Building up work

[Beck1987]

Hi all new to the forum and to the self employed game

Just finish my level 3 2330 and my 17th edition after 3 years of college and working on the electricL game and now have made to choice to start out on my own so drop to 4 days a week at work and signing up with napit got everything in place just need jobs to do have a couple of jobs lined up for this month but nothing after just want so advice in getting more jobs what worked for you best in the past ect.....

Thanks

 

[Technician]

Do ALL jobs right; word of mouth is THE

best form of marketing.

 

[paul b b]

Welcome beck!

Be prepared for a bit of a long haul..it will probably take about 5 years to get going as most work is from word of mouth. Try dropping leaflets or ad in local parish mag.

I found yell.com a waste of time ditto rated people!!

Its a bit of a post code lottery as to how you advertise what works well in one area is rubbish in another.

Also have to look at your target market...what do they read? Do they use Google?

Good luck and let us know how its going!

 

[SLIPSHOD & SLAPDASH]

I have been self employed for 20 years + & have never advertised. All our work is from reputation & i built that up from private work whilst i was employed.

 

[Beck1987]

That's my hope just trying to get the word about I live on a quite rich area in surrey so there's money around here just got to be the one they pick for the work, how did peope find going into local company's and having a chat with the owner about condition reports and future work ???

 

[Technician]

I think I would be careful about using

those visual condition reports if I were

you.

There is an article about them in the free

sheet and it states in large red letters

that they do not meet the requirements of

Chap 62 & 63 of the regs.

 

[welchyboy]

things you must consistently do yourself

be polite, be punctual, be tidy, do a good job, charge a fair price, be presentable, have a good after sales service, be easy to contact

these are things to aim at eventually, you wont neccesarily be able to do them all at once but as your budget allows

send certificates quickly after the works done(dont wait to be asked for them) and include a business card, try and use a quality program to get professional looking certs that you can print out or email

get a decent van and get it sign written(dont turn up in a car)

get workgear made up with your company name/napit logo on

Get a professional invoicing and quotation program(i personally use SLIQ invoicing) but there are others that are equally as good!

email quotes and invoices to clients as much as you can, it saves on postage and you are in easy direct communication with them if they have any questions about your quotes

put your business cards up everywhere and give them to everyone, allways carry them in your wallet as you never know when a chance may present itself! toolstation, wholesalers, local cafes, i always pin them to the noticeboard in the stairwells of flats, drive past a house with a skip outside....post a card through the door, same with for sale signs/sold signs and houses with builders vans outside

when you do get a job and there are other contractors on site always make time to say hello and have a chat with them, also ask them for their card even if you dont ever intend on using it as they will say oh ill have your one too!

use internet free advertising sites to your advantage too(dont expect much from these but as they are free you have nothing to loose!

try and look the part and act the part, going to quote a job is really your sales pitch, even if your the cheapest price or the best spark if the customer doesn't like your first impressions you probably wont get the job

first impressions count for a lot, and making a good impression on the lady of the house is key to winning most domestic jobs as she is normally the boss and will have the final word!(she is normally the one who will be there when the works carried out too)

e.g one tiny thing that has won me loads of work is when going to quote jobs and walking in someones house, using blue plastic overshoes, they add more impact than taking off your shoes and you will stick in the womans mind

^^^^^i know this sounds silly but try it honestly, your not a woman!

DO NOT use sites like trust a trader or rated people no matter how quiet you get!!!

NEVER appear desperate for work or chase customers, no-matter how tempted you get, even when you havent heard back from that quote you sent out a week ago!, appear that you are always busy and squeeze them in to your busy diary!

get used to recognising PITA customers and avoid them, they will cause you more problems than ever give you profit, let them be someone else's problem

really work on customer satisfaction i cant stress this enough, listen carefully to what they say, deal with any problems quickly and chances are you will become their regular sparky for life

and in conclusion, building up your client base takes time and hard work, there are no short cuts!, nothing you do or pay for will get the phone ringing off the hook!

Good luck!

 

[esspeegee]

Starting on your own is hard. I only work on domestic stuff and the way I did it was to include on my biz card the words 'handyman, decorator' after 'electrician' and on the back of the card I listed the kinds of things I do. That meant that whenever I got an electrical job and the customer liked me, I got their decorating and other stuff. That took me from a standing start to very, very busy within two years. If you've got a steady and growing income, you can start to pick and choose and now, five years in, I turn down the decorating stuff. I know for some electrician purists this sounds like hell, but I work as many hours as I want and 60% of it is electrical. At the beginning, changing the odd light fitting here and there took 30 mins but decorating the living room took 5 days! If I got an electrical call while decorating I always fitted it in at the end of the day or called at the end of the day and booked a visit. Gave the impression I was busy (which I was). I even took a 12 week plastering course so that I could strip wall paper without fear. Percentage of income from domestic electrical has gone from a few % to 70%. But remember above all else, customers, the good ones, value reliability and clarity above all else, including cost.

