A Tradesmans rant

sodamnfunky

I love these kind of complaints from 'tradesmen'.

I am a self employed Joiner with 22 years experience in the trade. I charge £120 per day, and from that comes my tax and NI, vehicle running costs, advertising etc etc. I personally think £120 per day is a fair wage, it equates to £15 per hour, and I have an excellent standard of living, and support 3 kids from my previous marriage and pay half for all the expenses in my home.

It amazes me when I hear tradesmen complaining about not being able to charge £150-£180 per day, so they bloody should'nt be able too, its greedy and unecessary. I do an excellent job, am always being recommended for work, and do things how they should be, unlike 90% of the people in the trade. Personally I would rather have 5 days a week work at £120, as opposed to charging £150+ and sitting at home for 2 days a week.

As for the poster talking about Dewalt pro tools, you sound like my brother who thinks that Dewalt is the dogs whatsits. They are far from it. The only Dewalt item I own, is the radio, expensive tools a craftsman they do not make.

sodamnfunky

advent1122 wrote: »

Tradesman are now throwing their toys out of the pram because they realise they cannot charge silly prices anymore and get away with it.
Mr Chippy, It is a buyers market - get competative or go bankrupt. It is as simple as that.
I don't give a rats a$$ that it costs you £10 in diesel to come and give me a quote. Just tell me your price.
I will then haggle, knock a further 10% off the price and pay you when I am ready.
Why would I do this? Because for the next few years I CAN. You may not accept my terms, but I guarantee someone will. After all you need me more than I need you.

I never lower my price for anyone, I give a fair price and if you can lower it, it was too high to begin with, as for paying when you want, it is stated on my invoice that my terms are strictly 7 day settlement.
If not paid a £15 charge is made, and after a further reminder interest begins. I never have problems with late payers.

shandypants5

I dont think £180 is bad for a good tradesman to ask.


I take home about £80 a day, I am an engineer employed by a large engineering company.
The company charges about 5 times that amount for me to go and fix something at a customers plant.
I often find myself fitting parts that cost about 3times my yearly wage, and sometimes I break them.:eek:

I would like to go "self employed" and take all the money for myself, but having done the maths I dont think I could afford it.

At the moment I get holiday pay, sick pay, pension, tools supplied, vehicle supplied,overalls supplied. and if I totally mess up, my company absorbs the cost and keeps the customer happy.

A self employed tradesman has to pay all this himself.

nexuss

thechippy wrote: »

I recently quoted a guy who has a £750,000 house which was having a £200,000 extension added. He scoffed when I mentioned £180 per day labour rate. Now, what sort of money is he earning to have such a property? Why does he think that his skills (whatever they are) are worth so much more money than mine? Why is HE allowed to earn a fortune, but I’m not?

Rant over!!

The price of his house should be nothing to do with it.The customer is entitled to an opinion and to go elsewhere.He may find someone to do the job at say £120 per day but that does not mean that the £120 tradesmen would do a lot worser job than you.It is all about being competitive in the workplace.
I just get the impression that you think you are the best in the business and you think that anyone conducting business at a cheaper rate must be a candidate for rogue traders or something.Maybe they are better at evaluating their profit margins v amount of customers.

andyhop

sodamnfunky wrote: »

I love these kind of complaints from 'tradesmen'.

I am a self employed Joiner with 22 years experience in the trade. I charge £120 per day, and from that comes my tax and NI, vehicle running costs, advertising etc etc. I personally think £120 per day is a fair wage, it equates to £15 per hour, and I have an excellent standard of living, and support 3 kids from my previous marriage and pay half for all the expenses in my home.

It amazes me when I hear tradesmen complaining about not being able to charge £150-£180 per day, so they bloody should'nt be able too, its greedy and unecessary. I do an excellent job, am always being recommended for work, and do things how they should be, unlike 90% of the people in the trade. Personally I would rather have 5 days a week work at £120, as opposed to charging £150+ and sitting at home for 2 days a week.

As for the poster talking about Dewalt pro tools, you sound like my brother who thinks that Dewalt is the dogs whatsits. They are far from it. The only Dewalt item I own, is the radio, expensive tools a craftsman they do not make.

The right tools are essential in doing the best job in the least amount of time,I specified Dewalt,all my tools are fit for purpose,do the job well when used correctly and save me time which saves the customer £££

As a example,Gone have the days off cutting timber by hand or with a jigsaw,Plunge saw with rail,Perfect cuts every time,chip free laminates and 5x quicker than by hand.

If i was to charge £120 a day i would be making little above minimum wage,advertising costs(as i am a newish business) last year came to over 8k,Yell adverts,website,van sign writing,Newspaper adverts,Leaflets.I am in business to make a living AND to show PROFIT.

marleyboy

andyhop wrote: »

Bet your mothers proud of you

It works 2 ways, We could go in cheap, drag our heals, turn up when we feel,Have little or no respect for your property,Cancel our insurance to save a few £££,Give No warranty or aftersales,Give no trade discounts.....and for you im praying something does go wrong next time you hire a tradesman

Is that your attitude to ALL potential customers?

I will be sure to make sure NOT to hire YOU if that is the case, I'd want someone I can trust and rely on, someone with a little bit of customer relations, not someone who will wish me ill tidings just because I got a cheaper or BETTER deal....For you, I'm praying you get turned down from so many jobs, you go bust!

No it isn't nice to issue idle tittle and reduce it to name calling and praying such ill mannered feelings on another, simply because someone can get a better offer elsewhere, with not just a better service, but an extremely better customer service.

I sincerely hope, your not the prime example of all the other professional tradesmen on this thread, whatever they charge.

Debt_Free_Chick

I'm not sure we're comparing like-with-like here, when we look at a SE tradesman charging £180 a day and the rate paid to someone who is employed.

If you're employed on a five day week, then you get paid for 261 days of the year. You get paid for having Bank Holidays off; for annual leave; for sick leave; possibly other "absence" (depends on your contract).

You probably also get pension contributions from your employer. You may get other benefits too.

Let's say you get paid for 8 BHs and you also get 25 days holiday a year. If you are SE and want the same deal, you can only do paid work for 228 days a year. So you can see that you have only 228 days to earn the equivalent of 261 days pay. The employed work 228 days for 261 days pay.

The two are not directly comparable as the SE have to meet the costs that employers pay for those of us who are employed (and I've done both - SE and employed). At work, we budget the cost of employing someone as their gross salary + 30% - and that doesn't cover business overheads .... just employment costs.

nexuss

Can i ask when tradesmen say a day do they actually mean 6-8 hours ? Also what percentage of business is cash and never goes through the books ?

shandypants5

I always use this motto.

Choose any 2 of these you cant have all 3.

You can have it fast.
You can have it cheap.
You can have it right.

andyhop

marleyboy wrote: »

Is that your attitude to ALL potential customers?

I will be sure to make sure NOT to hire YOU if that is the case, I'd want someone I can trust and rely on, someone with a little bit of customer relations, not someone who will wish me ill tidings just because I got a cheaper or BETTER deal....For you, I'm praying you get turned down from so many jobs, you go bust!

No it isn't nice to issue idle tittle and reduce it to name calling and praying such ill mannered feelings on another, simply because someone can get a better offer elsewhere, with not just a better service, but an extremely better customer service.

I sincerely hope, your not the prime example of all the other professional tradesmen on this thread, whatever they charge.

Nope just to folk who think they have the right to mess tradesman around and hold them to ransom .I am a firm believer of treating others how you wish to be treated yourself....