If you are a tradie in New Zealand and you are wondering how to earn more than your day rate allows, the answer is usually not a new career. It is a handful of small, boring changes to how you already run the business.
Here are ten that work for plumbers, sparkies, builders, painters, drainlayers, gasfitters and everyone else on the tools.
1. Catch the calls you miss
Start here, because nothing else on this list matters if the phone rings out.
Say you miss two or three calls a week and the average job is a few hundred dollars. Across a year that is thousands of dollars of work you never even got to quote for. Nobody needs to tell you why you miss them. You are under a house, on a roof, or holding a nail gun.
Swoopd replies to a missed call on WhatsApp within seconds. It asks the caller what the job is, how urgent it is and where it is, then books it into your calendar and dashboard and sends you the details. It also catches website form and email enquiries, and on the Pro and Business plans it connects with Xero for invoicing and payments.
2. Work through your old quotes
A quote you sent three months ago is not dead, it is just quiet. Most homeowners get a few prices, sit on them, and then go with whoever bothers to follow up.
Keep a simple list of every quote you send and the date you sent it, then spend twenty minutes each week ringing the ones that went quiet. No hard sell, just: is this still on your list, and has anything changed.
3. Turn one happy customer into three jobs
Ask every satisfied customer for a Google review and for a name. Most will do both if you ask while they are still happy and standing in front of the finished job.
Reviews do more for a tradie than any advertising. They are also the first thing a new customer checks before they ring you.
4. Sell the servicing you already get asked about
Heat pumps, gas fires, hot water cylinders, alarm batteries and gutters all need attention on a cycle. Set a reminder to contact past customers when their service is due.
It is paid work with no marketing cost, and the customer usually thanks you for remembering.
5. Add a service your customers keep asking for
If you are on site anyway and customers keep asking for something you sub out or turn down, that is demand sitting in front of you. Even a basic add on service, done properly, lifts the value of the jobs you already have.
6. Sell after hours work properly
Nights, weekends and public holidays carry a real cost for you and your family. Price them that way, and say so before you turn up rather than after.
Tradies who charge a clear after hours rate do not lose those customers. They just stop resenting them.
7. Quote in a way that gets a yes
A quote with a clear scope, a clear price, a clear start date and a deposit does better than a vague number typed into a text at nine at night. Put your terms on the quote itself, including how long the price holds.
Send it the same day you look at the job. Quotes sent fast get accepted far more often than quotes sent at the end of the week.
8. Get paid faster
Deposits before you order materials. Payment terms printed on the invoice. An invoice sent the day you finish, not on the weekend.
If your books run through Xero, Swoopd connects with it on the Pro and Business plans, so the invoicing and payments sit with the rest of your accounts.
9. Use the business help that already exists
business.govt.nz has plain guidance on pricing, tax and employing people, written for small operators. Business Mentors New Zealand pairs you with someone experienced who will look at your numbers with you.
Both are far cheaper than learning it the hard way across a few bad years.
10. Learn your own numbers
Know what an hour of your time actually costs once you count the ute, the fuel, the tools, the insurance and the time you spend quoting. Then price from that number instead of from what the bloke down the road is charging.
Most tradies who do this exercise once find out they have been busy for free.
Pick two and give them ninety days
Ten changes at once will not stick. Pick the two that cost you the most right now, usually the missed calls and the old quotes, and run them properly for three months.
Swoopd is live across New Zealand now, costs from NZ$97 a month, and there is a 14 day free trial. If catching missed calls is one of your two, that is the cheapest place to start.