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Stanios

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Was wondering if it is just me or does work/enquiries go up a ton going from summer to winter?
Just my first year of independence and feels odd turning down jobs when in May I was scratching for work :confused:
Kinda hoping this doesn't stop. How do you guys cope with it? Do you take on as much as you can and work 6 day weeks to make the most of it or do you cherrypick your jobs, put rates up etc?
 
Our Firm is Megga Old so Busy all year round ( not knocking it ), but a marked increase in winter.

Definite change always around Start of September. I always make sure Holidays and any time off are kept to a minimum from now until March (ish depending on weather).

Make hay whilst the sun shines my friend, Fix the roof when it's not raining !

Make sure you charge correctly for your time, don't under do it !

A healthy mark up on all materials too ! You're the one who gets the warranty phone calls and you have a business that needs to earn as well as you !

That's my advice to you Sir.

Hope it helps.
 
Gotta make hay whilst the sun shines I reckon, you never know what`s around the corner being SE.
 
I try not to do too work much now, but I do notice more work coming in partly due to boiler service or breakdowns. Happy to be getting less heavy and stressful work with decent customers
 
I try not to do too work much now, but I do notice more work coming in partly due to boiler service or breakdowns. Happy to be getting less heavy and stressful work with decent customers

Are you knocking on an old age now then Best ?
 
Buzy here, a bit like Besty lol , supposed to be slowing down , cant see it happening lol
 
Are you knocking on an old age now then Best ?

No, not yet, still in my 50s, - just become more lazy. :grin:
I just don't want any large jobs or jobs likely to be stressful anymore unless in my terms.
Jobs that only last a few hours or a couple of days suffice and less bother with getting money quick recently.
 
Ridiculously busy. I am working 6 days a week, got a full time subby working for me and I have just taken on another to cover a very busy couple of weeks coming up.
 
Its busy. People are waiting. I'm about 4 weeks behind where I should be and work is coming in quicker than I can do it. So prices rise.

Gonna have a couple of days in York or Edinburgh at some point in November and then 2 weeks at christmas. So I dont mind burning the candle at both ends for the time being.
 
No, not yet, still in my 50s, - just become more lazy. :grin:
I just don't want any large jobs or jobs likely to be stressful anymore unless in my terms.
Jobs that only last a few hours or a couple of days suffice and less bother with getting money quick recently.

Stress is a killer, everyone needs to watch that one.
Hard to get a nice balance at times though
 
Was wondering if it is just me or does work/enquiries go up a ton going from summer to winter?

Overall, the per-day demand is approx 20% larger from late Sept to about Easter than it is in the late spring and summer. Obviously the overall market is less in December on a monthly basis, but the per-day figures are the highest of the year, once you factor out the holiday period.

In the domestic heating game, that 20% is probably more like 25% to 30%. However, the effect is more than simply workload.

Imagine a game of musical chairs with 100 players, and 105 chairs. This is the situation in the summer - there are 105 plumbers for every 100 customers, so the latter can afford to shop around and beat down prices.

Now imagine the same game of musical chairs with 110 players and still the same 105 chairs. Now the customer has a real risk that he may end up without a chair (plumber) and all the inconvenience that brings. This changes mindsets.

The leverage that shortage brings is much greater than the simple increase in business. Its the ability to pick and chose, to turn down the rubbish work, and to enforce rate increases.
 
Stress is a killer, everyone needs to watch that one.
Hard to get a nice balance at times though

Yes, I blame stress on causing all sorts of illnesses. And we all can get accustomed to stress build up and not realise it.
I used to work silly hours, some hard, some easy, but it was unwise.
I can honestly say I am very happy with life at moment.
 
Yes, I blame stress on causing all sorts of illnesses. And we all can get accustomed to stress build up and not realise it.
I used to work silly hours, some hard, some easy, but it was unwise.
I can honestly say I am very happy with life at moment.

A wise man by the sound of it. Creeps up on you doesn't it !
 
A wise man by the sound of it. Creeps up on you doesn't it !

You have it there mate ...... Stress does " creep " up , I have been crap for about 6/8 weeks now , people can look at you and laugh when you tell them , unless they have it too, you get a totaly different response then .
 
You have it there mate ...... Stress does " creep " up , I have been crap for about 6/8 weeks now , people can look at you and laugh when you tell them , unless they have it too, you get a totaly different response then .

