When managing a residential construction business, it’s easy for your time to be eaten up by administrative tasks that get in the way of bigger, more profitable projects. To understand how businesses are taking these burdensome tasks off their schedules without cutting corners, home remodeling and design platform Houzz spoke with design and construction professionals about the time-saving practices and tools they swear by. From time-blocking out their days to using pre-made templates when responding to queries, here’s what they had to say:

“Using templates is one of the best time-saving techniques I’ve used in my various businesses over the years,” says contractor Travis Logan of Handyman Rescue Team in Seattle.

“I first started using templates, or scripts, in my early sales career after college,” he says. “By using proven sales scripts and rebuttals, I could quickly and easily replicate the success of those who came before me, since they were fine-tuned and honed over the years through actual customer interactions.

“Now, having templates ready to go eliminates the need to type out individual responses, since we have established wording and scripts for new-customer replies, existing-customer follow-ups and post-project review requests,” Logan says.