Small arb business owners - please help me with my project!

[hardtop110]

Evernote is good for notes / quotes. You could set up a template and then just copy it and fill it in. Auto syncing with the PC/mac and available on android and iOS (I sound like a salesman, but I'm not). Have a look here - Evernote | Remember everything with Evernote, Skitch and our other great apps.

 

Forgot to say you can embed pics, vids and voice notes too.

[likeitorlumpit]

Glad I'm not the only one who avoids paperwork.

How can you make it easier?

My problem is the quicker I do a quote the less money I make profit. I tend to think the job will be quicker than it is. This often happens when I quote on site so I try to avoid that. So I wait and wait and eventually get round to it. Put in the right price and get the job. Jobs need thinking time.

I'm not convinced apps and stuff really help. I certainly wouldn't want to be doing e mails etc during my lunch break and nor would whoever I was working with. Lunch break is called that for a reason.

[Billy]

I use my IPad to make notes whilst on site and take pictures if necessary, I like to give a price on site as in my albeit limited experience it seems to increase my chances of winning the job. I use pages to do my quotes but should really switch to using invoice to go however I don't like how everything has to be itemised on those quotes with a rate.

[Theocus]

verbal quotes, cash in hand!!!!!

 

I am only kidding, admin is part of the job, i keep it simple, designed my own spreadsheets with the formulas encoded in, i use Bento file maker for info storage, email tracking and tpo info on clients and the data from quotes to invoices is transferable.

[treequip]

Glad I'm not the only one who avoids paperwork.

How can you make it easier?

My problem is the quicker I do a quote the less money I make profit. I tend to think the job will be quicker than it is. This often happens when I quote on site so I try to avoid that. So I wait and wait and eventually get round to it. Put in the right price and get the job. Jobs need thinking time.

I'm not convinced apps and stuff really help. I certainly wouldn't want to be doing e mails etc during my lunch break and nor would whoever I was working with. Lunch break is called that for a reason.

 

Apps aren't about doing paperwork on your lunch break apps are about having a lunch break.

 

I use invoice to go on the ipad, once you jave set it up, you can create a quote in moments with a minimum of typing then email it to the client all from the clients garden, once they accept the quote it can be made into an invoice and similarly emailed. No typing to speak of and no printing unless you want to.

 

All the jobs invoiced go into a database so you can keep track of your earnings by calendar or client.

[Mark Bolam]

Nice one Treequip, although I do agree with Likeitorlumpits time thing.

 

If a job is going over two days I will always think about it before giving a verbal, and I think any time spent on site quoting is worth it. You only get one chance.

 

Rushing time on site quoting has led to my biggest f-ups.

[TREE-SURGEON-ESSEX]

Could you do free quotes via email and text but charge for written paper quotes as this cost money and time and effort ie posting where as email etc is simple.

 

Would that convince customers to switch to email or text quotes and for those without internet verbal quotes.

 

Think of the saving of paper costs time and you can review all old emails easily who would go through a thousand old written quotes.

 

I really hate sending post its an effort

 

Soon you just type the price in your iphone bump iphones job done and one day payment the same way type in the price bump your phones payment recieved its all very clever.

[combined tree services]

If Im totally honest i don't see why i should spend what is normally the only decent break of the day doing my admin , i usually tend to spend an hour at the end of each day going through emails and allow one day per week for looking at jobs and writing quotes etc and inputting all of my receipts onto quick-books . As soon as a quote is accepted i will book it into the diary and print of a job sheet and RA and its placed in a dated to do pile.

 

I had found that having apps, not having a paper diary and trying to do my admin when i have i moment on site did not work . It was far to easy to agree to someone or a client over the phone because i was busy and wanted to get on !! this didnt work and caused me to lose track of jobs and let the odd job slip through the net .

[Ginja]

This all really helpful stuff chaps, please continue.

 

It's great to see some of you are embracing tech and those of you who aren't are setting me the challenge of giving you something reliable and easy to use that will entice you away from the old paper diary.

 

You may well help me get a distinction if you carry on, a major part of the assignment is industry research and feedback.

 

Keep talking to me, any gripes, ideas, things you like about certain apps, diaries, phones, tablets etc.

 

I really appreciate you all taking the time.

 

Thanks

Charlie

[DN22 Gardening]

same here,

 

once i got a smart phone and was able to do emails on site, my time spent doing evening work (quotes, invoices, RA's etc) dropped dramatically.

 

still have to do the obligatory evening site visits, but thats the nature of the job.

 

can't see how i could integrate a quote into an invoice as there's so much more info on one of our quotes than i'd like to put on an invoice.

 

an app to convert some sort of note taking app's info into a quote would be good.

 

good luck on the assignment, dave