Self employed/ contracting gas work

[sgasman1]

Hi all. Sorry for another boring topic on going it alone. Have read through previous ones and am a little more worried now lol but have found some useful info. Work for a national company at the moment mainly doing boiler repairs. I've been doing this for 10 years on a variety of boilers and systems so am fairly experienced. I was initially going to sign up to someone like Homeserve or Corgi home plan, try and get in with some estate agents, and obviously start advertising myself. I'm based in west London so plenty of options I guess, but just wanted to know if this is a good way to start and if anyone was doing similar? I'm on 40k ish a year at mo, but fed up of current employers. I understand the extra work involved, probably not fully till I take the plunge, but am used to long days and lots of weekend working which I currently do. Any advise appreciated

 

[ShaunCorbs]

Good luck I wouldn’t recommend going to places like them as

Service / check around 25-30
And hour rate on break downs will be around the 20-25 mark

I would keep on my 40k tbh no need to worrie about finding work in an saturated market also race to the bottom

 

[hammers4spanner]

Go direct to homeserve , need to jump through a fair few hoops and paperwork excercise but pays alot if you can be bothered.

 

[sgasman1]

Go direct to homeserve , need to jump through a fair few hoops and paperwork excercise but pays alot if you can be bothered.

Sorry do you mean as a contractor or direct employee?

 

[Rob Foster]

There are some fellas that are absolute natural self employed
in any sphere of business..in our industry, their are many barriers to entry..GSR etc. but
if you feel up to it have a go. I did and many others on here also. BUT to be a success you really need to be at all times positive ...and look a solutions not problems. There are always problems being your own boss ..its how YOU deal with these problems...if you are not up to it then stay employed or step out and bite the bullet....Rob Foster aka centralheatking

 

[nikodemus]

Hi all. Sorry for another boring topic on going it alone. Have read through previous ones and am a little more worried now lol but have found some useful info. Work for a national company at the moment mainly doing boiler repairs. I've been doing this for 10 years on a variety of boilers and systems so am fairly experienced. I was initially going to sign up to someone like Homeserve or Corgi home plan, try and get in with some estate agents, and obviously start advertising myself. I'm based in west London so plenty of options I guess, but just wanted to know if this is a good way to start and if anyone was doing similar? I'm on 40k ish a year at mo, but fed up of current employers. I understand the extra work involved, probably not fully till I take the plunge, but am used to long days and lots of weekend working which I currently do. Any advise appreciated

Dont bother with CORGI as they arn`t CORGI as you and all know them . They operate under a licence . They are imho not a professional company . They will also try and manipulate your invoices and it will cost you to work for them if you get my drift . The homeserve one may be the better option . thx dave

 

[hammers4spanner]

Sorry do you mean as a contractor or direct employee?

Contractor but an approved one direct to them ,

 

[AMGasServices]

The homeserve one may be the better option . thx dave

Homeserve is always looking for one man bands. The pay isn’t brilliant. Homeserve has engineers all over the place and they will only sub work out If they can’t get to it. At 4/5pm you’ll get a few calls.

 

[hammers4spanner]

Homeserve is always looking for one man bands. The pay isn’t brilliant. Homeserve has engineers all over the place and they will only sub work out If they can’t get to it. At 4/5pm you’ll get a few calls.

Thats why i said become an approved one get full rate of pay .
Friend does it earns a packet and you get paid on completion. Earns couple k a week but like u say he has to jump through alot of hoops

 

[Millsy 82]

If I could work for a company then at the moment I would but working for someone winds me up.

I'm no economist so I may be wrong but even I can see that we are heading into a recession. Not just because of brexit i do believe that people will hold off buying things unless they really have to but the main thing is the building industry at the moment is out of control (or at least around me it seems to be) they are building so many homes so quick that they are going to mess the building trade up for the next 10-15 years. I've already noticed that those houses that were starter homes are up for sale longer than they would be because 1st time buyers are buying through the help to buy scheme with only a 5% deposit but then they get stuck in those houses as they struggle to sell them as the next would be owners need a 10 or 20% deposit. So give it a few years all trades will be saturated by site plumbers hippies etc and prices will plummet.

 

[Rob Foster]

If I could work for a company then at the moment I would but working for someone winds me up.

I'm no economist so I may be wrong but even I can see that we are heading into a recession. Not just because of brexit i do believe that people will hold off buying things unless they really have to but the main thing is the building industry at the moment is out of control (or at least around me it seems to be) they are building so many homes so quick that they are going to mess the building trade up for the next 10-15 years. I've already noticed that those houses that were starter homes are up for sale longer than they would be because 1st time buyers are buying through the help to buy scheme with only a 5% deposit but then they get stuck in those houses as they struggle to sell them as the next would be owners need a 10 or 20% deposit. So give it a few years all trades will be saturated by site plumbers hippies etc and prices will plummet.

You are absolutely spot on with your analysis, I have friends in the property business and do a bit of surveying...over supply is nearly upon us....centralheatking

 

[hammers4spanner]

Biggest new build site in the southwest of england is just up the road for me and it looks awfull. Be fun when electric cars come in and need charging lol