Blog>Trade>Growing your trade business>How to grow your electrical business
Last updated: 18 December 2024
How to grow your electrical business
Whether you’re new to running an electrician business or have a few years under your belt, it’s safe to say that growth is important. Knowing how to expand and grow an electrical business can improve your profits and work life.
Why do you need to grow your electrical business?
No matter your electrical expertise or business experience, every business owner knows just how important continued growth is.
Without growth, you can’t expand your business. That in turn means your workflow could stagnate or even shrink.
Fortunately, even learning how to grow a small electrical business is much easier than you might think.
All you need is the basics:
A can-do attitude
A smart growth plan
Technical skills
The business know-how to support your future expansion
Keep reading to learn just what you need to know about growing an electrical business. Including tips on team hiring, expanding your service offering, widening your catchment area, and more!
How to expand an electrical business
Much like when starting your electrician business, there are several business areas to consider when looking at growth.
Naturally, the most relevant for your electrical business will depend on your growth goals.
We’ve highlighted what each area looks at below:
Growing your team – More staff makes it much easier to do larger, more complex, and more profitable jobs
Expanding your service – Offering varied and wider range of services will increase the number of leads you get
Widening your area – Covering a larger work area opens your business up to a number of new and potential customers
Increasing your revenue – Boosting your profitability will give you more money to invest in other areas of your business
Updating your marketing strategy – Focussing on your marketing, both online and offline, will help find you more work
Joining a directory – Signing up with Checkatrade will give you more opportunities to find additional electrician leads
Any of these options can do wonders for improving business growth. And you can do them in any order.
Much like when wiring or PAT testing, you want to make sure you get it right the first time. By picking one area and mastering it, you’ll see quicker growth than if you try to do everything at once.
Grow your electrical business with Checkatrade
Get more leads and increase your revenue - starting today!
Scaling your business effectively
Before you go wild generating more leads and booking more jobs, it’s important to understand that growing your business isn’t just about getting more work.
Instead, you want to scale your business at a pace you can keep up with, letting you expand while still offering a high-quality service.
This means you’ll need to do some or all of the following
Streamline your business – You need to be running like a well-oiled machine, so make sure that every aspect of your business is working well
Check your finances – You need to make sure you have the cash flow and available finances to back it up
Focus on quality and consistency – Don't let standards slip as you grow, as the quality of your work has got you to the position where you can even consider expansion
Build a brilliant team – Bringing people on board will be one of the single most influential factors in how well you can scale your electrical business
Remember that hiring talented and proactive people will add value to your electrical business. Also don't forget that as a business owner, you can consider hiring apprentices who you can also train to become invaluable.
Once you're sure you can scale to meet demand, you can start marketing your electrician business.
Key growth areas for electrical businesses
Now that you know what areas to look at when expanding your electrical business, let’s examine them in greater detail.
That way, you’ll know what to consider when targeting these areas for growth:
1. Growing your electrician team
As with any business, growing your team is the first step you need to take if you want to expand.
New team members are needed to meet increased job demands. As well as fill in additional role requirements that come with larger business.
To get the best, you'll want to provide people with a competitive salary and benefits package. As well as asking the right electrician interview questions to make sure they're qualified.
That’s why you should look at hiring new staff as an investment rather than an overhead cost.
How to hire the right people for your trade business
Hiring the right people for your trade business consists of several stages: The first is identifying the talent you need and want The second is attracting those people to your organisation (the application process) The third is asking the right questions at the interview stage to ensure the right
2. Expanding your service options
Next, let’s look at how to expand your service options to entice more customers to choose you over your competitors.
This means diversifying your work portfolio so that you can handle more niche and trickier electrical jobs. Which in turn will help to generate more electrician work leads.
Essentially, you want to be looking at the current market for electrical work and if there are trends for what customers are looking for in your area. This will let you identify any gaps in the market. You'll also get an idea if there are job types that aren’t being picked up by your competitors.
For example:
Solar panel wiring and installation
Smart home gadget installation
Appliance repairs
Local construction site work
Initially, you could think of these as electrician side hustles. Once you’ve picked a few, you can then upskill yourself and your staff to do these jobs full-time. Different jobs could end up becoming your main income.
Want to find more leads as an electrician?
Get more electrical work in your area as a Checkatrade member
3. Widening your area of work
Much like varying the work you offer customers, expanding your work area is also another great way to increase leads. However, this isn’t as simple as increasing the radius in which you operate.
Instead, you’ll want to think about the following:
Where you want to cover
Knowing where you can feasibly cover is very important. It will help you cut down on travel time between customers. You also need to pick areas where the sort of electrical work you do is actually in demand.
Announce your expansion
Suddenly appearing as a new service option will get you more leads, but you’ll get far more work if you announce your planned expansion before the change. It alerts potential customers to your presence.
