Small business and admin

[Isetech]

If I look back over the past 32 years of being self employed, yes admin is in the top 3 things I hate most about being self employed.

Listening to a speech about how people should get a trade so that they can start a business, and that where I start the fight.

It could explain the massive fail rate of businesses.

Dont think for a minute that because you are the best sparkie in town that you will be successful if you decide to work for yourself.

In fact it probably will be the complete opposite, why, because a trades person who is brilliant at their trade probable have the same problem I do, which is why I only have a standard 8. School, homework and that kind of kak is not for me. Give a task to build a complex, high tech panel and install the cable tray and cabling, chances are you gonna look at the completed project and say WOW that looks good. Give a an hour to capture my jobs card onto an invoice, 6 hours later you going to ask what have I doing for the past 6 hours, it wasnt capturing the moving the info form the job card to the create the invoice.

Come on lets be honest and tell how much you as a trades person hate admin.

By the way even big business must have the same issue with their trades people and admin, been there done that

[Isetech]

For this reason I am seriously looking into a package called tradify.

https://www.tradifyhq.com/za

Since I started steering into the solar industry, the equipment value has increased 300 %, setting the admin is a fail and now making a simple mistake could could R100 000, instead of R100. Already make a stupid mistake which cost a few pennies.

[Isetech]

I see you can even get it in SA direct.

https://www.tradifyhq.com/za/pricing

[Derlyn]

I've just used a spreadsheet that I created years ago. Works ok for me. Through the years I've tweeked it here and there to do exactly what I want.

I do it myself. Beats watching TV.

[Blurock]

My young dentist at the time once asked me for some business advice.
He stated that he had studied for so many years and eventually managed to start his own practice.
One would think that an educated guy like that should know it all, not so?

He said that they never learnt any business practices at university. only dentistry.
He did not know how to reconcile a bank statement, budget or arrange finance for new equipment.
He did not know much about debt collection and following up on defaulters.
He also did not understand his own balance sheet.

Is this then a failure of the dentist or the education system?
The same may apply to other industries and jobs. They may teach you the practical, but not how to run the shop.
Maybe the system is geared for people trying to find a job with a good employer, but it does not teach entrepreneurship and starting your own business.
Our education system is biased towards academics and not so much the practical, value added education.

Had I been 50 years younger, I would gladly trade my MBA for a trade certificate!

[Isetech]

If I knew what I know now, I would have finished school, got my matric, why because back then you started at R80 a month with a std 8, R570 per month with a matric and only once you qualified everyone's salary was the same.

Once qualified with no restrictions (fault finding and construction) , then things got interesting, I did N1/2/3/4, then back to tech again for installation rules so that I could become an installation electrician, then back to tech again to study to become a master electrician ( I couldnt understand why so many people failed). Each time I had to work in the industries to get the experience to apply for the yellow card then the red card. While doing all this I did PLC and automation courses for when I built control panels. Now I have no restriction.

Then I decided to get rich and start my own business, we all know how that went. 32 years later I still dont know how to run a business, but because I am master tradesmen and passionate about my work, I am still winging it

[Isetech]

One advantage of having a trade (electrical) , I can get a job anywhere in any country.

[Dylboy]

I have started my business... Waiting for some paper work to finalise to be proper.

However for me I don't have the years from school, I did matric and then worked and basically ran the family business for 6 years.

So I am opposite, I can do the business and the admin but I have yet to move a factory, fix motors and do a full rebuild.

I am beyond passionate for the industry and the amount of hours spent learning beyond electrical courses is massvice.

So I lack a bit of confidence in areas amd feel ashamed I have never done a telecommunications centre or even dealt with it or even doing a slab for a double story house. But business experience has helped me and as you say still winging it.

I often feel like an imposter yet I have done everything and more of what I can in the current climate and what I am exposed to.

Sent from my CPH2197 using Tapatalk

[Isetech]

This is awesome news (started your own business)

A mistake many people make, its not the destination or the goal or anything else, its the passion and the journey that makes it all worth it. Just be very careful of neglecting your family while venturing down this path. It is too easy to get sucked into working long hours and using that project that needs to be finished as an excuse for not watching your kid swim at the school gala or the first day at school.

Your customer will forget about you until they need something, your kid will never forget that day you didnt pitch up, I talk from experience, dont make that mistake. Your family is your number priority, then the customer, if your customer doesnt agree get better customers.

It would take me hours to list all the projects I have worked on everything from fitting a socket outlet in a kitchen to shopping centres, to banks, pharmaceutical class 1 div 1 installations, hospitals, theatres, Mondi, RBM, Alusaf, to designing an manufacturing of control systems and automation, to designing and building safety devices for machines, factory installations and relocations, power quality analysing, thermography, its just goes on and on and on, my CV would be about 50 plus pages if I had to do one. I have already forgotten half of the project I have worked on, around the country and in neighbouring countries.

Why am I telling you all this, not to brag, but more to encourage to get out there and do it. When I started my business 32 years ago I was clueless. I stepped up took big steps at first and fell very hard for the first 2 years, I got my lucky break after about 2 and half years, grabbed it with both hands and didnt look back for the next 8 year, I built this little business from installing plugs to what it became, not a multi multimillion rand company, but rather a business that people could trust.

I may not have a bunch of sports cars parked in my garage or a big fancy house or any of the other material object people rush out and buy to show off that they have made it.

What I set out and have achieved is to build a little business that people can trust, they know the job will be done on time at a reasonable price and it will be done to the best of my ability.

I wish you all the best, make sure you have a clear understanding of what it is you are trying to achieve and go get it. For some, its all about the money for some of us, its about the experience and the satisfaction of looking back and saying yes that is my work of art. It may not be perfect but it is the best I could do.

[Blurock]

If I knew what I know now, I would have finished school, got my matric, why because back then you started at R80 a month with a std 8, R570 per month with a matric and only once you qualified everyone's salary was the same.

Truth is that you have earned R80 pm while others were sitting on the school benches learning mostly irrelevant things (or not learning at all). By the time they joined the trade with their matric, you were miles ahead in knowledge and confidence. I admire you for continuing to study and improve yourself. So many kids think that once they leave school, they know everything and that the world owes them a living. Only by continuous learning and self-improvement can we realise our full potential to achieve our life goals and make a positive contribution.