Self employed work drying up??????

dori2o

This is for my brother. He's a self employed plumber/Gas engineer (CORGI) and has been self employed for approx 18 months, he currently has around 8 years plumbing/heating experience.

From when he started self employment up to Xmas, he'd been contracting for British Gas 3-4 days a week, along with doing his private work for the remaining 3-4 days of the week.

Suddenly he's found that all his work has dried up. BG have not contacted him since xmas, and he's just about surviving on the odds and sods he's getting privately.

He's also been knocked back on a few jobs recently, which I think is to do with the price he charges. Not that it is too much, but too cheap. (according to the price some other heating engineers I know charge)

His quality of work is second to none. He's never had any complaints, and has several letters from customers via BG praising him for his work. H

He's asked for feedback off a couple of customers that have knocked him back and they have advised that they preferred another quote although they were more expensive.

As an example, for a boiler change, like for like, my brother charges £400 labour. Is this about the right price. is it too low?

One other thing that i don't think helps is that he will only install one kind of boiler. Not because thats the only one he knows how to install obviously, but he only installs Worcesters. His argument is that he's never had to go back to one which has broken down. He hates breakdowns which was one of the reasons why he became s/employed as his previous employer had him on breakdowns for quite some time.

He refuses to fit the "lesser" boilers, i.e. Ravenheat, Biasi, Potterton etc.

What would you reccomnend he does to turn this tide?

How would he go about getting onto new build sites?

Is it worth writing to plumbing/heating companies in the area offering his services as a contractor?

He's never been in a position where he is struggling for money before, unlike me, so i want to try and help him.

Thanks in advance.

Conor_3

Not sure where you are but in my town in East Yorks, a local bloke charges £60 for an annual fire/boiler service and inspection and he's run off his feet with work.

Worcesters have been taking a beating in the last few years for problems on BBC Watchdog.

Chollita

However good his work, it sounds as though he's narrowed his market by only installing one brand of boiler.

What has he got against boilers that break down? Surely it's extra work for him? Someone who is self-employed really can't afford to be fussy.

lil_me

Chollita definately has a point with the choosing who to serve. At least 8 houses out of the 15 in our street have one of those types of boilers, the others I haven't asked. Just as an example in that case he's halving who he would provide a service to in that small area. Breakdowns are what a friend of mine in the same trade calls his 'bread and butter' as he does those the most. If every home had a boiler fitted which would last 'forever' the work for Corgi registered engineers would drop dramatically.

neilios

dori2o wrote: »

This is for my brother. He's a self employed plumber/Gas engineer (CORGI) and has been self employed for approx 18 months, he currently has around 8 years plumbing/heating experience.

From when he started self employment up to Xmas, he'd been contracting for British Gas 3-4 days a week, along with doing his private work for the remaining 3-4 days of the week.

Suddenly he's found that all his work has dried up. BG have not contacted him since xmas, and he's just about surviving on the odds and sods he's getting privately.

He's also been knocked back on a few jobs recently, which I think is to do with the price he charges. Not that it is too much, but too cheap. (according to the price some other heating engineers I know charge)

His quality of work is second to none. He's never had any complaints, and has several letters from customers via BG praising him for his work. H

He's asked for feedback off a couple of customers that have knocked him back and they have advised that they preferred another quote although they were more expensive.

As an example, for a boiler change, like for like, my brother charges £400 labour. Is this about the right price. is it too low?

One other thing that i don't think helps is that he will only install one kind of boiler. Not because thats the only one he knows how to install obviously, but he only installs Worcesters. His argument is that he's never had to go back to one which has broken down. He hates breakdowns which was one of the reasons why he became s/employed as his previous employer had him on breakdowns for quite some time.

He refuses to fit the "lesser" boilers, i.e. Ravenheat, Biasi, Potterton etc.

What would you reccomnend he does to turn this tide?

How would he go about getting onto new build sites?

Is it worth writing to plumbing/heating companies in the area offering his services as a contractor?

He's never been in a position where he is struggling for money before, unlike me, so i want to try and help him.

Thanks in advance.

I too am a corgi engineer ,tell him not to worry you have lean spells like this ,jobs usually come in waves ,one minute your quiet the next minute your really busy .

If he gets really desparate he can always do agency work for a while too.

Its hard to quantify why some people do not accept your quote ,but thats how it is ,maybe the customers just didn't like him or he was too cheap,expensive ,we get it all the time ,quote for 6 jobs and only get 2 lol .

Some folks just want a estimate of the cost of work ,you maybe the 3rd plumber to do so then they will choose either to have the work done or not,i honestly believe alot of folks are timewasters too,epesicially the so called diy experts lol.

As for the boiler we only fit broags ,worcesters or vailants,for the simple reason that people tend to get very upset that there new super condensing ,energy saving boiler breaksdown within 2yrs ,and i for one don't want to call round to someones house having to explain why you have to charge them to fix it,because of cheaper parts and manufacturing of the lower end boilers.

On the pricing side of things he has to get a feel for the customers and what he is willing to work for ,i mean sometimes we make £25 a day and sometimes its £600 ,just remember to have a stash for the lean times .

