5 Essential Professional Services for Tradies in 2022

Many tradies try to do it all themselves. During the day they’re installing lighting, heat pumps, bathroom vanities. Then at night its timesheets and payroll, quoting and invoices, marketing and social media. Hiring and firing, and the list goes on.

They’re trying to save a buck by doing it themselves. And every business owner, every startup has done it.

But there comes a time when it begins to have diminishing returns. Your business has grown in both size and complexity. So now, your cost savings often becomes costly mistakes, as you begin to get in over your head.

This is not criticism… it’s just reality.

At some point the size and complexity of your business means you would be better off concentrating on revenue and business growth and begin to rely on professionals to look after that side of the business.

Here are five essential services you should consider for 2022.

1.     Accounting and Business Advice

There are three reasons to engage an excellent accountant. At least three.

 

First, they will get your bank accounts, customers, invoices, payments, GST, payroll, etc online so that is becomes ridiculously easy to process your daily transactions, automatically follow up on overdue invoices, reconcile monthly, take care of your GST, and so on.

Second, they will tie it all up for you at year end, and they will almost certainly save you tax due to their understanding of the system.

Third, they will be able to stand back and give you independent and experienced advice on how your business is operating, what systems would improve and streamline things, and what you need to do to grow in scale and profitability.

Introducing Auctus

Auctus are regional chartered accountants and small business accountants who love guiding businesses to reach their growth potential. Their team of Chartered Accountants, located in Hamilton, Napier, Tauranga, New Plymouth and Auckland are more than just business accountants – they do things differently.

 

They believe open conversations are vital to building successful long-term relationships, and we are excited to have discussions with businesses who want to grow.

Our point of difference? It’s the ability to walk the growth talk.

When founders, Steve and Siobhan Mundy opened their doors in 2012, it wasn’t on a whim. They decided to take a chance, to challenge the status quo and perception of chartered accountancy, and service others who run small businesses. It was a scary prospect.

Fast forward a few years, a couple of regional branches and some exponential growth later, and you could say things have changed. Their journey at Auctus has taken them beyond accountancy, into an advisory role in which they guide clients on their business journey.

They still do the number crunching, the tech investigation and business evaluations, but their services go far beyond a normal accountancy firm. Their team of advisors do things differently.

Auctus demystify the business and investment journey. They act as a guide for small businesses to reach their growth potential through holistic accounting and business development, and act as a growth catalyst, empowering leaders, and organisations to execute their possible.

Auctus want to make sure you have the right business support to build the right foundations for success. This is why they personalise their services to suit you – their client:

Accounting & Tax

Seek professional advice from Chartered Accountants and tax experts to streamline your processes and meet your business requirements.

Tax Returns

• Accounting
• Bookkeeping
• GST
• Fringe Benefit Tax
• Payroll
• Registered Office/Secretarial
• Cashflow Forecasting & Budgets
• Financial Planning
• Trust Record Keeping

Advisory & Innovation

Planning for the future is as important as working in the now. Get real-world, real-time advice and innovative market responses.

• Advisory
• Structure
• Corporate Trustee Services
• Business & Share Valuation
• Business Disruption Support
• Tax Planning & Structure
• Innovation
• Strategy Development & Implementation
• Software & Systems Support

Specialist Services

Don’t worry, Auctus have been there. They can guide you on your growth journey, show you which steps to take and provide expert advice and support every step of the way.

• Virtual Chief Financial Officer (vCFO)
• Property & Construction
• Mergers & Acquisitions
• Cloud Solutions
• Agribusiness

2.     Legal

The legal side of things is definitely not the place to start winging it. Business owners regularly make poor decisions based on naivety, anger, frustration or impatience – and it costs them tens of thousands each time.

 

If your business is in the small-medium enterprises (SMEs) of up to 20 employees, or still in the start-up phase, you will save yourself pain and profit by consulting the professionals early on.

This includes finding someone who will work with you through each stage of the start-up business cycle:

Forming your Business:

• Advice on the potential corporate structures for your business
• Registration of corporate structure (if applicable)
• Documents applicable to your chosen structure, including a Shareholders Agreement and Constitution
• Company secretarial package, including a share register template
• Template IP register
• Template contracts register

Launching your Product or Service:

• Consultation with a lawyer to determine the type of documents required and a follow up to review the completed documents

Building your team and working with others

• Consultation with a lawyer to determine the type of documents required and a follow up to review the completed documents
• Independent Contractor Agreement
• Non-disclosure Agreement
• Employment Agreement

Seeking investment – Family, Friends and Fans:

• Consultation with a lawyer to determine the type of documents required and a follow up to review the completed documents
• Subscription Agreement
• Shareholder and Board resolutions as required

Protecting your Brand and IP:

• Consultation with a lawyer to establish a strategy for your IP and a follow up to review the completed documents
• Advice on IP protection
• IP Assignment Agreement (if applicable)
• IP Licence Agreement (if applicable)

As your business grows, and you accelerate your progress, you need someone that you already have a relationship with to be there with everything you need, providing you with specialist legal assistance from commercial contracts, investment, banking and finance, employment to specialist innovation and intellectual property advice.

