Starting up as a sole trader

[eddie bush]

Hi all

I qualified about a year ago and have applied for gas safe jobs to all the big and small companies within 50 miles. I must of written around well over 100 letters. Not one person has replied except one agency who suggested I work for free for a couple of years installing meters. Its really depressing.

The only way I can see I will gain experience is to go self employed. The cost of starting is as follows :
Van £3000, Tools (inc flue gas analyser) £1500, Gas safe £450, liab ins £350, tax on van £200, marketing and stationary £300. In all the best part of 6K and that's not including the initial training and future 5 yearly retakes.

My question is I'm I wasting my time and chucking good money after bad and what should I do ?

Thanks for your time

 

[dontknowitall]

We all know it's not good at present (and that's putting it mildly).

To run a business (which is what you're doing by going self employed) you have to have a marketing plan (unless you've loads of customers on the phone already). This will answer your question on whether you're wasting your time and money.

Doing marketing is boring - really boring if you're trained to do pipework, etc. But it has to be done if you're going to succeed.

The first part of market is described in a simple, short paragraph; you have to find conduct a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) of your business. You need to find out how many potential customers you have out there (opportunties), whether your knowledge is good enough (weakness - new business is another weakness), what the competition is like (threats) and what and how good your strengths are. This will answer whether you're wasting your money (if you're honest and truthful to yourself that is).

After this comes designing your marketing to your typical customer, but that's another subject in itself.


Best of luck.

 

[sparra1100]

eddy have you any plumbing experience and were do you live ,reason i ask is ,theres people on here all the time looking to go self employed and its not just about gas when doing combi swaps theres changing over from y plans etc big companys dont no how long you have been in the trade so the might think youve been on fast track and are reluctant to take people on that way ive been in the plumbing game about 8 yrs and its took me 3 yrs to get to were i am and thats not great id just keep plugging away there has to be something or if you could afford it do a couple of free days a week so you have worked with someone and that might help ad think long and hard about the self employed root but if it works you,ll be ok good luck

 

[gasmarc]

i would not recommend going self employed at the current time,. I can safely say this has been the worst year ever and other people i know have said the same, Regrading putting meters in my mate did it for a while and said it was a nightmare , Join BG instead if you can

 

[julesverne]

i'd say there is never a good time to go self employed whether in good economic times or bad. going self employed is all about planning . it aint enough to be a plumber/gas engineer you have to be an accountant , marketing exec, business man, customer service assistant plus many other skills. that said you get it right doesn't matter when take the plunge because if you get it right you will always be in demand. i went self employed 4 and 1/2 years ago and i have never been busier and with another crap winter drawing closer it can only get busier.

 

[rideorhide]

Nice to see a bit of positivity!

 

[Tankman]

You don't say how old you are? I am 46 years old, I served my time as a precision mechanical engineer, learning all aspects of the trade, through the mechanical, electrical ,fabrication/welding and manual/cad design stages. 9 years ago, I decided that the industry wasn't going to see me through to retirement so I decided on a change of career, I chose something that wasn't alien to what i had trained all those years for, so i chose plumbing and heating. I managed to get a job as a plumbers mate, and enrolled for college in the evening. I spent any spare time enriching my knowledge by any means. I worked wit hone or two decent plumbers, but there are also some right cowboys out there, with no knowledge no finesse etc etc. But my engineering training ,meant i was quick to learn the trade. I completed my ACS 4 1/2 years ago, and I have been corgi/gassafe for 4 years. On qualifying, I applied for a similar amount of jobs and did not receive one reply despite my qualifications. Therefore the only option was to set up on my own, and having had to raise the same funds as you have stated for all the necessary items to run the business.
It is a full time job, it can be stressful,sometimes you feel like giving up, there are the time wasters who drag you out to quote for a job,and they don't want any upheaval in their home ,and don't want to spend any money. Then there are the ones who believe that they have their own personal plumber on the other end of the phone, who operates a 24/7 free of charge service just to fit in with their schedule.
And the landlord builder who only wants to pay you£40 a day as he can get Polish lads to do it for that.
But it can also be a very rewarding career, you will also meet some fantastic clients who just want a good job doing and a re more than willing to pay a fair price, and the callouts, sometimes 6 to 8 a day during the busy period, (I take it you charge a callout fee? )
Sometimes, ( often) it is to relight a pilot light, press a reset button, or defrost a condensate pipe)
Always have your business cards with you at all times.it has taken me three years to build a good client base, and in that time, I have ( and continue to do so) root out the bad apples and discard them forever, but keep looking for quality clients.
In my experience 'word of mouth recommends' have been the most prolific source of leads.
Keep plugging away, eventually you will start to get a foothold in the business ,I am ALWAYS on the lookout for work, never miss an opportunity to generate some future business, and don't sell yourself too cheaply, decide your worth and stick to it!'
Reputations are built over years not weeks.
Good Luck

