Looks like another one bites the dust

[Geordie Spark]

So that's what I can feel under the mattress!!! :icon12:

Well the mattress was sagging and I had two choices:

1. pack it up with a flightcase.

2. Persuade you to go on a diet.



Choice 1. being the easiest option won.

Pet.

 

[trev]

I was thinking of a more solid kind of thing mate, you know the type with a ring and a polycarbonate fob maybe 3 cm x 5 but that's definitely worth a dig into

 

[tidyboiler]

Well the mattress was sagging and I had two choices:

1. pack it up with a flightcase.

2. Persuade you to go on a diet.



Choice 1. being the easiest option won.

Pet.

Rearrange these letters into a well known phrase or saying. frnkeawkcofuf. Pet.

 

[trev]

Mutha! Divvent Caal me Da that!

 

[tidyboiler]

Mutha! Divvent Caal me Da that!

Sorry son, he needs to be telt sometimes. Too bloody gobby by half!!! :icon12:

 

[trev]

Sorry son, he needs to be telt sometimes. Too bloody gobby by half!!! :icon12:

Aa knaa but ye gorra be gentle wirrim ye knaa. Ee scares easily, like hosses ye knaa

 

[HandySparks]

I was thinking of a more solid kind of thing mate, you know the type with a ring and a polycarbonate fob maybe 3 cm x 5 but that's definitely worth a dig into

I ordered mine nearly 5 years ago. I've used a couple for my own keys and they still look pretty good. Lasted better than I expected them to.
With space for around 60 letters on a standard one, there's room for your name, 'Electrician', web address and phone number (unless your name's Christopher Fotherington-Loopfob).

 

[edrobbo8]

The other thing I have found recently is the price people are willing to do a day's work. Last Tuesday I went to see a restaurant owner where we did a part rewire, new LED panels in the suspended ceiling, new switching, lots of new sockets etc. Anyway, all finished around 2 months ago, he called me last week to ask to go and quote to install 4 x CCTV cameras, and 4 x recessed ceiling speakers, and set up all the control panel and stereo system.

I estimated it at around a day's work, with around £15 for fixings and bits and bobs. Grand total of around £250 for working in centre of town. He came back to me on Saturday night to say the company who supplied it would install all of it for £100. You cannot compete with that, so today I am having a sort out day instead. Yes I am not earning, but it is better for my business and customers to be organised and on top of everything, than being a busy fool earning nothing at all but not having time to do the behind the scenes stuff.

There are also lots of sparks around here working for around £150 per day, once you have put all your costs into that that probably means you are working for about £8 per hour, which when you are SE and get no holiday pay etc etc is not worth it!!!!

 

[Uglyduckling]

Thankyou everybody for for all your replies.
Yes you are all correct about investing alittle in marketing. I like the sign written torches and mugs idea. That's the biggest problem with flyers etc. within hours they end up in the bottom of a hamsters cage or worse.
To be totally honest I have a couple of mugs in the cupboard from car garages that used to service cars of mine over 10 years ago.
People don't chuck away mugs or torches. So I'm going to invest in a few to give out to customers that have work done.
100% Thankyou for that idea.
Now to this reply that I have quoted.
This is the one thing that drives me mad. Every day I have a call from some numpty that expects a job done for nothing.
Only last week I had somebody phone me to replace a pir flood security light. I quoted my price plus the cost of the light.
His reply was. ((((WHAT!!!! It's a 20 quid job))).
Now who on the Mother Earth is going to do a call out for£20?
i don't know where people get there ideas from but there not from this day and age.
The problem is that everything is still going up daily. Our shopping has doubled in price. Not to mention our costs being electricians. My out goings have increased and go up every year.
Now. If you were to phone one of the big company's. Ie Electricity board. British Gas and alike. You start off with a call out over £100 plus VAT.
So us smaller guys should be getting similar or close to it.
It won't matter if you drop and drop your prices there will always be some mug out there that will do it cheaper. Even if you charged a fiver call out there will be some nob that will do it for 4 quid.
Why bother. This is the biggest reason that I feel like chucking it all in and going back to a steady job.
I feel like I'm ****ing in the wind.
I think if things don't improve soon I'm going to have to

