Advise on a startup business

[Wirralspark]

Hi . New to the forum and this is my first post. I am after some advise if you’ll Help please ? I am an electrician with 20 years experience. I am looking into opening my own company. I know all the info on creating the business . Where is the best place to advertise for free? Also, I don’t have premises as of yet. But I want to offer the service of building control panels. As this is something that I want to base my business around, as well as installations. Should I approach big panel wiring firms and ask if they want to sub contract any panel building to me? Like I said I am new to trying this on my own and would like advise on what avenues to take. Thanks a lot in advance.

 

[123]

If someone put my business cards inside decorative light fittings I think I'd go around after them taking them back out again

 

[Squid]

If someone put my business cards inside decorative light fittings I think I'd go around after them taking them back out again

I'm not surprised, coloured art work costs......

 

[plugsandsparks]

When i was starting out 7 years ago i used a Royal Mail business flyer drop, i cannot remember how many but it cost £700. I did not get many calls as RM include your flyer mixed in with all the other stuff from window companies and the like. Anyway bizarrely i did get a call from a lady who wanted security lights, she then put me in touch with the company she worked for who needed industrial water treatment installation electricians, so i subbied too them for a while and this included some panel building. I then approached another company i bumped into who were working for one of my already clients, installing pasteurising plant and they needed a panel builder at their works , so i subbed to them for a while.
I have built panels at home but realistically you are limited by size and weight. A small premises will cost around £5000 - £10000 / annum rent so you need to have a good income coming in before you sign a lease.
Good luck

 

[plugsandsparks]

When i was starting out 7 years ago i used a Royal Mail business flyer drop, i cannot remember how many but it cost £700. I did not get many calls as RM include your flyer mixed in with all the other stuff from window companies and the like. Anyway bizarrely i did get a call from a lady who wanted security lights, she then put me in touch with the company she worked for who needed industrial water treatment installation electricians, so i subbied too them for a while and this included some panel building. I then approached another company i bumped into who were working for one of my already clients, installing pasteurising plant and they needed a panel builder at their works , so i subbed to them for a while.
I have built panels at home but realistically you are limited by size and weight. A small premises will cost around £5000 - £10000 / annum rent so you need to have a good income coming in before you sign a lease.
Good luck

 

[Gavin John Hyde]

I'm not surprised, coloured art work costs......
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Is this your entertainment for the easter weekend @SWD .. if it floats your boat,,,, then ride on cowboy.... in bristol we get a show called the lady boys of Bangkok show in castle park... its actually quite funny

 

[Gavin John Hyde]

If someone put my business cards inside decorative light fittings I think I'd go around after them taking them back out again

some are better than others... most are going over to push fit rather than shi**y little screws now, much quicker

 

[Squid]

Is this your entertainment for the easter weekend @SWD .. if it floats your boat,,,, then ride on cowboy.... in bristol we get a show called the lady boys of Bangkok show in castle park... its actually quite funny

Guy I worked with years back was on a C4 documentary as he left his wife for a chick with a d!ck it didn't end well.....

My entertainment for the Easter Weekend is taking the ---- out of God and trying to extract the injectors of my E30 and fitting some parts to the Subaru and debating whether to buy a Caterham or an Exige, oh and I need to find a job as the other half is getting annoyed, not sure why as I just paid off the mortgage and haven't worked for nearly two years.

 

[Gavin John Hyde]

Guy I worked with years back was on a C4 documentary as he left his wife for a chick with a d!ck it didn't end well.....

My entertainment for the Easter Weekend is taking the **** out of God and trying to extract the injectors of my E30 and fitting some parts to the Subaru and debating whether to buy a Caterham or an Exige, oh and I need to find a job as the other half is getting annoyed, not sure why as I just paid off the mortgage and haven't worked for nearly two years.

when up london recently i saw deliveroo were recruiting moped riders to deliver food! might be fun riding a moped around town..... failing that become a taxi driver.... they make a fortune in london... passing the knowledge will give you a challenge

 

[Squid]

I don't do motorised 2 wheelers in London as have been to far too many friends funerals over the years I cycle, next step is the next project then either sell or rent and move down to either Devon or Dorset or up to Somerset buy a few places and do rentals and take it easy. Hopefully you can help me out.

Mate is a cabbie its a dead business Uber killing it and 4 years to do the knowledge, no thanks, I did my time as an apprentice sparks but looking at the rates they pay now days my thoughts about getting back in to it are long gone and forgotten. I have other plans once the house project is completed.

 

[calpol91]

My free advertising is copying a friend who is also a spark, I slide my business card inside the lights on the shelves at my local big diy chain, Out of around 100 cards inserted, I have had 14 calls to fit light fittings, So it has worked out very well, that's several hundred quids worth of work for very little outlay. One woman said she rang me purely as she thought it was very enterprising!
I have also inserted cards, flyers etc in books in the library, I started by checking for the top 100 books in the library and when in there waiting for my niece to finish her book club on a Saturday, I went around and put them in the said top books.. a large number of baking books coincidentally! and have had 6 customers from this method.
My other little method that did cost me a tenner is I am on good terms with a former homeless ex squaddie who I have mutual friends with, who once sold the big issue. he works in the big issue office sorting out piles for other homeless people to flog and does admin such as pitch permits etc.. well for a tenner he will insert a copy of my flyer in all the big issues for that week in the big issue office that he can get hold off. so for a tenner plus leaflets I get it out to several hundred people. I do this once a month. I have had several calls for work from this method. Its all about being imaginative and enterprising, I got these ideas from a book on guerrilla advertising

Me and a mate did this 7-8 years ago, we got a load of small leaflets printed, and stuffed 100's of them in to light fitting boxes. About a week later i got a phone call from a very angry store manager.... I laughed it off and told him to ring the other lad since he must have done it. he told me had done and he told him to ring me we got a couple of calls in the meantime though.