Introducing Tompkins Wake

Tompkins Wake are a regional law firm with offices in Auckland, Hamilton, Rotorua and Tauranga.

 

They strive to make a tangible and positive difference to the communities they serve and to New Zealand through their work and the outcomes they generate. This extends to the pro bono work and other charitable and community-focused support, and by being a socially responsible and ethical business. Their client’s success is our success.

Tompkins Wake describe themselves as one partnership across their geographical locations, working together, sharing the risk and rewards of their business and with an overriding mission to make a positive difference and leave the firm – and communities – in better shape than they inherited it.

When it comes to start-ups and SME’s they help their clients understand the law and how it applies to and affects their business, making it easier to operate and transact with customers and suppliers.

Areas of expertise:

• Debt Recovery
• Employment Agreements
• Employment Disputes
• Employment Relations
• Health and Safety
• Leasing
• Residential Property Transactions
• Shareholder Agreements
• Trademark and Brand Strategy
• Trusts and Asset Protection
• Acquisition and Sale
• Intellectual Property Protection and Development
• Terms of Trade

Introducing Harkness Henry

Harkness Henry has been in operation since Phillip Harkness and Clive Henry merged their offices in 1945, took on the firm’s current name. Their primary office is in Hamilton, with another branch in Paeroa since 1978.

Since then, Harkness Henry has become one of New Zealand’s best known mid-sized law firms. They enjoy an exceptional reputation throughout New Zealand, here at Harkness Henry, because of our team’s ability to meet our client’s legal needs with prompt, pragmatic and specialist advice.

Harkness Henry are renowned for excellence, attention to detail, and their priority on hiring the very best people. But their focus on client relationships is what really sets them apart – real people, real care, real results.

One of the things they pride themselves on is the depth and distinction of their team, covering all aspects of law – many are regarded in the top of their field in their law specialty.

• Commercial law
• Commercial litigation
• Construction law
• Employment law
• Estate planning
• Finance law
• Health and safety
• Health law
• Insolvency law
• Land Acquisition for Public Works
• Not-for-profit organisations
• Property law
• Relationship property law
• Resource management law
• Rural law
• Trust law

 

3.     Digital Marketing

First there were newspaper advertising and billboards, then came radio, and then TV. They have all been excellent forms of marketing over the decades and, to some extent, continue to be.

But then there was the internet. At first it was on our desktop PCs and laptops.

Now it is in your pocket, on your phone, with more power than NASA used to send man to the moon!

 

According to Hubspot, it is estimated Google processes approximately 63,000 search queries every second, translating to 5.6 billion searches per day and approximately 2 trillion global searches per year. The average person conducts between three and four searches each day, and only 10% ever look on the second page of results.

So, what is a digital marketing agency?

• A digital marketing agency makes sure that your business is found online by people who are searching for the products or services you provide.
• A digital marketing agency makes sure you dominate your market – and your competitors – online.
• A digital marketing agency helps you grow your business with strong and effective online marketing strategies that match your unique context.
• A digital marketing agency boosts your return on investment (ROI) in strong and reliable ways.
• A digital marketing agency uses measurable, targeted and results-driven online strategies and technologies to increase sales.
• A digital marketing agency uses a range of online marketing tools so that you can meet all your needs with one agency.

Introducing Duoplus

Duoplus are an online marketing agency that loves helping their customers grow their business with strong and effective online marketing solutions.

 

Based in Hamilton, Duoplus do digital marketing for local (Hamilton and Waikato), national (Auckland to Dunedin) and international (Australia and the Pacific) businesses.

According to Duoplus, the world has changed in recent years – it is now essential for today’s companies to be found online easily.

Duoplus’ focus is to generate leads for their clients and growing their business. They increase traffic to their client’s websites by improving search engine rankings (SEO) and running online advertising campaigns using Google Ads, Facebook campaigns, remarketing, and more.

Get Higher Rankings in Google (Search Engine Optimisation)

Is your business ranking on page one of Google? If not, you’re missing out on clients, and income.

