You didn’t start a trade contractor business because of your love of admin work. Invoicing isn’t what drives you to come into work in the morning.
In fact, the thought of drafting payment reminders might send you into a cold sweat.
These things are essential to running a skilled trades business — but right now, they’re bogging you down. Instead of getting lost in spreadsheets and voicemails, you want to focus on the hands-on work — fixing things, solving mechanical problems, using your core skills to serve your clients.
That’s where a business admin assistant comes in. A good executive assistant for a small business can take most of those time-consuming tasks off your plate. This frees you up to focus on leveraging your core strengths to further your big-picture goals. Over time, your EA can take on a greater ops support role as well.
Read on as we discuss the benefits of hiring an executive assistant for your trade contractor business. Then, we’ll explore the logistics of getting started.
Benefits of an Executive Assistant for a Contractor Business
Most tradespersons, like HVAC professionals, electricians, and plumbers, are highly skilled in their specialized area. However, they struggle with all the administrative tasks required to run a business: answering calls, scheduling, invoicing, expense tracking, and inventory management. Admin for a contractor is tedious and ongoing, easily consuming hours each day.
An executive assistant can be the most valuable strategic hire for a small business. Often, however, founders overlook this essential role. They focus on hiring another tradesperson or a salesperson — and their work grows less efficient. Organization suffers. Client relationships may decline instead of steadily improving, affecting their reputation.
But hiring a good executive assistant can change all that. Let’s examine some of the essential support an EA can provide for a trade contractor business.
Prompt Invoicing
The average trade contractor could probably recoup a significant amount of lost revenue from unpaid invoices. Most are leaking cash because they’re either not always invoicing or not following up to make sure they’re getting paid. You don’t have time to hound your customers for unpaid invoices — but your EA does, and they will. Politely, but persistently.
Coordinating Your Travel and Schedule
In your line of work, travel isn’t an occasional event — it’s constant. Coordinating your schedule is no small feat. Having someone else to book appointments and factor in buffer time between them can be a game-changer. And a skilled executive assistant can triage communications, responding to the most urgent needs first.
An EA can also provide remote assistance to you and other staff on the job site, streamlining your operation. And in more complex scenarios, they can help keep things organized. An executive assistant for a construction company could communicate with subcontractors and vendors to keep everyone on the same page, for instance.
Communicating with Clients and Vendors
You might enjoy interacting with clients, but it’s still hard to find time for that. When you’re trying to wrap up one job and head to the next, communicating clearly with both clients can be tricky. But a skilled EA can calmly and professionally handle these communications while you focus on the job at hand.
An executive assistant can also tame your email inbox. When our clients hire an EA, their email response times improve by 60–80%. And customers’ satisfaction with communication from the business rises by 25–35%. All of this translates into stronger customer relationships.
Handling Data Entry and Documentation
Admin for a contractor can also involve tracking project status, payroll, and contracts. An executive assistant can spearhead inventory management as well, completing these tasks on time — and likely with fewer errors that can lead to costly mistakes.
Creating a Sustainable Schedule
Hiring an EA can substantially bring down the number of hours you work per week. You’ll still be handling the same volume of business — if not more — but you’ll be working closer to 40 hours than 60. You’ll be getting home in time for dinner. You’ll be enjoying time to relax in the evenings and on weekends. As you reclaim your downtime, your quality of life can improve dramatically.
With a skilled EA in place, you’ll build a business that runs without you when you need to step away. Because an EA gets to know all angles of a business, they can also help streamline operations over time. With their organization skills, they might rework your processes to achieve greater efficiencies. All of this will support you in scaling your operation. And when you hire virtually, you’ll avoid having to allocate office space for this person, which helps keep costs down.
Getting Started with an Executive Assistant
Only 12% of employees feel their company provides a great onboarding experience, reports Gallup. Just 29% say they feel equipped to handle their role after onboarding. But among those who do have great onboarding experiences, 70% say they love their job.
