im training with t4ts and i can see wat redsaw is saying, im only 4 months into my course so can t compete with the pro's yet but i have a buisiness background and personally i think at least 75% percent of fast trackers will have to go down the self employed route. from my experience in dealing with plumbers that have let me go out and work with them, none of them seem to want to drop their prices in the current economic climate, they say they need to get as much money as possible from the work they do have, which i can understand.. but, personaly i would slash prices by at least a third on big jobs, bite the bullet and do some proper advertising and im sure you would get some work if your prices were a lot cheaper than the competition. when i am qualified i will advertise as plumber, doing gas as well, i wll have someone i can sub work out to , obviosly getting my small cut and along with that and the knowledge and experience watching the guy do the work, if he dont like it, he can get stuffed and ill find someone who does want the work.. anyone doing one of the fast track courses just remember,there are people on here whohave managed to run succesful buisiness's and i can also tell you another fact, there are lot of people out there who have passed there courses and have got nowhere because they dont realise theat just because you have passed a plumbing course and got your qualifications that you will be automatically good at running a buisiness, running a buisiness is going to be lot harder then passing your course.. sorry to have gone off the subject a bit, you know how it is!!! just one last thing, id just like to say, i never realised how hard a plumbers a life is, you guys deserve every penny you get.. hopefully this reccession will be over in the next decade!!