Reality check for wannabe electricians

[VoltzElectrical]

Hi all,

I've read numerous threads recently from well meaning people wanting to retrain as a domestic electrician and prepared to spend thousands of pounds to do so.

How much do these people REALLY know what it's ACTUALLY like to run their own domestic business?

I invite you all to post the REAL DEAL, WARTS AND ALL, on here to build up a more accurate picture of what it's like to generate business, quote, not get the job, get the job and not get paid, underquote, organise materials, chase money and walls, find faults, lift floorboards, deal with difficult customers, not sleep at night through money worries.

And the pro side too.

A call to arms guys to give these people the other side to all the advertising sold to them by course providers, thus enabling them to make an INFORMED CHOICE.

Regards.

 

[Adam W]

Yeah, thats all difficult, but take this ................ when working for a boss ..........being forced to work 7 days .... 10 hours a day with no overtime. You are not allowed to take a smoke break, because your addiction is not the company's problem. If you sit down even for 1 minute you get threatened with the sack ..............waiting 7 weeks to get your pay .....................being told you are not getting paid all your money because the company did not make a profit on the job ............. coming to work in December's snow, work on a car park roof where its minus 5, then getting 2 days money docked from your pay because you were too slow .............. at the same time the owner is being himself a new sports car.

Been there, done that, got the polo shirt. You forgot driving 500 miles a week in your own car with no mileage allowance.

 

[elektrisien]

Luckily I dont have a car, but all in all the money was still good. Every job has got its disadvantages. But having your own business whether its a bakery or a gym will always make extra demands.

 

[oldtimer]

Similar to posts on here, I do two jobs. The one that pays the bill (Maint Eng) and my own. I find my work is arduous and I'm glad of this post to validate what I'm finding. The routing of cables, working in tight loft spaces, the dust, work in damp ****ty areas. But I do find it rewarding as at the day job the work is mundane and in the same place. My own work is varied. I have been at it for 5 months and turned over around £4500 so not great yet but I have 2 1/2 years left of a 3 year plan

Yep I was in the same position and I seen the writing on the wall 4 years ago so I put things in place worked the towards the plan that was meant to start at 55 but as brought forward by 3 years still no regrets.
Remember this though the world of employment is going through a change cycle as we speak very soon you are going to hear about the police, refuse collectors etc that are going to be told thats it no more OT rates they have already done it at BT where your told you are working the weekend and you take 2 days off during the week that we tell you to the trick is to be ahead of the game Hows that you ask well if you go to an insurance company and say here is my pension pot I want to retire at 55 then they say well here is a lower pay out but if you say 65 they give you a higher pay out why because the longer you work the earlier you die and thats the facts they work on. So Sbrown if you have a plan stick to it because your on the right track if not get back on the hamster wheel and get running

 

[ian]

aint that the truth. same here.

 

[sbrown2]

I appreciate the truth and agree the longer you work the earlier you die. I'm 41 and my regular job is as maintenance engineer on shifts (more death points!). There fore my plan is to utilise shifts to build up experience some has already been completed.

1) Get necessary qualifications ie JIB, IET, Apprenticeship. To give me some credence with customers and clients

2) Assess the domestic and commercial sectors for business as I have no experience in these,

3) Hand my CV or contact potential customers,

4) Build up tools, meters and stock

5) The most important, try and understand what business is ieaccounting, quoting, marketing, contracts etc. Im a tradesman not a business man!

6) Be flexible. I keep saying this and I know a lot of electricians are out of work. I wont turn work down. Just because I a time served sparky I will not stick to electrical work. I'll paper, plaster, plumb etc depending on the quality of work the client requires

There will be other areas also. My simple plan is to sustain my current wages from current job as a Building Services Engineer. Thereby hopefully working in the land of the living ie days and reducingmy death points!

Cheers

Its a sunny start in Nottingham

 

[mattmoo1974]

Yeah, thats all difficult, but take this ................ when working for a boss ..........being forced to work 7 days .... 10 hours a day with no overtime. You are not allowed to take a smoke break, because your addiction is not the company's problem. If you sit down even for 1 minute you get threatened with the sack ..............waiting 7 weeks to get your pay .....................being told you are not getting paid all your money because the company did not make a profit on the job ............. coming to work in December's snow, work on a car park roof where its minus 5, then getting 2 days money docked from your pay because you were too slow .............. at the same time the owner is being himself a new sports car.

Id royaly kick off for that kinda stunt. The blokes a prize 1. If they get away with it once they make it the norm. Id love for some 1 to try that on me lol

 

[oldtimer]

Sbrown accounting is not that hard I do my own as I have a simple spreadsheet that i complete every day (so no running about playing catch up) and yes shifts dont do you any favours I did it because the kids were young and we needed the money the secret was not to to see the shift allowance as bonus money insted 17 years ago when banks where telling me dont worry about endownments they will come through I said nope change my loan to a repayment (boy what a good decision that was) and also after giving up shifts a year ago I have never had a cold or a flu this is from someone who was getting hit with one of them every 6 weeks. So sounds easy how do you acheive this well first of all I see people working their socks off just to catch up ie big loans credit card(s) bill car loans etc and the catch is they are just working to pay the interest on all the loans so get your debt down as I said to my daughter would you pay £700 for a £400 tv and the answer was no chance I said but you do when you put it on a credit card and pay it up needless to say she clears her card every month and will not buy something unless she has the cash