I like been self employed you can have days off when you like and nothing is worse than being nagged by a muppet boss ,why work to make someone else rich .

UK007BullDog

Has he got good customer service skills and can he sell himself as well? Maybe he needs to go and brush up a little on that.

For me price is not the main factor. I must feel comfortable that the person knows their job. They must be polite, clean (within reason, shaving, deodorant, hair cut) proper work clothes to look the part.

Also a fact find is good to find out what does the customer actually want? Maybe its good to throw in some ideas. maybe its not just old out, new in. Talk about saving the customer money in the long run and always listen to the customers budget. Dont be too negative.

As for only Worcesters, they may be good but none are better than others, some peoples budget is very tight so they go to B&Q and buy a cheap one to get fitted. So some sensitivity might be in order.

Another thing, There is a credit crunch going on right now. People are shopping around and look hard and take longer to make a decision. They are also hoping that summer is here soon.

Plus another thing, BG is training up a lot of youngsters to keep on permanently as they had too much negative feedback from their contracted installers, which I can attest myself as we were victims of a racist and very rude contractor. BG sent out their own team 2 days later to change our system. At that time my son was doing a plumbing apprenticeship and decided he wanted to be a gas man. He is now doing an apprenticeship with BG and is loving it. He tells me BG wants to use just inhouse staff and no longer use contractors. This might be impacting on you.

ceridwen

Speaking as the owner of an old dump of a house (hence I've had goodness knows how many workmen in doing various jobs on the place since I bought it). Then - from a customers viewpoint:

- Yes, first and foremost it sounds like he needs to give customers the choice of boilers.

-Generally - by now what I REALLY appreciate is if a workman (of any description) takes the trouble to explain my options to me for doing whatever-job-it-is - as in: if you pick product A it will be such-and-such quality and cost you £x. Pick product B it will be so-and-so quality and cost you £y.

Theres things I cant stand by now:
- anyone just going ahead doing things whatever-way-they-think-they-will and with whatever-product-they-think-they-will

- those who dont clear up after themselves (leaving the house EXACTLY as it was before they started - except the job has been done).

- those who damage something else whilst doing a job (and theres never ever the appropriate apology/offer to deduct accordingly from their bill to cover the cost of putting it back to normal).

- those who dont take account of how the householder is actually likely to be living in the house (eg I've had a floor ventilation grille put in by the Gas Board before now - facing the sofa. Hence every time I sat on it I was facing this "thing" set in my carpet (I had them back to reposition it out of line of vision). Specifically - when I had to have my boiler changed - so I was getting the missing house thermostat installed as part of this he just put in a dial one without asking what type I wanted. Since getting access to the Internet I can see that they are supposed to be digital and adjustable to "exactly" the temperature required and it is my decision to have one of those - but its too late now - I'm stuck with the wrong one, as he didnt tell me there was the two options of which type to have and just put in the cheaper one willy-nilly without consulting with me (:mad: now angry with him that he made MY decision).

By now - it would be worth paying a bit extra for something in my opinion if I knew for sure I was getting all my options explained to me/a decent standard of workmanship (rare as hens teeth in Britain unfortunately - 90% of the jobs in my house have been done to the typical low British standards. By now any workman with a German name and accent will be booked on the spot and chuck all other estimates.)/punctuality (I dont want to be sitting there ever again 10 minutes after a workman is due wondering where he is and why he has apparently lost my phonenumber to contact me and apologise/explain his lateness).

baldelectrician

I think he needs to open his market to other boilers.

There are some items I just refuse to fit - Gainsborough Showers; Galaxy Showers.

Otherwise I try and advise the customer (usually with a few anecdotes thrown in).

I do make it clear that when I am charging labour only for the work, and if the product goes faulty (and I haven't supplied it) then they may be liable for additional labour.

Concequently if I supply an item and something is faulty / or missing then it's MY problem and I deal with it free (if in guarantee)

neilios

I do agree on the point of customer service skills ,alot of tradesmen are very poor at this and lack of communication causes lots of problems .

Presenting options to the customer also helps and listening to what they want as long as it is within the guidelines and is safe .

On the other hand if the customer cleared and prepared the various work ares for tradesmen there would be alot less problems ,following a tradesmen around offering tidbits of advice is annoying and rude often asking for work that is downright unsafe and illegal.

We are currently putting right a bespoke ensuite bathroom fitted by a diy expert who had placed a double socket in there ,as well as purchasing a shower which was previously used in a showroom with half the parts missing ,i do love diy'ers .

As for the boilers, b and q boilers are rubbish that is a fact ,and hopefully corgi will be able to restrict the sale of gas products to the public to stop cowboy tradesmen and the public endangering themselves,maybe he does need to open up his market by including cheaper boilers ,but i certainly wouldn't entertain such poor products that the large chain stores sell.

Horace

I agree that he should fit other boilers instead of just sticking to one brand. Does he have a businesslink near him? If not he could look at http://www.businesslink.gov.uk because they give advice to small businesses even people who are self-employed. He could also try speaking to his local chamber of commerce because they also offer help and advice.

He could offer his services to variious builders, take on temp work or even dare I say it emigrate to Australia because they are calling out for tradesmen over there.