Businesses with a blue verified badge on their profile are more likely to be trusted, and hired.
Obtaining a verified badge on your profile shows customers that Oneflare has checked your identity, and confirms you are a trustworthy business – giving potential customers extra confidence in hiring you. It’s just another way you can show value, credibility and stand out from unverified competitors.
We’ve streamlined the quoting process to give you back time.
Auto quoting sends quotes on your behalf when a lead, matching your preferred job criteria, is posted by a customer. Filling your calendar fast with the work you want has never been easier!
Simply set your service areas, service types and daily budget, and we’ll do the rest. Auto quoting is here to take the hassle out of quoting so you can spend more time focusing on what you do best.
Benefits of auto quoting for your business
Cap your daily spend
Block out dates that don’t suit or take a break
Be one of the first quotes to land in a customer’s inbox
What do our businesses think?
“For us, [auto quoting] has been a godsend! Most of the leads we close, we speak to in the first 5-10 minutes of auto quoting. Knowing that we no longer have to manually sort, manage and respond to every single lead as it comes through to our dashboard is making our sales operations a lot faster and smoother.”
We’re connecting you with customers in their moment of need.
Oneflare Now is a direct call service that connects you with nearby customers looking to get whatever they need sorted. Set your service areas and daily call availability, and we’ll send you jobs directly to your phone.
Customers in need of urgent work call Oneflare’s dedicated phone line, enter their postcode and wait to be connected with the nearest available expert. Businesses in close proximity, who match the requested service type, are alerted immediately via a phone call.
Benefits of Oneflare Now for your business
Define your call availability
Connect with customers in real-time
Secure your next job and minimise downtime
What do our businesses think?
“When you search online for towing services, Oneflare is the first result to pop up, so I know I’m in good hands. With Oneflare Now, I like the fact that not only am I getting a job lead but the app also tells me the suburb from which the customer is calling. This is allowing me to pick the leads I want, whenever and wherever I want!”
Growing a small business 20 years ago compared to now has changed significantly, thanks to always-evolving technology, increased competition in the economy and a faster-paced way of living. Nowadays, business owners have turned to apps, to help with the way they organise to-do lists, invoices and everything in between; saving time and money. In no particular order, here are six free apps that will change the way you conduct your business:
Boomerang, an application that acts as an add-on for Gmail, assists you with the organisation of personal as well as business-orientated emails.
From letting you set a notification pop-up if you haven’t received a reply on an email within a specified amount of time, to letting you ‘boomerang’ messages back to the top of your inbox at the time when you actually need to pay attention to it. But the main feature that makes this app a winner is how you’ll be able to schedule emails to send later on. This feature allows for you to write all your emails on weekends or late at night, and schedule to send it at a more appropriate time.
Gaining exposure to new customers is always at the forefront of any growing and evolving small business. The Oneflare for Business app connects you with customers looking for your expertise; whether that’s pet grooming, plumbing, interior design or everything in between. The app which helps you find work when you want it, utilises a clean, simple layout that suits even the least tech-savvy user. Get notified instantly of available work within your area and respond with a detailed quote and even communicate with potential customers within the application itself. With more than 10,000 new jobs posted on Oneflare each week, it’s the smartest way to connect with customers and build your business even further.
Mint is your go-to app for managing finances and potentially saving your business some dollars. Whether it be personal or business finances, the app allows you to securely consolidate your accounts, track how much you’re spending, and receive alerts when bills are due. Set reminders and finance goals, tag expenditures by category, and view your financial data as simple charts or Excel spreadsheets in a way that’s easy to digest.
Evernote is a one-stop shop for all your personal and professional projects – take notes, create to-do lists, save voice memos, save photos, scan documents and even save sketches – and share it all with coworkers. Best of all, the app synchronises everything between your phone, tablet and computer automatically. Easy!
This cloud-based app makes invoicing and quoting a breeze for your small business. Invoice2Go is the ideal invoicing solution for all types of businesses. You can even invoice on the spot: right when you finish a job, email or print your PDF invoice by a click of a button right from the app.
It’s the 21st century and your small business basically doesn’t exist without some form of online presence. Weebly makes website creation easy for the less creative-minded, you certainly don’t have to be a web-designer professional to use it! Simply drag and drop images, logos and maps into a chosen template, and add text wherever you wish. Publish your new website quickly and easily right from your tablet.
No one ever said starting your own business was going to be easy. However hard work and dedication can be made easier thanks to the help of a few useful apps.
Running a trade business is no easy feat. Managing jobs, looking for more work, balancing the books, overseeing the team – it’s hard enough to do these by themselves. But throw in one of your best employees leaving, and you’re up a certain creek without a paddle.
As you’re probably aware, there’s a massive trade shortage at the moment and it’s showing no signs of easing up. That means it’s hard to find excellent talent, and far easier doing all you can to keep your staff happy and in the job.
But what even is a company culture? Let’s find out.
Company culture explained
Company culture is essentially the personality of a business – think of it as a person. What is that person like to work with? How do they help you do your job better? Would you hang out with this person in your spare time? Does this person make you want to come to work every day?
In most cases, the founder of a business sets the company culture – whatever values and ways of thinking an owner has normally transfers from to the company. For instance, if the founder is really particular about workmanship, then it’s likely the business will be as well.
Why you need clear values
Setting values are helpful for both your employees and your customers (current and future). The values you set let your employees know what kind of business they’re joining, and the type of people they can expect to work with. For customers, the values can be the difference when selecting which trade business to move forward with. Check out this article on how to define your values.
Examples of values include:
Integrity and honesty
Customer-first mindset
Workmanship
Professional
Teamwork
Dependable
However, you can’t just go naming your values willy-nilly. If you just pick three or four values that don’t actually match the way you think and operate, your staff will see right through it and won’t stick around.
Getting your working environment right
The environment is a huge part of your culture, and if you can get it right, then your best employees will be more likely to stick with you for longer.
The key to having high staff retention is to have positive and empowering values and culture, rather than negative and oppressing. This is achieved by being quick to recognise great work, being serious about work, and having the odd fun day where you do some cool things completely unrelated to the job.
How this translates into hiring
The Trades Coach Andy Burrows quite rightly says that you need to ensure your employees have the same moral compass as you. After all, your staff represent your business, so you need them to act as you would when you’re not around.
So when you’re in hiring mode, look for people who best match the values that you’ve set for your business. It may mean that you don’t necessarily hire the person with the most experience or the best skills, thankfully these can be gained. Attitude, on the other hand, that’s not going to change too much.
Hiring someone who best fits your company culture will mean that everyone wins. But if you choose someone who grates against your culture, then you’ll likely face productivity issues, or worse, the possibility of having your best workers leave.
What our culture looks like
To put money where our mouth is, we’ve recently renovated our culture at Tradify and distilled it into four key points. A simplified version of them is as follows:
We put tradies first. We care about our customers’ businesses, and everything we do helps build their success.
We think big. We’re on a global mission to disrupt the status quo in the trades industry, and build a better way of doing things.
We hustle. We understand that to lead the pack we need to work harder and smarter than our competitors.
We are kind. We practice humility and spend more time listening than talking. We’re considerate, and don’t let ego influence decisions.
Now it’s your turn Enough writing, and reading – now it’s time to crack on to making your company culture awesome. Put these tips into action and you’ll be well on your way.
This article was written by Michael Howard from Tradify.
