Grow your business
The shift from a sole trader to a plumbing business will require systems and structures that allow you to grow, Site Shed entrepreneur Matt Jones explains. I’ve had the privilege of speaking with hundreds of tradespeople and industry specialists from all over the world. While there might be some differences, there are significant trends; trends that will suit 95% of tradies and it will help business owners create a business that is not entirely dependent on them. This article is for the business owner that wants to: • Create a valuable asset • Develop a (functional) team • Remove him, or herself from certain areas of their business • Increase efficiency, productivity and turnover
Establishing departments for your business For 95% of trade businesses, the framework below will work beautifully. Some of you may want to add some changes, or separate certain departments, however feel free to use this as a starting point. 1 Admin and finance 2 Sales and marketing 3 Operations and delivery
Creating an organisational (org) chart for your staff
• Improve consistency and delivery of their offering
An org chart populates your departments with the right people.
• Get some time back for themselves
It will likely include your staff, contractors, advisors and suppliers.
38 | Australian Plumbing Industry Magazine | June 2018
Roles and responsibilities Now we have our departments and we have our org chart created, we now need to assign roles and responsibilities to the members of the org chart.
Task allocation With a clear outline of what the roles and responsibilities are for your organisation, you can find the right people to assign them to. You can hire people in house, or you can outsource tasks and even entire departments.
Where to start Map out the Critical Client Flow for all of your major services and offerings and create systems for the major areas of that chart. See diagram on the next page.