:

• Have the energy you need to grow your business

• Release ‘happy hormones’ to combat stress and fatigue

• Boost your mood

• Clear your mind

• Give you a break from working

• Have social interaction away from your business

Hand-in-hand with exercise is a good diet, so make sure you eat well. Relying on sugary snacks or energy drinks to get you through the day puts nothing of any value in your system. Good food can boost both your mood and energy levels, enabling you to focus on positivity in your electrical business

Are you getting enough sleep? Sleep provides both body and mind with a ‘reboot’ and is invaluable when combatting stress and negativity. If you find it difficult to sleep or are prone to being overtired, try to establish a bedtime routine and do a brain-dump before you get into bed. Writing down everything that is in your head may sound a bit silly, but it stops your brain from whirring around during the night. You don’t have to put your thoughts in order of priority, just get them out of your head so you can relax and get a good night’s sleep. Of course, your thoughts will still be written on your notepad the next morning, but you will feel well-rested and in a positive frame of mind.

Focus on positivity in your electrical business - Positive support

Of course, we are all human and no-one feels on top of the world all the time. We need and rely on support from those around us. Your family is a constant source of support and empathy, so make sure you have time for them. Block off time in your weekly calendar to spend with your family and friends.

Create that work-life balance that you have been striving for all your working life. Relaxing and taking some time out of your business will recharge your batteries, giving you the energy to cope with those bumps in the road that are bound to happen from time to time.

Sometimes, realising that you are not on your own, that there are others out there who have the same questions and challenges can put a positive slant on things. If you are seeking some positive support for your electrical business, you may find it beneficial to join a like-minded community, like my Facebook Electrical Business Community . My posts are packed full of advice, inspirational quotes, tips for success, useful links and much more!

In addition, there may be a local business association or trades’ group you can join. You can hear from business experts and meet tradespeople and business owners like you, who are trying to take their company to the next level. This networking group can provide positive support for your electrical business, a place where you can share your success and that of other members.

The main tips I have outlined in this blog are:

• To surround yourself with positive people

• To look after your health and wellbeing

• To seek positive support for your electrical business from like-minded people in networking groups or on social media

If you can achieve these three things you will be able to focus on positivity in your electrical business and find a good work/life balance. If you would like to know more about avoiding stress and negativity from a fellow electrician who does just that, sign up for your 30 day membership trial of Business Transformer for only £1 today.

How to get Customer Reviews for your Electrical Business

Sun, 26 Jun 2022 12:27:40 GMT

How to get customer reviews for your electrical business

In my last blog, I gave you some pointers on how to get more enquiries in your electrical business . Of course, one great way to get new and repeat business is by word-of-mouth and/or customer reviews, which has the added bonus of costing your business virtually nothing. But, as we all know, it is one thing for customers to say you have done a great job and that they are happy with the service you provided, and quite another when it comes to them writing a review! In this blog, I will outline some simple but effective actions you can take to get customer reviews for your electrical business.

Customer opinion carries a lot of weight when people are searching for a trustworthy electrical business and the benefits of positive reviews can lead to:

• More leads/opportunities for new business

• More repeat business

• Higher ranking for your website on Google (via Google reviews)

• Creation of trust/enhance reputation

• Local recognition

There are one or two things you have to do before your customers can leave a Google review:

1. Make sure you have read Google’s policies regarding reviews. Reviews are meant to give a true reflection of the level of service you offer so you cannot ask for good reviews or offer your customers rewards.

2. Your business needs to be shown on Google Maps for customers to leave reviews.

3. You have to have a Google Business Profile to give you control over your business and maps listing.

4. Verify ownership of your electrical business on your account.

Here is a useful link to take you through the steps above. (Link to: https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2020/06/10/create-google-my-business-account ) Okay, so now you have your Google Business Profile set up, there are a few simple actions to take to make sure you get customer reviews for your electrical business.

Use your social media pages and website

Do you have social media account for your electrical business? If not, why is that? Although you do not have control over what other people say about your business, you can control what you say and how you address any problems. Use your social media accounts positively to enhance the reputation of your business. Rule number one is - always reply to comments, even the bad ones!

• Put a positive spin on any negative comments, for example, offer to investigate the complaint, do a site inspection, post before and after pictures – anything you can think of to turn the negative into a positive. This will show that you care about your customers and the quality of service you provide.

• If customers post positive comments, say thank you! Ask them to post their comment on Google Reviews and include the link in your reply (more about links later in this blog.)

• Write a post featuring a positive review and explain how other customers can leave one too!

• Shout out and promote it when you are recognised as a good business or have a 5 star average!

Make sure you feature reviews on your website, either separately or on the homepage. Once established, make sure they are updated regularly. Provide customers with a clear call-to-action (CTA) that goes straight to Google reviews e.g. in the footer of your website:

Click here to read or add a Google review

Get customer reviews for your electrical business - Ask!

If you are anything like me, and you pride yourself on going that extra mile to make sure you provide a good service, just ask! Don’t leave it too long after the job has been completed because customers are more motivated immediately after completion.

If a customer calls or emails you, or even stops you in the street to tell you what a good job your company did, say that you really appreciate their feedback and would be grateful if they could leave a review on Google. Make it sound easy and let them know that they would be helping others to find a reputable company.

Invite feedback from your customers

The benefits of positive reviews for your electrical business cannot be underestimated, so invite feedback from your customers, listen carefully, and deal with any issues effectively and promptly.

This will give you the chance to nip any negative feedback in the bud, so customers don’t dwell on things and vent their feelings on social media or by bad mouthing you to potential customers.

Feedback is invaluable in showing you where your company can improve to ensure you get customer reviews for your electrical business.

Make it easy for customers to leave reviews

Unfortunately, reviewing your business on Google can be quite a process for your customers to go through. They have to go to Google Maps, search for your business listing and scroll to the review section before they start typing! So, take away these barriers and make it as easy as possible. Create a link to the review section, then shorten or customise it using a free link shortener like bitly.com. Put direct links (or the link address on printed materials) to your Google review section wherever you can:

• Email signature

• Website footer

• Invoices

• Business cards

• Forms/paperwork that is sent to your customer

• All marketing communications, both on and offline

You can add live links to electronic communications like email updates or newsletters. You could even spotlight how to leave a review either in steps or via a short video. The easier you make it for your customers, the more likely they are to leave a review.

As well as these customer-facing actions, there are also steps you can take within your company to get customer reviews for your electrical business.

Include reviews in your work processes/training

First, make sure that your team understands how important good reviews are for your electrical business and that they remember to ask customers to leave a review. Any training should be for office staff as well as employees in the field because they may take calls/emails from happy customers. They need to strike while the iron is hot and obtain a positive review.

If you send an email or questionnaire after job completion, include your Google review section link, to make it easy for customers to leave a review.

Obtaining positive reviews is invaluable free marketing for your electrical business. If you would like to read more tips and advice on how to make your company successful, I have written my free FLOWING Guide full of marketing and business tips to help you to get customer reviews for your electrical business and more! You may prefer my online Business Transformer course, which shows you techniques, videos, and practical examples of how to run a successful electrical business, avoiding the mistakes I made! And the best thing is, it only costs £1 to sign up for a 30 day trial membership .

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How to get more enquiries in your electrical business

Mon, 06 Jun 2022 18:55:33 GMT

How to get more enquiries in your electrical business

When you are just starting out in business, any kind of business, it can be difficult to see where the next enquiry is coming from. Building a successful electrical business is a process. Likewise, having a trustworthy reputation does not happen overnight – it takes time and effort. That said, however, there are steps you can take to raise your business profile and get more enquiries in your electrical business right from the word go.

In this blog, I will give you some practical advice about your branding, customer processes, and communications that should help to get more enquiries in your electrical business and at the same time, improve your professional reputation.

Are you easy to find?

One of the first things to tackle is how customers can find you. You have to understand that different customers will use different methods of contact. You need to cover all the bases to make sure that whatever their preferred method, your contact details are clearly listed.

· Contact details should be on every page of your website, not just ‘contact us’

· Your website should include an enquiry form to make things easy for customers (preferably at the bottom of each page)

· On your contact page, list every way a customer can contact you including social media pages

· When listing phone numbers, include the hours the phone will be manned and when it will be an answerphone

· Use your email signature to also provide your contact details and links to any useful information on your website or social media pages, e.g. introductory videos, the ‘about us’ section

Branding

Be consistent! You and/or your employees should wear matching workwear carrying your branding. Put your logo, contact details, and the type of jobs you do on company vehicles (If safe to do so in your area! More on that in our Facebook Group ). Make sure your website and social media pages match in design, logo, contact details and company profiles? Any paperwork, whether a quote, invoice, enquiry form, statement should be instantly recognisable as coming from your electrical business. Of course, there is a cost for branding, but once finished, it is free advertising, a tried and proven method for raising your business profile.

Remember that customers will make a decision about you and your company before you have said a word, solely based on how professional you and your team look. Turning up on time, in a liveried vehicle, wearing branded workwear will elevate their opinion of your company. This is the first step for customers to know, like and trust you to do a good job. It helps to build a positive customer relationship, essential for repeat business and expanding your customer base through word of mouth recommendations.

Make sure you highlight any awards or accreditations by featuring the logo on your website, social media pages, quotes, invoices and email signature. This is a way of reassuring customers of your professionalism and may guide them to choose you over any competitors.

