When talking with Tradies, the most common complaint we hear is about cash flow or the lack of. While it is common, it is really easy to spend an hour on some of the below examples and get back to work. While you’re at it though, why not put some time aside to do this on a weekly basis, as with all the suggestions below, if done regularly, cash flow should free up substantially.

One of the skills we teach to our Tradiepreneur members is time blocking. Time blocking is essential to help you free up cash flow. So many trade businesses, get so busy doing the work they are unable to implement these simple strategies to improve the cash flow in their business.

Such a simple task, and yet most trade businesses find it hard to manage the time to get their invoices out for payment. In the time it takes you to read this post, you could have at least one invoice out. Now imagine if you were to put some time aside, each and every week to ensure that all your invoices were up to date, wouldn’t that improve your cash flow?

Ok, I get it, none of us like chasing late payments, the confrontation is never comfortable, but you’ve done the work now it’s time to get paid! In the Tradiepreneur Program, we teach our members a simple and effective debtors process to help you get paid on time. Essentially it is again a simple process of making time each week to check through the owing invoices and makes some phone calls and send a few emails. See the theme of time blocking here!

It’s hard to have positive cash flow if the work is a little slow coming in. Why not send out an email to all your existing and past clients with a special offer or a reminder that it is now time to service their air conditioner, or service their car or tools etc. Don’t be afraid to use one of the biggest business assets you have, your email list. Get creative and send an email, then make time to do this at least monthly.

This one is gold, and yet we don’t make time to do it. I understand we feel pressured to keep getting the work done, and it often feels like the only way to improve your business, but in doing so, we rarely make time to check the price of our materials. There are some huge savings to be made for those tradies who are savvy enough to be checking their material costs on a regular basis. Negotiate with your suppliers, get quotes from others, either way, I promise there are savings to be made and all for a small amount of effort on your behalf.

Nine times out of ten your past clients will be happy with your service and the job you have been done. Have you thought about asking them to help you find more work? Happy clients are your best advertising asset. As much as we hate it here at Tradies in Business, there is still the dreaded reputation that tradies have, but that hesitation point is gone when a past client recommends you. To encourage them to do so, set up a referral program in which you reward your past clients for referrals that turn into jobs.

Each trade will do this in a different way, but it can be as small as a scratchie, or a gift card or a free service for their tools/car etc. These reward programs leave your happy customer feeling even more satisfied with your job, and what do they do then, talk about it to their family, friends and colleagues!!

None of the above ideas are hard or time-consuming to implement, and all will have our cash freeing up before you know it. If you want your business to win with cash flow, join us in our upcoming live webinar: How to Reduce Cash Flow Stress on 22nd February. Get more info here.