5 things to do when starting a home trade business

It’s an exciting time, isn’t it?

Hard years were spent mastering your craft. You’ve learned how to handle anything that comes your way in a working world so often dictated by Murphy’s law: now it’s finally time to strike out on your own.

Starting a home trades business is no small feat - and now that you’ve mastered your trade, it’s time to conquer a new skill set: running a business. We’ve got 5 key steps that you ought to take to make sure your business avoids the pitfalls and problems that come with not being set up properly. You already know how to get the job done, here’s how you keep the work coming in.

Let’s get to it.

Set Up a Business Phone

It might not seem like an important distinction at first look, but it is, and we explain why here. The number one reason is actually self-care for yourself. Many business owners who run their business from their personal phones find that the line between their personal lives and work is too obscure. This leads to a feeling of constantly being on call for work and it isn’t healthy.

To avoid burnout, clutter, and confusion, it’s important to separate your personal life from your working life. Set up a phone that is dedicated to your business. Personal time to recharge is a part of a successful strategy for running your company during business hours.

Set Up WhatsApp for Business

WhatsApp for business is an increasingly useful and important tool for small and medium home trade businesses. It allows your customers easier access to your business. Ok, you’ve already got a business, socials, emails, and a phone to tend to, so why would you need another channel?

The thing that makes this particular line of communication so appealing to business owners is the ability to pin and automate messaging. Out of the office? Set up a message explaining that you’ll get back to customers soon. Have a special going on? Automatically promote it. If a customer sends you important info, you can pin the message so that you don’t need to waste time scrolling up the thread. WhatsApp makes communicating easier for you and your clients. You can read more about why you need WhatsApp for Business here.

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Don’t Let Leads Fall Through the Cracks

As we touched on above, there are several channels of communication to manage and without the right tools, it can be challenging, if not downright overwhelming to manage. This can lead to potential sales falling through the cracks, and that is not good for your business. Using an all-in-one app like Fuzey to connect all of your communications to a single dashboard makes your life easy and organised, and you won’t leave any potential leads hanging ever again.

Start Collecting Reviews from Day One

While skilled trades aren’t going anywhere, we do live in an increasingly digitised world, and even home trade businesses need to adapt. Here’s a statistic for you - 87% of consumers search for reviews before choosing a local business (Per Brightlocal’s 2020 Local Consumer Review). In the world of trades, reviews are king.

With tools like Fuzey, once you are finished doing an awesome job, you can plug a premade review request complete with a link right into the thread you’ve been communicating through. When it’s seamless and easy, they are far more likely to respond positively. In this way, you can automate the ask right into the customer experience, and begin building your most important asset from day one: your reputation.

Master the Art of Precision Invoicing from the Start

More skills to learn? Not quite, actually. Thanks to sophisticated accounting software like Xero or Quickbooks, your invoicing will be on point, right off the starting line. You can even integrate your accounting system with tools like Fuzey, so invoices are automatically generated when you send a new payment request. This makes it a breeze to accurately receive payments from clients and provide a smooth, stress-free experience for parties on both sides of the transaction.

The smoother it goes, the better the reviews, and the more your business grows.

If you're interested to learn more about how Fuzey can help you grow your business, book a demo filling the form below or get in touch at hello@getfuzey.com

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