ElectricalBossPro Blog — Running an Electrical Business

The Owner-Operator Electrician: Running the Whole Business From One Truck

Not every electrical business wants three vans. Plenty of electricians run a good business with one truck, one phone and a list of loyal customers. The owner-operator is the electrician, the dispatcher, the estimator, the office manager and the bill collector, often in the same afternoon. That only works if the business side takes as little time as possible.

One Person, Every Job

The last article, Owner Time Management in an Electrical Business: Getting Off the Phone and Back to the Work That Pays, was about handing work off to an office. An owner-operator has no one to hand it to. The software has to do the handing off.

The good news is that most of the office work in a one-truck shop can happen in the gaps — in the driveway after a job, or at the kitchen table for fifteen minutes in the evening — if it's all in one place on the phone.

The Day From the Truck

An owner-operator's day in ElectricalBossPro might look like this:

• Morning. Open the tech app, see the day's calls in route order, tap navigation to the first one. Customers have already had their night-before reminder.
• On the way. The customer gets an automatic text when they're next. No call needed.
• On site. The job card shows the equipment on the house and access notes. Tap Start, do the work, take before and after photos.
• Done. Tap Complete. The invoice is created and the card on file is charged.
• Between jobs. Answer texts from two-way texting, send an estimate from a template, book tomorrow.
• Evening. Check the Waiting List for plan visits coming due and look at open estimates.

The same software runs the office side in the browser and the field side on the phone, so there's no switching between systems.

Skips matter even with one truck. If a customer isn't home, tap Skip and write the reason. Later that evening, the skipped job is sitting there with its note, ready to be moved to another day. Nothing depends on remembering it at nine at night after a long day under houses.

Let Customers Serve Themselves

An owner-operator can't answer every call while working. The customer app takes a lot of them off the phone:

• Customers see the live route map and know when you're coming.
• They request service without calling.
• They sign up for yearly generator maintenance or safety inspection plans.
• They update their card and pay invoices online.
• They rate the visit and refer friends.

A website request form and a sign-up form send new customers into Form Responses, where one click turns a sign-up into a client.

Build Steady Work Into the Calendar

For a one-truck shop, plans are especially valuable. A list of customers on yearly safety inspections and generator maintenance gives you predictable days to build the rest of the schedule around. Recurring visits come due on the Waiting List based on minimum days between visits, so you don't have to keep a renewal calendar on the side.

The plan articles earlier in this series go into this in more depth, starting with Growing Maintenance Plan Revenue in an Electrical Business.

Keep Prices and Templates Ready

An owner-operator quotes on the spot more than anyone. A service list with your own prices — a $99 service call, a $165 GFCI replacement, a $149 safety inspection — and estimate templates for common installs mean a quote takes minutes. The customer approves online, and the approved estimate becomes a scheduled job.

Habits That Make the First Hire Easier

Many owner-operators eventually add a second truck or office help. The habits you build now decide how painful that is:

• Write notes as if someone else will read them. One day, someone will.
• Save equipment on every house. The next tech will need it.
• Keep customer texting off your personal phone. Use the business's two-way texting from day one.
• Price from a list, not from memory. A new hire can only follow written prices.

An owner-operator who does these things already has an office system. Adding a person to it is just a new login.

Choosing the Right Plan

ElectricalBossPro plans are $59, $89 and $199 per month for Start, Pro and Crew, with a monthly text allowance of 500, 1,000 or 2,000 segments sent and received. A one-truck shop can start small and move up when the business grows. Every plan starts with a 14-day free trial and no credit card, and the live demo lets you click through a sample electrical company first.

For the rest of the business side of running an electrical shop, visit the electrical business software page.