Optimise for local SEO
No matter how you do your digital marketing, be sure to update your Google My Business listing (or claim yours if haven’t already). Doing that makes sure you appear in local searches focused on your new area of work.
Network with other tradespeople
Plenty of jobs may require the skills of additional tradespeople to get the job done. Networking with other tradespeople in your new area can open up a whole new avenue of additional leads through recommendations and word-of-mouth.
4. Increasing your revenue
Potentially an obvious point, but one that’s certainly worth mentioning. Improving your revenue is arguably the most important thing to learn about how to grow a small electrical business.
Of course, to increase revenue, you need more work.
However, we also know that small business accounting can be confusing for many. Here are a few core areas to examine:
Analyse your cash flow – It’s always a good idea to look at your direct cash flow to see how your income compares with expenditure. This will give you a good idea of your current overheads, and make adjustments to boost revenue.
Make every job profitable – You want to make a profit on every job you do. So, look to take on more work that is directly profitable. You can also use a pricing template to help with your revenue or increase your prices match.
Apply competitive prices – Competitive pricing means pricing your work so you make a profit and come out cheaper than your competitors. This strategy helps position your electrical business as the more affordable option.
Deliver quality work – By delivering quality work you’ll not only get more jobs, but you can also charge more for the work you do. If customers can rely on your quality skills, they'll know they're getting good value for money.
If you're not confident about your small business accounting, it might be an idea to consider getting an accountant. Prices will vary, but having someone with a firm hand on your finances is a key step when you want to grow a small electrical business.
How to improve customer satisfaction
They say ‘a happy customer tells a friend; an unhappy customer tells the world’. Getting customer satisfaction wrong is one of the fastest ways to lose business. But they also say that an unhappy customer whom you have made happy again is likely to share this positive experience with lots of people
5. Updating your marketing strategy
A worthwhile electrical marketing strategy will require a good investment of cash. But done properly, and like taking on new employees, the long-term benefits are worth it.
That is why its important to take some time to research marketing for electricians. There are lots of options to consider, so see what marketing method you could try to raise your profile and win more leads.
Make sure you build a small business website to highlight your skills
Optimise it for SEO to help you appear locally
Move towards social media
Increase visibility through newspapers and direct advertising
Mastering the digital world is crucial for finding new customers for your electrical work. Doing more with your marketing will end up with you getting more work to fund ongoing business growth.
6. Join a digital directory
Finally, one fantastic way to get more leads is to sign up to become a Checkatrade member.
Homeowners know what to expect with the trusted tick. As the home for reputable tradespeople, you can dip into the interest we already have for electrical skills like yours.
Our fixed membership option lets you build the plan that’s perfect for you and your business needs.
Is a Checkatrade membership worth it?
One way to figure out whether the cost of something is worth it is to look at ROI (Return on Investment). In its most basic sense, this is how much something costs compared with the income it generates. Working out the ROI of a Checkatrade membership is definitely a must-do for any trade business
How to get more electrical work
With all of those additional steps in place, if you’re now confident that you’re ready to scale and grow your electrical business, it’s time to get booking more jobs.
Here are our tips on some ways to get more electrical work:
Accreditations and certificates – Showing that you are qualified and reliable will help customers trust you, so why not look into schemes such as the Registered Competent Person Electrical or BSI accreditation, or consider a CSCS Gold Card
Encourage recommendations and repeat business – Focus on doing a great job and treat every customer with respect, as happy customers are key to growing your electrical business, both for recommendations and hiring you again
Specialise in certain electrical work – If you can tap into a niche market that’s under-served in your local area, you could quickly boost your business leads, for example becoming an expert in sustainable energy installations
One important point to remember, however, is that every electrician business is different, so try things out and see how you get on.
You might find you get a lot of leads coming from your website or social media, or local networking might be the key to expanding your electrical business.
Electrician lead generation: how to improve your leads
How to generate electrician leads If you're looking to grow your electrician business and find more customers as an electrician, you need to connect with homeowners and businesses who need your services. Then, convert these contacts into paying clients to keep a steady flow of work. Wherever you're
How to grow your electrical business with Checkatrade
By now, you should have a much better idea of how to grow your electrical business. And if our last suggestion caught your attention, then why not consider joining Checkatrade today?
We have a whole host of reasons to join as well as increased workflow.
Your own business profile to display glowing customer testimonials
Have another online space to showcase pictures of your work
Guaranteed work when booked through us (T&Cs apply)
Save 20% on your public liability insurance
Regular quality checking
Dedicated membership advice
Alongside all of that, don't forget, we're here to put homeowners in touch with trades just like yours.
Want more work? Get in touch today to learn more about our vetting processes and sign up.
Want to find more leads as an electrician?
Get more electrical work in your area as a Checkatrade member