2yrs back I was just tired all the time even though I was sleeping soundly 8hrs every night, had little interest in the job and food & drinks didn`t taste great, went to the docs and found blood pressure was very very high and other stuff going on so don`t just put it down to tiredness!
 
There is a difference between stress and hard work.

A good definition of "stress" is pressure that you can't do anything to solve.

Pressure that can be solved by hard work is fine. Get stuck in, get the job done, and don't forget to invoice what you are worth. No-one ever drowned in sweat.

Pressure that can't be solved by hard work is when stress causes a problem, and may need you to approach life from a different angle. Merely throwing hard work at that sort of problem just makes you tired as well as stressed. It probably also upsets family life, relationships etc.
 
I know we are meant to be recovering from recession, there is much more migrant labour about etc . What on earth was it like before the recession, before the migrants and more importantly before the internet? Surely the stories of plumbers making 100k a year have some truth in them? Come on guys, spill :)
 
I'm lucky as I dont suffer from stress, I have suffered depression before and it was the worst time in my life, this was down to personal matters not work related.

I have never really let the job get to me like that, partly because I always feel as though I am doing everything I can, so I dont think there is more I can do to make it better?

I am a mechanical foreman for a company running multi million£ jobs and i am lucky to say I am yet to bring my work home with me, it stays on site. It's also the same with my own business, i feel as though i do everything i can possibly do to make it work and keep things running, if it breaks down then so be it.

Although i do get accused of being horizontal by some people. so maybe that's just the way i am? I run a good job and make the company profit and repeat business so that will do for me..
 
Not had much at all in the way of boiler changes but lots of servicing and breakdowns as well as the usual plumbing stuff .
Been offered some shop fitting stuff as well so may give that a whirl again.
 
Busy and very stressed,multiple contracts and a large private customer base,it can get you down at times
 
Very busy, not so much stressed but very preoccupied. I stopped at a green light today as I was thinking about work and also in bed I've been caught in deep thought thinking do I need 6 or 8 sheets of plasterboard in the morning.

Today I'm sat having my morning crap and the phone rings and I book a job in, that's either dedication or just plain weird.
 
Very busy, not so much stressed but very preoccupied. I stopped at a green light today as I was thinking about work and also in bed I've been caught in deep thought thinking do I need 6 or 8 sheets of plasterboard in the morning.

Today I'm sat having my morning crap and the phone rings and I book a job in, that's either dedication or just plain weird.

You need to be busy to pay that tax bill
 
Busy but could be busier, still a young business in first year getting my name out
 
Got a guy who pays me for the odd shift aswell when I'm quite that helps, one week can be flat out the next dead lol
 
Surely the stories of plumbers making 100k a year have some truth in them?

I know lots of cases of plumbers making £2k a week, or even more. It still happens. However, not many of these made £100k per year. Either there were overheads that weren't getting mentioned, or the work was of relatively short duration. Or it was billy bull-sugar... :)

Its basic economics. With the exception of certain high level specialities, plumbing is not a rare enough skill to command £400 per day take-home, net of expenses. So if that circumstance temporarily occurs, its not long before the customer finds someone who will do the same job for £390 per day, then £380 and so on until the market finds its natural level. What varies is how quickly that happens, which in turn is a factor of a) how transparent the pricing is and b) how high the barriers to entry are - how difficult is it to enter the market as a supplier in terms of training, equipment, scale benefits etc.

Equally, the higher labour rates, the greater the incentive to invest in labour-saving devices and systems - whether thats power tools, push-fit pipe or factory pre-plumbed units.

What the internet has revolutionised is the transparency of pricing. Free movement of labour and the various time savers have also reduced the barriers to entry, so we are closer to what the economist would call a perfect market, and what the national union of plumbers would call "a race to the bottom".

Under normal conditions, a perfect market works better for buyers than for sellers, so tradesmen may prefer to see some "imperfections" in their own market. However, remember that we are all also buyers, so the processes and mechanisms that have suppressed unusual earning possibilities in plumbing also holds down the price of all those products and services that we want to buy.
 
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wise words as always.
p.s. we've got plenty on but have been busier its our financial year end this month and looking at the figures the profit is up marginally compared to last year yet it seems as we were busier last year
 
I know we are meant to be recovering from recession, there is much more migrant labour about etc . What on earth was it like before the recession, before the migrants and more importantly before the internet? Surely the stories of plumbers making 100k a year have some truth in them? Come on guys, spill :)

Was doing ok until I got £25000 tax bill in '07
 
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