Website and social media pages

If you are serious about getting more enquiries in your electrical business you need to spend some time assessing the online presence of your electrical business. We have talked about the importance of consistent branding, but there are other considerations too. For example, how long does your website take to load? Does your website instantly allow your customers to know they are in the right place and how to contact you? Also, make sure it’s obvious what geographical areas you cover. You may have a similar name to another electrical company in a different location. You don’t want customers from the other end of the country calling you and taking up your valuable time.

Do you know which pages, services, or items have the most clicks? It is worth getting a professional to optimise your website and ask their advice about measuring customer responses, so you can see what is working, what isn’t, and how to tailor your content for maximum engagement.

How do your social media pages look? Do they accurately reflect your professionalism, or do they show you having a good time with friends at the weekend? Do your profiles tell people that you are an electrician and are they consistent and professional- looking? Look at how you communicate and use a variety of content - pictures, videos, montages and short films. You can guarantee that prospective customers will look at your social media platforms, especially if they are linked from your website, so don’t lose them before they have even enquired!

Customer communications

When speaking directly to customers, you should empathise and listen carefully to their requirements. People buy from people, and if you build up that sense of trust from listening to their needs and being helpful, they will buy from you again.

Try not to criticise how a job was left if its already been started, because it may be that a neighbour, relative, or even the customer has tried to fix the problem themselves. You won’t be doing your electrical business any favours by upsetting the customer from the outset! Speak their language! Try not to talk to customers in technical terms (unless they express an interest), because they may feel confused about your service offering. You can judge how to respond by listening to their questions – adapt your language and respond in an appropriate way.

The second part of customer communications is about the process you use for handling enquiries and how to make sure you respond quickly and consistently. I talked about automated responses in an earlier blog called ‘how electricians can systemise administration and save time!’, which you can read here .

Implementing a quick and consistent response to enquiries and having an online quote system can result in cost savings, fewer mistakes, and cut the number of hours you work, while reassuring customers that they are important to you. You need to follow up enquiries quickly, otherwise you may lose business to competitors, or gain a reputation for being unreliable.

Customer Service

A great way to obtain positive online reviews and word of mouth recommendations is to make sure the customer service in your electrical business is memorable. Attention to detail, being courteous and going above and beyond just doing the job often costs nothing, but it is this that you will be remembered for. These can be simple things like:

· Wearing overshoes so your work boots don’t mark the carpet

· Cleaning up after the job so the area is left the way you found it

· Running a customer through how a new system works

· Leaving a notebook and pen (branded of course, so your details are handy!)

All the above are effective ways of giving your customer a bit of extra attention, nurturing a positive customer relationship and bringing in enquiries from glowing customer reviews and word of mouth recommendations.

During my time as an electrician, I have faced exactly the same issues as you - including how to get more enquiries. I have written my free FLOWING Guide packed with helpful tips and advice so you can avoid the mistakes I made. If you are serious about making your business successful and want to learn practical techniques to get more enquiries in your electrical business, sign up for Business Transformer today.

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Reduce the Time spent on Quotes in your Electrical Business

Fri, 20 May 2022 06:44:28 GMT

Reduce the time spent on quotes in your electrical business

How long does it take you to put together quotes for your customers? I bet it feels like too long and that’s why I want to help you reduce the time spent on quotes in your electrical business.

For example, do you still put individual quotes together, per job or per customer, using Word? Do you find it difficult to be consistent with your prices or realise while you are doing the job that you missed something off the quote?

In addition, if you drop everything to write quotes as and when people enquire, you will leave the task you were doing originally, which means you are not using your time efficiently. Putting a simple but effective quoting strategy in place will help you to reduce the time spent on quotes in your electrical business.

There are lots of benefits to putting a quoting strategy in place:

• You save time creating the document

• There is less chance of you missing something

• You can provide good customer service by getting the quote issued quickly

• Your pricing is consistent for every job/customer

• You could pass this task to someone else, so your time is spent where it is most needed

If you would like more tips for implementing simple systems to ensure your time is used to maximum effect, send for my free FLOWING Guide No one likes to be a busy fool and the FLOWING Guide is based on my own experience running an electrical business, containing lots of practical advice so you can avoid business pitfalls and making the mistakes I did.

Block out time slots to write quotes

I have talked about using your time wisely and systemising administration in a previous blog . Time is a limited resource, especially if you work on your own. So you need to make sure that you are using it as effectively as you can and not flitting from one thing to another, without completing either task properly!

One way to make sure you are maximising your time is to block out time every week in your online diary for producing quotes. How this fits into a work and personal schedule will be different for everyone. You may choose to allocate an hour at the beginning or end of every day, or a whole morning or afternoon. It depends where the gaps are in your diary. Allocating time solely for quotes has many benefits:

• You stop worrying when enquiries arrive, knowing you have set time aside to deal with them

• Your customer/job gets your full attention - you aren’t distracted by quoting

• You reduce the time spent on quotes in your electrical business because you are focused solely on quotes in your pre-planned time slot, and not doing something else at the same time

• Your business will be more efficient

Setting time aside for quotes can be powerful, especially when combined with automated responses to enquiries, helping you to avoid distractions and ensuring good customer service. (You can read my blog about automated responses here .) Quotes that require a site visit can be carried out when travelling to and from other jobs in the same area, cutting down on travel costs and making the most use of your time in that specific location.

If you are not sure where to start with an online diary or what you should put in it, Business Transformer membership can help you to get started and show you how you can work more efficiently. Sign up for a 30 day trial membership for just £1 to find out how to reduce the time spent on quotes in your electrical business.

Using quoting templates

If your electrical business is new and you haven’t set up specific systems yet, a good starting point is to put together a quoting template. I did this myself when I first started, getting them printed into A5 pads that I carried around with me. They are relatively simple to set up and should include:

• Date

• Contact details of the customer

• Where did you hear about me? (Useful information for marketing purposes)

• Due date of the EICR or PAT

• Brief job description

• Columns listing job/service, quantity or type, any additional information

This information can then be used to create a spreadsheet or table listing job types by service, for example installations, rewires, new/replacement sockets, etc. When your list is complete, you can collect the requirements your customer needs by ticking boxes and detailing quantities on the quoting template. You now have a description of the job by service and parts to form the basis of a quote.

Implementing a quotation system in your electrical business

You can take the quoting template one stage further by adding prices for each component into the spreadsheet. Every job consists of a set of tasks that you have done before. Therefore, you know from experience how long each task takes and what parts you need to buy for it. You can use this information in your spreadsheet, listing fixed prices per job component, with and without parts and administration time (certificate completion, induction time for commercial jobs, etc.) You can also include fixed price or package services. When putting together a quote, all you need to do is pull over or copy the relevant lines from your spreadsheet and add on your travelling time.

It is important to provide a written detailed quote to the customer for several reasons:

• So the customer knows exactly what they are getting

• So the customer know what is not included

• To make sure you haven’t missed something off the quote

• To avoid ‘scope creeping’ where other little extras not included in the quote are added

• To avoid payment disputes – you can include your terms and conditions

• A detailed quote is for your reference too, so you know the full scope, what parts to buy etc.

Reduce The Time Spent On Quotes In Your Electrical Business - In Summary

Using a spreadsheet, or even quoting templates (Tutorial Video here ), will help you to reduce the time spent on quotes in your electrical business. However, if you are ready to invest in technology and want to save even more time by streamlining the process further, there are readily available software packages like Xero to help you. If you need practical help implementing a quotation system, or using software packages like Xero to automate your quotes and invoices, why not sign up to Business Transformer?

A 30 day trial membership costs just £1 and the online course is packed with tips, practical advice, videos and examples to help you make a success of your electrical business.

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How to Overcome a lack of Profit in your Electrical Business

Mon, 09 May 2022 14:06:59 GMT

How to overcome a lack of profit in your electrical business

I am sure that, like me, you started your own business to make a good life for you and your family. But sometimes the route to success is not as easy as it first appears! You work long hours, determined to make your business profitable, but at the end of the month you have precious little money left to pay yourself a decent wage for all that time and work. Not only that, you are exhausted, with no time to spend with your family. In this blog, I will outline a few simple steps you can take to overcome a lack of profit in your electrical business and to make sure you pay yourself a decent wage.

The basics

There are a few things that all business owners can do to make sure they are using their time both efficiently and effectively. A good exercise to show how you spend your time is to monitor what you do each day. This will show you how much time you spend doing electrical jobs for clients, and how much time you spend on other things like admin, chasing payments, collecting supplies, putting together quotes, etc. It will enable you to make decisions about:

· Deskilling jobs with tools and gadgets

· Deskilling jobs with apps and software

· Simplify admin procedures and/or whether to hire a virtual assistant to help with admin

· Removing tasks that drain your time for little reward

My free FLOWING guide contains lots of tips to ensure your business is successful. Based on my own experiences, the FLOWING Guide outlines some basic steps you can take to steer clear of common mistakes and obstacles ensuring you overcome a lack of profit in your electrical business. But read on for more explanation…

Master your personal cashflow

When first starting out, you may have to accept that you will not earn much money, because profits will be ploughed back into the business. Personal situations can vary – married, or not; spouse working, or not; with children, or not; mortgage or rented accommodation? The amount needed to survive will therefore differ depending on your personal circumstances.

So, how do you know how much you should pay yourself? This is not a trick question! It is amazing how many electricians don’t know how much money they need to make to cover their own personal essentials. In order to set prices, you first need to know how much money you have to earn to survive. Go through your bank statements and put together a simple spreadsheet for your personal cashflow, entering an amount for every item. This exercise shows you how much you need to earn during each stage of your business to cover your personal needs:

1 Essentials: These are the outgoings you have to cover to keep as roof over your head e.g. Mortgage/rent, council tax, utility bills, insurances, loans/debts, food. This is the amount you need to pay yourself each month just to survive.