Good onboarding involves making your EA feel welcome while helping them learn the ropes. Start by teaching them a couple of core duties, and build from there. They’ll be a lot more effective if they’re doing three things exceptionally well instead of feeling confused about seven.
Training an executive assistant requires a small investment of time that will pay off many times over. Clearly defining your admin processes and expectations will ensure your EA understands your needs.
Start by adopting a few simple systems for tasks like these:
- Invoicing
- Scheduling
- Communications
- Inventory management
- Expense tracking
Let’s look at how to launch these systems now.
Implement an Invoicing System
I recommend starting with invoicing, because that’s the biggest source of lost revenue for most trade contractors. Teach your EA an invoicing process that will work well for your business, formulating a workflow.
Your process could look something like this:
- Gain info from the technician about parts and labor required for the job.
- Create the invoice using a template as the technician is leaving the job site.
- Send the invoice to the client immediately, specifying how to make payment.
- Send a polite reminder 7 days before payment is due, and again just before the due date.
- Use a spreadsheet to track which invoices have been paid and which are outstanding.
When your team sends invoices promptly, you’ll be less prone to errors. You can also easily resolve any questions in the moment, rather than struggling to remember details.
Here’s how that can look in practice. An HVAC technician goes to a job site, talks with the customer, and inspects the system. It turns out a sensor is down. They look up the part needed and send the EA a message explaining the work they’ll do, the time required, and the cost of the part. The EA inputs this info into the invoice template. After completing the job, the technician sends the EA a voice-to-text message to confirm or modify what they initially said. The EA updates the template and sends the invoice to the customer before the technician leaves the job site. The customer acknowledges receipt and thanks the technician for the work. Because the HVAC office assistant sent the invoice so promptly, any questions can be resolved while the information is top-of-mind.
Design a Scheduling System
Next, teach the EA your scheduling system. Or, if you don’t yet have a system, design one. Offloading this one smaller task that’s diverting your focus will give you more time for core priorities.
Your system doesn’t have to be super complex, by the way. Just think of the key points you want your EA to know:
- When you’re available for different types of jobs.
- How much buffer time you need in between jobs (in addition to travel time).
- How much time you want them to carve out for lunch, and when.
Ask them to book calls in the same vicinity within the same time frame, so you don’t have to travel back and forth. Tell them to look up and factor in travel time between jobs, too. You could also ask them to book family activities into your schedule, working around them.
Discuss Communication Protocols
Teach your EA the communication protocols you want them to follow. They can act as a central point of contact between you, clients, and employees. For instance, your EA can communicate with clients about when you’ll be arriving and if you’ve been delayed. If one employee finishes a job early while you get held up with another job, the EA could route them to one of your later appointments. An HVAC office assistant could make adjustments like this throughout the day, helping technicians use their time efficiently, for instance.
Meanwhile, an executive assistant for a construction company could track daily expenses and scheduling needs, sending periodic invoices at the end of key work stages.
Outline Expense-Tracking and Inventory Management
Use systems for tracking inventory and expenses, like QuickBooks or Expensify. Your EA can learn to maintain and report back to you on them. Share expectations for how much inventory to stock, showing your EA how to order products or alert you that it’s time to purchase them. In time, your EA could also produce monthly expense reports to inform your decision-making. A good executive assistant can aid in interpreting financial information, supporting budget management and forecasting.
Hiring an executive assistant for a small business can let you recoup hours of productive time each week.
And client relationships can improve exponentially when a dedicated staff member is handling these interactions. With an executive assistant to support your efforts, you may also be able to hire other contractors to increase the volume of business you can handle. And you’ll gain more time for the strategic planning that will take your company to the next level.
To discuss the specific needs of your skilled trades business, set up a discovery call. We’ll discuss the results clients have achieved from hiring a skilled executive assistant — and how to know if it’s time to find one for your company. By leveraging our wealth of experience in hiring EAs and virtual business admin assistants, our clients have achieved an astounding 90% retention rate. This lets them build long-term relationships with assistants who know their business inside and out, meaning they can take on greater responsibilities over time.