Very new to Reddit, forums in general to be honest, but thought this is the best place to come so bear with me.
I'm a contracts surveyor, I work with sub-contractors/trades constantly, and regularly help friends/family find someone when they need work done. Got curious about the economics of quoting after yet another phone call from a friend (owns properties) about trades not showing up or ghosting.
Rough maths:
- Average quote takes 30-60+ mins job/location dependent (visit + write-up)
- Most trades convert maybe 1 in 4, often less
- That's 3-4 hours of unpaid work for every job won
- Say 10 quotes a week = potentially 30+ hours/month working for free
Customer then moans that trades don't quote fast enough, or at all, and then the trade runs the risk of having a bad review left for them. (deserved or not, you decide)…
Both sides are losing in my eyes and the interface between trade and customer is inherently broken these days.
Genuine question for the trades:
Do you actually track your quote-to-job conversion? 1 in 3? 1 in 5? Worse?
And realistically, does it even matter if you're busy enough? Or is that just what we tell ourselves? Ignorance is bliss maybe.
Has anyone found a way to get quotes out faster without it eating up your evenings/weekends or looking unprofessional (subjective, I guess)?
Apologies in advance for the brain dump.