2 Nice to haves: Are the treats that you have either regularly or occasionally but are not essentials to survive e.g. Birthday treats, health/dental plans, clothes, restaurant meals, day trips, TV entertainment packages, personal and/or family hobbies. You can add a monthly figure to your essentials total to cover treats when your electrical business is more established.

3 Luxuries: These are the things you are aiming for, the things you dreamt about and promised yourself when you become really successful e.g. luxurious holidays, new car, new home, designer clothes, investments, funding your kids (university, travelling or weddings, for example.) When your business is at its peak of success, you will be able to add another monthly figure for luxuries.

Master the business cashflow in your electrical business

Once you have an overall picture of your personal finances and how your business needs to grow in order to fund the lifestyle you want, you can then go on to do the same thing for your business:

1 Overheads: These are the things you have to pay every month for your business to exist, even if you don’t do any work e.g. office/workshop rental, utilities, insurances, telephone/broadband, vehicle leasing, loan repayments, accounting software subscription, etc.

2 Job Costs: Are the items you need to take on and complete jobs e.g. parts and equipment, consumables, fuel, etc.

3 Scaling costs: Also known as asset costs because once the business can run without you, it becomes an asset. These are the costs for when you can step out of your business (whether for a holiday, time off or more permanently), and the business will still operate as normal. Examples of scaling costs are:

· Networking/training (where you can get lots of work or joint projects)

· Travel and accommodation costs for events

· Additional full time staff and associated costs

· Extra equipment, etc.

· Business coaching/mentoring (because electricians don’t necessarily know how to run a successful business)

· Increased marketing and systems costs

· Building a financial buffer to cover bigger job costs/higher overdue payment costs.

When you have finished mapping out your personal and business cashflow spreadsheets, you will know the basic figure you need to earn every month to cover your personal essentials and the overheads/job costs for your business. Knowing these costs plus studying pricing information from competitors will help you to price your services properly. In my previous blog subjects, I have written about dealing with price undercutting in your electrical business and not getting paid in your electrical business . In these two blogs, I give you lots of tips so you can decide on your price and payment strategies.

Maximise profit in your electrical business

In order to maximise your profit, you need to assess what is going on with your products and services. You may have some services, customers, and locations that make you a good profit, and some that don’t. You need to maximise profit in your electrical business to pay for those ‘nice to haves’ and ‘luxuries’ you have put on your personal cashflow spreadsheet and to enable your business to grow.

In order to maximise profit, you need to know:

· How to simplify procedures to increase efficiency

· How to systemise administration to save time

· Your costs

· Your most profitable services

· How to upsell and/or cross-sell your services

· How to get repeat work

· Your most profitable customers

· Your most profitable work locations

I have given you just a brief outline in this blog of a few techniques and assessments you need to do which will help you to overcome a lack of profit in your electrical business. If you would like to know more, why not sign up for your Business Transformer 30 day trial membership for £1? The programme covers everything you need to know to run a successful business and is packed full of techniques and practical examples so you can avoid some of the many pitfalls I encountered when I started my own electrical business.

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Not getting Paid in your Electrical Business?

Tue, 26 Apr 2022 14:25:47 GMT

Not getting paid in your electrical business?

Customers who consistently pay late, or those who do not pay you at all, can cripple the cash flow of your electrical business. Not only that, they can also negatively affect how you pay your employees and suppliers, which may damage your reputation as an employer and customer and could even result in you being chased for late payments yourself! Going down the route of an expensive court case takes a lot of time, energy, and money, but there are easy ways to tackle the problem of not getting paid in your electrical business, and I will outline a few simple processes and solutions in this blog.

Make it easy for your customers to pay you

This sounds very simple and straight forward, and to be honest, it is! In today’s technological world, customers probably pay all their bills either via electronic payment or via a debit/credit card. However, if you only accept cash or cheque payments in your electrical business, you are making it difficult for your customers to pay you by putting the responsibility on them to find time to go to the bank to withdraw cash. Add details of how to pay electronically by bank transfer to all your invoices. Even better, get a payment app where customers can pay you at the time you complete the job using a card or by Apple or Google Pay.

Be very clear and set out your payment terms right from the start, especially when working with new clients, so they know whether they have to pay on completion, or 30 days from the date of the invoice, etc. Your invoices should also detail your policy for late payment including fees and interest charges. Sometimes, this is enough to ensure you are paid on time. You could also add an incentive to make sure customers pay your invoice immediately, such as an early payment discount or a discounted rate on future jobs.

Of course, knowing your target customers will help to make sure you only attract those who pay on time, reducing the likelihood of non-payment.

Deposits

Of course, not all jobs are equal. Some are more complicated than others and require the purchase of expensive parts, so it is good to think about having a policy in place for this type of job. You could set a limit, above which you will require a deposit. For example, all jobs over £500, or £1,000. Knowing your predicted weekly/monthly cashflow will help you to decide on a realistic limit for your electrical business. This is especially useful if you are just starting out, when securing a deposit will help you with ongoing job costs. Asking for an upfront deposit has many advantages:

• Gives you a level of confidence when doing the first job for a new customer

• Helps you to sort out genuine customers from timewasters (you can read my blog with tips on how to avoid time wasters here .)

• Provides some financial protection against not getting paid in your electrical business

• Gives you confidence that the customer will not go somewhere else

• Helps towards buying materials and overheads

Once again, remember to be clear from the beginning, so include the deposit amount in your quote. You could also use the fact that you require a deposit to reassure the customer that once paid, their job is automatically booked into your schedule. This will give them the peace of mind that you will turn up when you say you will.

Staged payments

If you are splitting a job over a number of days or looking at a first and second stage fixes, then you may want to consider putting staged payments in place to cover each completed phase or service. This kind of payment schedule is especially useful if you deal with a lot of builders or project managers, or if the majority of your work is industrial or commercial. In addition, you could also get your work signed off at each stage by the site foreman, project manager, or plant manager. This will give you written evidence that you have completed each stage to the required standard, leaving no grounds for complaint for uncompleted work, or work not finished to the time agreed.

The key thing with staged payments is to make sure that the details are included in your terms and conditions, the contract, and the quote, so the customer is clear about how much you expect them to pay (or what percentage of the total), and more crucially, when they should pay it. There is a common misconception that if a company sets their payment terms at 90 days, that is when your invoice, as a contractor to them, will be paid. However, if your payment terms are 30 days, and this was clearly set out in your quote/contract/terms & conditions, they have accepted your payment terms by giving you the job and should, therefore, pay accordingly.

Its just worth noting here that in legal terms, which ever party provides their terms and conditions last has the upper hand. So, even if you have included your terms in all the right documents, but the company you’re doing the work for then issues you a Purchase Order with their T&Cs on it, theirs are legally in force, not yours as these were the last T&C’s issued.

Use automated systems to help you

Using automated accounting systems like Xero and ServiceM8 can help you to keep on top of invoice payments and avoid not getting paid in your electrical business. Automated systems can easily turn quotes into invoices at the click of a button, so all the relevant job information is already included. You can make sure invoices detail the procedure for payment – how much and by when – and insert your bank details so customers can pay electronically or via a link to systems such as PayPal or Stripe.

Some automated systems may also give you the ability to set up different payment terms for individual customers and the option to add automatic reminders for those who have not paid on time. Remember that your customers lead busy lives too, and sometimes they genuinely forget to pay you – they are not withholding money maliciously. Therefore, sending them a reminder will probably prompt them to pay your invoice immediately.

Getting paid late or not getting paid in your electrical business can impact your business, time, confidence, cash flow, employees, and suppliers, but putting a few simple procedures in place will ensure you are paid on time and in full. Completing everything set out in your quote to the standard required and within the stated time frame means customers have no grounds for withholding payment.

My free FLOWING guide contains load of advice and tips for running a successful electrical business. Or, if you would like to learn more about automated systems and how they can cut down on admin and help you to avoid not getting paid in your electrical business., sign up for your Business Transformer 30 day trial membership for £1.

Dealing with Price Undercutting in your Electrical Business

Tue, 12 Apr 2022 15:14:03 GMT

Dealing with price undercutting in your electrical business

You work hard in your electrical business, and it can be very upsetting when you find out that a customer has chosen one of your competitors because they have quoted a lower price. To be honest, this can be a problem in any business, not just for trades, but there are lots of things you can do to prevent being pulled into a price war. It is not a good idea to respond by immediately cutting your prices because you are reducing your margin and the value of the service you provide. Instead, you should try to move the perception of your customers away from a pricing perspective and more towards a value perspective. Below are a few steps you can take when dealing with price undercutting in your electrical business.

Pay attention to customer service in your electrical business

The first step is to ensure you have a seamless process for handling customer enquiries, so they can see that you appreciate their business, and they feel they can trust you. When enquiries come into your electrical business, acknowledge the customer. Let them know that you have received their enquiry and that you are on it! This can be via email, text, messenger, chat box, phone call, just make sure that whatever method you choose, you have a process set up and use it consistently.

