I intend with these posts to document everything that happens in my work day and walk you through my day. I am hopeful that by showing everyone my way of working I will be given the opportunity by you, to organise your friends & families business energy contracts.

Please note all customers mentioned in this are real however their names have been changed in order to protect their identity. If you happen to read about yourself and are happy to be named then I can do so and will also attach your business information to your name.

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Let The Two Days Begin – 14/09/2016 & 15/09/2016

I was ambitious in thinking I could get these done every day, but alas I will try. Monday and Tuesday I took off for Eid in order to spend some quality family time. Thankfully the weather was amazing.

I decided after having a four day weekend I would get up nice and early to start grinding. That’s exactly what I’ve done on Wednesday and Thursday. On Wednesday I managed getting up at 5am and working straight through til 6pm. Thursday, not so much, got up at 8am but didn’t stop until 8pm. Must say, the last two days have been difficult. Obviously, I didn’t call anyone until 10am, my emails pile up and without a personal assistant things get overwhelming. Thankfully 5am is a nice peaceful fine to crack on with emails. Last week I made a bid to wake up earlier and that effort paid off yesterday. I finished Wednesday having spoken to twenty-three clients, quoting 6 electric meters and solving some annoying British gas problems. Thursday finished with 21 clients, 4 quotations and a load more problems.

Chris – The Man That Keeps Forgetting Me

Wednesday started with Chris forgetting to bring a bill into his shop again for the third time in a row. I’m not annoyed, to be honest, I’m happy working around people especially because I know energy is not the only thing on a business owners mind. If they lose one customer it could cost them 10x the money I’d save them and I appreciate that. I feel that I have the edge over most brokers because I’ve run a marketing company before, I know what it’s like working 16 hours days and having no time to sit and easy let alone answer the phone to dinner idiot selling electric I already have. Anyways, Chris said to try him tomorrow, he promised to bring a bill in today.

Calling New Customers

I’ve made a conscious effort to start calling all those customers I didn’t have time to call in the previous two years. Amber was one of them. When I spoke to Amber in the summer of 2015, her contract didn’t end for another 17 months but she was still nice enough to tell me what she was paying. I like to speak to people that engage with me and make both our lives simple, so I figured I’d give her a call. Turns out, she’s had a fair number of other brokers calling her. She’s told them all to call back on the 15th (today.)

I’ve been cheeky and emailed her asking for her meter numbers so I can quote her prior to the 15th. Unfortunately no response and so I’ll be even more cheeky and get her meter numbers another way and quote her on a generic consumption. I hope to today, call her really early before everyone else starts to annoy her. Its a hit or miss situation really but considering I’ve called her once this year, it’s not much work.

I called Amber Thursday morning with some prices ready and she asked me to call back 1pm. Unfortunately, I forgot to call her back at 1 so I’ll have to try again tomorrow. Chances are she would have had 10 brokers call her by then, so we’ll see how it goes.

E.ON Offering £500 Cashback

Nigels daughter runs a pub while he runs a plumbing and heating company. He has the unfortunate task of organising her gas and electricity at the pub.

Now this wouldn’t be difficult had there not been this P272 government change taking place, switching all maximum demand meters to half-hourly read meters. Ultimately it’s a headache for everyone, suppliers win, big companies get the benefit of knowing how much they use every thirty minutes and small companies pay over the odds for a service they’ll never use. One good benefit for everyone is that less energy will be wasted by suppliers so hopefully, that will have a positive impact on the planet.

Good news for Nigel, E.ON are offering all their current customers that are having to undergo this procedure, a £500 cash back. Nigel didn’t know about it but after informing him, he’s excited. We just need to check his daughter, has an AMR meter installed. I’m fairly certain they do but Nigel needs to send me a letter of authority before I can find out. I’ve emailed him one over but I doubt he’ll send it back to me so I’ll probably leave this one there.

Tried to call Nigel, still, no answer so left a voicemail and will just try back in a few months.

Kids Stressing Her Out

May, a wonderfully friendly Asian lady who runs a launderette is currently with Npower and wasn’t happy for me to try and switch her at all. After giving her some Npower renewal prices she was a lot more receptive to me and wanted me to call back once the kids had gone back to school. I think they had been stressing her out. She’s asked me to call back today at 4.30 to compare the renewal rates with her current rates, should be good news.

I spoke to her on Thursday and emailed her over some Npower renewal prices. She’s asked me to call back Friday afternoon again so I’ll keep you updated.

Mixing Up Day/Night Rate

TJ runs a hotel, I signed him up and helped organise his switch away from a company that had just done EVERYTHING wrong. Unfortunately, I wasn’t even successful in getting TJ to switch, he made a BIG mistake. TJ’s hotel uses about £15,000 electricity a year and his current supplier has been billing him incorrectly, they’ve had his usage bring recorded the wrong way around (day and night switched around.)

This meant he’s been paying a low rate in the day and a high rate for the night. Rather than paying £15,000 a year, he was paying £10,000. Me & TJ both went back and forth with his supplier to try and fix the issue so that he could pay the correct amount. The company couldn’t understand what we were on about, they were adamant it was correct. TJ’s contract expired in April and rather than him paying what he owed them and leaving, he decided to continue pursuing the issue and trying to get it changed. This has now meant for the last 5 months he’s been out of contract with them. This could be fantastic if they were charging him what he was paying last year but they will most likely charge him emergency prices. I hope this mess gets sorted, it has been a headache. Six months, two-hundred emails, fifty phone calls later and we are not anywhere closer to sorting it out. I’m trying to get hold of TJ now to hopefully have another chance and organising the switch.

Rita The Lovely Accountant

Keeping up with the theme of hotels, I spoke to Rita who works in accounts in a fairly large hotel. She’s absolutely wonderful, I quoted her in April but her contract doesn’t end until January 2017. She asked me to call back now and unfortunately when I requoted her meters, the prices are much higher than a few months ago – Rita will definitely see the increase. When I quoted her in April, there was a saving of £700, that’s now dropped to £150. Still, a saving is a saving. Rita asked me on Wednesday to call back on Thursday, I couldn’t get hold of her so I sent her an email with British Gas’s best prices.

Poor Credit

Naseem runs a tech shop in Leicester, he’s super trusting and literally is the easiest guy to deal with. I signed him up last year and then again a month ago. Unfortunately British Gas refused to take him on due to bad credit, thankfully I have another idea. Naseem is changing his business name in a month so we’ll get the contract put in that new name and that will pass credit straight away.

Jake – The Real Deal

Last but not least, the most straight up real bloke there is, secretary of a big salon company, Jake is a good friend. I’ve signed up three of Jake’s salons now, with another three to go. We’ve got two to do at the end of November. I’ve priced them and got his renewal prices from British Gas and they are pretty good. The only problem is they represent a 10% increase on what he’s currently paying. I was honest with Jake, I told him if he hangs fire for a bit I’ll try to get better prices and I will. I’m fairly certain in the next six weeks I’ll be able to get him prices that will be the same as what he’s currently paying. Jake agreed to wait and I’ll get in touch with him as soon as I get some better prices.

My New Twitter Header

I would also like to show off my new twitter header I made on Canva.com, took me about 15 minutes and I’m in love with it.

 

Moo.com – My New Business Cards

I also figured it would be a good idea to get some new business cards. I did some googling and found a pretty amazing company called Moo.com – I just ordered my cards and I’m quite excited. Ordered 50 cards for £15, a bit expensive but hopefully worth it.

Be sure to follow me on Twitter @hamedadefuwa