In your opinion,what's more profitable being independent electrician or employed?

[חשמלאי-מ]

Hey,

Okay so my dad is an independent qualified electrician working on his own for the last 20 years,

as his son some of the times(mostly when i was looking for a job) i used to accompany him while he's working

and there were times(which annyoed the hell outta me)where he used to complain about how hard it is being an independent professional,so is it really that bad?from what i'v heard the profit is much higher when your independent,

and can easily make over 5,000GBP a month..

חשמלאי

i'd like to see some replies and thoughts.

also i'm deeply sorry for my crapped out grammer,english isn't my first language(mother tounge).

 

[ProDave]

Well I have a different viewpoint to many, that one of the main benefits of being self employed is I can regulate how much work I do and how much I earn but more importantly how much spare time I have for myself.

It used to infuriate the hell out of me when I was an employee and had to work 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, 47 weeks of the year, and holiday allowances had to be eeked out. I even tried as an employee trying to negotiate a pay cut in return for a greater holiday allowance, but the look from my boss you would have thought I had insulted his mother.

So for me it's not all about which earns the most, but which gives me the lifestyle you want.

Having said all that, my hourly rate is higher as self employed than it ever was as an employee. But that's not the end of it, because there's all the paperwork, ordering kit, quoting for jobs etc that is all time spent for no income.

 

[steptoe]

easily make over

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

easily make over

 

[NozSpark]

TBH I could see that you could possibly turn over

 

[steptoe]

Noz, I turn over 5k easily, I dont make 5k though,

is the OP getting mistaken?

 

[NozSpark]

Noz, I turn over 5k easily, I dont make 5k though,is the OP getting mistaken?

Exactly

 

[welchyboy]

self-employed hands down(if youre willing to put the effort in), have you seen the agency rates on the job centre at the moment!!

i find a BIG misconception is that self employed people choose how much they work and when they take time off, i find its the work that dictates to the person how much he works and when.

Also i have personally found that(as said above) IF you can find a decent willing trainee/Apprentice or/and a half decent installer whos is trustworthy and reliable AND you can keep enough work coming in for you then you could quite easily earn 5K a month down south-east(essex)

i think one of the toughest challenges aside from keeping the work coming in is finding decent/trustworthy people to take on, if you could find half a dozen decent, good workers and had enough work for them, then you would be laughing but this is where most companies struggle, the bigger they get the quality of the workforce goes down and with it the standard of work and service

 

[MKS]

Use to work company but now sole trader and would not have it any other way!! I found word of mouth to be the absolute best when it came to advertising! No amount of yellow or thompson will get you iota, my biggest waste of money spent! Just my thoughts !!

 

[Doc Hudson]

Use to work company but now sole trader and would not have it any other way!! I found word of mouth to be the absolute best when it came to advertising! No amount of yellow or thompson will get you iota, my biggest waste of money spent! Just my thoughts !!

I think it is a generally recognised fact that a person who has worked for themselves finds it very hard going back to being an employee. But a lot of employees would love to work for themselves even though it may be harder work. Though not all have the drive and motivation to do it successfully.

Doc H.

 

[Cirrus]

As others have said, your turnover can easily exceed

 

[sellers]

Being self employed is hard work, but in turn I think we make it hard.

If you were self employed and worked 8 hours 5 days a week including doing the paper work you would probably come out with the same as being employed. We could easily book jobs in to suit that but we dont. We work 8-10 hours a day trying to squeeze in the extra jobs then go home and do the paperwork all in the name of money and for me time off. I have a lot of holidays but when I'm not away working pretty much dictates my life. Its lucky I enjoy it.

 

[Sidewinder]

sellers,

How do you get away with only working 8-10 hours per day???!!!

 

[Cirrus]

sellers,How do you get away with only working 8-10 hours per day???!!!

We manage - 8 till 5 on tools at the latest. No weekends unless called out and certainly no bank hols. Downtime is crucial. Of course, running your own business means that you never switch off and paperwork can takes hours but the key is to be organised and keep on top of things where possible. That said, there has been many a time when I have woken at 3 in the morning thinking about work matters. I will soon be deliberately shortening my working week to allow me to spend one day a week in the new office, sourcing new business. I figure that in 2 years I haven't sourced any business, it's come to us and if I can actively bring new business in then I could potentially double turnover. I may be different to some, I don't want to be working for myself, plodding along earning a wage. I would rather build something whereby instead of the current 2/3 of us I can have an army of sparks whilst I do what I am good at - business development. After all, in my view a business is simply a vehicle for creating profit. Some may disagree and I guess it is ultimately subjective.

 

[Sidewinder]

Cirrus,

I'm guessing that you are mostly installs and on domestic & commercial then?

 

[Cirrus]

No, not entirely. Have a maint contract for a couple of large hotels, industrial clients and also commercial clients. We just manage their expectations as best we can.

 

[Sidewinder]

Well I do mostly Ind, and machinery, I could never walk away from a breakdown at say 17:00 and say I'll be back in the a.m. if the machine is due to run through the night, and the downtime would cost them several

 

[Cirrus]

Naturally and completely agree. Not really had it in the last two years where a client has called us with that situation. To be honest, in that case you work until it's done. Of course, there have been plenty of times when we have worked 'late' but hasn't happened often. Dealing with machinery that cannot afford to be down does mean that you have to be flexible. Don't get me wrong, we certainly don't work to rule - but where possible we keep sensible hours.

 

[steptoe]

that is one of the reasons I left my previous employment,

I had a bit of a conscience and the 'office' didnt quite see it like that,

but, if I had of walked off site at the agreed time I was given to do some jobs then all hell woulda broken loose.

now I only have to worry about my own reputation, not that of some company that basically doesnt give a **** for me.

 

[Sidewinder]

A few weeks ago I had a call from a client at around lunchtime, I was going out on a job about an hour away, which would take about an hour, so 3 hours before i could get to their breakdown.

Then I had to go to another of their sites to collect keys to get access to the machine that was broken down.

It was my lad's birthday too!

Got on to the breakdown at 18:30 having worked all day, NFF, boxed up as I was the only one on site by now. Rung client manager and explained.

Got to take lad out for a meal with Mrs which was what he wanted.

Client was impressed, now on the verge of a maintenance contract and holiday cover for their guy when he is on holiday also!!!