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Find yourself thinking there aren’t enough hours in the day? Being a self-employed tradesperson or small trade business owner is hard work. In the plumbing and heating sector you might be spending many hours a day travelling and completing jobs, only to be faced with more admin when you get home.

As well as bulk ordering and making the most of online purchasing and on-site deliveries, there are some great ways to work more efficiently. At Williams, we’ve put together a guide to our time-saving tips that can help shave an hour off your working day, and free up time to spend on yourself, or with family and friends.

Automate as much as possible

If you’re self-employed or own a small business, money-related admin is likely to take up a fairly significant chunk of your time. One of the first things to do if you’re looking to save time is find technology that can automate these tasks. For tradespeople, apps such as Powered Now, QuickBooks, Dext and Invoice Simple are great for scanning expenses receipts and creating invoices. We've recently teamed up with Powered Now to offer our customers a FREE one year subscription*. If you want to get involved fill out the form here and Powered Now will get in touch with more information. *T&Cs apply.

You can also use more advanced accounting software (particularly if you’re managing a few employees). Essentially, look for anything that keeps your records in once place and helps you stay organised without the need for lots of manual data entry.

Use email templates

If you find you’re wasting time writing the same emails over and over again, creating a template for every type of email you commonly send (giving a quote, invoicing, chasing payment, etc.) can be a game-changer.

Many email platforms, including Gmail, let you save templates to your account. If this option isn’t available to you, just create templates somewhere that’s easily accessible on your devices - if you use a phone the notes app will do. Then, simply open your template (or copy and paste it into a draft email), add in the relevant names and figures, and hit send.

Hire a labourer

This might not be feasible for every self-employed tradesperson, but if your business is really taking off, you might find you’re working more hours than you want to. Hiring a labourer can take some of the weight off your shoulders – plus you’ll be helping to train a young person for their future. There is a time cost at the beginning while you conduct training, but in the long run it could be well worth it.

Assign your admin time

Trying to juggle calls and emails while on site? Poor signal, struggling to connect to the internet and not having the documents you need to hand make quick admin tasks take longer than they need to. A solution is to assign yourself specific days (or times) of the week where you just do admin and quote work. Dealing with one job at a time can pay dividends, making it easier to focus on the task at hand, and get all your admin done in one go.

Ditch the slow computer

Even if you’ve assigned yourself a chunk of admin time, a slow computer can easily undo any time-saving gains – and cause a lot of frustration in the process. Spending ages staring at the whirling circle of doom every time you log on? You should probably invest in some new tech.

Getting an up-to-date computer that works fast can save more time than you think. It doesn’t need to be expensive, just one that performs well on the things you need, like Word, Excel and emails. If a new machine is out of the question, a cost-saving alternative could be to have your existing computer serviced.

Be organised

This sounds like an obvious one but being organised with both your tools and paperwork means you don’t need to spend forever searching for the things you need. Any organisational system will do, as long as it works for you. Make sure anyone working with you knows your system too.

Use a trade only merchants

If you’re not using one already, switching to an exclusively trade only merchants is a real time-saver. At Williams we don’t serve the public because they waste time and create queues, and we know that our customers want to be in and out with as little hassle as possible.

By being a strictly trade only merchants we can invest all our time in improving service for the trade. That includes quick store turnaround, same day online delivery and staff who know exactly what our trade customers need, and always go above and beyond to help.

Williams has branches across the country. If you would like to create a trade account with us, come along to your nearest branch to speak to a member of our amazing team, call us on 01329 226501 or register online.

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Want an extra hour in your day? With our top tips, you can!