Going self employed

ImBoredDotIe

Hi

After being lucky enough to get a good few nixers over the last while I am now considering becoming self employed as an Electrician.

I was wondering what kind of money I should charge per hour to customers if working by time. Is €35 too much?? After all expenses are taken away i'd like to be making a decent enough wage!!!

Also, how much does insurance generally cost per year?

Thanks for responding and any help would be great as I dont really have a clue about this stuff!

ghosttown

I'm not an electrician, so maybe here someone can tell you the normal rates, but in my opinion, I'd like a call out rate, then a price per job.

I always stay away from people who charge hourly rates, as you're never sure if they are dragging it out.

Say 30 per call out, then price the job, have a general guide price for oft requested jobs.

That way you'll probably earn more anyway if most nixers take less than an hour ?

meercat

please please please dont go self employed
take it from me ,now is not the time
if you have a steady job with a regular income,hold onto it for dear life

insurance 660 per year

Juwwi

Do you have a job at the moment OP ?

I would also strongly advise against going self employed.
Doing a few nixers is totally different to getting work all year round.
There is lads out there who have been self employed for years who have made many contacts over the years who are struggling now.
Its getting worse aswell.


Im not an electrican by the way but am self employed.

meercat

robbie1977 wrote: »

There is lads out there who have been self employed for years who have made many contacts over the years who are struggling now.
Its getting worse as well.

well put

2011

ImBoredDotIe wrote: »

Hi
I was wondering what kind of money I should charge per hour to customers if working by time. Is €35 too much?? After all expenses are taken away i'd like to be making a decent enough wage!!!

Remember if you are self employed:

1) Some people will just refuse to pay you and there is very little you can do about it

2) Mistakes that are your fault, such a pricing a job too low, a forgotten cable etc can mean that you will make a loss on some jobs.

3) Mistakes that are not your fault such as a customer insisting that you agreed to do something differently or materials failing can also mean that you will make a loss on some jobs.

4) If you do your work to the correct standard (as per the ETCI regulations) your price will often be massively undercut by competitors that are "less conscientious".

5) If you spend a day (or 2 or 3) pricing or looking at jobs this is time that you are working but not getting paid.

6) The Irish Economy is not doing too well at the moment. Do you think that you will have large enough a customer base to sustain a new business?

7) You will have to invest in tools, test equipment, transport which all cost money to buy, replace and maintain. It is inventible that quite a bit of kit will get stolen too.

8) You will be competing against some of the many unemployed electricians that are all doing nixers!

9) You may feel that by charging €35 per hour will provide you with a descent wage, but many potential customers simply can't afford that. By the way you will have to charge VAT on top of that!

10) Accountants are not cheap either!!

paddymick

Everything said above thats against going self employed at the moment is bang on trust me!!Unless you have a major contract guaranteeing work for the next few years forget about it.
I have good steady work at the minute but I still have to ask myself is all the crap and effort involved worth it especially when it comes to collecting money:mad::mad: Even my reliable guys have become difficult over the last few months its like you are always behind and theres no catching up,Any money you made off your last job has already been pumped into your next job its very hard to get back ahead of yourself.

And then theres that lovely tax bill you get at the end of the year:eek:
Plus no sick days
no holiday pay
and on and on and on

Theres a hell of a lot of reasons why I would advice against it and really only one thing I can think of thats good about it and thats the freedom to come and go when you like aslong as you remember that when your not working your not earning!

M cebee

Work and income is diminishing rapidly at the moment ime

for obvious reasons

M cebee

Out of interest is there anything to stop the guys on dole/doing nixers being registered and certifying work

has anything changed there?
most of them seemed to buy their certs off cowboy contractors or reci/ecssa anyhow

slavetothegrind

as a self employed person apart from all the good advice above i would be sure to write out each job spec and detail the work to be done and the fee involved.
Also stress the payment terms, deposit final payment.

Without a written agreement you will get the neverending but i thought you would do that socket for me and sure it won't take a minute to change this aswell, customers will do this repeatedly and will EXPECT credit if you haven't stated pay when complete.

Retailers are the worst! Most do not operate credit terms with their customers but expect to get credit with you!

In short it's a bollox being self employed. Maybe it's easier if you have no concience or standards, i wouldn't know.

These days when you get a new customer out of the blue you are also wondering why they don't use the last guy? owed money?
Sad but all to common state of affairs.

As said above if you have a job hold on to it for dear life

2011

slavetothegrind wrote: »

as a self employed person apart from all the good advice above i would be sure to write out each job spec and detail the work to be done and the fee involved.
Also stress the payment terms, deposit final payment.

I am self employed for over 10 years, much of it as an electrical contractor. I agree with your advice, but in the real world it doesn't always work.

Remember writing out job specifications in great detail is time consuming and time is money! Often customers don't understand it anyway and they often can't read drawings either.

M cebee

No disagree

you have to write a job spec and price for anything substantial

and comfirm payment terms

cosanostra

I wouldn't advise anyone to go self employed your new boss will become the tax man and your bank manager, you will only be giving yourself heartache, let your current boss do that and you can go home every evening and switch off he can't

2011

M cebee wrote: »

you have to write a job spec and price for anything substantial

and comfirm payment terms

Agreed, which is why I said:

I agree with your advice, but in the real world it doesn't always work.

I was just trying to show that this doesn't guarantee success.

slavetothegrind

you are dead right it does not guarantee anything but just reduces the arguement to i'm not paying you because i can't or won't rather than a he said she said arguement over what was agreed and what wasn't.

Of course you are going to get the awkward git who will argue that he prefers brand x over the perfectly equal brand y you chose but all we can do is stack it as much in our favour as possible.

I do have decent honest customers btw, it's not all doom and gloom but the others are the ones that make it so hard

I think if i was offered a half decent paying full time job right now i would take it, i am beginning to let it get to me too much. A personal failing i know.

2011

+1

liveandnetural

+2



if you have any type of a job stay in it !!!!!!!!!contracting is a nightmare or even a minefield at the moment and will be for a few years