 

[Gavin John Hyde]

I don't do motorised 2 wheelers in London as have been to far too many friends funerals over the years I cycle, next step is the next project then either sell or rent and move down to either Devon or Dorset or up to Somerset buy a few places and do rentals and take it easy. Hopefully you can help me out.

Mate is a cabbie its a dead business Uber killing it and 4 years to do the knowledge, no thanks, I did my time as an apprentice sparks but looking at the rates they pay now days my thoughts about getting back in to it are long gone and forgotten. I have other plans once the house project is completed.

The place to buy property in somerset is weston super mare, property is still affordable and has very good rental returns with good summer holiday lets... people are now moving to w-s-m as its affordable with the beach for leisure etc and prices are going up as it has a resurgence. Bath is far too pricey unless you go into HMO's for the students. Bristol has good areas to buy and do up property.
I nearly bought a cheap place over in merthyr tydfil at start of year as a development and/or rental project but the survey came back with some subsidence was more trouble than its worth. would have made £20k in a year on that house after doing the refurb were it not for the dodgy foundations!

 

[Gavin John Hyde]

Me and a mate did this 7-8 years ago, we got a load of small leaflets printed, and stuffed 100's of them in to light fitting boxes. About a week later i got a phone call from a very angry store manager.... I laughed it off and told him to ring the other lad since he must have done it. he told me had done and he told him to ring me we got a couple of calls in the meantime though.

I got a deal i have just reached with a local independent garden centre who sell loads of sheds, summer houses etc they will put my notices up in shed and promote my services to supply electric sockets, lights etc in the shed once at customers property. In exchange the garden centre get a fee for every job that arises out of them getting me the job, the garden centre will ring me with customers details if interested in getting it connected up. Its a win win for both of us

 

[Squid]

The place to buy property in somerset is weston super mare, property is still affordable and has very good rental returns with good summer holiday lets... people are now moving to w-s-m as its affordable with the beach for leisure etc and prices are going up as it has a resurgence. Bath is far too pricey unless you go into HMO's for the students. Bristol has good areas to buy and do up property.
I nearly bought a cheap place over in merthyr tydfil at start of year as a development and/or rental project but the survey came back with some subsidence was more trouble than its worth. would have made £20k in a year on that house after doing the refurb were it not for the dodgy foundations!

I need to invest as I sold the place in Fulham and have some cash in the bank, choice is to do the house up and move/rent and move out of London and to wind the Yokels up wherever I go to.

Bristol is getting expensive and Uni's are building their own residences so in a few years time the student market will be dead also the government will be cutting down on what you can claim back in tax relief tightening the margins oh and stamp duty is a killer as well.......

Is a £20k profit worth the effort over a year?

 

[Gavin John Hyde]

I need to invest as I sold the place in Fulham and have some cash in the bank, choice is to do the house up and move/rent and move out of London and to wind the Yokels up wherever I go to.

Bristol is getting expensive and Uni's are building their own residences so in a few years time the student market will be dead also the government will be cutting down on what you can claim back in tax relief tightening the margins oh and stamp duty is a killer as well.......

Is a £20k profit worth the effort over a year?

considering the house i was thinking of buying was only 50k and needed around 8k spending on it, to then be able to sell for 80 based on other properties, it would have been a good % return. It would have taken a year as i would have had to go back and forth over a few months to do a lot of the work between other jobs.

If you want to get the student market then bath is the place they are building loads of student accomodation but its too pricey for uk students and is snapped up by asian students. so the uk students all pile into hmo's and the returns are good.. landlords are now snapping up the old local authority homes as they have good size rooms and can get a hmo permit. then its 5 or 6 bedrooms and a good 2.5k rent per month for 9 or 10 months of the year. typical returns excluding property value increases is around 7% for most landlords in bath, many get closer to 10% return if they buy in the few remaining cheap areas and convert it to a good spec.

 

[Squid]

considering the house i was thinking of buying was only 50k and needed around 8k spending on it, to then be able to sell for 80 based on other properties, it would have been a good % return. It would have taken a year as i would have had to go back and forth over a few months to do a lot of the work between other jobs.

If you want to get the student market then bath is the place they are building loads of student accomodation but its too pricey for uk students and is snapped up by asian students. so the uk students all pile into hmo's and the returns are good.. landlords are now snapping up the old local authority homes as they have good size rooms and can get a hmo permit. then its 5 or 6 bedrooms and a good 2.5k rent per month for 9 or 10 months of the year. typical returns excluding property value increases is around 7% for most landlords in bath, many get closer to 10% return if they buy in the few remaining cheap areas and convert it to a good spec.

Girlfriends son bought a flat and a house in Penryn as they clamped down in Falmouth on investors buying in, the Cornish really know how to aim for when they shoot themselves in the foot.