Next, you have to ensure that you follow up any enquiries quickly. People don’t like thinking that their enquiry is just sitting in an inbox somewhere, waiting for someone to ‘get around to it’. Don’t put it off because this can give you a competitive advantage over other businesses who are slow to follow up. You are also already building up a relationship with the customer from your acknowledgement and follow-up, and they are starting to trust that you will do what you say because you are communicating with them. Having a system in place to make sure you can send out quotes quickly can also give you a competitive advantage.

Look at it from a customer perspective! Most people just want to get whatever the job is done, finished and out of the way. Whether they are looking for a quote or an actual job, remember that they are impatient and that their problem is a pain point for them. Therefore, the quicker you get back to them, the more work you will win from your competitors, even if they quote a lower price. Offering good customer service in your electrical business will ensure you are not judged on price alone.

I talked about systemising administration and implementing electrical business software at length in my last blog, so you can read more about it here . If you would like more tips on this subject, you can send for the free FLOWING Guide which has lots of practical advice to save time in your electrical business. If you feel too much of your time is spent on administration and not enough being an electrician, check out Business Transformer !

Go above and beyond!

The second step you can take when dealing with price undercutting in your electrical business is to concentrate on customer service and outshine your competitors by doing things they don’t. Researching what customers complain about can give you a lot of ideas for going that extra mile, so read reviews and make note of what customers complain about. It may be something straight forward like cleaning up when the job is finished, leaving the area in the same condition you found it. Or, in a domestic situation, it could be a simple courtesy like putting on overshoes, so your outdoor shoes don’t mark the carpet. Maybe offer them free gifts, like notepads and pens. Also if you pay them a little extra care and attention, they will remember you above your competitors the next time and recommend you to friends and family.

Make sure you stand out

If you are on a par with your competitors, the only thing prospective customers can use to tell you apart is the price. However, even when you are more expensive, if people like the way you do business and the attention you have given to them, they may choose your electrical business rather than a cheaper firm. Bring your experience into play, people recognise that they have to pay that little bit more for an experienced electrician and they will trust you to do a better job.

Bundle your services into a bronze, silver or gold package, just like you see on car insurance sites, where most things are not included in the cheapest deals, but more things are included for a higher price.

Under promise and over deliver

Earlier in this blog, I talked about going above and beyond for your customers. But the key thing here is not to tell them in advance you are going to give them these little extras. Keep them as little surprises at the end. Walk them through what you have done to make sure they understand how to use it. This is adding value to the service you give, something more than was set out in the quote, and hopefully, something that your competitors don’t do! This is an excellent way of dealing with price undercutting in your electrical business because people respond to these gestures and feel they are getting extra value for the price.

Build trust

There are lots of ways you can build a relationship with customers. For example, you can have a ‘meet the team’ page on your website, or social media. Remember that people deal with people, so if they feel they know and trust you, they are less likely to compare on price. Make sure you ask clients for reviews and put case studies on your website. Use accreditations, awards and recognition on your stationery, website, social media pages. Make good use of them to help you to stand out but only use those relevant to your electrical business and only select ones that will resonate the most with your customer base. Give your customers plenty of reasons to trust you!

All the tips mentioned above are really positive ways of dealing with price undercutting in your electrical business, rather than the negative response of immediately cutting your prices, hence devaluing your service. Business Transformer membership can show you more ways of ensuring you stand out from the competition and how to implement them step-by-step. Check out Pricing for Profit to learn how to differentiate your electrical business on more than just price.

How Electricians can Systemise Admin and Save Time

Wed, 06 Apr 2022 12:52:57 GMT

How electricians can systemise administration and save time!

Anyone running their own electrical business needs to know how to use their time wisely. One way of doing this is to systemise administration. By adopting some simple procedures, you can ensure that any time you spend working ‘in’ your business is effective. Time is the one resource we can’t get back, so streamlining mundane tasks and using automation where possible effectively stops us wasting or using time inefficiently.

How to simplify administration to save time in your electrical business

Sending invoices, payment reminders, doing surveys and typing up quotes, certificates, deleting people who have unsubscribed from your CRM listing – all these mundane but necessary tasks take time. Start by writing down job procedures, step by step. You can do this for all general admin tasks, such as how to handle telephone enquiries, right through to how to put together a quote. If you find it difficult, imagine teaching someone else how to do it, so you include every step.

When finished, you may find that you can pass some tasks to someone else, freeing up more of your time. It is also an important process to enable you to scale up your business because tasks will be allocated to the most appropriate person to complete them. For example, do you think that it is a good use of highly qualified employees’ time to have them answering the phone? Of course it isn’t. You may be doing things like this yourself when there is no need to.

Benefits of simplifying procedures:

• Mistakes cost money and time to put right! Having set procedures makes it more difficult to make a mistake.

• Clearly defined steps for each task lead to consistency in output.

• Knowing that tasks are being handled efficiently and in a timely manner without you needing to do it, gives you the confidence to grow your business.

• Every customer is guaranteed the same level of service.

• An increase in efficiency can lead to cost savings and more profit!

If you would like more tips on how to systemise administration, send for the free FLOWING Guide , which outlines steps you can take to ensure success for your electrical business.

How electricians can systemise administration

Do you use systems to handle enquiries coming into your electrical business? Stopping to answer your phone every five minutes is distracting, inefficient, and can result in bad service. For example, if you are distracted and lose concentration, your client may not get the best service. In addition, the person calling will not get your full attention either, and you may lose their business as a consequence.

Whatever your phone or email system, there will be simple processes within ‘settings’ in to automate responses to incoming enquiries:

• Emails – acknowledgements and response templates

• Texts – keyboard shortcuts to reduce the time spent responding

• Phone calls – answerphone messages outlining opening hours and requesting a message or using a call handling service

• Messenger – automatic response to enquiries

• Chat box – on your website with automated responses

• FAQ page on your website

It is worth spending a little time at first to automate responses because it saves so much more in the long-term. Look at a normal day, then allocate the best time for you to follow up your messages or even give them to someone else to handle for you.

If technology is not your thing, or you don’t know where to start, Business Transformer membership can show you how to work smarter and use technology to help you save time in your electrical business. Sign up for a 30 day trial membership for only £1 to find out how we can support you in choosing the right solutions for your business.

Employing a PA/VA

Alternatively, you may think about employing someone to handle incoming enquiries. This could be someone in the office – a Personal Assistant (PA), or someone remote – a Virtual Assistant (VA). When you have clearly defined processes, it gives you the flexibility to pass these tasks on to a new employee or a professional outside the business.

Distractions can cost you time and money

Along with phone calls, text messages and emails, there are many distractions than can take you away from the job in hand. The main culprit though is social media. Although it can be an effective marketing tool and your Facebook page may bring in lots of enquiries, it is easy to get drawn in and spend too much time answering queries. Setting up automated responses, blocking social media for certain hours in the day (there is software to help with this), turning off phone notifications, will all help to ensure your focus is where is should be.

Using software to systemise administration

There are many accounting software packages available to help you automate some of your processes and save time in your electrical business. For example, the accounting software Xero is not solely for accounts taxes and VAT. It can also help you to set up:

• An effective online quotation system

• Convert quotes to invoices, once the job is finished

• Automate sending invoices and payment reminders

Electrical business software for workflow, certificates and reports

If you are looking for more than help with administration, there are electrical business software solutions that use cloud technology to help you to improve productivity by streamlining your day-to-day operations as an electrician. With real-time communication between your office, field staff, and customers, you can work smarter and more profitably and save time! As a partner of ServiceM8 , find out how we can help your business to maximise efficiency at every step, from enquiry to job completion.

We are all used to using paper for inspection reports, fire alarm certificates, EICRs and EICs, but there is software available that means you can complete these on a phone or tablet. So rather than completing a report at home later when you should be with your family, you can do it on site and send it straight to the client, while retaining an electronic copy. Although there is a cost associated with electrical business software, you are saving time and money:

• Send directly to the customer electronically - no postage, stationery, or time stuffing envelopes

• No ink, paper, storage for hard copies

• You can create templates to save more time on future jobs

• Share while the job is in progress

In addition, we have negotiated a discount off EasyCert certification software specially for Business Transformer members. Sign up now up for your 30 day membership trial for just £1 if you want us to show you how to systemise administration to save time in your electrical business.

Want more Business Profit AND Personal Income?

Check out this Step by Step BLOG to make this happen for YOU.

Avoid Time Wasting Customers in your Electrical Business

Wed, 06 Apr 2022 12:00:32 GMT

Avoid time wasting customers in your electrical business

Everyone knows that time is an irreplaceable resource, and this is especially true if you are self-employed or running your own electrical business – time is money, after all! When first starting out, many tradespeople (not just electricians), waste hours quoting for jobs that never happen, jobs that change from one week to the next, or jobs that are cancelled. But it can be difficult to avoid time wasting customers in your electrical business, and many electricians can feel they are not in a position to turn work down.

So, just how easy is it to sort the good customers from the time wasters?

How to spot time wasting customers

There are a few tell-tale signs that a prospective customer may waste your time and as you become more experienced in running your electrical business, you will quickly start to recognise some of the signs:

• The customer is not clear about what they want

• They say you are too expensive/ask you to lower your price

• They keep asking you technical questions - so they can try to do the job themselves!

• They don’t respond to your messages – anyone genuinely requiring work normally wants it done as soon as possible

• There is no time frame for the job

• They try to make out that the job is less than it actually is – they are devaluing your service

• Something just doesn’t feel right – trust your instincts!

But how can you sort the enquiries coming in, to make sure you don’t spend your valuable time on jobs that may never happen?

