Newbie and advice needed

[PlumberShooter]

Sup guys im getting my gas card soon, got the van and all the tools i need. Any advice for starting a business as a self employed, anything from making own name and hate to say word about TAX. ive been reading this forum for a while and please no silly comment. Been plumbing for 3 years but downside is boiler breakdowns and wiring heating system. Thanks

 

[PlumbBobBob]

go on the hmrc website, there is loads of info

 

[Ermintrude]

Don't let any one take u for a ride. Run your firm with iron fist. And get yourself in gas forum for loads of handy tips. If your doing repairs an axe is essential

 

[Killy Bing]

Sup guys im getting my gas card soon, got the van and all the tools i need. Any advice for starting a business as a self employed, anything from making own name and hate to say word about TAX. ive been reading this forum for a while and please no silly comment. Been plumbing for 3 years but downside is boiler breakdowns and wiring heating system. Thanks

Welcome ! This forum will be a huge help to you, has been to me and we have the similar amount of time in the industry.

Register as a sole trader for your self employment to start with and get 2 million public liability.

also look up single entry book keeping and start making yourself some spread sheets up to chart your purchases and income.
the taxman will want to know these figures at the end of the tax year.

 

[Super Mario]

Sup guys im getting my gas card soon, got the van and all the tools i need. Any advice for starting a business as a self employed, anything from making own name and hate to say word about TAX. ive been reading this forum for a while and please no silly comment. Been plumbing for 3 years but downside is boiler breakdowns and wiring heating system. Thanks

Mate im in the exact same boat, same amount of experience looking to get experience in breakdowns. Im gona go on few Manufacturers courses to learn more about faults. How much is it to register your own company on gas safe register and do they come out and see you?

 

[Killy Bing]

Mate im in the exact same boat, same amount of experience looking to get experience in breakdowns. Im gona go on few Manufacturers courses to learn more about faults. How much is it to register your own company on gas safe register and do they come out and see you?

I think its around 370 with vat ontop of it.

you register and go under probation, you have to notify all your gas works and then have an inspection as far as im aware, im about to do the same thing.

 

[Super Mario]

Would you say its better to work for a firm to gain experience in breakdowns?Even though they all require 5 years experience.

 

[kirkgas]

Would you say its better to work for a firm to gain experience in breakdowns?Even though they all require 5 years experience.

That's a no brainer, you will drown on your own trying to fix boilers, at best you might get some customers to pay for the parts that you chuck at the boiler to get it going, but your reputation will take a hammering by visiting 3-4 times and invoicing £300-400 to fix a boiler, at worst they won't pay you for the first 2-3 visits as it isn't working, they will know you are bluffing/struggling.
If you get a job with a firm you want to be on servicing for a while till you get a feel for working on boilers, the ideal situation, and one I used myself for 6 guys we took on via gas foundation where they were retraining at college and coming to us for placement was to start them off servicing only for 6months, then as they got better I put them into 2nd fix repairs, we looked after 14,000 HA houses that got serviced every 10 months, plus repairs so we had the contracts for this, if one of the regular guys needed to order a part and go back cause it wasn't part of his stock I would send one of the new guys to fit the part, it gave them experience and confidence of fixing, and if the first part didn't fix it they would phone the original guy and talk to him about what to order next, once their experience built up they got onto trying first fix to see how they got on, it worked well, and the 7 of them are still there and have done their ACS renewal so that's 5 years under their belt now, I appreciate these jobs are few and far between but go for the contractors who are doing the HA work you will get maybe £10 per hour to start with but with limited experience it's all you will get, and then it's up to youm to prove you are worth more

 

[Killy Bing]

That's a no brainer, you will drown on your own trying to fix boilers, at best you might get some customers to pay for the parts that you chuck at the boiler to get it going, but your reputation will take a hammering by visiting 3-4 times and invoicing £300-400 to fix a boiler, at worst they won't pay you for the first 2-3 visits as it isn't working, they will know you are bluffing/struggling.
If you get a job with a firm you want to be on servicing for a while till you get a feel for working on boilers, the ideal situation, and one I used myself for 6 guys we took on via gas foundation where they were retraining at college and coming to us for placement was to start them off servicing only for 6months, then as they got better I put them into 2nd fix repairs, we looked after 14,000 HA houses that got serviced every 10 months, plus repairs so we had the contracts for this, if one of the regular guys needed to order a part and go back cause it wasn't part of his stock I would send one of the new guys to fit the part, it gave them experience and confidence of fixing, and if the first part didn't fix it they would phone the original guy and talk to him about what to order next, once their experience built up they got onto trying first fix to see how they got on, it worked well, and the 7 of them are still there and have done their ACS renewal so that's 5 years under their belt now, I appreciate these jobs are few and far between but go for the contractors who are doing the HA work you will get maybe £10 per hour to start with but with limited experience it's all you will get, and then it's up to youm to prove you are worth more

Fully agree
mario im in a similar boat with repairs but luckily i can read a book or manual and get stuck right into it.

ive been able to learn the gas trains and sequences pretty well and under stand what component does what and how they fail.
i can also use a multimeter!

