ONE MAN BANDS, managing all those jobs?

[jedisparks]

Hi all,

Not necessarily just one man bands. but how do folks manage their jobs?

what i mean is, you may have a few jobs on the go which require several days or weeks work. at the same time lots of say half day, 1 hour, 2 hour, 3hour jobs to do. And then theres call outs!

You have to know and organise them based on your clients timescales or the timelscales of other trades involved.

having traded for 6 years now i still cant get the bloody hang of it! every week i will have several hours of wasted time; where i start out the week with a plan of how im going to get through a list of jobs, meet customers expectations and timescales, and make a living doing it. Then by midday monday or tuesday its all gone ---- up because ive had to change my plans to accommodate someones changing requirements etc....

when this happens i inevitably am unable to change every job to suit the new plan. and get dead time as a result. After having spent lots of time and effort planning.

Today is a prime example where i had a days worth of work set up only to have someone change their plans at the last minute, i had to change things around for them and as a result ive done about 4 chargable hours.

Am I ranting for no reason?
Does this only happen to me?
Whats the soultion?
I am wondering if it would work if i had a set day of the week, say friday for eg where i do the small 1 or 2 hour jobs and customers will have to work their schedule around it.

This has been bugging me for ages!!
any opinions are greatfully recieved

If i have put this in the wrong forum please feel free to move it.

thanks for reading

 

[AlanWirral]

I'm sure it's a problem every self employed tradesman goes through mate...use the 'Dead' time wisely! Go the gym or for a swim to chill out

 

[m25maintenance]

tell me how u find all them jobs

 

[accordfire]

Hi all,

Not necessarily just one man bands. but how do folks manage their jobs?

what i mean is, you may have a few jobs on the go which require several days or weeks work. at the same time lots of say half day, 1 hour, 2 hour, 3hour jobs to do. And then theres call outs!

You have to know and organise them based on your clients timescales or the timelscales of other trades involved.

having traded for 6 years now i still cant get the bloody hang of it! every week i will have several hours of wasted time; where i start out the week with a plan of how im going to get through a list of jobs, meet customers expectations and timescales, and make a living doing it. Then by midday monday or tuesday its all gone ---- up because ive had to change my plans to accommodate someones changing requirements etc....

when this happens i inevitably am unable to change every job to suit the new plan. and get dead time as a result. After having spent lots of time and effort planning.

Today is a prime example where i had a days worth of work set up only to have someone change their plans at the last minute, i had to change things around for them and as a result ive done about 4 chargable hours.

Am I ranting for no reason?
Does this only happen to me?
Whats the soultion?
I am wondering if it would work if i had a set day of the week, say friday for eg where i do the small 1 or 2 hour jobs and customers will have to work their schedule around it.

This has been bugging me for ages!!
any opinions are greatfully recieved

If i have put this in the wrong forum please feel free to move it.

thanks for reading

It is always an art, for sure.

We don't do domestic work, and this is one reason why, though not by any means the main reason - we come into contact with "domestics" often enough through fire safety in HMOs, door entry, and so on.

We've found that "tough love" is sometimes the only way to go - we will give two chances to be "in" for the work to be completed, and after that, we charge for the wasted visits, or time.

A clear schedule of what the time scales are, copied to everyone involved helps too - making clear what you expect time wise on site, and when - and then sticking to it - that's the other side - if we say we'll do something at a given time, we do it.

For service calls, we won't ever give more than an AM or PM time slot - not because we're being difficult, but because it is the best we can do, without letting people down due to things beyond our control.

Against all that, just due to the way things happen, we usually have a small stack of "anytime" work - maintenance visits, small remedials, inspections, things like that, which fills in some time.

One key area for reducing time changes, dead time though, really does come down to the fact that we make it clear way up front that once a job time is agreed, it is continuous and free access until completion, or get charged waiting time. Not nasty, just the fact that we have wages to pay, you agreed time with us, then changed it, causing us to wait around. It is a two way contract!

Of course, we're NOT rigid about it - if a customer genuinely can't make an agreed time, for a good reason, we don't charge, but suffer the time - it can't always be helped.