Vetting your electrical business customers

One of the things you can do is to put a quoting process in place that will help to filter out time wasting customers. Whether you use an online quotation system yourself, or if someone handles quotes on your behalf, you can make sure you ask your customers specific questions within the process. This will help to identify the customers who genuinely require your services - and who will pay the going rate!

Your questions can be service-based. For example, if you replace rather than fix certain things, you don’t want customers who would rather have their item fixed, so you need to find this out at the quote stage. If you offer service packages, you can ask the customer which package they require, so only those needing your specific service packages will get their quote. A customer could ask you for a service that you don’t even provide! The more you can narrow down their enquiry, the more likely it is that it is genuine.

You can also use an online quotation system to give customers a ‘estimated’ figure, rather than a detailed break-down. Any genuine customer will come back to you asking for a more detailed quote, but time wasting customers will not usually respond.

If you need help with an online quotation system or how to implement a vetting process to avoid time wasting customers in your electrical business, we can help though our Business Transformer membership – details are at the end of this blog but it only costs £1!

Who is the ideal customer for your electrical business?

It is very helpful to answer the question: Who is the ideal customer for your electrical business? Your ideal customer is someone who wants to hire you, benefits from your service and also has the means to pay you – on time and in full. You need to have a good understanding of your business from a customer’s point of view. What problems do you solve for them – can you narrow this down into specific service packages? Your ideal customer is someone who values your service and who can help to push your electrical business the way you want it to go. You should be able to filter enquiries, so you only take on the jobs you want to do, for people who need and value your services, and who are happy to pay your prices.

Is this a domestic customer? A commercial client? Or you may only work within a specific industry such as building or hospitality? If you package your services, who will buy those packages?

Building a picture of your ideal customer will help you to make sure your marketing activities target only those customers , so you can avoid time wasting customers in your electrical business.

If you’re unsure how to get started with this, think of a previous customer, who you’ve enjoyed working for, the job went perfectly, and they were happy to pay your prices and settle up on time. You want more of them!

Know your customers

Analysing your electrical business data is very useful to help you to understand who your most profitable customers are. You can use this information as a baseline for questions in your online quote system, so you only follow up enquiries from customers you know are profitable. You can also use this information to specialise or niche your electrical business, so it only attracts more of the customers you want to deal with. Those who will benefit your business and help it to grow in the right direction and avoid time wasting customers in your electrical business. This results in less time wasted on:

• Quotations that aren’t genuine jobs

• Follow-up calls to time-wasting customers

• Cancellations

• Competing on price, rather than the value of your services

• Buying in supplies you won’t use

• Taking your business in the wrong direction

It is important to still maintain good customer service, while avoiding time wasting customers in your electrical business. When you have the right systems in place and can be confident you are attracting the right customers, you will be able to turn down any customers that do not fit your ideal customer profile or any jobs you know won’t be profitable. There are ways to do this without upsetting what could be potential customers in the future.

For example:

• You can apologise and say that your work schedule is full for the next x number of weeks, so you wouldn’t be able to start before a certain date. ‘Busyness’ demonstrates the value of your work.

• You could say that you don’t offer that particular service yourself, or that it is included in one of your service packages (upselling), so the customer has the choice of whether to buy your service package or enquire somewhere else.

If you’re serious about growing your business and putting systems into place so you spend significantly less time on the aspects of the job you don’t enjoy (such as admin), then why not sign up to our 30 day membership trial of Business Transformer for just £1 to see how we can support you.

Or if you are struggling with issues in running your electrical business, you can download our free FLOWING Guide . This has been put together by someone who has tackled the self-same issues facing you, it is filled with practical techniques to help your business be a success.

Whatever stage you’re at in business, hopefully this blog will have given you some great tips to avoid time wasting customers in your electrical business.

How electricians can avoid stress and anxiety

Tue, 25 Jan 2022 16:49:13 GMT

Are you a stressed-out electrician, perhaps feeling you lack the necessary motivation to move your business forward? Are you trying to find a solution for how electricians can avoid stress or overwhelm in your business right now?

According to an article in Electrical Review* last year, you are not alone. 51% of electricians reported they experienced mental health issues such as stress, anxiety, or depression. Unsurprisingly, top of the list among the causes for these mental issues were worries about finances, tensions with customers or suppliers, and coping with a large workload.

It's getting harder to run an Electrical Business when more competiton springs up and then DIY Dave also appears, pricing all the jobs down the the bottom!

But bear with me as there's a solution to this!

Some of the reasons for high levels of anxiety come with the job, always ensuring you do everything safely and by the book because of the dangers of not doing so, for instance. Or keeping on top of new industry standards or industry best practice. But when you are running your own business in addition to the normal demands of the job, then the feeling of being overwhelmed by mundane daily, but essential, tasks is increased significantly. So, understanding how electricians can avoid stress is essential.

*Research commissioned for Mental Awareness Week 2021 by IronmongeryDirect to find out about mental health problems amongst tradespeople in the UK

Feeling overwhelmed by ‘stuff’

Of course, client work should always be at the top of the list for your electrical business, but you also have to find time in the working day to:

Answer the phone and return messages
Follow up new enquiries by email/text/phone or from your website enquiry form
Do site surveys
Type up quotes for new work
Type up invoices for completed work
Order and pick up supplies
Make sure the van(s) are maintained, clean and fuelled
Do the accounts
Try to keep on top of social media
Do miscellaneous admin
Keep up to date with Health and Safety regulations and/or legal requirements
Make sure staff training is up to date (if you employ other electricians)
Look after staff welfare (in businesses with employees)

How electricians can avoid stress - Step one: Recognising that you may have a problem

The list of ‘things to do’ seems endless, doesn’t it? So, what is the solution for how electricians can avoid stress? As with any solution, the first step is to recognise that you have a problem. Perhaps you are working seven days a week just to keep on top of things, or some important things have slipped through the net lately? You could be losing business to a competitor who seems to be able to produce quotes that little bit quicker, or undercuts your prices? Or maybe you have missed out on family time with your loved ones? Have your mates stopped inviting you out as you always say you’re too busy? You may realise that you don’t really have the experience or know-how for paying wages and looking after staff? And, as for keeping the accounts up-to-date and knowing your profit and loss margins, it may as well be written in another language!

All the above can cause feelings of overwhelm – there is just so much to do and not enough time in the day to do it all. Stress and anxiety can result in forgetfulness, errors or even letting customers down by over-promising and under-delivering. The important thing is not to panic. Anyone in any industry can suffer from these feelings at one time or another. Recognise that you are not alone in feeling like this and that there are solutions out there that can help you to regain control of your business and find a good work/life balance.

How electricians can avoid stress - Step two: Putting systems in place

There are a range of solutions out there that can help you with general administration and paperwork, your accounts, and marketing your electrical business. From employing a bookkeeper or a virtual assistant, who can keep on top of your accounts, social media, emails and customer database, to putting more automated systems in place, there is a perfect solution for you. What’s more, there are also systems you can use to communicate with customers such as sending texts to say you are on your way or will be with them in 30 minutes. In fact, we can help you to systemise so many things, you can get back to what you do best – working on electrical projects!

We have learned over 36 years how to implement the necessary changes to your electrical business. We understand that it can be difficult to take on lots of new information all in one go, especially when you only have sketchy knowledge of the subject to start with. Our purpose is to take away any anxiety or feelings of overwhelm you may normally experience when tackling something new outside your comfort zone!

Job management software can reduce the pressure and overwhelm you are experiencing and will create a customer experience that will win you rave reviews and consequently, more business. You will no longer feel you have to justify your price or slash your profit margins just to land the job.

Once you have systems in place to streamline your business, you will realise that you have the ability to manage your time effectively and can therefore concentrate your efforts where they are most needed. The ability to take a step back and look objectively at where you can add the most value for your customers cannot be underestimated in providing a top-notch service to your clients.

Are you feeling overwhelmed in running your own electrical business or having sleepless nights because you are worried about everything on your ‘to-do list’? If you are ready to see how electricians can avoid stress, we have the THREE steps you need to take to run your electrical business successfully. Check out the THREE steps here (it's a Free PDF you can use right now to make a difference today ).

How electricians can cut down their working hours

Mon, 24 Jan 2022 17:55:42 GMT

How electricians can cut down their working hours

As electricians, we think we know the benefits of running our own electrical business, don’t we? We can pick and choose the jobs or projects we take on, only work the hours we feel we need to, benefit from greater financial rewards, answer to no one, etc. But how many electricians end up working longer hours than they thought they would when they first thought about setting up their own business? The good news is, we at Business Transformer are here to support you and show you how electricians can cut down their working hours.

How electricians can cut down their working hours – Step one: realise the consequences of long days

You want your business to be a success, and for this to happen, you mistakenly believe that you have to put in extra hours to make sure it is. But few of us realise what the consequences on the rest of our lives are of working long days and weekends, until it is too late. Here are just a few reasons why you need to find out how electricians can cut down their working hours as soon as possible:

More hours do not necessarily equate to more work and profit

Working longer hours can lead to burn out and overwhelm. The result of this can be that you are working harder but not smarter. Your working day you may be chock-full of things to do, but you are not necessarily putting all your energies into the areas where you will get the most return.

Feeling tired?

There are many symptoms of tiredness. Some of these we can recognise ourselves, but others may be more apparent to those around us, like our friends or families. Sleepiness or weariness is an obvious one! Have you found that you need an extra spoon of coffee in a morning, drinking can after can of energy drinks, or you are yawning excessively for longer periods of time? If you are not getting enough sleep because you are working into the night, the net result is poor concentration levels and less focus on the job at hand. This is bad news for electricians, because of the nature of our work. Mistakes due to a lack of concentration could be catastrophic.

