Let’s face it: some days leave you with a serious desire to bang your head against the desk. It happens to all of us. Stress is part of any job, especially when you're just starting out. But, as a small business and roofing professional, you can use tech tools to help relieve common hassles. Here are roofing business tech tools and services that help reduce stress and downtime:
Nothing—and we mean nothing—will ruin your day like finding out a computer’s crashed, and you’ve lost files, pictures, and probably every other important document you’ve ever saved. Invest in your sanity by using cloud backups for all devices your roofing business uses. These services back up your business data on large offsite servers. You can even schedule regular automatic backups, so you don’t need to worry about running the backup yourself. When a device is lost, stolen, or damaged, you’ll be able to access all backed up files, and, if needed, sync them to new devices.
You may already have the capability to store inspection and job site pics in your roofing customer relationship management (CRM) software. However, if you don’t, use an application like Dropbox or Google Drive to store and organize photos. Establish a consistent way to save and organize the pics of your roofing projects so they’re easy to find later. For example, save each photo by using the client’s last name or the work order number as the prefix—use any naming system that makes sense for your business and is easy for employees to navigate.
Don’t get stuck waiting for a roofing client to sign a contract! Services like DocuSign and HelloSign allow clients to easily sign documents electronically, which can help reduce the frustrating limbo of waiting. Generally, you upload the contract, approval, or other document to the site, email the client, and then they sign the document electronically. The e-signature service sends you a notification when it’s signed, and then you can download, save, or print the completed document.
We’ve all experienced the frustration of trying to access an online account only to find we’ve forgotten the password. Password managers are online solutions that securely store passwords. From your account, you can view and manage your passwords, as well as set options to autofill passwords when you log onto websites. Popular providers include Dashlane, Keeper, and LastPass.
Automating social media posts is one of our favorite roofing business tips for taking the hassle out of connecting with customers and prospects. Social media management platforms allow you to create and schedule posts for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and more. These solutions make it easy to write posts during downtime or office hours, so you can focus on other priorities, like managing teams or selling to prospects. For example, write a week’s worth of tweets on Saturday, and then schedule them to post at various times over the following week. Hootsuite and Buffer are two popular scheduling sites that can be used as roofing business tech tools.
It's also a time-saver to find a one-stop location to directly respond to all questions and comments across multiple social media platforms.
Love the look of shared images on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest, but don’t have the budget to hire a professional designer? No problem. Canva is a super-easy graphic design program that offers hundreds of templates and photos you can customize to create images for your roofing business. It offers free and paid accounts, plus, it’s web-based so there’s no software to download or update—and there's an app for that!
Head to the Equipter Facebook page and tell us your favorite roofing business tech tools that eliminate some of the stress that comes from owning or managing a contracting company.