Generally, it comes down to good planning, clear expectation, and open, honest communication up front.

 

[miner69er]

i concentrate mainly on domestic and if someone rings up with a small job thats not urgent i will book them in for a week or two in advance and i guarantee that day will be full of small jobs by the time it comes round. and if it doesn't fill up (which is bloomin' rare) i kick back and relax and reply to questions on the electricians forum......

 

[jedisparks]

Thanks for that Accordfire.

Definately some points to take on there. i like the AM or PM idea as i find myself chasing around after customers alot based on their schedules.

Tough love is right. all to often im just too nice about it and say "yes! no problem i can change my appointments for you, dont worry" This kind of approach has kept me nice and busy because customers like me, but often it dosent do me any favours either. im my own worst enemy i think.

Alanwirral

you have a good point there! I should see it as an opportunity for other things. Im just trying to get the most out of being in this business.

M25

Dont know specifically. bit of advertising, looking after customers so they come back and recommend me, arse kissing and being happy to run around after them. which ironicaly has got me onto starting this thread!

miner69

Yeah thats how i try and play it most of the time, just dosent seem to work in my favour and i end up getting ----ed off about it!

Im getting alot from these replies. A combination of having a slightly stricter policy and not getting annoyed when it dosent work out.

 

[lj.l]

I always used to book small jobs for a friday ,come friday I had a stack of work to get through and it never worked out so now I book the jobs for either morning or afternoon on any day of the week and try to get them all in the same area ,but its stil a nightmare tho I can finish early on a friday.

 

[bugsy]

Set one day aside for your admin / quotes etc if you get em calls do them after 5pm start at 6.30 it might be a hard slog to start but when you get really busy you can afford to take on help

 

[Graeme Harrold]

It can be a pain in the arse, but I have now started being a bit more strict with clients. If its a bigger job and timetables change, I have to say to them that I will do what I can in the time given and come back and finish when I can. 99% of the time its agreed as the understand I like to treat my customers in a way that I do turn up on time for booked appointments, therefore I minimise the impact down the chain for someone elses problems. If I tell someone Ill be there a week on Monday, Ill be there and finish their job before going back to one thats gone off plan.

 

[SirKit Breaker]

Work closely with the other trades, and always keep one step in front of them. I try to cut the customer out when working on things like extensions, loft conversions and the like. Don't get me wrong I have to do things to their requirements, and i make sure that what i am doing is what they want, but they don't understand the inner workings of the construction industry. I once worked for a proper tool who decided to "project manage" his new kitchen/dining room extension. He insisted that all the work was planned through him using his gant chart. I duly turned up on the agreed date at the agreed time to first fix the kitchen electrics (did dining room a few days earlier and wanted to do kitchen at same time), it was a shame it was 2 days after the plasterers had finished

 

[Smugley]

SirKit, amazing that none of the plasterers mentioned to him... 'Err, where are all the backboxes???'

 

[Octopus]

I simply accept "quiet" periods will happen. On such occassions I do the (necessary) paperwork and keep that all under control or I go out doing "leaflet" drops - the latter gets me fresh air and exercise at the same time - when thats all done and if the weather is OK is down on the golf course or out on my bike!

 

[accordfire]

I simply accept "quiet" periods will happen. On such occassions I do the (necessary) paperwork and keep that all under control or I go out doing "leaflet" drops - the latter gets me fresh air and exercise at the same time - when thats all done and if the weather is OK is down on the golf course or out on my bike!

Fresh air in Surrey?

I bet you get £5k job offers from myhammer too lol!!!!!!

Kidding - just every time I see Surrey, I automatically think of places like Croydon, rather than say, Cranleigh lol.

 

[Andyfm]

I try to keep all my jobs dates flexible - I`ll tell builders " I hope to be there on Wednesday or Thursday", or " should be the end of that week" If you try and give exact dates and times , then they get the hump when you don`t turn up.
I agree with the poster about the call outs, I do them either as first job or on my way home, so as not to disrupt my schedule too much