Noob

Leigh.S. · Mar 12, 2013

Hi All,

This is the 'Introduce yourself' page so I'll do just that.

My name is Leigh and I live in beautiful verdant Somerset (Verdant=Green because it rains a lot) From shortly after leaving school until 2012 I worked in a large food warehouse for one of the top 5 food retailers in the country, slowly working my way up the ladder until the company decided it would make better financial sense to move the warehouse 50 miles north, leaving me with the decision to

a) commute 2 hours each day,

b) move to uncharted territories and start over or

c) take redundancy and do something else.

Well you bright lot out there can probably guess I chose option C and decided to do something I always fancied since leaving school: Becoming an electrician. I signed up with New Career Skills in December 2012 and am rapidly working towards becoming a Part P sparky. As I have used this forum quite a few times for research then I thought it best to sign up.

I am looking to go it alone as a sole trader but appreciate that I need some experience in the field so if anyone local wants a spare pair of hands then give me a shout.

On reflection I am happy with my life choice (despite reading some of the horror stories on this forum) and who knows I may even save someone's life as many of you must have.

So that's me, I look forward to meeting you.

Leigh.S.

Sharpend · Mar 12, 2013

Hello and welcome to the mad house!!

Leigh I don't wish to put a downer on your new venture, however I would always advise newcomers to bite the billet and endure the long course as opposed to the short course. It is better to have a good grounding in something which you can then improve upon and eventually pass on to others. Also I wonder what credibility the short course will hold if the whole part p thing implodes?? You could end up paying for something that has become worthless? Good investment reap good rewards, bad investments only reap short term gain.

ProDave · Mar 12, 2013

Hi and welcome to the forum

Personally I would say being a self employed sole trader is probably not the best way to start. there's a lot more to house bashing than knowing how to do the electrics, you have a fair bit to learn about how houses are actually put together, as you will need to lift floorboards and work out how to get cables from A to B etc.

So if you can, a spell working with someone, even if only as as mate would be a good start.

I love the flexibility of self employment and would not wish to go back to a "proper" job, but it's not for everyone. don't expect it to be easy, and in particular, expect your income stream to be somewhat variable. For me, I always find January and February very quiet months with little work, and November and December usually go mental with more work than I can handle.

You live in a nice part of the world, so I hope you can make a living so you can stay there. Mind, I don't know about the traffic down there if you say a 50 mile journey would take you 2 hours!!! Up here I could do that in 45 minutes :innocent

Steve3948 · Mar 13, 2013

I've met and worked with many Electricians over the years and the ones from down that way find the need to travel a lot more than 50 miles just to get a chance of any work, same with plumbers so you may find it a lot harder than you think.