private work

[hammers4spanner]

Evening all

This is a question to smaller firms mainly

How many of you solely manage to make a living out of this game just by doing private houses?

I'm not counting work for builders or any second source

talking about managing to get your own work just yourself and make a living off it?

 

[SimonG]

Indeed.

 

[erpkid]

Every day, thankfully. Small but busy...still

 

[helpsy]

I do alright at it mate turnover currently at £80K.

 

[erpkid]

Every time we have dealt with builders or other third parties it has not been as pleasant as I would like. They are not all bad but they are all after their percent and withhold money earned or otherwise.

 

[helpsy]

Had a builder withold CIS payment deductions paperwork(£350)

 

[erpkid]

Had a builder withold CIS payment deductions paperwork(£350)

Exactly. Legal but a pain !

 

[Masood]

I do OK. Hoping to get into commercial but that's not for the money but the challenge.

 

[hammers4spanner]

I do OK. Hoping to get into commercial but that's not for the money but the challenge.

Not worth the grief

 

[stratplus]

I do alright at it mate turnover currently at £80K.

Does that include materials?

 

[Leo21]

I do all my own work to, can be a hassle but your not reliant on any one source of work.

 

[lame plumber]

wouldnt look at doing it any other way, only responsible to the house owner, no builders or other parties to screw your life up. 4 repair jobs a day can bring in more than £300, so much better than day rates screwed down by some builder.

 

[solutions]

Most of my work comes from a few customers who I started for by doing private work in there homes but now do all the repair instalation servicing and certification for there small property portfolios. I have 4 different clients with between 5 or 15 properties each At times this keeps me busy especially when they buy a new property as typically means new boiler and other general plumbing repairs. Other than these small laandlords, private work, (installs but mainly repairs) keep the bills paid and I find I spend much less time now without work than I did even last year.

Its just a question of building a critical mass of loyal customers. Onxe that ball is rolling they generate more work for you simply through recomendations. Almost all of my work now follows the 6 degrees of seperation rule. The theory that you are only ever seperated from meeting anyone else in the world by 6 connections. For example you pass someone in the street who you have never met but turns out they are a friend of someone your exs sister whent to college with.
Almost all my work can be traced back to another existing customer or job I have done in the passed.

 

[cr0ft]

£130k (excluding VAT) of turnover over the last 12 months, around 99% of this is to domestic customers. This is in Lincoln of course, a pretty poor city really. We charge £250 plus VAT per day and some people grumble about our prices, we point them to our competitors when they do, unless they can pass us a lot of business.

Business is growing very quickly. It can definitely be done. I don't know how old your business is but it took me 3 years before it really started to take off. The weird thing is no one says directly I've been recommended because most of my work comes from online reviews of our company. I know I have been though because they say they found me online!

I was struggling for a while to make a healthy turnover and profit to domestic customers. Ironically, when I stopped focussing on the money and started focussing on making my customers happy at all costs my business started to grow very well.

I charge a healthy 30% markup on every part/sanitaryware items I sell. This has made us £14k of profit last year which is money straight into our bank. It paid for our 2nd van tools and stock basically.

Don't feel guilty about this. The likes of Toolstation and other large companies will make much larger profits than this on the items they sell. There's a good chance if you do bathroom installations that you sell more materials than labour in your business and spend a lot of time ordering/returning items etc.

 

[PlumbersMate]

£130k (excluding VAT) of turnover over the last 12 months, around 99% of this is to domestic customers. This is in Lincoln of course, a pretty poor city really. We charge £250 plus VAT per day and some people grumble about our prices, we point them to our competitors when they do, unless they can pass us a lot of business.

Business is growing very quickly. It can definitely be done. I don't know how old your business is but it took me 3 years before it really started to take off. The weird thing is no one says directly I've been recommended because most of my work comes from online reviews of our company. I know I have been though because they say they found me online!

I was struggling for a while to make a healthy turnover and profit to domestic customers. Ironically, when I stopped focussing on the money and started focussing on making my customers happy at all costs my business started to grow very well.

I charge a healthy 30% markup on every part/sanitaryware items I sell. This has made us £14k of profit last year which is money straight into our bank. It paid for our 2nd van tools and stock basically.

Don't feel guilty about this. The likes of Toolstation and other large companies will make much larger profits than this on the items they sell. There's a good chance if you do bathroom installations that you sell more materials than labour in your business and spend a lot of time ordering/returning items etc.

Love how you run your business croft would love to pick your brain over a pint when I'm in Lincoln next

 

[cr0ft]

That would be grand. It would be great to catch up with someone else off the forum tbh. Don't think there are many of us over in Lincoln! Just let me know when you are over this way and I'm sure we can have a pint or two.

 

[EPH]

£130k (excluding VAT) of turnover over the last 12 months, around 99% of this is to domestic customers. This is in Lincoln of course, a pretty poor city really. We charge £250 plus VAT per day and some people grumble about our prices, we point them to our competitors when they do, unless they can pass us a lot of business.

Business is growing very quickly. It can definitely be done. I don't know how old your business is but it took me 3 years before it really started to take off. The weird thing is no one says directly I've been recommended because most of my work comes from online reviews of our company. I know I have been though because they say they found me online!

I was struggling for a while to make a healthy turnover and profit to domestic customers. Ironically, when I stopped focussing on the money and started focussing on making my customers happy at all costs my business started to grow very well.

I charge a healthy 30% markup on every part/sanitaryware items I sell. This has made us £14k of profit last year which is money straight into our bank. It paid for our 2nd van tools and stock basically.

Don't feel guilty about this. The likes of Toolstation and other large companies will make much larger profits than this on the items they sell. There's a good chance if you do bathroom installations that you sell more materials than labour in your business and spend a lot of time ordering/returning items etc.

Almost exactly the same scenario here.