If you're jumping in at the deep end like i have you have to get your head in gear and under stand exactly whats in a boiler.
Get on the manufacturers courses for a start, baxi do a great three day course.

also you need another engineer to fall back on if you mess up.

 

[albatross]

ive been reading this forum for a while and please no silly comment.

You can't expect some free advice without a bit of banter!

Get public liability insurance.
Go on free manufacturers courses. Boiler ones and Honeywell is good for wiring.
Get contracts signed and deposits for any job over say £500.There are alot of people out there with no intention of paying.
After trying a few, pick a boiler make you like and stick with them. Speak to their reps. Life is much easier when you are familiar with one range. Most manufacturers will reward your loyalty with free stuff/installers schemes/customers leads/branding. If you fit one make you can start keeping a choice of flues/controllers etc just in case. It's easier fitting the same make of boiler each week then unpacking something strange and scratching your head on every install. You look more professional linked to a big known brand. Customers are reassured if they think the manufacturers have approved/trained/recommended you.

Don't take on big jobs at first till you have built up experience and confidence. If you get the quote wrong you could end up doing a ten grand job for 5 grand, getting half way through and have your head in your hands or go bust. Don't work for builders.

 

[Super Mario]

That's a no brainer, you will drown on your own trying to fix boilers, at best you might get some customers to pay for the parts that you chuck at the boiler to get it going, but your reputation will take a hammering by visiting 3-4 times and invoicing £300-400 to fix a boiler, at worst they won't pay you for the first 2-3 visits as it isn't working, they will know you are bluffing/struggling.
If you get a job with a firm you want to be on servicing for a while till you get a feel for working on boilers, the ideal situation, and one I used myself for 6 guys we took on via gas foundation where they were retraining at college and coming to us for placement was to start them off servicing only for 6months, then as they got better I put them into 2nd fix repairs, we looked after 14,000 HA houses that got serviced every 10 months, plus repairs so we had the contracts for this, if one of the regular guys needed to order a part and go back cause it wasn't part of his stock I would send one of the new guys to fit the part, it gave them experience and confidence of fixing, and if the first part didn't fix it they would phone the original guy and talk to him about what to order next, once their experience built up they got onto trying first fix to see how they got on, it worked well, and the 7 of them are still there and have done their ACS renewal so that's 5 years under their belt now, I appreciate these jobs are few and far between but go for the contractors who are doing the HA work you will get maybe £10 per hour to start with but with limited experience it's all you will get, and then it's up to youm to prove you are worth more

THanks for the advice so you recommend starting out as a servicing engineer with a firm get more comfortable instead of diving in. I still need to buy a gas analyzer apparently my college do deals on the Kane 425 455 what do you guys think of this, and multimeters are quite cheap buy not sure which is best?

 

[PlumberShooter]

Thank you very very much for all the advice coming from very experience engineers. I will try my best do all necessary things to do from book keeping, manufactures courses, honeywell wiring and above all experience on real world. Hope you all very busy doing gas jobs and take care.

 

[iain85]

You can't expect some free advice without a bit of banter!

Get public liability insurance.
Go on free manufacturers courses. Boiler ones and Honeywell is good for wiring.
Get contracts signed and deposits for any job over say £500.There are alot of people out there with no intention of paying.
After trying a few, pick a boiler make you like and stick with them. Speak to their reps. Life is much easier when you are familiar with one range. Most manufacturers will reward your loyalty with free stuff/installers schemes/customers leads/branding. If you fit one make you can start keeping a choice of flues/controllers etc just in case. It's easier fitting the same make of boiler each week then unpacking something strange and scratching your head on every install. You look more professional linked to a big known brand. Customers are reassured if they think the manufacturers have approved/trained/recommended you.

Don't take on big jobs at first till you have built up experience and confidence. If you get the quote wrong you could end up doing a ten grand job for 5 grand, getting half way through and have your head in your hands or go bust. Don't work for builders.

Really good advice here. Also to add, don't work for estate agents. Parasitic scum.

 

[Super Mario]

Really good advice here. Also to add, don't work for estate agents. Parasitic scum.

Really ? how come

 

[kirkgas]

Really ? how come

Because most want us to work for a pittance while they bleat how skint they are to the owners, just a middle man to eat into the potential profit

 

[dc84]

Hi I set up my own business 4 years ago after doing my acs, I was ok as I worked along side a gas engineer for 5 years before that, so I had some experience.
All the advice on here is excellent, you really need a good few years experience before going self employed so getting a job as a service engineer is the first step.
If you still want to go on your own here is some do's and don'ts

do;

get a business account from day one
get a proper invoice book with you logos on it so you can bill them straight away
get an accountant
do small jobs
stick at it, minimise your monthly outgoings so you can't ride out the quiet times while you build up customers
Always read manufactures instructions it will make you learn more about appliances

don't

do big jobs, like new builds etc
undercharge
overcharge
rip people off
work for builders
give kickbacks to estate agents for work
pay any attention to emails about work contracts or eco boiler schemes

most important thing it takes years to build up a rep and a customer base. It takes 5 mins to loose it
good luck

 

[AMGasServices]

Always give good customer service. I.e. You go to do a job you fix the problem customer calls you up saying I've got the same problem. Please go back.