Finding Jobs FAST as a Self Employed Tradesman

Sometimes things are slow!

You may have been doing a big job for a while and it has come to an end or the phone just hasn't been ringing with customers asking for quotes for work.

You need to find some work FAST! Not in a few weeks, NOW!

It can all seem to be going well, you have plenty of work booked in and plenty of work coming up!

Then one job gets cancelled!

Another big job the company went bust!

You try to bring some other jobs forward, but the building work is just not ready.

So you're at home and it's time to get your thinking cap on to create some work.

What do you do?

In this podcast you're about to find out.

Welcome back once again. My name is Ben Poulter, your host of tool box talk for electricians.

However big your company is, or however busy you have been in the past, it can happen.

It all stops all of a sudden, you can look into figuring out why later - Right now you need work to keep you going.

Whatever reason the customer gives for the cancellation is irrelevant, there is not much you can do if the customer isn't going to pay you to do the work.

Even if something crazy and unimaginable was to happen where let's say everyone was told to leave work and go home and stay in their houses!

Something like in the movies! Something you would never imagine happening - it could though right?

You still need to work, you still need to pay your bills - So you need to do something to drum up some business FAST!

You can see a quiet time coming, if you're not putting out quotes regularly.

That would be your red flag to do something about it until it's too late.

A good place to start would be to figure out why you haven't been quoting.

I did a lot of work for a magering director of a big company. I would always be at the factory fixing a socket, or moving a light.

I got to know everyone there, the people on the factory floor and all the people in the office.

All of them used to ask me to do work for them.

From that one contact, I was kept busy for most of the year. That company went under!

The work I got from the employees at that company halved.

Luckley I had the emails of each person and I was able to keep in contact.

I think the only reason I was so busy was because the people at the company saw me every week. I was Ben the electrician, they would ask me to give them a quote when they saw me.

When I wasn't around anymore, People I assume just lived with the problem.

It's interesting how many people think that there are domestic electricians, industrial electricians and commercial electricians.

Let your customers know that electric is electric and you are an electrician - you can do it all.

This way they can recommend you at work too.

You're in the building trade, you're going to have friends who are also in the building trade.

Give them a call. Telling everyone you're busy when you're not is a good idea.

I used to do this, if I said I had not worked it made me feel like a loser.

If you haven't got any work, you may well be - so do something about it.

Even if you are busy, tell people you're not. This will keep you in their mind and if they like you they will recommend you so much more to their family and friends.

I went round one of my best mates' houses once, he had a loft of conversion done.

Why didn't you call me for the electrics I asked, you said you're always busy and I didnt want to bother you, he said.

He ended up with a rubbish job and wonkey downlights and I didnt get any work - so we both missed out.

So just tell everyone you could always do more whatever it is. Who knows it maybe a quick job on the way home one day.

If your constantly quoting, sometimes customers may not get back to you.

It may have been a small job they forgot about or just didn't go head with at the time,

Give the customer a call or an email to confirm they still need the work doing. It may be the customer wanted to change it slightly but they still want the work doing.

Chasing the quote up my entice the customer to go ahead with the work.

What quite often happens with me is with landlords, they don't live in the property so it doesn't really matter if the jobs not dont straight away.

That jobs still needs doing and if it remedial works for an EICR you can be sure to say the landlord will call you up with one weeks notice when he needs the certification for the letting agency.

It may even work out that the property is empty and its the perfect time to get the work done.

So if the work has quieted down, chase old quotes up to get the go ahead.

You cant beat social media for getting your work out there.

There are people inside of electrical facebook groups every day looking to get an answer for electrical problems.

Create a facebook page for your business and join some groups.

Answer peoples questions, if it will require a qualified electrician - tell them that too and the reasons why.

So many people think its easy and can do it themselves, but if you explain they need to confirm the fuse size, cable size and maybe IP rating - they will read it and head on over to your facebook page to find your phone number.

Just be sure to answer questions in your local area, you don't want someone calling you up from the other side of the country for a light they have taken down and messed up.

If you are sitting around with nothing at all to do and you need the money.

Go out and sub contract for a week or 2, you can do this with agencies or sub to larger companies.

You can even give some other electrician friends a call and offer them a week's work to keep you going.

Use the qualifications you have as an electrician at your disposal.

This can work both ways, if an electrician helps you out with some work one time, you can do the same with them when you have a big job that needs to get done.

Having a network of other sparks is very handy too. If you're on holiday and one of your customers calls you up with an emergency callout, you can still help them with the problem by calling up another electrician.

As always this always works both ways.

What you need is customers who already trust you. They're not going to require a quote that they're going to compare with 10 other electricians.

A customer who already knows you, likes you and trusts you.

I bet you have a list of those types of customers right in front of you NOW.

Your past customers. How did you send them the last invoice?

Email?

Then put an email together to send out. A bit like a newsletter.

I call them Email Nails.

You're not going to say “Hi, do you need any work?”

You want to send a polite email explaining some new technology in your industry.

For example - Heating controls you can control from your phone, how cool would that be to be able to switch your heating OFF when you're not there.

Saving the customer money on heating their home when nobody is there.

The customer will read the email and may not want any heating controls, but it will remind them of the shower pull cord that has been temperamental, they are going to need an electrician for that.

Never be afraid to ask for referrals too. Mention in the email for the customer to please share your number with their friends and family.

I get calls from people asking if it's ok to hand my number over to others. I don't know why it wouldn't be ok, but my answer is always “yeah sure”.

An email every 30 days to your customers will be a number of benefits -

Let customers know you still in business

Make sure YOU are the electrician they think of in any conversation

Show that you care about the customer and there needs

The main thing would be to do something, anything that is going to benefit your business and get some work.

Don't just hope that phones are going to ring out of the blue.

Then putting things in place so it doesn't happen again.

Keep up with the email nails every month, there are 10 templates I will leave in the show notes you can use for your customers.

Download them, stick your logo at the top and send out on the 1st of every month.

Have a fantastic busy week.

Until next time.