How Can You Get Your Website on Page One of Google? There are a number of things that all need to work together to get your website ranking higher.

Overall, there are two main areas that affect your ranking:

• 30-40% of search engine ranking is based on the content and code on your website. This is called On-Page Optimisation.
• 60-70% of the ranking is based on factors on other websites, mainly links that point to your site. This is called Off-Page Optimisation and is a long process of building up your site’s authority in the eyes of the search engines.

Google Ads (AdWords):

Are customers searching online for the product or service you offer?  Google Ads gets your ads shown on the Google search results page when people search for what you offer.

Google Ads are incredibly powerful because of how targeted they are.  They connect with your target market right when that person is searching for what you sell.

• Google Ads are sold on a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) basis. This means that Google only charges you for the advert when someone clicks your ad. Ads can be running almost immediately after setting them up with Google. You choose a daily budget, which Duoplus sets in the system, and Google stops running your ads when your daily budget is reached. This means you have very clear control of costs.
• The order of the advert is determined by an auction system. In general, the more you pay per click, the higher up the page your ad will appear.
• With Google Ads, you can target a wide range of very specific keywords that your site might not rank for in the organic search results. With Google Ads your advert can be shown to a very wide variety of searches that people might enter into Google that relate to your company.
• Success with Ads is not just about the number of clicks on your ads. We focus on the number of leads we generate for your business, and how many of those leads turn into sales. We always strive to help our clients achieve the best ROI for their marketing campaigns. We measure the number of leads from the ads – whether the website visitors fill in an online form or enquire by phone and represent, then, in easy-to-understand reports which will provide you with strong and effective data to measure your success.

Remarketing

Have you ever stumbled upon a website, having never visited it before, and then over the coming weeks or months you see that company’s online ads everywhere?

You go to a random website to read an article or watch a video, and that company’s ad appears.  You go on Facebook and that company’s ad is there. You visit a news website and you see an ad for that company on there.

You start to think, “These guys are advertising everywhere!”

Nope.  They’re not.  They’re just advertising to YOU!  That’s remarketing.

Remarketing enables you to show online ads specifically to people who have previously visited your website.  This includes both text ads and graphical ads, on Google, Facebook, NZ Herald, Stuff and millions of other websites. Remarketing greatly increases brand recognition for your company and can give your target market the impression that you’re much larger and dominant than you actually are.

Facebook Campaigns

Facebook is the most powerful social media platform available with over 1.6 billion active users every month. Depending on your business model and target market, Facebook can be an incredibly powerful advertising platform.  Duoplus online marketing agency can help you use Facebook to get front of your target market, and turn those eyes into income.

What’s so amazing about Facebook advertising?

Facebook ads enabling you to show adverts to your specific target demographic – based on their location, gender, age, and interests.

If your target market can be defined down to a specific demographic, such as one or more of these:

• Located in a specific city or town
• Fit a specific age range
• Are a specific gender
• Have specific interests

… then Facebook advertising is ideal for your business.

Online Strategy

Online marketing is the most powerful and effective marketing available today. 

But with so many online marketing agencies and options available, and the limited resources in your business, you need to choose the options and strategy that will get you the best return on investment.

Duoplus can help you develop a clever online marketing strategy that will help you beat your competitors.

 

4.     Recruitment

Tradies need staff. People “in between jobs” are looking for somewhere to go…it’s a match made in heaven – most of the time!

 

How they work is simple. From a database of CVs (Curriculum Vitae or resume), recruitment agencies are asked by paying employers to find the perfect match for a job role. They often match a selection of CVs with the job description then send the job applicants in the direction of the employer to attend a job interview. Basically, it takes out the task of reading through countless CVs for the employer, while taking out the task of finding an employer for the job seeker.

According to Business News Daily A recruitment agency can save your business time and money and find well-qualified candidates.

Here’s how it works:

The employer contacts the recruitment agency

First, you’ll reach out to an agency that specialises in your industry, specifying information like the job responsibilities, the number of employees needed, the timeline to hire new workers and the wage or salary rate.

The agency creates the job description

The agency then writes up a job description and advertises it for your business. They might also reach out to potential candidates individually if the candidate is a good fit for the job.

The recruitment firm vets candidates

Once candidates begin applying for the open position, the recruitment agency reviews their experience and qualifications before scheduling and conducting interviews. They then choose the most qualified individuals to introduce to the hiring manager at your business.

The employer makes the final decision

The hiring manager or business owner will interview the recruitment agency’s choices before making a final hiring decision. This saves you and your staff hours that you would otherwise spend sorting through countless applicants.

