Winter work worries!

[Paul Jenks]

Running a business/company is up and down, round and round, this way and that way. I visualise each aspect of the job I do as a plate on a stick that I have to keep spinning.

When I started out some of the plates wobbled a lot until I got the time to get it spinning again. The cutting and doing is pretty straightforward. The cashflow/budgeting and management plates take a bit more work to get right.

I would advise looking to be able to cover your costs and a bit of profit in 4 days. This is tough. It's a goal, an aspiration that is difficult to achieve, but then so is a medal at the Olympics or giving up beer and cigarettes. You need time to work on the business. Getting out there to market, quote, fix stuff. When you're really busy, see if you can book some jobs in further ahead. Fit them in when you have to. I know I hate to turn work down. If you're really busy, make sure you are actually making a profit. Sometimes busyness comes from being a bit cheap.

When a person starts out they are full of beans and energy. This needs to be spent wisely otherwise it can be frittered away for little or no gain.

Setting up and running a business is bloody hard graft and if you don't get it into a shape where it works for you it'll always be bloody hard graft and unrewarding to boot.

If you have a realistic goal of where you want the business to be in 2,5,10 years time you can work towards it. Workload and pipeline are just a part of the equation.

[MattyF]

Very well put Paul:) I agree with all the above comments except about subbing stuff out .. I would pass stuff on if people are desperate to people I trust and have the same work ethic as me but I'm not tying up more cash in other peoples wages! Besides it will go dead in December and January any way,so having it all lined up is good, if the weather behaves it self any way..

[Old Mill Tree Care]

Got to say I think that terrible advice.

 

This time of year people are generally more than happy to wait, its not like the spring when they often want it done ASAP.

 

Paying out for extra staff will eat up way to much profit, IMO.

 

Also telling customers you busy and can't do the job for a few weeks or even months, can actually build their confidence, as poor trades men are seldom booked up.

 

On the contrary, you are now contradicting what you said on page 3.

[Old Mill Tree Care]

Totally agree with the we are booked up to the start of Jan and the customers are happy to wait, if its a big job we ask them if they are happy to wait which they always are if not we would juggle things around to get the job done. If your busy your busy why change your current set up as its obviously working as your booked up with work and making a tidy profit.

 

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

 

I wasn't talking about keeping customers happy. I was talking about maximising profit each week and the OP didn't ask for advice on how to manage his clients.

[skyhuck]

On the contrary, you are now contradicting what you said on page 3.

 

No I'm not.

 

You are suggesting he pays out more for staff to get the work done faster, thus reducing his profit.

 

On page 3 I was saying that him doing the work over 6 days per week and banking the money was better than spreading the work out by only working 4 days.