I'm doing pretty well at the minute, and it does pain me to say it when there are so many fellow sparks who are not doing very well at all.
I've been in the game a while now and have built up a good customer base, which is nothing without a good skills base. I have a few plumbers on the books which if good for a couple of central heating wiring jobs a week plus and referals I get along the way.
I've just come to the end of a 2 month contract in the retirement sector, leading a small gang rewiring kitchens, I generally do the consumer units, thats been bread and butter stuff recently, doesn't pay very well, but my invoices are always paid in good time and it regular work.
I'm moving onto a very large project maintaining and rewiring where neccisary in a 140,000 square ft retail building in the centre of Brum, 80,000 sq ft retail space and 60,000 split between store rooms, offices and warehousing space. Its a job that grows in scale by the day but having cut my teeth in the commercial sector, its nice to go back to. This came about after having done a rewire for a neighbor in the summer, who has since gone on to a new job where he has responsibility for dealing with building contracts.
Recently I've been doing a lot of CCTV and lighting improvement works in local medical practices and pharmacys, which seems to be snowballing owing to the fact that the owners of such facilitys tend to either know each other or be nosing around checking out the competition and notice my company name on CCTV warning notices and the like, this work often ends up with 'little jobs' like replacing cracked sockets, PAT testing pir's and the like from time to time.
As you can see, I'm quite busy at the minute, a couple of posters have hinted that they may well be thinking of leaving the industry due to the lack of work, well, thats a choice that you have to weigh up for yourself, I can only give you a few 'tips from the top'.
1: Know your subject. dont worry about boring someones head off about the inner workings and the science behind electromagnetic induction when they mention that they don't know what a transformer does. It shows you know and care about your trade, 'Joe Sparks' might know what you can shove 230v AC into a little tranny, and get 12v DC out t'other end. You know better, show it.
2: Carry cards. This isn't exacty advertising, which I've always been proud to avoid, in the conventional sense, but if you don't already have some, get some, give them to anyone who will take one, give them more than one if they mention uncles, mates, other trades who might be interested in your services.
3: Get friendly with other tradespeople. Not just electricians, all trades, especially Plumbers and Plasterers are a great ally, they get their own jobs in and tend to get asked if they know a 'good sparky' and this, of course works both ways, so look after them too.
4: Diversify, Diversify, Diversify. Turn you hand to anything remotely electrical, who knows where it may lead. I'm not saying just have a bash at anything willy-nilly, with potentially very dangerous results or a load of expensive wrecked materials. Look what the competition doesn't do, learning up on central heating system wiring is a prime example, as most sparks won't touch it, its a bunch of switched lives, whats the problem? If someone asks if you can run some CAT 5 networking cable around their office, jump at it, don't get thinking such things are beneath you, it can turn out to be a nice little earner.
5: Tell you friends: To the point of teetering on the cliff edge of boring, makes sure your mates know what you do, especially if they are well connected people, let them know what you've been up to, tell them the wide things you are capable of, they may well know someone who needs your services, an oppotunity easily missed because your mate didn't realise you knew how to pipe a modulated sky TV signal around their house.
6: Think carefully about turning something down: Think carefully about turning something down, I did a job a couple of years ago putting in some downlights, lots and lots. Its was horrible, I hated every minute of it and made virtually nothing out of it. I've since done work for pretty much every member of his family, and his small shop in town. Thats probably made me something in the region of a five figure sum by now.
This sword cuts both ways however sometimes your stomach has a way of telling you that a job will turn into trouble, like non payment or a very difficult client who will end up trying to sue you after tripping over a pattern in the carpet while your working nearby, but thats an aquired skill!
7: Communicate: People will be much more forgiving and accept that if it can happen it will happen in the world of self employed construction work. Let people know if you will struggle to make it at your given appointment time, even if you're going to be 5 minutes late.
8: Plan: Don't book jobs too tightly, especially when working on big jobs, do 4 days a week on it, leave a 5th day free for little odds and ends that come up, if nothing does, then either have a day off, catch up on paperwork or find out from your big job client if they mind you coming in and working the 5th day on their job.
9: Look after people: doesn't matter if its your biggest regular client or the pimply faced youth who drives the van at the electrical wholesalers.
10: Pay up: Whilst it can be difficult sometimes, try to pay your bills, it makes for a better relationship, however, you have to be careful in choosing who and when, just because the multi-billion pound credit card company it sending nasty letters, does that mean joe-subby will struggle to feed his kids this week? Of course not, the credit card company won't go round telling all and sundry not to have any dealings with you, a bad reccomendation will always go miles further and carry more weight than the most beaming of good reccomendations.
