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A guide on top money saving tips for tradespeople, from the UK's leading online auction house.
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Top money-saving tips for tradespeople

Jess Gibson
Jess Gibson

If you’re just in the process of setting up your own business or are an established tradesperson who’s been in the game for a fair while, you’ll know how important budgeting is to your success, and how the costs of being in a trade business can quickly escalate.

But, in such a fast-paced world where running a business heaps a ton of other responsibilities on your shoulders, it can be hard to focus on your incomings and outgoings long enough to spot money-saving tricks. In our list below, we outline different ways that you can cut your everyday expenses and keep yourself – and your business – afloat.  

Look out for liquidations

Whether you’re fitting a bathroom suite, installing a brand-new kitchen, or reflooring an entire house, the likelihood is that you’re going to need to purchase high-quality stock to fully kit things out. Of course, there are the usual avenues you can go down to find this sort of stock – trade warehouses and stockists, outlets, DIY stores, and dedicated online sites – but, more often than not, the offerings available are fairly costly.

In these uncertain financial times, there are more individual and chain stores becoming defunct as a result of changing consumer habits, job insecurity affecting purchases, and high-cost rent. This has led to many brands and shops that would ordinarily provide such items having to close their doors and the stock making its way onto the secondary market. This stock – which is often brand new and without fault – tends to retail for much less than the RRP. For tradespeople looking to save some cash, this is a great opportunity.

Here at William George, we have regular auctions featuring liquidated stock, meaning that you can take advantage of high-quality items retailing at hard to beat prices and provide your customers with excellent options whilst saving yourself money.  

Tools of the trade

Working as a tradesperson means that you are, on a daily basis, heavily reliant on the tools that you use to complete your work. They therefore need to be high quality, durable, and able to withstand heavy use – and such characteristics are usually accompanied by a hefty price tag. It’s exactly why the tools needed by these types of jobs are referred to as investments: if you buy quality, you’ll only buy once; buy cheap, and you’ll have to fork out for regular replacements.

But, what if there were a way to obtain durable, quality tools that don’t cost an arm and a leg? Happily, there is! There are regular online auctions that specifically feature brand-name, high quality tools and equipment that are vital to various tradespeople, but at much lower prices. Checking out these auctions can help you find second-hand tools that are made by the best brands and in good condition, but at prices much lower than the ones at which they originally retailed.

Optimum outsourcing

Admin can be a lengthy, time-consuming process for any business. And time spent sorting out invoices, quotes, and marketing is time that you aren’t able to spend doing work, particularly if navigating IT isn’t a strength of yours – meaning that you’re losing out on money that you could be making.

There are a couple of ways around this quandary: first of all, you can invest some money in an automated invoicing/quote system that is quick and simple to use (no matter your IT skills), freeing up your valuable time so you can book more jobs; secondly, you can outsource your marketing and advertising by becoming a member of a dedicated tradesperson website, where you will pay a small fee, but then have all your marketing needs taken care of.

Whilst both require some monetary input, they will end up saving you money in the long run and freeing up time for you to pick up more work.    

Deals on wheels

If you want a one-off advertising deal that you don’t need to invest in monthly, you can look into branding your work van. It’s one of the simplest, easiest ways of advertising your business 24/7 to your local area – particularly if you choose designs that are eye-catching and memorable!

The beauty of this is, after the initial purchase of stickers, signs, or wraps, you’ve got nothing else to pay for, meaning you can focus on actually doing your job and not offloading cash to someone or somewhere else for advertisements of your business.

It’s also worthwhile spending time shopping around for the best insurance premiums you can get. There are obviously the insurance comparison websites that you can use quickly and easily to compare deals, but it’s also worthwhile looking at insurance providers who aren’t listed on said sites – they may have a better deal that you’ll miss out on by rushing the process.

Canny codes

Tools, materials, and petrol are usually the most money-draining aspects of being a tradesperson – particular when two out of the three are purchased on an almost daily basis.

You can get around this by roaming the internet to find websites or memberships that offer you daily discount codes on all the essentials. Always read the small print, however, as you don’t want to be caught out by fees or stipulations that you haven’t prepared yourself for!

Savvy planning and knowing where to look are the key to saving yourself some money as a tradesperson.

With regular auctions featuring liquidated stock, as well as sales of robust, quality, brand-name tools and equipment, we at William George have everything you need to be successful AND save money, at the same time – don’t miss out.

Take a look at our live auctions to see what you could be bidding on today!