Written by Marius Stäcker, CEO, ToolTime
Despite the fact that UK smartphone penetration stands at 98% amongst 16 to 55-year-olds, British tradespeople are still largely reliant on pen, paper and basic computer software for the administration of their businesses. Between quotes, invoices, material orders and worker communications, paperwork can become unwieldy, confusing and a time drain.
Running businesses in this way creates a tough choice for tradespeople: spend more time on paperwork but less time getting the work done, or slow down potential client and customer communications and risk lost sales or complaints. Historically, navigating this choice has been a balancing act, and has created added stress for tradespeople who are already running at max capacity to keep their small businesses running.
In 2024, tradespeople have a third option – leveraging digital tools to eliminate time-consuming paperwork, and build better communication links between team and customer alike. Not only this, but onboarding new technological solutions can make the trades more attractive to young talent, and help businesses achieve organisational and planning shortcuts which save both time and money. By overhauling business processes to enable digital efficiencies, tradespeople can take on more work – and grow.
The time to grow is now
Despite the challenges of stalled economic growth, rising mortgage costs and a cost-of-living crisis last year, many small trade businesses made the most of the opportunity to service the large number of homeowners opting to stay put, rather than sell up.
Many found there was plenty of work to go around, with trends indicating long-term growth for SMEs in the trades as younger generations demonstrate far greater reliance on tradespeople than their parents. In fact, those within the 18 to 34 age bracket are reported to have made more than twice as many call-outs for tradespeople as those aged 55+ in 2023.
The challenge for SMEs in the trades has been keeping on top of the work coming in – not least because of what the UK Trade Skills Index 2023 termed an ‘alarming’ skills gap in the construction sector. Kingfisher reports that the shortage is so severe that the UK is set to lose out on £98bn of growth by 2030 as a result. This skills shortage creates a paradox for those in the trades – more work, but without the resources to accommodate demand.
So, whilst the time is ripe for small businesses in the trades to look towards expanding, they can only do so with the support of new tools. Business owners need to strike whilst the iron is hot, but scaling operations isn’t always easy; managing more staff, more jobs, and more paperwork is no mean feat.
This is why improving efficiency is so essential to businesses looking to scale; streamlining operations is critical, and getting buy-in from staff requires tools that are easy to use and help, not hinder, the daily workload.
New challenges require new solutions
The manual recording of invoices, quotes, receipts and customer details not only takes more time, but makes it easier to lose track of vital information, and lengthens the tax returns process. On top of this, tedious administrative tasks take a toll on the individual – burnout is common among small business owners, and factors like the cost of living crisis create added pressure to retain and acquire new customers.
Digital job management solutions have the power to revolutionise traditional industries – like the trades – helping small businesses to realise new efficiencies, eliminate paperwork and modernise their image to appeal to young talent. As accessibility to digital tools increases, awareness is spreading about the benefits new software and technologies can bring to a wider scope of businesses; more than 80% of UK construction companies now cite digital transformation as a key priority for the coming years.
And it doesn’t have to be complicated or difficult to roll out. The availability of cloud-based software has made digital tools easier than ever to get hold of, as well as bringing down the cost of their adoption. The cloud allows everything to be managed entirely remotely from a range of devices, enabling an entire team to store documentation, and to input and access information whenever it’s needed, from wherever they are.
By incorporating simple digital tools to help automate things like invoice generation, quotations, and job scheduling, it’s possible to save around 30% on precious working time. By streamlining operations, construction companies can offer workers a better work-life balance, and take tiresome administrative tasks out of the job description. The bottom line is that digital tools are creating an immediate return on investment for small businesses that can no longer be ignored.
