A Tradesmans rant

milliemonster

We also have to pay for retraining,Regulations change from time to time and membership of certain official bodies costs us aswell,Being employed by others you would get this paid for and be paid to do it

I am a nurse, I have to pay an annual fee to remain registered out of my own pocket, my employer does not pay this, I also have to keep up to date by studying, additional courses etc to remain registered, this I have to pay for out of my NET salary and do IN MY OWN TIME even though it is a requirement of my job, I am expected and required by law to do these things in order to practice but the NHS does not pay for any of this or allow me to the time to do it

maybe I should become a plumber instead

andyhop

milliemonster wrote: »

We also have to pay for retraining,Regulations change from time to time and membership of certain official bodies costs us aswell,Being employed by others you would get this paid for and be paid to do it

I am a nurse, I have to pay an annual fee to remain registered out of my own pocket, my employer does not pay this, I also have to keep up to date by studying, additional courses etc to remain registered, this I have to pay for out of my NET salary and do IN MY OWN TIME even though it is a requirement of my job, I am expected and required by law to do these things in order to practice but the NHS does not pay for any of this or allow me to the time to do

maybe I should become a plumber instead

Maybe i should become a nurse!

Pros and Cons to all jobs whether employed all self employed

Bishop_Basher

Its clear that most employed (or not) just don't get it on this thread, all and sundry are confusing gross turnover with salary.

For arguments sake and clarity lets say a SE person makes £500 a week, and works every single week of the year, thats a gross turnover of £26000 a year.

All deductions are then made from this overall figure to reach their actual salary.

So, they don't actually make/earn £500 a week.

If you're employed and you get paid £500 a week you have earned £26000 a year, that is your salary.

Its like pulling !!!!!!!g teeth this!!

nexuss

Bishop_Basher wrote: »

For arguments sake and clarity lets say a SE person makes £500 a week, and works every single week of the year, thats a gross turnover of £26000 a year.

All deductions are then made from this overall figure to reach their actual salary.

So, they don't actually make/earn £500 a week.

If you're employed and you get paid £500 a week you have earned £26000 a year, that is your salary.

Its like pulling !!!!!!!g teeth this!!

How many things can the self-employed person claim in tax relief that an employed person cannot ?

DebtHater

Try it from other people's perspective.

I am a self employed taxi driver, and this week I have made a grand total of £140, thats for 3 days working 8 hours per day (not including today and tomorrow)

We go about our week in the hope that lots of people come out on a Saturday night and they all want taxis home.
Failing that, we are screwed. And dont forget, out of the money I earn, I have to pay all the usual deductions (tax, NIC, petrol, car upkeep etc)

Think you have it bad? Come and work with me for a week, then you will see what the working world is all about.

Oldernotwiser

DebtHater wrote: »

I am a self employed taxi driver, and this week I have made a grand total of £140, thats for 3 days working 8 hours per day (not including today and tomorrow)

.

But how much of those 24 hours have you actully been working and how much time have you spent sitting waiting for fares? (Genuine question.)

Oldernotwiser

Life would be very simple if you genuinely "got what you paid for" in terms of quality and good service.

Those that could afford it could pay £200 per day for wonderful people to provide excellent services. Those with less money (or lower standards) could pay £150 a day for work of an acceptable standard provided by slightly unreliable people. Those on a low budget could pay £100 per day for work that might last a year or so and would have to put up with surly, totally unreliable types.

As we all know, life doesn't work like this and you can have work done to an excellent standard at reasonable rates as well as paying an arm and a leg for some surly cowboy.

[Deleted User]

I would pay£180 a day for a hardworking, time-served and reliable tradesman. Tbh they are worth their weight in gold. I have a plumber coming here today and he is that sort, so I pay him willingly

cowbutt

In a former life, I was sent onsite by my employer as a computer security consultant. At my peak, my time was charged out at £1250+VAT per day. I only saw a very small fraction (less than 10%) of that as my take-home salary, however! The rest paid for the various overheads of running the business - marketing, sales, expenses, probably some cross-subsidisation of less profitable activities, training, and void periods when there was no billable work to be done.

When I came to give being self-employed a shot, the recommendation was to charge 1/1000th of my old gross salary per hour for long-term contracts, and 1/30-1/100th of my old gross per day for short-term work (less than a week at a time).

Right now, I think £30-40/hour for someone skilled, dilligent and competent is money well spent, especially for anything where there is the potential for harm to people or property if the work is done badly (vehicle servicing, gas, water, electrical, major building works).

spuds_2

There is the assumption on this thread that a cheap job will be a bad job. We had our kitchen knocked through to a utility room (he practically had to rebuild the utility room walls), reroofed it, screed floor, dpc, window in, plastered, electrics for £3.5k, five years ago.

He was a guy out of the local paper. We had tried about 8 builders who were recommended by friends - most of them never rang back, one couldn't fit us in, another guy made 2 appointments and didn't turn up for either, the guy who did next doors extension wanted £20k, and £10k more if it needed underpinning (which anyone could see it didn't).

I don't think people mind paying for good work - but the experience of many is that they have paid a lot and got shoddy work and a less than business-like attitude.

I didn't have to put up with 'surly, unreliable types', just good value, hard-working blokes who weren't greedy.