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Staying organized

Cover Arrangement

The short answer

A cover arrangement is another trade agreeing to take an emergency call for you during a break — one of two honest answers to "what happens if something comes up," the other being a plain "not available."

What it means

A cover arrangement names a real person: a trade who agrees, ahead of your time off, to take an emergency call on your behalf. Clients are told who that is, so an emergency does not land on an unanswered phone.

It is not the only honest answer. Some tradespeople would rather say plainly that they are not available and give the date they are back, with no cover named at all. Either works — what does not work is leaving the question unanswered.

For example

A plumber going away for two weeks arranges for a nearby plumber to take emergency calls, and tells regular clients the covering plumber’s number before leaving.

The mistake to avoid

Assuming a client will simply wait until you are back for a genuine emergency — without a named cover arrangement or a plain "not available" message, a client with no other option may call someone else and not come back.

See also

Annual ShutdownForce Majeure

Where this shows up

Guide

Taking time off — price it before you book it

You are not paid for 52 weeks a year. A week off is not a loss to make up later — it is a cost your rate has to carry before you book it. Price the weeks off, pick the dates from your diary, tell people once, and decide what happens to an emergency.

 Templates

Time off scripts, for telling clients before you go

Six messages for taking time off — early notice to a client with work booked either side, a note to a client mid-job, an away reply to a new enquiry, offering the slot before or after the break, asking another trade to cover, and the note that re-opens your diary — fill in your details once at the top of this page and every script below rewrites itself.

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