Tradies & Virtual Assistants: A Perfect Match
Opposites Attract.
Tradies are talented people with a very specific skill set. That’s why they are in such great demand! However, many tradespeople will quickly discover that being in business involves more than just showing up to each job and nailing it, so to speak. At this point, they may go out in search of their match: a virtual assistant.
The mutually beneficial relationship between a tradie and their VA is a case study for the classic cliché that “opposites attract.” Running a business requires an array of skills, and it will soon become necessary for any business owner to find someone—or some team—that will complement their capabilities and take care of the details that they don’t have the time or expertise for.
Meet Jack our builder
Loves meeting customers face to face, loves being on the tools, struggles to keep up with all the admin his business needs on a daily basis.
Let’s use Jack our builder as our example. While he may have started his company with the intention of providing revolutionary building services to the people, he has inevitably found other tasks on his plate: keeping the books, following up with leads, scheduling, a bit of marketing, and many other to-dos that sneak onto the list.
For most tradies, whether a team of 2-5 or a sole trader, hiring extra staff to do these tasks is often in the “too hard” basket, so they end up taking them on. As the business and client base grows, hours out of each day and days out of each week are spent working on the business rather than in it.
According to Tradify’s February 2021 Pulse report, NZ trade business owners average 16.9 hours per week on admin. For a tradie who spends 10+ hours a week quoting, that’s a staggering 480 hours a year on that single admin task!
So let’s return to Jack’s original goal: building. After all, that’s where his expertise lies and where he can provide the most value. That’s what he wants to do more of! He needs a solution that will give him his own time back. Sound familiar?
Meet the VA
Organised, efficient with the sole focus of looking after your customers, your team and your business.
On the other side, we have the other party to this relationship: the virtual assistant. They have all the skills to keep a business running smoothly, make sure the finances are in order, follow up on phone calls, and administrate anything that needs administration.
Sometimes the assistant is, in fact, an entire team of assistants with a variety of skills that can be used to keep a business on the straight and narrow. VAs are driven by a passion for taking care of all the details and can do so efficiently and effectively.
All of those organisational skills, and no business to use them on! This is where the match is made.
A well-suited couple
We have a builder who needs admin support so he can focus on his business and a VA who needs a business to administrate and nurture. A match made in heaven!
A virtual assistant fills the gap that exists between doing it all, which quickly becomes impossible for busy tradespeople, and the major responsibility of having to hire people. Most VAs and VA agencies work on a contract basis, meaning there are none of the obligations that come with an employee. The virtual aspect of the service offers much more flexibility for both parties: without having to be physically present, an assistant can jump in and complete tasks as they come up and with fewer barriers.
The tasks required by most tradespeople are right up the alley of almost any VA. Scheduling, invoicing, bookkeeping, customer communications, data entry, document management, and similar jobs are exactly what tradies like our builder needs. And they are exactly what virtual assistants offer.
And there’s more: a larger virtual assistant agency like Released can widen the pool and provide more relevant services without having to search beyond your already trusted Virtual Assistant team. Our capabilities extend beyond strictly administration tasks to include other jobs that can be outsourced. Staff & material sourcing, social media & website updates, and copywriting are a few of the options available to our clients. And while our builder may not need to make use of those just yet, it’s likely that he will as his business grows.
Tradies often need help with a wide array of small jobs, so having access to a variety of experts working seamlessly together is the ideal situation—and a virtual assistant agency makes this possible.
Released was created with the goal of making life and business easier for busy tradespeople and service providers, and it’s the core of what we do every day and have done for 7 years. If you need to find the “opposite” that complements what you do and frees you up to do what you do best, get in touch. We’d love to chat!