PAT testing questions

save-a-lot

Hi

Bit of background first, I have been training over the last two years to become an electrician at night school, 2 years ago I started this and I was looking at getting out of the day job. However the day job has become alot more interesting and I have alot more responsibility and the money has increased quite significantly too. So, becoming an electrician is no longer the best financial move. However, to salvage some of the costs of the course I am thinking of doing out-of-hours PAT testing. Does anyone know if a reasonable amount of money could be made doing out-of-hours PAT testing? and is there the demand to do this out-of-hours i.e. evenings and weekends

ckerrd

It is a requirement for electrical equipment but many companies don't seem to bother. You could set yourself up and market yourself locally. You could do offices at night at weekends to minimise disruption. I think you could offer a very useful service.

ben500

Much the same as Ckerrd says, many many companies do not observe pat testing but take a risk doing so, bone up on the legislation in order to tailor your sales pitch, offering out of hours service could well tip the balance in your favour as a lot of companies will appreciate such a service would avoid disruption in the workplace. I would say you should recoup your fees at least and as long as the demand is there you can work hours to suit, you should consider the effect working unsociable hours may have on the day job, not so much as clashing with day commitments as the effect it may have on your performance, the last thing you want to do is jeopardise your bread and butter. The best advice I could give you is to research your target market, send a flyer round if you are not up to direct contact or don't have the time to commit to it.
Check with your local freesheet or evening paper and ask if they can offer you a special rate on an ad, pitch them on the basis you are researching the market and will obviously return with advertising revenue if the response is good.

save-a-lot

ben500 wrote: »

Much the same as Ckerrd says, many many companies do not observe pat testing but take a risk doing so, bone up on the legislation in order to tailor your sales pitch, offering out of hours service could well tip the balance in your favour as a lot of companies will appreciate such a service would avoid disruption in the workplace.

Well, that is what I thought, out-of-hours is convenient for many businesses that operate during the daylight hours and would also allow me to work faster. I am also NEBOSH qualified and work in a H&S environment with the day job, so I encounter legislation daily and this would form part of my pitch to prospective customers.

ben500 wrote: »

I would say you should recoup your fees at least and as long as the demand is there you can work hours to suit, you should consider the effect working unsociable hours may have on the day job, not so much as clashing with day commitments as the effect it may have on your performance, the last thing you want to do is jeopardise your bread and butter.

I have a relatively flexible day job whereby I can, whenever necessary work from home, as long as I meet my deadlines my employer is happy.

ben500 wrote: »

The best advice I could give you is to research your target market, send a flyer round if you are not up to direct contact or don't have the time to commit to it.

I would probably approach some businesses personally to get a flavour of the demand for the service and then based on that do a limited flyer drop to local businesses and see what happens.

ben500 wrote: »

Check with your local freesheet or evening paper and ask if they can offer you a special rate on an ad, pitch them on the basis you are researching the market and will obviously return with advertising revenue if the response is good.

Great tip, thanks.

ckerrd

NEBOSH & PAT, you are onto a winner there.

Lots of little companies could benefit from your expertise.

Good luck.

save-a-lot

Thanks for the useful replies and support... I have a few more chats to have with various before I commit to doing anything, but so far the inspiration is all good

Savvy_Sue

What would help 'sell' your service to me is if you would send out a reminder each year saying "It's PAT time again!" We had ours done two years ago when I was on long-term sick leave and no-one seems to know who did it although I could doubtless trawl back through the invoices to find out.

when I'm starting from 'cold' in finding someone to do a job like this, it takes me FOREVER! And I don't really know who to trust.

Whereas our fire alarms and extinguishers are looked after by a very efficient company who phone me when it's time to test them. I know that at the end of the day it's OUR responsibility to see it happens, but if I've got someone proactively phoning to make an appointment, I'm willing to pay a bit extra for them helping me do my job!

save-a-lot

Hi Savvy Sue

Thanks for those suggestions, from my point of view keeping in contact would be essential for repeat business, which I think is important

andyboy190

well if you are based down south then iam in ! it would be great to find somebody who doesnt charge the earth (sorry no fun intended )

ben500

Don't forget with NEBOSH and H&S under your belt you can tier your service levels also, to a laymen you become a very affordable expert to refer to on an ad hoc basis without the expense of in house training or retaining someone on a full time basis to cater for an annual or occasional need.

barrymung

I have been looking into the feasibility of having our office stuff PAT tested (But we ended up doing it ourselves as we already have a machine).

I think there is most certainly a demand for out of hours PAT testing, as offices will be closed and disruption to staff will be minimised.

(There are also places like holiday camps etc that could also use your services off season at weekends.)

However, I doubt that most businesses will pay much of a premium for it so you are probably looking at £1 to £1.30 per item absolute max.

Allowing for discounts etc would your business be viable at, say 50p per item? If so, I'd say go for it as it'll give you the oppotunity to give discounts etc for large customers etc.