What's new in YourTradebase?

This month we’re in the Professional Builder magazine.

Our co-founder Dean has been talking to the Professional Builder telling them all about YourTradebase and how it can help their readers!

Pick up your copy today, and let us know what you think!

With the launch of the new YourTradebase, our very own Dean Taylor  has been featured in Heating and Plumbing Monthly!

It’s been great to hear feedback from people who’ve read it. If you haven’t read it now, take a look!

Keep your eyes peeled, as  you’ll soon be seeing us in some more trade magazines soon…

To celebrate the launch of the new YourTradebase in early October, we’re giving away a month’s supply of tea, and a YourTradebase mug to drink it from.

We’ll be running the competition on our Facebook page, and all you have to do to enter is tell us how you take your brew, and ‘like’ our Facebook page.

The competition will be running weekly for six weeks, with the winner being announced each Friday. So even if you don’t win one week, you may win another.

Good luck, and hopefully you’ll be relaxing with a good cuppa in an even better mug!

Paperwork is the bane of any tradesman’s life. No one wants to do it, but everyone has to, and that’s why YourTradebase came into existence. YourTradebase does take care of all the paperwork on your end, but there are always going to be those stragglers that clients or merchant yards give you. So today we’re giving you some tips on keeping those bits of paperwork that you have to have, tidy.

Plastic sleeves

If you read our blog post on keeping your contacts list together you’ll know that one of our suggestions was to keep a plastic sleeve at the front of your van so you can chuck anything in. If not we’re sure you got the gist from the previous sentence, but it’ll just help you get into the habit of keeping the paperwork somewhere that will be safe when the windows are open.

A stapler is your best friend

Even if the documents don’t necessarily have to be together, over the course of a busy day you can just staple everything together, making it much less likely for you to loose that one sheet. Just chuck a stapler in the front of your van, it takes up no room, and it only takes a minute.

Patience

If you have the time and patience, scan those absolutely vital pieces in. It’s annoying and takes time, but at least you then know you have two copies, and just think, at least everything else is taken care of by YourTradebase!

Make Time

Like we have mentioned before in our ‘Tips for keeping your contact list together’, you can just set aside 10 minutes a week to put anything important into a folder. It doesn’t matter what order it’s in, as long as it’s in there. Have the folder in a place where you walk past every day even, so that when you do, you’ll remember that bit stuffed in your pocket that you have to chuck in.

Just follow these tips, and those bits of paperwork that other people insist on giving you throughout the day won’t get lost or take up any of your time. For everything else, use YourTradebase!

Keep up to date with what’s happening on YourTradebase on our Facebook, Twitter and Blog pages.

You almost never see a tradesman without a pencil stuck behind his ear, stuffed in a pocket, or within reaching distance. Why? Well here are some of the reasons why a tradesman always keeps a pencil nearby –

• It is a vital piece of kit that needs to remain absolutely sharp, due to the importance of marking off anything that is to be measured, cut or lined out. In many trades objects need to be custom fitted, so a good sharp pencil helps ‘measure twice, and cut once,’ and write down any unexpected information.
•  It makes the day go by that little bit quicker. What tradesman can say that they haven’t drawn a cheeky drawing on the back of certain materials for the homeowner to find in 50 years time when they rip everything up for a re-furbishment?
•  It’s what the ear was invented for – where would we be without the trusty pencil holder? Any other tool requires external attachments to keep it close to the person using it – but not the pencil.
•  The hacked and sharpened end of the pencil is a clan tag or trademark of the tradesman’s world – where else would you find such attention and care for a wooden pencil? Every last piece gets used, down to the final stub, plus who doesn’t enjoy getting back to basics using a stanley knife to carve a pencil?
•  It doesn’t explode when you step on it, chew on it or when it’s just sitting idly in your pocket and inexplicably decide to leak everywhere.

• Two for the price of one. You can take any pencil snap it in half, and sharpen both ends – who doesn’t love a bargain?

If you’re a tradesman, are there any reasons that you’d add to this list?

Arrived on site early this morning all eager to crash out and complete what was left of this little job when I spotted another van parked where I had been parking the previous day at the rear of the property.  I didn’t really think to much about it and thought that one of the neighbours must be having some work done.  I walked into the property all ready to lay down the dust sheets and noticed that someone had already done so. Mmmm!  I proceeded through the house and entered the room which we had the day before started on the new floor when bam! There he was, glossing away at the doors and architrave.  This muppet of a customer had thought it a good idea to kill two birds with one stone and get some other work completed while we were there.  He couldn’t of, for a single moment, thought about the reality of having a decorator glossing his wood work while we were in there laying a floor!  So my early day turned into a long one and by the time we left the woodwork looked as though it had just gone through a Wayne Rooney transplant.

Rant Over!

We’ve decided to extend our search for Beta Testers for one more week, so if you haven’t signed up yet to help us test the new and improved YourTradebase you still have chance to!

If you haven’t seen what has been going on, we’re launching a new YourTradebase in August and until then we need the help of Beta Testers to try out the new version early. This is so we can see what works and what doesn’t. It’ll also give you the chance to give us feedback on the new version and what we can do to improve it. YourTradebase can only a success if we hear back from the people who will be using it!