 

[fishnchips]

You don't say how old you are? I am 46 years old, I served my time as a precision mechanical engineer, learning all aspects of the trade, through the mechanical, electrical ,fabrication/welding and manual/cad design stages. 9 years ago, I decided that the industry wasn't going to see me through to retirement so I decided on a change of career, I chose something that wasn't alien to what i had trained all those years for, so i chose plumbing and heating. I managed to get a job as a plumbers mate, and enrolled for college in the evening. I spent any spare time enriching my knowledge by any means. I worked wit hone or two decent plumbers, but there are also some right cowboys out there, with no knowledge no finesse etc etc. But my engineering training ,meant i was quick to learn the trade. I completed my ACS 4 1/2 years ago, and I have been corgi/gassafe for 4 years. On qualifying, I applied for a similar amount of jobs and did not receive one reply despite my qualifications. Therefore the only option was to set up on my own, and having had to raise the same funds as you have stated for all the necessary items to run the business.
It is a full time job, it can be stressful,sometimes you feel like giving up, there are the time wasters who drag you out to quote for a job,and they don't want any upheaval in their home ,and don't want to spend any money. Then there are the ones who believe that they have their own personal plumber on the other end of the phone, who operates a 24/7 free of charge service just to fit in with their schedule.
And the landlord builder who only wants to pay you£40 a day as he can get Polish lads to do it for that.
But it can also be a very rewarding career, you will also meet some fantastic clients who just want a good job doing and a re more than willing to pay a fair price, and the callouts, sometimes 6 to 8 a day during the busy period, (I take it you charge a callout fee? )
Sometimes, ( often) it is to relight a pilot light, press a reset button, or defrost a condensate pipe)
Always have your business cards with you at all times.it has taken me three years to build a good client base, and in that time, I have ( and continue to do so) root out the bad apples and discard them forever, but keep looking for quality clients.
In my experience 'word of mouth recommends' have been the most prolific source of leads.
Keep plugging away, eventually you will start to get a foothold in the business ,I am ALWAYS on the lookout for work, never miss an opportunity to generate some future business, and don't sell yourself too cheaply, decide your worth and stick to it!'
Reputations are built over years not weeks.
Good Luck

Great words of advice and and inspiration for anyone starting out!

 

[gasmarc]

Something I have started doing is cutting all the bad work out and charging per job regardless of hourly rate, So far things are looking good. less work more money more free time lol

 

[sheff paul]

Hi all

I qualified about a year ago and have applied for gas safe jobs to all the big and small companies within 50 miles. I must of written around well over 100 letters. Not one person has replied except one agency who suggested I work for free for a couple of years installing meters. Its really depressing.

The only way I can see I will gain experience is to go self employed. The cost of starting is as follows :
Van £3000, Tools (inc flue gas analyser) £1500, Gas safe £450, liab ins £350, tax on van £200, marketing and stationary £300. In all the best part of 6K and that's not including the initial training and future 5 yearly retakes.

My question is I'm I wasting my time and chucking good money after bad and what should I do ?

Thanks for your time

Not wanting to dampen spirits,but the fact you posted this on here shows you are not really ready yet,better to make mistakes while working for someone than yourself or you could find yourself on'watchdog'