16
APRIL 2016 PRO INSTALLER
PRO NEWS
www.proinstaller.co.uk
SLICING COSTS NOT
CUTTING CORNERS
Benjamin Dyer of Powered Now examines how to run your installation business so that you make more money.
It feels like a crime when you
put in a huge amount of work
but don’t make much profit. That can come from bad
organisation, paying too much
for materials and other things
like not investing where you
should. The good news is, life
should be different and in this
article, I try to stimulate some
thinking of how it can be.
one in the conventional way can
be up to 50%, and the government
also gives you a grant to help.”
WATCH COSTS INTELLIGENTLY
We only have a certain amount
of time available in the day, so
there isn’t enough to worry about
everything. Be committed to keeping costs down, but start with the
biggest annual expenditures and
then work downwards. You can’t
save much from the £100 annual
public liability insurance bill, but a
van lease might really repay hours
spent shopping around.
HAVING MATERIALS TO HAND
A quick rule of thumb says that
it will take an hour if you need to
buy any materials after you are on
site. That’s driving to the wholesaler, parking, finding the right products, queuing up to pay, loading
the goods and taking them back
to site. And we haven’t even talked
about the disruption to the flow
of work.
You may also end up paying full
retail price with cash required
on the nail, rather than 30 days
credit.
It’s simple. Being disorganised in
this way costs real time and real
money.
GET THE BEST FROM
YOUR PEOPLE
A friend was telling me that he
keeps his team working (outdoors) whatever the weather.
Unfortunately the team seemed to
have different ideas when it was
raining or snowing!
‘praise people
in public
but always
raise issues
in private’
I don’t know how much loyalty his workers have. However,
running your team so that it is
loyal and takes pride in its work
will save money and lead to
more referrals. It also means less
rework and even less unnecessary
‘resting.’
Some quick tips to help this to
happen are to praise people in
public but always raise issues in
private. Also ask staff for opinions.
Be flexible if people have personal problems. Most will repay this
effort many times over.
ORGANISE, ORGANISE,
ORGANISE
SPEND WHEN IT’S RIGHT
Scrimping is strangely not always
the best way to save money. Sometimes, the best tools enable you to
do a better job more quickly, and
they last longer too. Spending out
actually saves money in the longer
term.
“Buy quality tools, they pay for
themselves over and over again.
Good tools turn into more profit.”
That’s the view of David Stewart
of Stone Classics.
Using apps and computer
systems can also fall into the
same category. There’s now a lot
of technology available to help
installers, including Powered Now
from my own company. Using
solutions like this, you can save
time and improve efficiency.
USE HIGHER PAID
STAFF ONLY WHERE
IT MAKES SENSE
Many installation jobs require a
range of skills. The most skilled
require the highest pay. So where
possible, use cheaper staff on
tasks that take less skill. The MD
of fast growing The Landscape
Company, Matthew Stevenson,
suggests: “Using apprentices is
a cost effective way to employ
young people. The payroll saving
compared with employing some-
Most of what has been talked
about here can be simply described as “being organised”.
Like most of life, thinking things
through first then working hard
is what produces the best results.
The installation game is no different, so all of the best with your
efforts.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Benjamin Dyer is CEO and
co-founder of Powered Now
[LINK] www.powerednow.com Mobile App for Tradesmen [LINK/].
Powered Now aims to take the
pain out of paperwork for installers and other trade businesses.
www.powerednow.com
Trojan extends Elite stainless steel range
Trojan has added new
contemporary bow pull
handles to its Elite
stainless steel product
range.
Tony Chadwick, Trojan’s
Group Managing Director
said, “The new handles
are a welcome addition to
our popular stainless steel
range and have an upmarket contemporary look
which suites in perfectly
with other products for a
coordinated door hardware
approach.”
The Elite stainless steel
range is Trojan’s premium
316 grade stainless steel
offering. The new bow pull
handles join the T bar pull
handles, central door knob
and escutcheons.
Other suited stainless
steel products include door
handles, letter plates, door
knockers, numerals and
letters and, like all Trojan’s stainless steel products, come with a 25-year
anti-corrosion guarantee
making them genuinely ‘fit
and forget’.
The bow pull handles
come in a brushed stainless steel finish and match
perfectly with not only the
brushed stainless steel options in the Elite range but
‘Our stainless
steel range is
proving its worth’
also in the Premium range.
The handles are available
in two size options, 625mm
and 1200mm.
Tony Chadwick concludes:
“Our stainless steel range is
proving its worth to more
and more fabricators and
installers. By extending our
Elite range with the new
handles we are rolling out
the anti-corrosion benefits
of stainless steel to more
products and opening up
new opportunities for our
customers to differentiate
their offering.”
Email: [email protected]