Recent content by DM7

That's very helpful. Thanks for sharing.

Oh ok. I wasn't sure at first if that was what you meant when you said agency. Thanks for the advice.

You're exactly right there. Customers who want to pay ridiculous low amounts should be avoided like the plague. I remember a while back I went into the Dulux decorator center and was chatting with one of the staff members who I often talked to and got on well with. I told him I was raising my...

I only ever really see the tenants of the houses, as the estate agent is the one dealing with the landlord and I've just been going to the houses to do the repair jobs. I wouldn't ever try and take the client from the agency though, a bit unethical, but I completely agree with you and the...

You are probably a bit right about me being too trusting. I was thinking about it today, how really if someone not known asks for even £1 we instantly think bad of him.. like presume it's to feed a drug habit or something (as opposed to the good cause he asks for it for).. The reality is that...

Thanks. In the past year or so I have had to deal with so many scammers and liers trying to rob me/my friends. One American guy robbed some of my friends of around £70,000, my old landlord robbed my belongings (long story), a takeaway owner tried to steal my tools, another guy had me pay for...

Yeah - Plenty of rain in Preston! One of the advantages of working for someone else (for a pre-agreed hourly rate) is that it brings stability of knowing what you will be earning. But when the employer then turns around and expects the employee (or self-employed trader) to reduce his hourly...

In the past 2 months, I have spent around £1700 on expenses and I still have maybe another £2000 worth of more tools to buy (as and when I need them) to complete jobs. Last week my car insurance provider said they are canceling my (black box monitored) policy because I am making frequent...

-I enjoy plumbing jobs and general repairs

Thanks for the advice. I am based in Preston. There is a wealthy area here called "Fullwood" - lots of Rolls-Royce and Bentleys drivers.

exactly, lol. I told them even if I was twice as slow as other workers I am charging £10 per hour! £200 for 29 hours work is like £6.90 per hour. I worked to the point of exhaustion too...

I remember back when I first started out. My very first proper job was to decorate pretty much a whole house, 6 rooms, stripping cardboard insulation, applying lining paper, wallpaper and gloss. I very much undercharged for the job. I think I said something daft like £750 for labour! I...

Just to mention though, I had invoiced the agency for £290, as it took me 29 hours. They are saying I took too long and that they are only paying me £200 for it. It's not really so much about the money for me. It's more about what right. If someone agrees to pay you £10 per hour then they...

You are absolutely right there. I didn't counter in the fact that when working for an agency you lose out on referrals and building up your own client base/reputation. I took like a year out of trade work, as I tried migrating to another country but things got messed up around the time the...

Yeah, like it started out just a leak.. then it turned into a regrouting job.. then it turned into just replacing some of the plasterboard & tiles, then when doing that I saw that more than 60% of one wall had damaged plasterboard, then I needed to build up the wood frame after finding out that...