self employment decisions

[Carp87]

Hi all, I've had a read of similar threads and am going through my own decisions at the moment.
Spent 8 years at BG and currently work for a manufacturer earning around 40k. Fed up of doing 3 times as many jobs per day as would be reasonable for a self employed engineer and having to rush around. Fed up of being refused holiday and forced overtime. And mostly fed up of being told how I should do my job by managers who don't know what they are doing themselves.

Problem as I see it is I specialise in service and repair work with little to no install / pipework experience which seems to be where a lot of the private guys earn their money. The flip side is my diagnosis and ability to fix problems first time is excellent. While I don't need to earn 40k+ to be comfortable, I do need realistically to make 30k. I have a fair chunk of savings for start up costs or to support my income for a couple of years if it's hard going. I would also look to spend some days a week contracting perhaps for BG where I have contacts. I intend to promote heavily on social media as well as handing out flyers door to door and promote the ex British gas angle which seems to mean a lot to customers.

What's a realistic self employed gas engineer likely to earn? Will I need to get experienced with install work? Is contracting a good idea?

 

[rpm]

Google for people doing the same kind of work in your local areas, see what you are going to be up against.

 

[townfanjon]

I have a pal who works for BG whos boiler fault finding makes me look like an idiot .
He has always wanted to go on his own , but every time he brings it up I say no .
IMO , to run a business just on boiler repairs will never work , you need installs and also plumbing . Good luck if you do make the leap though .

 

[IND_Nick]

Morning,
As stated above you may struggle to earn a similar wage solely through boiler repairs and servicing, especially in the short term, 3 to 5 years. It would take a lot of advertising etc to establish as a boiler repair company and you would be up against the big companies and manufacturers.
We run with 3 of us, always having projects on the go and I tend to pick up the boiler breakdowns as they come in through the winter. During the summer very little in the way of breakdowns come in, we service our own installs but I find most other servicing comes at the start if winter when people start having little faults with boiler etc.
I also have a love hate relationship with being self employed. It is great being your own boss, but the buck stops with you and no sick/holiday/overtime pay.
However after 8 years the business is doing well, we have a great loyal customer base and other than the odd bad day I can genuinely say I thoroughly enjoy what I do. So weigh up the options and if you chose to do it make a plan and stay committed. Also get a good accountant/book keeper and system in place as I know loads of great plumbers who struggle as they are not good business brains, and vice versa!!!

 

[Christopher buzzard]

There’s a father and son business in my area that only do boiler servicing and break downs. they make a good earning from it. The father was ex BG. But its taken time to build up and their client base. We are in a rural area so i guess there isn’t that much competition.