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Fitting the Pieces Together: A Guide to Office Operations for the Liquid Waste, Portable Toilet & Septic Pumping Industries |
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Most people view record keeping as a necessary evil. It takes time, money and takes your attention away from generating sales. In addition, it can be viewed as a violation of your privacy, in that you have to put down all your earnings so someone else, outside of the immediate family, can see it. Thus the first guideline is:
Do not automate if you feel that is a violation of your privacy
Many septic owner/operators like to work by themselves and do not like to deal with the effort, stress and problems associated with a multi-truck operation. There is nothing wrong with this choice, you can earn a decent living and live a good life, thus the second guideline is:
Do not automate if you want to stay a one truck business
On the other hand, if you are suffering from any of the following symptoms
You’re spending nights and weekends doing paper work
You do not know who or how much you are owed by your customers
You never have time for vacations
You have no way of contacting your customers to build repeat service volume
You do not know which services generate what percentage of your company’s revenue
You do not know how much revenue each truck and/or driver generates
You do not know which counties generate what percentage of your company’s revenue
You do not know how your business has changed since last year in terms of dollars and services
You keep saying, "There’s got to be a better way"
then your company is a candidate for automation. Remember, records automation is not easy, it will require you to :
Consider changing your current business practices
Commit time
Learn new skills
Set different goals for your business
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If you are open to these commitments, then records automation should be considered for your business.