Whitegoods Business Pack

[kwatt]

Re: Whitegoods Business Pack

I’ve asked Jackal if he’ll do a bit on the legal side of things including some lovely tips for trading terms and how to protect yourself against certain stuff, especially dealing with contract work and landlords etc. 😉

H&S isn’t too hard TBH and, if need be, I can ask an expert to see if they’ll help.

K.

[kwatt]

Re: Whitegoods Business Pack

Legal side of things, disclaimers and a few handy hints sorted, it’s getting done. 😉

K.

[kwatt]

Re: Whitegoods Business Pack

Administration – The Cost That Is Both Hidden & Forgotten

If you talk to any of the old hands they will all tell you the same thing, they hate doing accounts and they hate doing their paperwork. This is a symptom of engineers as a general rule, they want to be out there working and earning, not stuck in an office filling out forms.

The trouble is, you either have to do it or you have to pay someone to do it for you.

Accountancy is a chore for a small business so the best advice that I can offer is to get your accountant to do as much of the donkey work that you can. Asides from anything else, it will get one correctly or a lot better than you would likely do the job. Tax or PAYE/NI is best dealt with by someone that knows what they are doing and, for all the cost of having your accountant do this for you, it is generally well worthwhile. However there is one major advantage in outsourcing this chore and that is, should there ever be a query on the tax bill then it is a recognised professional that is answering the Revenue, not someone that has little knowledge of how the Revenue works.

Of course even without this you will have plenty to keep you busy.

You have to keep records and accounts of what you spend and what you sell and this has to be pretty comprehensive but, this is best left for a section of it’s own on accountancy.

The point of the above however is to highlight that this is only the start of the costs of administration, not by far, the end of it.

Call Administration – Sole Trader

As a sole trader operating without contract work the administration burden is probably as low as it is going to get. All you need, really, to trade is a receipt book and some sort of call handling system which, for many, will consist of a diary with handwritten call details in it. This does work for a good many people but, in this fast moving age of instant information available 24/7/365 and the expectations of customers in terms of professionalism, it isn’t going to cut it for anything beyond a sole trader and, even they can struggle with this sort of system now.

The fact of it is that customers expect instant answers whenever they call, they don’t really want to hear that you will call them back, that you don’t know when the parts will arrive and so on. They also don’t expect that a professional that they have called to do a job and charge for it is going to arrive in a scruffy old sweatshirt carrying a handwritten note that somehow constitutes a legitimate receipt for that work.

It is very cheap to get a computer these days and, for the most part for simple chores such as printing a professional looking job sheet, it is incredibly easy to use. The biggest hurdle with many engineers is the fear of the unknown ad the “scary” box of black magic in the corner which is also known as the computer!

On the CD that we produce you will find a couple of job sheet templates in a Mircrosoft Excel format as well as forms in an Adobe PDF format that is interactive, you can file them in and use them digitally, saving all your customer information in individual files, or you can print them out and handwrite the call details. We’d suggest you type them, it just look so much more professional. Saving each one as a customer name and postcode will also allow you to use the computer’s search function to quickly locate the customer’s details and the call/s you have made to them, this is incredibly handy to have.

Of course if you want to be a little flash about it, it means that you can transfer these files to a laptop and use the forms in the field, still more professional looking even if all you are doing is using the laptop as a digital file-o-fax.

However you really do have to get to grips with the IT as most of the spares that you ever order will be over the internet now, most of the communication you will have with the spares suppliers will be by email. It’s faster, it’s cheaper and it’s more accurate as well as keeping a definitive record of times and dates of when you did things and who you spoke to.

If you are not up to speed on the basics of using a PC we would highly recommend that you learn, it’s worth spending a week or so on a basic course as by using one you will look more professional, get things done faster and more accurately as well as saving a lot of time and money.

Administration – Growing Businesses

As your business grows you may well find that you have little time to take calls yourself and that you need someone to handle the calls in the office for you. This is known as “call handling” where someone will take the call from the customer, log it, book it and, when the paperwork comes back, process the result, record it and then invoice it or log it on the accountancy system of your choosing.

Sounds easy doesn’t it?

It’s not.

You have to remember that, when you employ someone to do this, that they very likely have zero industry experience and, most certainly, don’t have your experience of the work you do. Mistakes will ensue, most probably not through any malice or incompetence at all it just that, well, it takes time to train call handling staff, a lot of time.

If ou top to think about it they’ve a lot to contend with what with the appliances, the customers, the areas, call handling processes as well as all the invoicing and various hoops you have to jump through to get paid from some people. It’s not an easy job really and not one you can expect someone to pick up in two minutes, so don’t.

Also remember that you rely on this person, or these people, for your living totally and entirely. If they don’t invoice on time correctly, you don’t get paid. If they don’t do the job right, you lose money. Just think about it before you go off on one.

Good staff on the administration side are worth their weight in gold, don’t forget it as these are the people that will make you efficient and profitable or exactly the opposite. All you have to do is fix stuff!

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Comments?

I’ve got more written but it needs work, as does this IMO.

K.

[Lawrence]

Re: Whitegoods Business Pack

did we go any further with this ? I wonder if we could get our associates to put some money and resource in to it .
What better place to be as a spares supplier than on the inside of a trade guide ..

[kwatt]

Dear goodness, I totally forgot all about this.

Having said that, I’ve been a bit busy this past year or so and that’s the reason there’s been no update to the fault code guide let alone this.

Perhaps I have an idea though to kill two birds with one stone, I just need the time to do it. 😕

K.

[Author]

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