It’s simply and easy to do, you’ll be upgraded to the new version early and you’ll give us a bit of feedback!

Plus there is also the added incentive of 6 months free membership if you do help us out!

Just send us you details to app@yourtradebase.com and we’ll be in touch!

You can also keep up to date with when we’re launching the new and improved YourTradebase and what new features it’ll have via our Facebook and Twitter pages.

Following on from our new YouTradeBase tour yesterday, we’re giving you some tips on how to easily keep on top of your contacts list.

With bits of paper flying about the inside of your van every time you open the window, and dropping yet another mobile from the scaffold, it’s easy to loose someone’s contact details. But by following our few simple tips you can keep track of all your contacts.

Mobile phones are not to be trusted

Not when your 16th mobile this year falls out of your pocket and spectacularly smashes to pieces on the ground.

Keep a plastic sleeve at the front of your van and whenever you get a new contact’s details scribble it down on a scrap of paper, (or even that off cut of plasterboard) and chuck it in there as well. Then next time your phone decides to place itself between the floor and your boot, you don’t loose all your contacts.

A little black book

If you don’t like the idea of a plastic sleeve in the front of your van, buy a small contact book that’s small enough to fit in your pocket. That way anywhere you go it’s always with you, plus it keeps all your contacts in one place.

Always have a pencil or pen to hand

The pencil was made to sit behind your ear for good reason. You never know when an opportunity might come up for a new customer or contact and you’re scrambling round trying to find a pencil or a piece of timber to scratch the number into.

Make time

The more and more you use YourTradebase, the more you will be used to just transferring your contacts to there. But in the beginning set aside time to make sure you add them to your YourTradebase contact list. Ten minutes just once a week will be enough time to do this, and once it’s done, it’s done!

You can even update your contacts on site if your phone isn’t lost or broken. It’s quick and easy to do, so you can be sure, even if your phone is lost by the end of the day, you still have the numbers stored.

Also get in the habit of adding any contact before or after you create a quote or invoice; as you never know, these contacts could also be receiving an invoice from you soon.

We’re really excited to be able to show you over the next few weeks little snippets of what you can expect from the new YourTradebase. But we’re not going to give the entire game away!

The biggest thing you’ll notice about the new YourTradebase is the shift in focus (and your dashboard design). Over time and with feedback from you, we realised that YourTradebase had to evolve to mirror how you work.

The new YourTradebase is now more focussed on your jobs, and how you work, rather than your paperwork.

We believe this makes YourTradebase a better tool for you. We’ve done this by creating Jobs that you can do all of your work from. Meaning everything is in one place, under one Job: estimates, invoicing, check list of tasks and contacts.

It makes for a faster and cleaner way for you to work, because you can open your ‘Mr and Mrs Jones’ Job’ and see if your estimates have been accepted, if you have sent your invoices, and even if Tony your bricks supplier has come back with a price. It also means if a customer wants more work, you can add this very quickly and easily to a job and re-calculate the price.

The new YourTradebase is much more about total job management, not just your paperwork. So you can easily manage every job you get from start to finish in one place, giving you much more focus.

This is just the beginning of what we’re going to show you, so keep checking our Facebook and Twitter pages to see the next updates, or subscribe to our email newsletter to be the first to know when we launch.

If you’ve seen our blog from last week, you’ll know that we’re launching a new and improved YourTradebase in August, and we’re on the hunt for Beta Testers.

What does a Beta Tester do?

Basically you just use the new version of YTB so we can see what is working properly and what isn’t. You’ll also give us a bit of feedback, as we want it work in the best possible way for tradesmen.

What’s in it for me?

You’ll be helping us to create a new version that works even better for you and everybody else. Plus you’ll receive 6 months free membership just as a little thank you for helping us out.

Can’t say fairer than that!

If this sounds like a good deal to you, send us your info by the 30th of June to app@yourtradebase.com and we’ll be in touch!

You can also keep up to date on how the new launch is coming along and the new features that it’ll have via our Facebook and Twitters pages!

Sorry we’ve been quiet lately, but we’ve been working on something big –

We’re proud to announce that in August we’ll be launching the new and improved YourTradebase!

Why are we telling you lot now? Simple, we need your help! YourTradebase can only be a success if it works how you work – so we need to listen to your feedback and comments.

This is why we’re calling on a few brave souls to be Beta Testers for us. This just means you will be upgraded early to our new version so we can see what works and what doesn’t, and you can tell us what works for you and what doesn’t.

If you love YourTradebase and you want to help us make it better just send your name and details to app@yourtradebase.com and we’ll be in touch!

We’ll also be showcasing the bigger and better new version in the coming weeks to show you the new features that will be available, so even if you don’t participate as a Beta Tester for us, you can still keep up to date with what it will have to offer. We’re also bringing back Friday Fun and will be running some competitions, so keep your eyes peeled!

Keep up to date with YourTradebase on our Facebook or Twitter pages.