The agency takes care of the paperwork

Most agencies handle all the paperwork associated with new hires, like contracts, taxes and other payroll tasks.

Introducing Success Group

With offices in Hamilton and Tauranga, Success Group help people to find work. Their focus is on helping both job seekers and employers to find or fill both temporary and permanent roles.

 

Success Group have a successful track record of helping job seekers meet relevant employers. A vast range of job roles is always available on our site. Similarly, we have a dynamic database of potential candidates to fill these job roles and our database is constantly growing.

Success Group pride themselves on their diverse client portfolio and believe that building strong client relationships is incredibly important. They work closely with their clients to engender complete trust.

Success Group see diversity as their strength, and this has ensured that they’ve been a practice of choice for more than 10 years. Their team has a great wealth of experience, and they aim to make themselves as clear and easy to understand as possible.

They also provide a wide range of support services to employers:

• ConstructSafe Training
• Property Drug Testing
• International Recruitment
• HR Support Services
• Workplace Health Checks
• Permanent & Casual Labour Hire
• Pastoral Care
• Workplace Drug Testing
• Immigration Support

 

5.     Business Coach

You know your trade – and you’re good at what you do. How do you know? Because your customers tell you on a daily basis.

But being a great plumber in Rotorua, Electrician in Auckland, heat pump installer in Dunedin, or locksmith doesn’t mean you have acquired the business nous it takes to grow your business into a profitable and rewarding enterprise.

 

This is where business coaches – someone who has a track record of success – come in. They will help you to develop the systems and strategies to win more quotes, stop working with time wasters, price for the right margins, improve cashflow, and business templates to make it all work.

Introducing Profitable Tradie

Profitable Tradie’s operate nationwide. their mission is to turn good plumbers in Hamilton, electricians in Christchurch & builders in Hamilton into great business owners.

 

They teach Plumbing, Electrical and Construction Based Business Owners how to make more profit, buy back time, gain more freedom and have more fun. 

Having worked with over 240 Plumbing, Electrical and other trades businesses, and developed proven strategies for business growth, their members take the shortcut to success without having to reinvent the wheel.

In their own words:

Plumbing, Electrical And Construction Based Trades Specialists

We all know that Plumbing, Electrical and Construction Based Businesses have a unique set of challenges.  As a specialist, our strategies are proven and tested in your industry.  Unlike other generalist business coaching companies who work across a number of industries.

Industry Experience

8 years working one-on-one with over 740 Plumbing, Electrical and other Construction Based Businesses and helping over 3,000 Trade Business through our online and seminar training programs.

Proven System

We have developed the Million Dollar Tradie System of proven business templates and systems over the last 8 years through testing and measuring.  Members have 24/7 access to all previous training sessions, examples, resources and templates.

Real World Experience

The right mix of theory and practical.  Whilst our team are university educated, the Million Dollar Tradie System is based on practical, common-sense strategies that work.  We invest in training from world leading business experts, so our programs provide you with cutting edge tools.

So, if you want to fast track your results, create a well systemised operation and take control back then we can help you.

 

6.     Bonus: Workplace Health and Safety

Establishing an effective, strong Health and Safety policy and system for your business is essential. It not only keeps your employees safe by mitigating potential risks but also protects your business if an unforeseen accident/incident happens.

 

Understanding your responsibilities as an PCBU (Person conducting a Business or Undertaking) is essential to running an effective health and safety management system. As a PCBU it is your primary duty of care to ensure your employees are looked after in the workplace and you are aware of the legal requirements as an employer.

The key piece of legislation for New Zealand’s workplace safety is the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015. The purpose of this legislation is to ensure the protection of the health, safety and welfare of all workers and other individuals who may enter a work site minimising all potential risks. Other significant areas this Act cover includes implementing effective training/induction programs, offering fair worker representation opportunities and providing a safe working environment.

Every business struggles with H&S at some point. But you don’t have to.

Introducing Success Group

Yes, Success Group also offer a wide range of Health and Safety services.

 

These range from working with you to develop a self-managed health and safety system, through to Success group becoming a part of your team and working actively with you to manage your processes from toolbox meetings to incident investigations and reports.

Conduct a Health and Safety Audit

Having a health and safety advisor visit your workplace to conduct health and safety audits is an effective way to identify potential risks to your employees and anyone who visits your premises. They will work with you in your workplace to help ensure you will be compliant with current Health and Safety Legislation.

Create and Implement a Tailored Health and Safety Policy

We know each workplace is different and experiences a range of risks. That is why our expert health and safety advisors work with you to design and implement an internal health and safety policy that will protect your employees.