Appreciation post: I used to think hiring a full-time office manager was a waste, but I was wrong.

For the first two years of running my HVAC business, I handled all the scheduling, billing, and customer calls myself... I figured it saved money. The choice was simple: keep doing it all or hire someone. I finally hired a part-time office manager six months ago, paying $22 an hour for 20 hours a week. The change was immediate. I stopped missing calls while on a job, invoices went out the same day, and my schedule stopped having double-bookings. Last month, because I could focus solely on service calls, my revenue went up by about 15%. It turns out my time in the truck is worth way more than what I'm paying her. Has anyone else made a similar switch and found a specific task that freed up way more time than you expected?

2 comments

2 Comments

karen7395d ago

But honestly you could've just used a cheap scheduling app instead.

miller.tara4d ago

Yeah, the "cheap scheduling app" thing... I read this article last week about how those apps can actually lose you money. Like they auto-send reminders, but if a client's email is wrong or it goes to spam, you get a no-show and still pay the app fee. Happened to my friend's hair stylist, she lost a whole color appointment because the app glitched. Sometimes the free version hides basic stuff, like taking deposits, behind a paywall anyway.