How much.

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

I am always intrigued by these how-much can I charge for a job, or for my time, or what should my hourly rate be if Ive got X years and Y qualifications under my belt sort of questions....

You get various people inputing how much they get, hope to get, or have heard someone else is getting....

But no one ever seems to ask the question about what exactly is the sort of work you are doing..

e.g. NOT ALL ELECTRICIANS DO THE SAME JOB..

in sales and business terms...

the product or service they are selling is different to others.

but you get these blanket statements that electricians cannot earn X or Y because of this or that...

Consider a car showroom...

If we asked how much does a car salesman get or how much is a new car..?

immediately you will all ask ..

what make & models are we talking about???

and we would all expect a big difference between a Rolls Royce showroom, a Fiat 500 showroom, a Smart car showroom, a Toyota showroom etc.. etc..

they are ALL car salesmen in car showrooms...

BUT.. Different product is being sold....

You can have loads of electricians working for electrical companies or self employed..

BUT again all selling a different product or service...

Which will be reflected in hourly rates, call out charges etc..

and difference geographically.....

If you do actually open you eyes and look around you can see that as well as the poorer bods, not wanting to spend anything, there are still a load of very rich people with money to spend in this country...

(look at the cars on the road, )

If you can supply and provide a quality service that people want, you can command higher costs...

Basic rule of business Supply and Demand...

If you can aim your business at people wanting you for your quality & reliability & comprehensive professional service etc...

Rather than scratching around for people who don't care who they get just want the cheapest job...

Then people will pay the premium for a better quality product.

This is true of all business...

Not everyone buys the cheap food in the supermarket.. and people still shop at Waitrose even if Aldi is cheaper!!

so to answer the OP...

you will have to negotiate to find out who needs who the most and charge accordingly.

personally My hourly has not been as low as

 

[ProDave]

I was a electricians mate from the age of 16 carried on for 3 years was told to go college but never did as I couldn't understand how it all worked. Then from there I done some air conditioning ( Duct work ) for 3 years didn't enjoy it so I went back to sparking tried getting into college missed the deadline then in 2009 started college and I qualified a couple of weeks ago. I hope it's a bit clearer now. As for the company we did part on good terms and they were sorry to see me go.

I've said something like this before on another thread. but that statement worries me.

So you did several years working as an "electrician" while all the time admitting you didn't understand it.

Now you have been to college and are "qualified"

So do you NOW understand electrical circuits and how they work? does it all make sense? do you understand how electricity flows from point to point and why it sometimes might not? Or do you simply now just know the regulations?

You see it worries me that if you don't have a good understanding of electrical circuits and how they work, then you ARE going to struggle when called to an old installation, that may not be wired the way you are used to doing new wiring, and you are tasked with finding and fixing a fault.

Perhaps you are not yet competent to be working completely on your own self employed?

 

[Steve M]

Considering I was left to rewire a hair salon 2 floors about 25 mts in length all on my own. 3 phase board first fix & second fix emergency lighting, up stairs down stairs ring, fan cool units on the roof, fire alarm, sound system yeah I'm pretty confident in my work and so was the firm I was working for. I didn't understand how it worked when I was young and didn't think off being an electrician for a living but since 2002 I haven't looked back just wished I went to college when I was told too.

 

[ProDave]

But do you UNDERSTAND it now, or just know how to connect certain "model" circuits?

How would you get on if you went to a 1960's house with original wiring, lighting circuit wired spider fashion to a big junction box somewhere and had to find and fix a fault that meant 3 of the lights were not working?

Usually your first puzzle is to locate the junction box in the first place.

It's a serious question. If it would stump you, then you need to be careful what jobs you take on if you go self employed. And an electrician that only does certain types of job may get an odd reputation.

I get the impression you just do new installations and don't do alterations and repairs, so don't have dealings with older wiring systems.

 

[Steve M]

I should think I've come across old installs fault finding periodics with the sparks who were teaching me the trade. But to be honest with you I havent been to too many jobs by myself but not every sparks knows everything? It would take a while for the penny to drop but Im sure that I would get there in the end. Besides at the end off the day if I wasn't any good at what I'm doing I would get sacked I think.