[UK] Solo trades - how much time per week do you actually lose to scheduling and invoicing admin?
Genuine question - I've been talking to a handful of plumbers and electricians who say they lose 2–3 hours a week to scheduling clashes, chasing customers for addresses, and writing up invoices in the evening. Some are running their entire business off WhatsApp + Excel.
For those of you running solo or with 2–3 crew:
- What's the actual breakdown of your "admin" time per week?
- Have you tried tools like Jobber, ServiceM8, Tradify? What stuck or didn't?
- If something saved you 2 hours a week, would you actually use it, or is even that too much overhead?
Context - I'm a solo dev (not a trade) and I've been building something to address this, because the existing tools feel built for 20-person companies. Won't name it or link it here, not the point of the post. Mostly just want to sanity check the problem before going further. Genuinely curious if I'm solving a real pain or imagining one.