Just gone self-employed

[chronyx]

Hi all,

Well I took the plunge last Monday and handed in my notice, I only had to give a week notice so as of tomorrow I am self-employed!

I am waiting for my UTR to arrive so I can join the CIS. I love all these TLA's. :banghead::devilish:

I have a little van, 18v Makita drill/driver, Megger MFT, 5 tread steps, a good selection of hand tools, loads of bits and bobs, and a battery 24V SDS on order.

I just need to get the following:

110V tranny
110V SDS drill/chaser
Cable rods

Is there anything else you guys would recommend?

 

[Octopus]

Join a Part P scheme
PI insurance
PL insurance
Marketing
PPE
Logo'ed work wear
Business bank account

 

[chronyx]

PL is a good point, thank you - and I would welcome recommendations. I did a comparethesimples quote and the cheapest was around £500.

The guy I will be subbing to is NICEIC registered, so I assume I only need a Part P scheme when I am doing my own domestic work?

Cheers guys! Big step and a bit of a step into the unknown, but I feel great.

 

[ipf]

Plenty good clients and resolve.Hopefully, the rest you'll pick up as you go along. Good luck, hope it goes well.

 

[sjm]

Are you planning to do a lot of site work? Forget the 110v stuff for now if you're not. You can always hire it if you need it. Spend your money on Murdoch advise.
£500 for PL is well over the top IMO.

 

[chronyx]

Cheers! Not much site work planned. The annoying thing is that 230V is allowed on site with RCD protection, but if you even tried it you'd get strung up.

 

[Octopus]

PL is a good point, thank you - and I would welcome recommendations. I did a comparethesimples quote and the cheapest was around £500.

The guy I will be subbing to is NICEIC registered, so I assume I only need a Part P scheme when I am doing my own domestic work?

Cheers guys! Big step and a bit of a step into the unknown, but I feel great.

An interesting point - if you're subbing for a scheme member can you use their scheme for their jobs?? I have to admit thinking that you had to be an employee

 

[RISElectrical]

£500 for PL is very high imo for a 1 man band. I have PL @ £2mil and PI @ £250,000 for around the £250 mark. Thats from trade insurance direct, Zurich policy. Dont forget if your doing PIR you might need the PI

Good luck, its not always an easy ride, in fact it rarely is these days.

 

[parker56]

Good luck to you,hope it all works out.

 

[chronyx]

I appreciate your kind words everyone! Let's see what tomorrow's posts look like

 

[supasparxs]

Hi all,

Well I took the plunge last Monday and handed in my notice, I only had to give a week notice so as of tomorrow I am self-employed!

I am waiting for my UTR to arrive so I can join the CIS. I love all these TLA's. :banghead::devilish:

I have a little van, 18v Makita drill/driver, Megger MFT, 5 tread steps, a good selection of hand tools, loads of bits and bobs, and a battery 24V SDS on order.

I just need to get the following:

110V tranny
110V SDS drill/chaser
Cable rods

Is there anything else you guys would recommend?

Good luck with looking for your own work.
I've been finding it tough over the last couple of years
Last week a firm offered me a job on the cards testing for them.
And to be honest I grabbed it, so as you are going self employed,
I'm going employed

 

[chronyx]

Horses for courses! Glad you found a suitable position mate. I can earn a PAYE weeks pay in three days with this guy, that combined with no sick pay and limited expenses with the firm (Vs. being able to put van, fuel, tester, 2391 course, etc through the books) made this an easy decision.

At the moment I do not have to worry about mortgage payments etc and have no dependants so personally this is the perfect time!

 

[supasparxs]

Last year I was busy from February to October,
then it was like I turned my phone off.
nothing what so ever
I was talking to another few local sparks and he said the same.
It all depends on what work is there now and whats on the horizon.

What I would say to you, is network and don't just have one company as a customer.
if they go belly-up then you'll go belly-up

If they have cash-flow problems, they'll pass them onto you

one company I was subbing for a few years ago started paying me weekly, then they said they had to pay on a 30 day invoice, at the end of it they were paying me 6 weeks late on a 30 day invoice. So the job I invoiced for on lets say 1st March, was due on the 31st March and finally get paid on the 10th May.

just be careful,
watch your cashflow, and when you can introduce an early payment discount and late payment fine.

once again

good luck

 

[GT1]

Got my PL & PI insurances with NAPIT via Hiscox insurance @£14/month.
And that includes tool insurance too.

 

[jase]

Cheers! Not much site work planned. The annoying thing is that 230V is allowed on site with RCD protection, but if you even tried it you'd get strung up.

so where you gonna plug your tranny in then????