UK I am thinking of becoming self-employed, any advice/help/warnings would be greatly appreciated!

[Cassells Spark]

Hello everyone I am new to this forum so ease me in gently!!!

I often found myself coming across this forum when I was seeking help or advice towards queries I had.

I am an Approved Electrician with 8 years experience across domestic, industrial, commercial and medical locations. I am often doing jobs on a night time or on a weekend and I feel it maybe time to take the plunge into self-employment and setting up on my own.

I am not naive enough to know it will be easy and a roaring success- hence why I am here. Any sort of heads up or advice that people have would be greatly appreciated or what I should be aware of by doing this sort of transaction.

Any help would be appreciated!!! Thank you!

 

[Dustydazzler]

If I were starting up a new brand today I would 100% invest in a well produced YouTube channel.
Lots of tool reviews and loads of DIY advice clips.

 

[telectrix]

you can be the best sparks going, but if you're not a ruthless businessman and a good organiser of finances/tax/etc., you'll fail. still, if you can handle the non-payers, nutty customers that change their minds half way through a job, scammers that want a big % of your earnings (useless advertising, joblead suppliers, etc.), other trades that just want to sabotage your work: go for it.

 

[Dustydazzler]

As above...

You can be a bang average sparks but good at business then you will be just fine

You can be a great sparks but awful at business then you will fail

It took me probably 3 years to get my pricing right , initially I didn't bother checking what other local sparks were charging. I just went with a flat rate of £20 per hour.
Once I found out what they were charging I suddenly realised i was about half the price of my rival sparks.
At that time in my area most sparks were nearer £40-60 per hour.
No wonder i was flat out working 7 days most weeks and people ringing me every single day asking me to do their job asap.
I was the cheapest by a country mile and rushing around like a loon for half the money

 

[pc1966]

It would help you a lot if you have a partner who can help out on the "business side" in terms of stuff like handling invoices, orders, deliveries, etc. Otherwise you can find yourself without enough time to do the work and make sure actually get paid for it!

 

[Midwest]

Some good advice. After I retired some years ago, I thought I could return to the industry, just doing odd jobs here and there, as I had a pension.

However, I found myself not being able to pay myself any money some months, just to keep paying the overheads.

Having jobs to do at nights and weekends, is not going to pay the bills. Your going to need initial bread & butter work, constantly coming in, like work from a builder, kitchen & bathroom fitters or estate agent work.

 

[Cassells Spark]

Appreciate everybody's replies thank yous very much, everything has been taken on board.

 

[Mike Johnson]

The problem with being self employed is most of the time you are too busy working to find the next commission, so when one ends you have no work to follow on with.

 

[sinewove]

As above...

You can be a bang average sparks but good at business then you will be just fine

You can be a great sparks but awful at business then you will fail

It took me probably 3 years to get my pricing right , initially I didn't bother checking what other local sparks were charging. I just went with a flat rate of £20 per hour.
Once I found out what they were charging I suddenly realised i was about half the price of my rival sparks.
At that time in my area most sparks were nearer £40-60 per hour.
No wonder i was flat out working 7 days most weeks and people ringing me every single day asking me to do their job asap.
I was the cheapest by a country mile and rushing around like a loon for half the money

Where are you based
[automerge]1584104297[/automerge]

As above...

You can be a bang average sparks but good at business then you will be just fine

You can be a great sparks but awful at business then you will fail

It took me probably 3 years to get my pricing right , initially I didn't bother checking what other local sparks were charging. I just went with a flat rate of £20 per hour.
Once I found out what they were charging I suddenly realised i was about half the price of my rival sparks.
At that time in my area most sparks were nearer £40-60 per hour.
No wonder i was flat out working 7 days most weeks and people ringing me every single day asking me to do their job asap.
I was the cheapest by a country mile and rushing around like a loon for half the money

How long ago were you charging £20/hr dusty?Up here in Yorkshire,some sparks are still charging that.?

 

[Cassells Spark]

One other thing which has been on my mind is the way in which I would pay my tax etc. Can anyone guide any light on that side of things for me please?

Appreciate all the replies. Cheers.