4 Things to Get Printed Before Opening a Contracting Business
Opening a new business is stressful. You’ve probably already checked off some very important things to do before starting your business like find an office location or mulling over your business plan at least a hundred times.
There are so many little details to gather before you open your doors. But what about those small but very important printed materials that are essential in day to day operations? Forgetting you needed a specific invoice or something as important as business envelopes could add unnecessary stress.
Before you open your doors, there are 4 things to get printed before opening a contracting business:
Custom Printed Business Forms
Grabbing a few
packs of invoices from the local office supply store might be on your to-do list. But what if invoices aren’t the only forms you need? Or maybe you have purchased them from a printing company but how much attention to detail have you put into them?
Are custom printed invoices essential when starting your business? Yes, for a few simple reasons.
First off, branded products instill faith in your business. A form with your logo and name looks professional. Professionally printed forms gives the impression that you are legit business that has put time and money into branding. It’s all in the presentation.
Secondly, Custom invoices also allow you to tailor fit the form to your work flow. You’ve got the experience so you’ve used forms in the past. Use that knowledge to keep what you need, toss out what you don’t and improve on the rest. Forms should help your business stay organized and not cause confusion.
What kind of business forms do contractors need?
- Invoices
- Estimates
- Repair Orders
- Work Orders
- Service Call Books
Before opening your business, decide what type of services you will provide and if you’ll need multiple forms. Contractors may need both invoices and estimates. Will you handle repair work differently than installing new equipment? Some invoices can double as repair work orders. If you’re running a plumbing and HVAC business you may decide to purchase a plumbing and heating invoice that has everything you need on one form. Alternatively, you will have to purchase work orders for both scopes of work.
Creating forms that will do double duty will save you money but make sure you have plenty of space. Paying a little more money for separate forms will be worth it if it means avoiding the headaches caused by an overcrowded form.
Contractors will need to pay extra attention to state requirements. License contractors are required to have specific verbiage printed on State of Texas Business Forms as required by the State of Texas Department of Licensing & Regulation. Be sure to check with your local government as well as state to make sure that your forms meet requirements.
You may be thinking “why do I need a service call book“? Service call books help you keep track of calls. This book will also make it harder for you to lose information! Another added perk is that you can also track what jobs your employees should have gone to and what job still needs to be taken care of. This will hold your technicians accountable.
Printed Envelopes
Did you know that envelopes with a printed logo or company name are more likely to be opened than an envelope using address labels? According to NFO Research Inc, address labels were actually a deterrent.
Business Envelopes printed with your company logo and business information will look official and less likely to be overlooked. If your mailing out promotions, try using a red heading as that seems to grab people’s curiosity. Red colors send a stop signal and often people will feel compelled to see what is inside in fear of missing important information.
When mailing bills, you will also need return envelopes with your address on them. Don’t leave it up to your clients to write out your address. Pre-printed return envelopes ensure that bills will get paid and returned to the right place.
Call for Service Labels
Not all contractors will need service labels but plumbers, electricians, machine repair technicians and HVAC techs will. Service call labels come in every shape and size. These are very important and should have your company information on them. If you do the work you want the credit and the return service.
Think about the work that you do and how your clients can best benefit from labels adhered to their equipment. Many call labels will have instructions on what to do in an emergency or how to operate the equipment. A good example of this would be our Water Heater Labels.
We have pre-designed Call for Service labels to get you started. But if you know what you need your label to say, choose one of our custom design styles and upload your own label.
Personalized Work Uniforms
Uniforms are often overlooked but in reality custom shirts are very important when making that first impression. You don’t want your business to look like it’s the new kid on the block. Uniforms present a united professional task force. Uniforms also help clients identify your employees. It’s often disconcerting opening your home up to a stranger but professional
uniforms tend to put customers at ease.
Another perk would be brand recognition. You’re a new company so getting your services seen is going to be a challenge. Why not help yourself along by essentially turning yourself and your employees into walking billboards? Now, I don’t mean filling up every available space on a shirt with your services. However, a professionally printed shirt with your logo, a simple tagline and your phone number will draw attention. Neighbors will be interested. People at the grocery store will be intrigued. It’s a win win situation.
Lastly, company uniforms help your employees. Work shirts are comfortable and durable. Employees will enjoy not having to think about what they have to wear for work as well as messing up their own wardrobe.
If you don’t have a logo yet, we have a selection of work t-shirts by industry to choose from. Even if you do have your own image to use, you can draw inspiration for layout by choosing any of those styles.
We hope you will consider these 4 things to get printed before opening your contracting business. These products will improve your business image and hopefully make opening day less stressful. Printit4less.com wants to help you succeed and we are ready to help assist you with any printed products you need for your business.
Categorised in: Printer's Advice
This post was written by Progressive Printing Team
