Garnering some extra income

[YoungBart]

Morning all,
after being a sparky for 8 years and then walking out of my job after a disagreement with management I recently landed myself a role as a design engineer, which is going well, however I've taken a huge pay cut to get the role as I'm only classed as a 'junior', and now it would appear that my parents where right 'the bills don't pay themselves'
so I was thinking of putting my electrical skills to good use and trying to figure out a way of just getting a few weekend jobs for extra cash, anyone had to do this before? If so what's the best way to go about it? Should I start up my own company?
I didn't really want to join a scheme as its a bit of a waste really?
Or can I just stick an ad in the local village newsletter and see what pops up?
Any help or advice would be great.

 

[Richard Burns]

Just register with HMRC as self employed (as well as PAYE), get a paperwork system in order so that you can keep track of all the details of the work you are doing.
Plan out how much you need to charge to make enough profit and compare this to the going rates in your area to see if it is a viable proposition.
Make sure you have the tools available to do the work you intend to do.
Keep up good standards of work.
Advertise locally and see how things go, weekend work can be limited.
Good luck.

 

[Midwest]

Use to do 'Private jobs' when I was a young sparks. Bit more difficult now these days with schemes etc. If your competent enough (not being rude) and can test & certify, you could do minor works stuff. Loads of sparks out there though. Don't think you'll pick up much work, with just an ad in the local rag. Perhaps you could ring around the smaller firms/sole traders, see if any of them need a hand at weekends.

 

[Octopus]

Best you peruse the business section - there is lots of useful info in there, but you need to consider PL insurance as mandatory and also change you vehicle use to cover business use.

as for scheme membership the cheapest is currently Stroma @ £288 per year

 

[YoungBart]

Thanks for the advice guys, completely forgot about Insurance and the such, I think I'll ring round some local guys and see if they need help or have any work etc.

 

[Octopus]

Thanks for the advice guys, completely forgot about Insurance and the such, I think I'll ring round some local guys and see if they need help or have any work etc.

Good man - a thanks goes a long way, especially like this.