 

[welchyboy]

Starting on your own is hard. I only work on domestic stuff and the way I did it was to include on my biz card the words 'handyman, decorator' after 'electrician' and on the back of the card I listed the kinds of things I do. That meant that whenever I got an electrical job and the customer liked me, I got their decorating and other stuff. That took me from a standing start to very, very busy within two years. If you've got a steady and growing income, you can start to pick and choose and now, five years in, I turn down the decorating stuff. I know for some electrician purists this sounds like hell, but I work as many hours as I want and 60% of it is electrical. At the beginning, changing the odd light fitting here and there took 30 mins but decorating the living room took 5 days! If I got an electrical call while decorating I always fitted it in at the end of the day or called at the end of the day and booked a visit. Gave the impression I was busy (which I was). I even took a 12 week plastering course so that I could strip wall paper without fear. Percentage of income from domestic electrical has gone from a few % to 70%. But remember above all else, customers, the good ones, value reliability and clarity above all else, including cost.

personally my whole business model is based on supplying a professional electrical service, this is what ive always aimed at and threw all my efforts into

For me nothing could be worse than being known as a jack of all trades/handyman, you may find it hard to shake that tag now

 

[Andy™]

I even took a 12 week plastering course so that I could strip wall paper without fear.

so... it takes 7 weeks longer to become a plasterer than a sparky...

 

[paul b b]

Ha i spotted that Andy..i was waiting for steps to mention it

 

[Sharpend]

It's all that waiting for the mix to settle and for the right moment to smooth the top coat. Clearly there is some allowance built into the course.

 

[ProDave]

The one site I would register on is Electricians Register - A Directory of Approved Electrical Contractors

It's free to register and I have had a couple of jobs from them.

The No 1 reason people tell me they recommend me, is that I turn up on site when I say I will. Apparently (round here at least) that's quite rare.

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

Hi all new to the forum and to the self employed game Just finish my level 3 2330 and my 17th edition after 3 years of college and working on the electrical game and now have made to choice to start out on my own so drop to 4 days a week at work and signing up with napit got everything in place just need jobs to do have a couple of jobs lined up for this month but nothing after just want so advice in getting more jobs what worked for you best in the past ect.....

Thanks

Well...

1/

IGNORE THE ELECTRICAL ASPECT:

JUST CONSIDER THE BUSINESS ASPECT FIRST OF ALL....

Did you purchase or read any books about self employment before you considered going on your own????

if yes... What advice did you find they suggest about BEFORE staring a business?

if NO..? well no further comment!!! headbang

2/

The books I read often suggested that BEFORE starting any business you first of all evaluate your potential market & customer base...

Market Research!

look for the demand that you can supply..

IT doesn't work the other way round...

Demand MUST come before supply!

Many small businesses grown organically out of someone doing stuff at a hobby, or home based interest..

it is when the customer demand from the NON-professional work becomes too much that a formal self employment or partnership or Ltd company are set up...

I fear you have dived into Supply without fully investigating Demand?

Electrician and Business person are not necessarily always combined successfully!

 

[welchyboy]

Well I would say there is always demand for good electricians supplying a good reliable service

Don't think that will be a problem

Just got to meet that criteria

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

Well I would say there is always demand for good electricians supplying a good reliable serviceDon't think that will be a problem

Just got to meet that criteria

Clearly there is always demand for electricians..

but the point I was trying to make for the OP is you also have to look at if your supply can attract some of that demand.

If there is already over-supply in the geographical or service area that you are looking into supplying

then that fact of some demand alone is not enough.

Which is why I said..

"look for the demand that you can supply"..

Just because there are people buying food in my home town..

and there will always be demand for food..

It doesn't mean they would come to me if I opened a food shop!

It is not rocket science to look at the electrician supply side..

an abundance of short course "trained" wanna be sparks..

a major lack of larger business taking on apprenticises...

less construction sites needing tradespersons.

Large quantities of ex sparks or sub contractors from closed down factories or building sites..

If demand was high, the existing established companies would be taking on more staff to maximize on the potential of the unfulfilled demand.

Which comes back to getting work for anyone starting any sort of new business.

You need to fully investigate the real local demand and existing supply competition..

This comes under what many business books talk about as networking..

Making contacts and establish sufficient work for the business to run

while you are then trying to do your jobs and build up other new work.

Starting a business with only a handful of work from family friends, can be making it very tricky and slow going to establish yourself.

Finding clients that need some regular maintenance work are always good contracts to get hold of.