I closed that business in 2004 when my business partner suffered some mental health issues and I realised I could be heading the same way in fact it was far closer than I thought at the timeOh wow so you've been running your business for some time now! I hope you went from strength to strength considering the amount of money you spent setting your business up!!
We all have to start somewhere but growing a company these days gets more complex as you start to employ people, the thing with working for big companies delivering on time and then getting payments from them beware of the companies that suddenly start pushing more and work at you generally a good indication they are on stop with another supplier and their financials are a bit wobblyI'm only a lowly Sole Trader at the minute and I find that some of the larger consultation/FM companies that I apply to be a supplier to will turn their nose up at me as soon as they find out I work for myself.
I try not to take that personally though as I understand they want a business with many staff to service their complicated needs.
The funny thing is though, these large electrical contractors will sub the majority of the work out so a Sole Trader like me in the end anyway!
Ahh so you have already found the first problem of deploying software. The first pieces of business software I set up (1988) was payroll about 8 weeks into a new tax year the options were just put in the year to date figures or process the first 8 weeks again using the software on the positive side this allowed us to learn how the software worked but 10 months on at the end of the tax year it could be fully processed on one system. Manually payroll was taking 3 - 4 hours / week to process using the software it was 20 - 30 minutes the end of year manually could take a day or two the software did it in a few hours (computer speeds back then were nothing like they are today). That set up / inputting all the information took 2 days with around 6 -7 employees being paid and we were learning as we went but for the next payroll run we had a fully working package with a noticeable time saving. Move on to accounting with about 50 ish regular customers details to input and I think you get the problem although that customer database could be exported or linked to other software packages like job costing and estimating but there is quite a time investment intially to get your business information into a working packageI tried Tradify around 18 months ago when I first set up but the software overwhelmed me and they continually badgered me with phone calls in the hope that I would sign on the dotted line at the end of the trial period whilst offering little in the way of support. This experience put me off somewhat but regardless, a CRM package will need to be looked at.
I will more than likely give "ServiceM8" or "YourTradeBase" a try soon just to see what's on offer as my budget is low at the minute.
I'll get there I'm sure.
The problem with software one size fits all so you have to adapt to it or find ways of making it work as you want
Last edited: