BUSINESS MATTERS by YourTradeBase

HOW TO SAVE VALUABLE TIME AND CONVERT MORE ESTIMATES!

You’ve had a long hard week; you decide to leave for home a little early on Friday to tackle your paperwork so that you can give yourself a weekend clear with your family, and then you’re held up by tailbacks on the motorway; sounds familiar?

Its happened to us all and apart from the frustration of being stuck in a traffic jam your stress levels rise knowing that your quotations, invoicing, chasing money etc are all mounting up. You are an installer after all, if God put you on this earth to do paperwork you would have been less practical and got a job in an office, right? If only you could afford a bookkeeper to keep records, an accounts person to chase outstanding monies, a PA to organise you, and someone who can make your business appear more professional to secure more business for you, you could just get on with doing what you’re best at, installing bathrooms or kitchens.

If you can relate to this scenario you will be delighted to know that help is now at hand in the guise of iKBBI official supporter, www.yourtradebase. com. It’s an online service to installers that makes all those ‘white collar’

... cont tasks quick and easy to perform whilst professionalising the image of your business. Aimed specifically at KBB installers, www.yourtradebase. com was launched in 2012 and has grown rapidly because quite frankly, its service ‘scratches where installers are itching.’

www.yourtradebase.com allows installers to simplify and professionalise their quotations, thus securing more business. It is also used for raising clear and professional invoices and critically, for chasing outstanding debt. The service can also run a ‘diary’ and can be set to prompt you to ensure that you don’t forget or miss important tasks. Furthermore, www.yourtradebase.com can be accessed from anywhere using a PC, tablet or smartphone so even if you are on site or with a customer details can be accessed 24 hours a day. Importantly, everything is backed up on the company server so that users will never lose vital paperwork. So how does it work? Well, it’s a webbased product so there is no need to download or install anything on your computer, tablet etc; simply access your account from the website at anytime. For anyone requiring any further clarity or would like to ‘suckit-and-see’ then my advice would be to go online and type in the web address: www.yourtradebase.com and take advantage of a completely free of charge (there are no credit cards required) one month trial, but for those who are too busy (and these are probably the guys who require a service like this immediately) it works like this:

Once you have registered to begin your free trial, you can customise and personalise your paperwork to suit your business and then simply start creating, sending and chasing up on your quotes and invoices. You can quote for potential new business based on materials and labour costs to ensure you hit profit and build your own list of services to get quotes created quicker.

You’ll get reminders of what needs chasing and what’s outstanding and your customer can even view and accept your quotes online. Once you’ve

won a new job you can manage your schedule and keep track of tasks and follow-ups. Furthermore, it keeps you organised and your customers happy. There are no contracts and you can upgrade or downgrade your account at any time.

Co-Founder Dean Taylor says, “After a steady start, the take up from selfemployed installers more recently has been amazing. We encourage feedback from our users who are happy to oblige.” all costs.” He continued, “Since I’ve started using www.yourtradebase.com it has made paperwork so easy, almost to the point of being addictive, because I can monitor all of my customers with so little effort. I would even go as far as to say that the automatic reminder it sends you to follow up your estimates has resulted in increased business.” Gary summarised by adding; “The support we get is second to none so my advice to any iKBBI member is try your free month and see for yourself, after all, you have nothing to lose.”

“Since I’ve started using www.yourtradebase.com it has made paperwork so easy, almost to the point of being addictive”

For instance, Gary Cosway of Woodpeckers - Kitchens, Bathrooms, Wooden floors, Joinery (iKBBI Member) states, “As a small two man business I was very dubious in thinking a software package could help our business but I was so wrong! I hate paper work and will avoid it at The iKBBI and www.yourtradebase.com have formed a collaboration where members qualify for a 25% discount. For details and further information click on the dedicated page:

www.yourtradebase.com/ikbbi