Irritability and short-temperedness are symptoms you may inflict on your nearest and dearest (unintentionally, of course!) There is also a greater risk of being ill because you will have less physical resistance to ailments like colds and flu. Having to work through an illness or take time off to recover leads to an ever-increasing pile of tasks waiting to be done. Sometimes, this can result in a cycle of fatigue and illness that is difficult to break out of.

Family/Social life

It is very difficult to experience any kind of family or social life if you are working really long hours. Moreover, you will be tired and touchy when you do spend time with others, so it will not be quality time. You need a life in addition to your business, not just for your own physical and mental health, but for the quality of your relationships with loved ones and their wellbeing too.

Health

Along with the reasons we have outlined above, increased working hours could damage your overall health. The more time you spend working in your electrical business, the less time you have for exercising and sleeping. There is also a chance that you may not be eating properly, because you are keeping irregular hours. All of these factors can increase your chance of illness and obesity. You need to find a good home/life/work balance to make sure you stay healthy. You need to realise that risking your health is a risk to your business too.

Safety risks

Do we really need to tell you about how all the above can affect safety risks in your profession? Lapses of concentration, lack of focus, tiredness, these can all play a part in the quality of your work, putting your reputation and your customers’ lives and properties at risk.

If you feel you are struggling with any of the points we have raised above, why not download for our free FLOWING Guide that shows you how to run a successful electrical business without working 24/7. We know how electricians can cut down on their working hours because we’re run by an experienced electrician who has successfully achieved a healthy balance between his normal life and work. We can show you techniques and systems so you can avoid the risk to your health and relationships. We can give you tips on achieving a good home/life/work balance and quality time to spend with family and friends.

How electricians can cut down on their working hours – Step two: use systems to help you

The stress of working long hours to build your business can have the unfortunate result of making you fall out of love with being an electrician – the exact opposite of why you decided to set up your own business. A good place to start is to look at how much time you spend being an electrician, and how much time you spend doing everything else, as well as when you are doing it. For example, if you spend three hours every evening doing your accounts, general administration and producing quotes and invoices, you may benefit from project management software to take care of these mundane tasks and free up your evenings to spend with your family. Although there is, of course, a cost to your business it won’t be as expensive as you imagine - think about relaxing, spending time with your family and friends, playing that round of golf or going to the match! We think you’d agree those things are far more valuable and worth investing in.

Pricing for Profit is our mini course for Electricians and Trades who want to increase their profit and work less hours by finding the BEST customers who are willing to pay what you are worth. You'll also learn how to Stand Out in your area (even if you are surrounded by competitors and DIY Dave's!). Check out the course details here .

Unreliable Employees in your Electrical Business

Mon, 24 Jan 2022 17:42:47 GMT

Unreliable employees in your electrical business

Quite often when starting on the journey, electricians can be unprepared for the number of hats they have to wear when running their own business. Our expert knowledge is about electricity, not the finer points of employment law! Many electricians have not experienced higher education or specific business training. Therefore, as well as being an electrician, you find you are an accountant, marketer, administrator, and if you have employees, you also work in HR. The problems caused by unreliable employees in your electrical business can be far-reaching and in some cases, difficult to address.

Unreliable employees in your electrical business - Step one: what is meant by ‘unreliable’

As a business owner, you expect everyone to have the same work ethic as you, so it can be a bit of a shock when you realise that some members of your workforce don’t. Your business is your baby, and you put a lot into making sure is grows into a successful one. But your workforce is not as invested as you are and may just see their role as another ‘job’. It is therefore essential that you recognise the signs of unreliable employees in your electrical business.

Turning up late or not turning up at all!

Employees who do not turn up to a job on time (or just don’t turn up at all!), don’t just affect the schedule for the particular project they should be working on. You’re going to have unhappy clients too! You may have to transfer someone from another job to take their place, affecting the completion date of a second project. If the unexplained lateness or absence from work is prolonged, the consequences of their unreliability in the workplace will grow, eventually damaging your reputation.

Lack of motivation

The signs of a lack of motivation at work can include turning up late or leaving early. Additionally, poorly motivated staff could fail to report on the status of jobs, fail to make sure they have the right materials, or be slapdash and not complete the work to your high standards. They may also leave projects unfinished. The knock-on effect will impact your time significantly, as you have to constantly check up on them, that they are in the right place, at the right time, with the right materials and doing the job properly. Again, the consequences if left unchecked could severely damage the good reputation you have worked so hard to build.

Dishonesty

Unfortunately, there are people out there who are not totally honest with their employer, and they may apply for a job in your business! Dishonesty at work can cover a number of behaviours, ranging from saying jobs have taken longer than they actually have to poor standards, the theft of materials or using the work van for personal journeys. All of these behaviours will cost you time, money and your reputation as a high quality trades company.

There can be many reasons behind unreliability in the workplace. These can include:

Inadequate training
Personality clash with team members
Health problems
Difficulties at home
Addiction or burning the candle at both ends
Boredom – not being challenged
Target of bullying

Whatever the causes of unreliable employees in your electrical business, you need to have a range of solutions to tackle the issue.

Unreliable employees in your electrical business - Step two: practical solutions

There are some practical processes you can put in place to prevent you setting on unreliable employees in your electrical business to start with.

Taking a little more time during the initial stages can save you a lot of time and heartache later. Following the initial interview stage, check qualifications, and more importantly references, to give you peace of mind about their reliability. To give you confidence in their abilities, it may be a good idea to think of an electrical problem and ask what their solution would be.

You can even ask potential employees to undergo an online psychological test (multiple choice questionnaire) which you can match with the job you have available. These tests will show whether they have the right attitudes to different aspects of the role and can give you further confidence that they are the right employee for you.

As part of their induction into your electrical business, you should clearly set out your expectations of them and the consequences to them of not performing to your standards. You could formalise this by requiring them to sign a ‘rules of the game’ document as well as their contract of employment - or a contract of engagement if they are going to remain self-employed. In this way, you are bringing to their attention the kind of behaviours that will not be acceptable, such as unreliability in the workplace so they are fully aware of what will happen if they break the contract.

You can also encourage open communication from your staff, so they feel they have your support and can come to you if they have problems that will affect their work. You can set up a bonus scheme or show employees what is required for them to progress in your company. This will give them the incentive to work hard and do a good job because they know they will be rewarded.

If you need help in dealing with unreliable employees in your electrical business, check out Business Transformer . We are here to support you and your business and to help you find solutions to any difficulties that may be preventing you from finding success.

Unreliable employees in your electrical business - Step three: system solutions

Alongside the practical considerations we have outlined above, you can use software to give you confidence that your team members are where they say they are and working on the correct project for the exact number of hours to get the job done to your standard.

The software we recommend, ServiceM8 (among others) will work on desktops, tablets or mobiles, where you can clearly see the jobs each team member has on their schedule for that day. The team can upload photos to show you their progress, without you having to make site visits to check up on them. They can check off the various stages as they complete them, input job specific notes, record their hours and report any problems without you having to leave your office. You can also make changes to their work schedule, and they will automatically be notified of the change or update, without you having to find time to call them personally. This gives you the flexibility to move your workforce around to where they are most needed, which is very useful if a customer has an emergency situation.

We can help you implement the software and systemise your business in a way you may never have dreamed possible. Just about everything in your business can be automated (other than the time on the tools!) ensuring you get to spend more time living the lifestyle you want, rather than hours behind the screen doing the admin!

If you feel like you are struggling with unreliable employees in your electrical business, check out Business Transformer to find out how we can help you to overcome difficulties with staff. We also have a free FLOWING Guide for you to download which has practical tips and techniques for running a successful electrical business. This has been put together by someone who has first-hand knowledge of the problems and pitfalls facing electricians running their own business!

How to Simplify and Speed up your Quoting Process

Sun, 09 Jan 2022 13:56:12 GMT

Do you dread every time you need to do a quote?

The quotation process is simpler and quicker than you think!

With this system in place, you’ll be able to easily generate a quote:

- Get into the mindset that all jobs ARE the same: they consist of a set of tasks you’ll have done before and you’ll know from experience how long each task will take.

- When quoting on a complex job, make sure you break it down into individual tasks which are measurable.

- Build up a list of fixed prices with and without parts that are unique to you.

With this system in place, you’ll be able to easily generate a quote:

✔️For anything from a small job to a rewire

✔️Without having to visit the customer

✔️ Within minutes

✔️With consistent pricing

Check out my Quoting Spreadsheet video over on YouTube here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCBqBPVXw2c

Simon Barker

Electrical Business Community

P.S. Take advantage of the 30 day Membership Trial. Find out more HERE .

3 Conversion Tips to Win More Work than your Competitors

Sun, 09 Jan 2022 13:46:48 GMT

When customers contact you, it is crucial to ACKNOWLEDGE them immediately so they are reassured you’ve received their message.

Your next step is to FOLLOW UP FAST . While it may seem obvious, this is where many Electricians (and other Trades) fall down. Following up fast builds trust with your customers who will feel you are reliable and will be able to communicate effectively.

It’s important to SPEAK THEIR LANGUAGE and not confuse them with technical jargon. If the customer understands you, they will be a lot more at ease with you and more likely to choose you. You’ll increase your chances of converting your enquiry into a job!