 

[edrobbo8]

Now who on the Mother Earth is going to do a call out for£20?
i don't know where people get there ideas from but there not from this day and age.
The problem is that everything is still going up daily. Our shopping has doubled in price. Not to mention our costs being electricians. My out goings have increased and go up every year.
Now. If you were to phone one of the big company's. Ie Electricity board. British Gas and alike. You start off with a call out over £100 plus VAT.
So us smaller guys should be getting similar or close to it.
It won't matter if you drop and drop your prices there will always be some mug out there that will do it cheaper. Even if you charged a fiver call out there will be some nob that will do it for 4 quid.
Why bother. This is the biggest reason that I feel like chucking it all in and going back to a steady job.
I feel like I'm ****ing in the wind.
I think if things don't improve soon I'm going to have to

People that operate in that way, be it they are in the early stages of their business so are desperate for work, or they have never sat down and worked out their annual costs, will never get very far, and as someone said earlier in the thread they slowly disappear back to where they came from.

I have people who think if I charge £200 for labour then that is £200 in my pocket. They seemingly forget the fact that if the job is 25 miles away, then that is a 50 mile round trip, at a cost of £8 in diesel, probably an hour and a half of my time to get there and back, then all the annual costs on top. So it probably works out as £120 in my pocket, which for 8-9 hours labour is not very much at all!!! Considering we don't get holiday pay, no security of money coming in each month etc.

Don't get me wrong, being self employed is great for many reasons, but people soon forget or choose to neglect the negatives of which there are also many!!!

 

[Octopus]

This is the one thing that drives me mad. Every day I have a call from some numpty that expects a job done for nothing.
Only last week I had somebody phone me to replace a pir flood security light. I quoted my price plus the cost of the light.
His reply was. ((((WHAT!!!! It's a 20 quid job))).
Now who on the Mother Earth is going to do a call out for£20?

So he thinks he can get a new light and fitted for £20.00 - what a numpty

Try advertising/marketing in a different area!

 

[Geordie Spark]

Theres work and theres work

I dont get how an estate car is more practical than a van

Sorry but you project an image of your business when you turn up on a job, especially from new clients when responding to an advert enquiry

if i wanted a to hire a professional tradesmen, and some chancer turned up in a rusty old estate........lol!

but then if it works for you, crack on!

Rusty old estate???

All four of them were hatchbacks and three of those cars were never more than 3 years old and the last one was brand new.

I could get all my plumbing AND electrical toolboxes plus power tools in the boot without folding the back seats down and full 3 metre lengths of tube / conduit etc fitted nicely through the specially designed snow ski hatch. Ladders were carried on the roof bars which were only fitted when needed.

Nothing was left on show to give the game away to any toe rag so yes, it did work for me and I did crack on!!

Thank you for your interest!

Keeky Chunt!!

 

[davesparks]

Mine was about £25k.





but that was running a Flightcase company.

Sod building flightcases for a lark! We build our own in-house for our gear. But I'll be buggered if I'm doing it for anyone else!

 

[Geordie Spark]

Sod building flightcases for a lark! We build our own in-house for our gear. But I'll be buggered if I'm doing it for anyone else!

Haha ..... I know what you mean.

I started building them for my PA hire company then people started asking me to so supply them and it just took off.

Next thing I knew the PA business was gone and I was in a 3,000 square feet factory unit with panel saws, cross cut saws, mitre saws, air drills & air pop riveters and the compressor to drive them and a bunch of ex-shipyard lads plus a YTS lad to do the actual work while I was out & about getting the orders and designing the things on AutoCAD which I went to night classes to learn how to use.

 

[davesparks]

If we had proper workshop facilities like that I wouldn't mind so much.

But a skil saw, wobbly table saw, router and rivet gun with no space at all is far less entertaining.