The Company
Free Up helps businesses manage their people, timings, costs and customers more efficiently by setting them up with the right technology.
At least 10 job management apps are available for builders, and because Free Up knows them all inside out, we quickly set you up with the one which will benefit you most. Free Up has expert knowledge and is a Certified Partner with many of the most popular apps – so they can quickly select and set you up with the right app, and then provide training so you and your team get the most from it.
Free Up was founded in 2017 by Anna Brooks and has quickly established a reputation as the go-to tech advisor for builders and trades.
Free Up has an in-depth understanding of how building firms work, speaks their language and knows how to make the whole process easy. And because they’re independent, you can be certain we will select and set you up with the technology that benefits you most.
The Challenge
How many trade clients do you have? Do you specialise in this industry?
Since 2017, I have probably worked with between 40 to 50 builders and trade businesses across New Zealand and Australia.
I like to work closely with my clients and some of my clients have been working with me since the very start. I tend to focus on their highest priority issues first, and then we tackle other improvements over time. We just keep making improvements on an ongoing basis whenever the market changes, their business changes or they have capacity to make further improvements in their business.
The Process
How did you hear about NextMinute?
I started working with NextMinute in the early days of Free Up and I think I was NextMinute’s first official partner. I can’t remember exactly how I found NextMinute – it would have either been through a client or the power of Google.
Tell us about how your trade clients worked before NextMinute?
Before NextMinute, in general my clients tried their best to have control over their business but this was often extremely manual. They would switch between a timesheet app, spreadsheets, Word documents and other systems, trying to piece together sensible ways of working.
Whilst they were making do with what they had, they weren’t working in the best possible way.
My clients always want to work better and smarter, but often they just do not know where to start or how to make it a reality. They see it as a chaotic mess, and I help them to break it down into priority areas that we can improve.
Was there a particular problem NextMinute helped solve for you or your client?
Every client is different. Sometimes they are very frustrated with their quoting processes, for others their back-office processes might be in a mess and for others it may be scheduling multiple small jobs that is causing a huge amount of frustration for them.
The beauty of NextMinute is that the system covers lots of different areas of the business and I can help them choose where we focus initially so we get the biggest bang for our buck.
Conclusion
I’ve seen a big difference with my clients after they have implemented NextMinute – so they love it when they work with me.
For some it has allowed them to delegate the bookkeeping so they don’t have to spend their evenings in front of the computer, and for others it means that they’re not receiving multiple phone calls from their team each morning asking where they should be and what they should be doing.
I really love seeing the difference that technology can make to a building company or trade business which is why I do what I do.