Customers are generally impatient and want the job done as soon as possible, so even if your quote is higher than your competitors, if you FOLLOW UP FAST, you will WIN A LOT MORE WORK!

Check out the full FLOWING steps video for your Electrical or Trades Business over on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/Y_CA3LSAbkU

Simon Barker

Electrical Business Community

P.S. Take advantage of the 30 day Membership Trial. Find out more HERE .

The Dangers of doing your own Book Keeping for Trades and Construction Businesses

Sun, 09 Jan 2022 13:33:51 GMT

Bookkeeping for electricians is a scary business if not done properly!

You can do it all yourself but hiring the services of a good bookkeeper has a lot of advantages.

They can:

✔️ Stop you making costly mistakes

✔️ Help you with your expenses, allowances and find important savings

✔️ Improve your margins as you can see how much you spend compared to how much you earn

✔️ Ensure you make provision for your tax bill

✔️ Help you be ready to file at the end of the financial year and consequently lower your accountant’s bill!

✔️ Get back to doing what you do best which is running your business!

Whether you decide to manage the books yourself or outsource it, a cloud accounting system is the best way to manage your finances.

It allows you to access your financial information anywhere and anytime, automate functions like send invoices and pay vendors and get all the data from your bank straight to your books.

If you've got any questions at all, go to the Electrical Business Community Facebook group , and pop your question in there.

I've also got a free guide which details the steps needed to run a successful electrical business .

Simon Barker

Electrical Business Community

P.S. Take advantage of the 30 day Membership Trial. Find out more HERE .

Sort out your Prices while Beating the Low Price Competitors

Mon, 08 Jun 2020 19:23:00 GMT

In this video I show you the Seven main ways to get your pricing right and still be able to beat that competitor with the lower price!

The first of those steps is to Acknowledge .

This means that whether something comes in by phone, email, messenger, letter, whatever it is, you have to acknowledge straight away that you actually received it, and so that person can then relax knowing that you actually got the message of their inquiry.

The second step is that you need to follow up fast . Now this might sound obvious, but most people do not follow up fast. And that is where you can use this opportunity to actually get in where others are failing. If you follow up fast, people will tend to trust you because they know you're actually going to turn up and communicate properly. People like that.

And even if you are more expensive, people just want to get that thing done. Whether it's a fault, whether it's a quote that they need, they just want to know right now, people are impatient. So, follow up fast and you will win a lot more work even if your competitors are cheaper.

The third thing is to speak their language and not yours. If you confuse you lose. So you don't want to be talking technical bubble, something that the customer understands is a lot better. So even if you don't like saying bulb, for instance, the customer calls it that and not a lamp, so talk their language and there'll be much more at ease with you. And you'll be much more likely to convert that inquiry into a job. When it comes to pricing, I actually have a series of spreadsheets within the membership site , which goes into a lot of detail on how to actually start with your personal needs and work back to getting your hourly rate.

So when it comes to your personal needs , you need to look at your essentials, your nice to haves, and your luxuries. If you're starting out you probably won't want to factor in luxuries just yet, but you need to start with what you want to get out of it and then look at the business needs next. And so on to the business needs, once you know what your personal needs are, what you want to pay yourself in other words, and then you look at all of the overheads, all of the fixed costs, and all of the job related costs, then you can work out exactly where you need to be when you add in VAT tax corporation tax, all these things to get to what your real picture is.

Now I'll come on to why this is important in the last step. So hold on!

And then the really important part is, once you know what your business needs are that also provide your personal needs, you can reverse engineer all of that over the number of days, weeks, that you want to work in a year and the hours that you want to work in a week, so that you can come out with your hourly rate. And once you come up with your hourly rate, you absolutely must stick to it. And the steps before this, and the one I'm about to come to will help to make sure that you actually get work at that rate.

Before I get to that last step, how do I know that this actually works? ...

Well, I've been an electrician since 1988, but I've had my business now since 2007, which was just before the first recession in 2008. I've been trying different things with my business and I actually charge more than a lot of my competitors, but I fill my diary.

A lot of my work converts, and there's a particular way that I apply all of these steps that I've mentioned and the one to come, that makes sure that I convert really, really well and get reviews and get referrals. And all of this is covered in the Electrical Business Community membership site , which has over 200 videos on how to set things up, all of the different concepts on what you should be doing. All of the email templates, all of the things you need to set up step by step with all of the applications you need, discounts on those apps and how to do it free or inexpensive.

And so, the final step. It's okay having all of this in place, but how would you actually get people to see you ? Well, you've got to be the first person that people think of when they need an electrician when their friends want an electrician.

If it comes up that someone's got a problem, someone's got a fault, someone needs some new work doing, your name should be the first one that rolls off people's tongue.

Now everyone is on their phone all of the time, it's an attachment of their arm now, and that is the place to get them.

But there's some ways that just don't work because everyone's doing it. You also have to learn what's effective and what isn't, and you need to be consistent on there with both your branding and how you show up. And so, you are educating people on these platforms. You're educating them that you know what you're doing. You're reminding them of who you are. Your name is going into their head every time they see something from you.

And that is the essential step , combined with all of the previous steps before, of how you get your price and you convert more than your customers even if they're cheaper.

If you've got any questions at all, go to the Electrical Business Community Facebook group , and pop your question in there.

I've also got a free guide which you should see somewhere on this page. It details the steps needed to run a successful electrical business .

Simon Barker

Electrical Business Community

P.S. Take advantage of the 30 day Membership Trial. Find out more HERE .

Preparing Your Own Accounts

Tue, 17 Apr 2018 08:22:00 GMT

As Electricians, accounting and book keeping can be a scary business. The least scary option is to have an accountant do them for us. This frees us up to do what we do best. That way we can keep earning instead of losing our head in numbers and hoping for the best!

If you do your own accounts, that's fine too. I can say though, that an accountant is much more likely to keep you compliant as well as save you a lot of money in tax savings and more. Do speak to a few to get an idea where they can help.

More Important ... HOW you submit your accounts can save both you and your accountant a lot of time. This means a lower bill for you!

Before mentioning any ideas, first of all I want to point out that it's habits that make or break us. That's true in life and it's the same with our finances. So as well as finding the right (and inexpensive) tools for the job, it's worth learning the options and getting into the habit of adopting a better method.

What are the important financial tasks that we could be doing ourselves?

Not only do the above tasks save us a lot of time, but doing these means our cashflow situation is massively increased (as long as we maintain the habit)

When this is done it also makes the accountants job much easier.

But HOW can this be done?

We could rely on doing this regularly as a disciplined habit. This is the hard way!

There are also various apps that can be used to do some of these tasks individually. But seperate apps can be a pain ... Duplication issues being just one thing that comes to mind.

A far better solution is to use an inexpensive financial package to handle this. There is a learning curve when changing over to a new tool. But the investment in your time is more than worth it once you are set up correctly.

As an example, Quickbooks and Xero are common (although there are others too). Both of these (at time of writing) come with a trial version, plus your accountant may be able to offer you a licensing discount. These will do ALL of the above tasks and more.

If you want to dive deeper into what else should be considered in your Electrical Business ... Whether it's converting more customer, financial, increasing prices, perceived value, getting things done quicker ... and MUCH more. Then you might want to check out our completely free FLOWING Guide:

Get the Guide here

If you have any questions, contact me any time (See social media buttons on this page).

I hope that this was useful and that you consider this in your own business.

Thanks,

Simon

Is Artificial Intelligence (AI) A Threat Or Opportunity?

Sat, 20 Jan 2018 18:52:00 GMT

You've probably heard a lot lately about Artificial Intelligence? Maybe you've also heard about all the different jobs that'll be affected by Artificial Intelligence? Or maybe that Robots will take over the world soon?

Whatever your opinion, one thing for certain is that times are changing FAST and it is inevitable that the biggest changes are yet to come (and sooner than you think!).

So what are the facts? What is the fiction? And will there be any hope or opportunities at the end of all these changes?

The two main areas I want to discuss here are Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robots:

Artificial Intelligence Threats:

Some reports will say that all our jobs are going to be lost because Artificial Intelligence will find a way to replace all the tasks by using a systemised solution which is less expensive and more reliable than humans. There are already many cases already we can see this in action. The jobs that were considered mundane and boring are being attacked and disrupted in their thousands. They are being replaced by systems which make no errors, are much faster and cost a lot less (That's even before any health and safety or training costs).

And so if you are currently working in an industry where that is a threat then maybe it's time to rethink your options? The telltale signs if a job can be systemised is if you do something repetitive each day. Or maybe some of the tasks are duplicated several times? These type of tasks will be swallowed up to the systems that AI developers are working on. And others less considered too!

The entire internet structure is about to get an overhaul too. Many of the newer applications will use Blockchain technology (which is what BitCoin uses already).

So basically we have gone from the Information Age, to the Digital Age and we are now entering the Trust Age .

Artificial Intelligence Opportunities :

Removing ourselves from the boring, mundane and repetitive tasks means that we can get more interesting work done. How many times as an Electrician do you miss out doing important tasks that may grow your Electrical business, just because you had a pile of dull admin that had to be done. So imagine how much more time this will save you and how many of those more important tasks you can focus on.

The cost of such solutions are coming down all the time too! In fact the cost of an entire suite of solutions (from different providers), set up to work together (and easily changed with no specialised skills needed) can be much less than even a minimum wage, part time worker!

