Fully installed prices

[Worcester]

@netblindpaul

Before you go down the MCS route, read all the other posts about VAT, how many quotes people do, the real and hidden costs, cashflow, marketing etc, doing the courses is a VERY small part of the cost - http://www.electriciansforums.net/p...swop-professional-photography.html#post284150

 

[netblindpaul]

I am already normal VAT reg & an NIC AC so that is some of it out of the way.
I have accounts in place and I have been involve in business for a while now.
The "wiring work" does not bother me in its self, nor do the calcs, I have done plenty of complex calcs before including business stuff & quoting.
One thing is I am on the verge of looisng a big commercial/industrial contract perhaps & I am looking for something to fill in.
I will go through the section here and have already read some of the posts.
I get a reasonable return on quote at the moment and I am in contol of my cost of sales, I suspect however that this will go up with the renewables work?

 

[SolarCity]

One thing is I am on the verge of looisng a big commercial/industrial contract perhaps & I am looking for something to fill in.

This is the best reason to go into PV in my opinion. Why? Because you needs bucket loads of time. A lot of our commercial work went dry when the recession hit and we needed something to plug the gap. The time that I have invested, and continue to invest, it staggering and we simply wouldn't be able to do it unless we committed to it 100%

 

[SRE]

We're just a small company so perhaps not representative but this week we''ll spend a full day doing 4 surveys (9am start - home by 9pm as the last one was 1.5 hours away from home.) It will take a day and a half at least to prepare the quotes to the required standard. Monday was spent chasing 4 different suppliers and 2 sub contractors to make sure everything is on site for our Friday install. The start of the week saw is working on the last stage of a 9.8kwp system that had been held up for 6 weeks by the DNO sub contractors (leaving us 10k out of pocket for the 6 weeks we were waiting) We also need to spend a day on marketing including updating the website, confirming local distribution of postcards, sorting out search engine optimisation etc. We've also got to speak to 3 different planning authorities, chase up some listed building consents and talk to gemserve about some obscure options for using a rental roof for personal electricity use. After that all of the operations manual information for the 2 installs needs to be collated, MCS, NIC, DNO registrations completed, fit applications made and handover visits arranged to our customers.

In the middle of all of that we need to take delivery from 4 suppliers, do some accounts, keep up to date with the latest changes, amend and record changes made and get some sleep. If you're not depressed - I am!!!! We've got cash in the bank and I haven't even had time to get it out

Interesting business if you can get on top of the paperwork though - slightly frustrating dealing with the fall out from nationals ...

 

[Worcester]

@ SRE, Sounds just like a typical week to me

 

[simon1982]

12 thousand for a 4kWp is competitive around Devon and Cornwall at the moment, I don't thinks it's the small traders so much more the newbie’s trying to get into the market place. Devon has 4 newly registered mcs installers every week. I'm a small installer and have been doing this over a year now. It doesn't help that there are people selling 4kWp DIY kits on ebay for 8K claiming your local installer will register it for around £2500. I hoping people won’t renew their registration next year there are 4 other installers in my village now... it's a joke ! :/

 

[Markc]

So much of the most recent posts sums up my life!

Survey, paperwork, more paperwork, second survey, sign contract, paperwork, order, accounts, take delivery, paperwork, arrange sub contractors, paperwork, conduct installation, paperwork, accounts, paperwork, return to check, paperwork, file paperwork, record file of paperwork, accounts! Have I missed anything?

One more thing as a comment on becoming accredited. Thats the easy bit the harder bit is the cash flow. We can see our account go from £40K to £2K in ONE day! Then wait three months to get the VAT back. Its the cash flow you will need. We cannot order more than 3 systems at a time and then we must have them installed within a 14 day window go give cheques time to clear.

 

[SRE]

Just got mine - counting the days til the next one - it's at 5k already

 

[Worcester]

@MEP-Solar, you can elect to do it VAT monthly it was actaully designed with the rebates in mind (more frequent paperwork, more frequent money, less cashflow needed)

 

[solarfred]

I am not sure you can do this as it is not a right as you have to qualify however anyone can opt to move their reporting date forward to the next month ; claim the rebate and then move the date back again. Isn't the system wonderful.

 

[Worcester]

@solarfred check out my post here: http://www.electriciansforums.net/p...um/33616-vat-get-your-money-back-quickly.html (20.5.2)