Everything it takes off you
Thirteen jobs that land on you, most of them after six o'clock. Here is what each one turns into.
The paperwork
On Core Admin · £5The jobs that pile up quietly while you are working, and then take your whole Sunday.
Your inbox read and sorted
Everything that lands gets read and put in order, so what opens first is what actually matters. A customer waiting on an answer comes before a newsletter, and neither of them needs you to work out which is which.
VAT read off every receipt
Photograph it and the supplier, the date, the net, the VAT and the total come off it. The receipt in your footwell is VAT you never claim back, and it is usually worth more over a year than this costs.
Watch itExpenses filed under the right heading
Each one goes under a heading that makes sense — materials, travel, food, subscriptions — so that when your accountant asks for the year, it is already sorted rather than a carrier bag.
Mileage logged as you go
Send where you went and it is written down at the approved rate, with the rate kept beside the figure so it can be checked later. Most people forget the short journeys, and the short journeys are most of the miles.
Deadlines kept where you can see them
Insurance, registrations, certificates, the MOT on the van. The things that are fine until the day they are not, kept somewhere that tells you before rather than after.
Invoices chased until they're paid
A polite reminder goes out when one goes past its date, and another if it needs one, written as though it was overlooked rather than refused. Each one waits for your nod, so your best customer only ever gets a letter you would have sent yourself.
The polite no
The job that is too small, too far, or not what you do. Saying no well takes ten minutes you do not have, so it gets written for you: clear, kind, and without a reason you never gave.
An angry message answered calmly
Forward it with a line about how you actually feel and you get back the reply you would have written after sleeping on it. Facts, a boundary, and nothing you would regret in the morning.
Happy customers asked for a review
Two days after you finish a job, somebody who was pleased gets asked once, politely, and told it is no trouble if they would rather not. Asked on the doorstep it feels like pressure; asked a fortnight later they have forgotten.
Your phone answered, day or night
The calls you miss are the work you never hear about — somebody rings at ten past seven, gets no answer, and rings the next name down. This one gets answered, the details taken properly and written down for the morning.
Watch itWhatsApp handled with everything else
Half your customers message rather than email, and those messages sit in the same place as the photographs of your kids. They come through here instead, sorted and answered like everything else.
A photo turned into a quote
Send a picture of the job and a price comes back for you to check and change. It comes to you first, as a starting point, so pricing work stops being the thing that waits for Sunday.
Suppliers caught putting their prices up
What you paid for the same thing last month, and the month before. Merchants move prices quietly, and by the time you notice you have been paying it for half a year.