One such example of "blockchain" in use is a dog walking service where the dog has a tag, and as soon as it had been walked for over a certain distance, the owner's account gets charged immediately. So imagine how a trust based system can ensure that Electricians get paid upon job completion. Who doesn't want that? ;-)

The Verdict on Artificial Intelligence for Electricians is that while it is a threat to those employees you employ or outsource your admin tasks to, the opportunity for the business owner is cost, accuracy, speed and no more HR issues. So at this moment, there is no better time to be able to grow your electrical business (as scaling is not an issue IF you systemise your business correctly).

But if growth is not your thing, you might wish to become more profitable instead (even just as a sole trader) using the advantage of AI and all the systems available.

Robot Opportunities:

Developers of robot systems are currently trying hard to reduce the bad press and horror stories surrounded by robots. Many industries have had robots in place for years (I started the car industry in 1988 where there was over 100 robots installed, even back then! In this case mig welding and spot welding). So robots and job losses certainly are not new. But they have massively sped up the production processes during the Industrial age and will continue to do so.

But lately the focus has been attempting to blur out the horror stories in favour of promoting gadgets and toys. Also promoting the fact that robots are going to do the jobs that humans cannot do (such as working in contaminated or harsh environments).

Once robots start to do the manual jobs of humans, then maybe they will become cheaper for everyone once investors get in on the act. Imagine one day you will be able to hire a cleaner from the robot agency, rather than having to save and buy your own! Or you could lease just as you do with a car or van now! Maybe one day you can get a subcontractor Electrician who actually turns up?

Robot Threats:

We can already see that robots are getting better at "human" tasks such as walking on unstable surfaces (or stairs) while being able to maintain balance (and recover again if they fall). This is very advanced now.

But can a robot do the job of an Electrician? The great news is that so far they can't! However if you check YouTube you will see some example of bricklaying robots. So the signs are that the developers have a need to develop robots that can do trades work. But when will this happen? Hard to guess of course.

Final Thoughts

We already face challenges in life (life would be boring otherwise) and so this is no exception. Being aware of what is happening and then making a choice on how to respond will be the wisest move. Pulling the wool over your eyes will come at a great risk to you and your business. The good news is that I will be sharing information as it becomes available to my members within Electrician's Business Machine.

So instead of having nightmares, consider what threats and opportunities you face already. What could YOU do today in YOUR Electrical Business? What are your biggest challenges right now? Are you ready to start embracing the changes to your own advantage? Or will you maintain a compromise of past and current practises?

Either way please let me know your thoughts.

If you found this article useful, you might like to download my guide on How to get your Electrical Business FLOWING at No or Low cost .

Thanks,

Simon

3 Simple Reasons Why Electricians Go Out Of Business

Sat, 20 Jan 2018 16:38:00 GMT

I'm sure you already know the general stats that most small businesses go under in the first three years, and that most (90%) won't last for ten years.

But for Electricians specifically, there's some things that cause this which really should not! Yes, there's some things so ridiculously simple that make a difference to success or failure!

While I would agree that the main culprits are Leads, Prices and Cashflow, I'm going to look at some that are less commonly stated, but just as lethal ...

Simple Reason 1 - Acknowledgement

If you don't acknowledge your customer FAST at each step of the way then you'll have wasted the money you spent on gaining them. Instead they'll go to whoever cares the most. This is so simple yet people miss it! For example, a simple autoresponder email to say that you have received their message and will get back to them the same day. Or a call to say that you are waiting a part price, but will be back to them as soon as you have it. And so on. So that way, they are not wondering if you even got their message!

Simple Reason 2 - Simplicity

No customer wants an Electrician to be hard work! If you make it hard for your customers to contact you. Or make it hard to get a quote from you. Or if you just ask too many questions before you give a price, and so on. They'll get frustrated with the experience. So the Electrician that makes the whole experience from start to finish as quick and simple as possible (whether you help them or they help themselves!) is on to a winner.

Simple Reason 3 - Admin

All those chores that take forever to do! This means that you end up with a huge task list. If you don't do these the simple way, you'll run out of time! Some things will be forgotten. Others will get messed up. This means that your customers get annoyed and you get no time to yourself at evenings and weekends! You end up working round the clock and the stress shows! Of course this all adds to the expense too (Your time or someone else's).

If you found this article useful, you might like to download my guide on How to Grow your Electrical Business at No or Low cost .

But what do you think of this list? What else would you add?

Hit Reply and drop me a line with your own comments and experiences. I'd love to know.

3 Reasons Why Certificate Software Is Essential For Electricians

Sat, 20 Jan 2018 15:58:00 GMT

Whether you are using paper certificates for your jobs, or an Electronic version, I wanted to mention just THREE of the main reasons why Electronic certificates are the way to go (even more so these days) ...

Maybe you are used to paper version and are comfortable with the routine you have?

Or maybe you have been considering Electronic certificates (there are several options out there) but needed more information?

Perhaps after reading these reasons you might be more convinced to jump ship from paper certificates to Electronic certificates?

And doing so can even save you money!

Many of the solutions available now cost less for a subscription that what it would cost to buy the paper version.

So here's just 3 of my reasons for jumping from paper systems to Electronic:

Reason 1 - Backup (No filing cabinet needed!)

If you select one of the better solutions for your Electronic certificates, then these are "cloud" based and all the certificates can be easily viewed on any device. you can also send your customer the link to this so that they can view it this way. No more printing, no more filing cabinets! And you can back them up in other places such as dropbox too. Happy days

Reason 2 - Templates

Once you get used to doing the different certificates Electronically, you will soon be doing them faster than you previously hand wrote them. But there's another massive boost to be had. Once you realise you are doing a lot of old 5 or 6 way wylex fuseboards, or a lot of newer 10 way split load distribution boards, you can save a template with that board layout. This means you just open up a new certificate and complete the blanks. Lazy? Yes! Time Saver? Oh, yes!!

Reason 3 - Sharing

With the right software (which happens to be the ones that cost LESS than paper certificates!!) you can have someone on site doing the testing and then a Qualified Supervisor can finalise the report at the office by simply Importing that certificate to his/her device in ONE click. It's never been so easy!

Electrician's Business Accelerator goes DEEP into ALL the aspects of this and makes sure that you don't struggle alone! It's what I use in my own Electrical Business today.

Do you already use Certificate software? If so which one?

If you don't use one, you can see my recommended list inside of the Business Transformer Membership .

Thanks for reading,

Simon

P.S. I'm adding a discount code for Certificate Software soon, which will be exclusive to my customers (I arranged a "better than usual" deal) :-)

Why Most Electricians Mess Up Quotes And What You Can Do To Sort Yours Out

Wed, 17 Jan 2018 21:15:00 GMT

Do you dread doing quotes and worry that you haven't priced it with enough profit in it for you? Do you also worry that the customer might think it’s too high? Or perhaps that someone you did a similar job for last month will find out that you just quoted someone else a lower price? The problem with doing quotes is that too many Electricians make it way more complicated than it should be.

Even if you've come out of the dark ages and stopped using time-consuming spreadsheets or documents, your fancy new software tools will STILL be useless if you don’t look at your general approach to quoting.

You see, there's a much better way to quote that takes minutes (even for a rewire quote!) once you set it up. And if you do this right, then the majority of your quotes can be done without even paying a visit to a customer (Sounds scary I know, but this easily can be done without losing the Human touch). Even when you DO need to visit, you can still reach a price (and confirm it in writing) within minutes.

If you do quotes with the mindset that all jobs are different, then you're giving yourself a total headache. With this mindset you'll feel that you have to visit every quote so that you can spot any differences and then add or subtract a bit accordingly. But is such a slight adjustment REALLY worth paying a visit to site (especially when you have lots of quotes to get through)?

Instead you should have the mindset that all jobs ARE the same. By that I mean that a job consists of a set of tasks. Those tasks will be tasks you have done before. So this means you'll have a good idea from experience how long a particular task should take. The solution to quoting a complex job is to quote with the individual tasks in mind, i.e. You have split the job into it's individual tasks.

In time you'll see that your price for a certain task can be fixed. Both in terms of parts and of labour. And so the solution we are talking about here is to give fixed price quotes instead of variable.

At this point you might fear that fixing prices means that you cannot be flexible. Thankfully this is absolutely not the case. Some examples of fixed prices might include:

Replacements
- Price per socket replacement (customer supplies socket)
- Price per PVC Double socket replacement (Includes socket)
- Price per Polished Double chrome socket replacement (Includes Socket)
- Price per light fitting replacement (Customer supplied the new fitting)

Installs
- Price per new socket (Double PVC)
- Price per new Light position (1 pendant and 1 switch)
- Price per additional light from existing position and switch
- Price to add 2 way switching to an existing position
- Price for shower install (Shower excluded)
- Price for shower installation (8.5kW shower included in price)

So you can see how you can build up a list of fixed prices with and without parts that are unique to you. You can continue to do this as far as you want to go (my own list includes SWA Cable runs, Distribution Boards of various sizes, Hot Tub Isolators even Travel Time per mile for longer distances).

You can see now how easy it becomes to quote anything from a small job to a rewire. It literally becomes a case of placing the right quantity against the right items and getting your total. The descriptions should be clear enough to specify to the customer what they're getting. Then if any two quotes are given, they will always be the same. Although from time to time you should review your labour rates and parts costs and tweak as necessary.

If you found this article useful, you might like to download my free guide on How to Grow your Electrical Business at No or Low cost .

Systemising is not to be confused with Automation. It's all the other steps involved in making your business great as the free Guide explains.

By Simon Barker