I always thought that marrying an electrician would come with its bonuses… by that I mean, never having to change a lightbulb. Not that this suggests that I don’t know how to change one (i do) and not because I’m too lazy but because our house is fitted with LEDs that last a lifetime.
As it happens my husband can fix just about anything! However, I quickly realised that it wasn’t all rainbow LED lighting and double sockets with USBs. It came with its own challenges and frustrations and soon I had come to expect…
- The clever tactic of sneaking off to a price a job in the office when conveniently its bath/bedtime for the kids.
- That I was to be required to be just as excited as he was when driving past a house that he had previously worked on.
- Finding small plastic electrical components in the washing machine.
- Finding permanent sharpie marker pens on every surface, within easy reach of our 3-year-old (who has decorated our walls and wooden doors on more than one occasion)
But it was the repetitive clicking on the laptop during some binge-worthy tv that I found the most frustrating, his lack of presence in the evening due to relentless pricing commitments was taking its toll on both of us. Something had to change.
The idea…
He was frustrated with the time it took to price a new project and refused to take time out of his busy day to price jobs, a fear of missing out or just wanting to keep an eye on his guys. So he decided that he wasn’t going to give up his evenings anymore and this is when Kwota was created.
He wanted to build a platform for tradespeople that was quick and above all simple, simple enough for someone like me with little to no experience in pricing an electrical job. So he went about creating a pre-set price list for his electrical installations, which included a catalogue of products and labour effort and their respective costs. This allowed any electrician to price per point and/or per room, without recreating the wheel every time. In addition to this, pricing wasn’t always clear-cut, so it was important to provide the electrician with flexibility with their pricing, allowing for special discounts or additional markup to be applied at a click of a button. I, of course, was his guinea pig and his biggest critic. (In another life, I was a business systems analyst and left my job of 16 years to help develop Kwota)
Progress…
Kwota was designed to be flexible, offering options of how the quote needed to be relayed to customers, a full-scale breakdown of products and labour and their individual costs or a full breakdown without itemised costings, or simply a one-liner detailing the effort. It also catered for the a picky and indecisive customer, allowing changes to be made instantly, with a revised quote arriving in the customer’s inbox within minutes.
So as I write this, I can tell you that I still find electrical components in the washing machine and we are still at risk of Picasso (our son) redecorating our house with sharpies, but the late-night clicking on the laptop has stopped, and I am now a registered employee of Kwota… Pricing made simple, continuing to support, grow and streamline tradespeople’s pricing and quoting process.
Take a look at our recently re-vamped website and see if Kwota can complement your business processes.
