Because when I'm abroad for 3 months at a time due to my other responsibilities, who would take me on? I've done agency labouring construction which was sometimes fun, but without the security of set hours, and the pay isn't much.If that’s your day rate, why are you working for yourself when you can get that working for someone else, without all the headache of running your own jobs, getting materials, quotes etc.
Well, if we say the van costs me 55p a mile, and I put 15% of the rest aside to cover insurance and stuff, I would say my takehome from that could be around £150. It would be alright if I were getting 3-4 days a week.After your overheads, what are you actually taking home? £150, £130 a day?
You're also a gas installer, presumably with unvented: I have an NVQ2. And I bet you're faster than I am. Also, if London is more than M25, it stands to reason Essex/Suffolk border cannot be as much as M25. How much less is a good question though! My plan was to advertise and get to the point where I could afford to lose work on price, but after my father died, the plan changed to being to keep my hand in, and keeping existing customers serviced, until I get the other stuff sorted out and can concentrate on my work.You pretty much need to double your prices. I’m outer London, within m25 and I’m anywhere between £400-£600 a day depending on domestic/commercial.
Go into London and it’s £750-£1,100.
The point I'm making is that while those costs are non-negotiable, so is the customer budget.Forget factoring in materials, the materials cost is the materials. That cost will be similar whoever does the work.
Exactly.Just make sure the quality backs up the price.
Out of interest, do you do anything specific to encourage referals or does it just happen?