How long have you been tiling for?

[felix]

How do other newbies like me answer that question when doing an estimate? I don't want to lie outright to the customers because I might as well sell cars if I want to do that. Its also easy to trip yourself up. On the other hand I don't want to tell them that I only did a course in June and only have 3 months experience.

Whats the best way to deal with that question?

 

[Fred]

Simply experience. Learn from things you have already come accress, topics on here,etc. I finished a job yesterday, and I always ask what the other quotes were like compared to mine. In this case, I was the highest quote, but he said I sold myself to him because I showed interest in his requirements and gave suggestions that other tiles didn't. In fact , one just said the job would be done in a day and here's the price!

Experience, knowledge, interest in customer requirements = selling yourself.

 

[DHTiling]

be honest as far as i,m concerned , everybody starts there career at some time in life...honesty always pays......the customer will appreciate it......dave..

 

[Saltire69]

Lost a job through telling some1 that i had just started up.Other tiler quoted the same but they went with him cause he had more experience.:icon9: I now try and avoid the question now. Talk about the job more as though i know what i'm doing:angel_smile:

 

[faithhealer]

Agree with Dh. Although I was dreading the question on my first few jobs!

 

[Fekin]

To be honest I can see a lot of customers refusing to use you if you say your just fresh out of a course and hardly any experiance, or even just a few months experiance.

 

[IvegotsTILE]

I once tiled my mums bathroom 6 years ago so I say I've done a bit of tiling over the years but I've also been on a special course to bring me up to speed on all the new materials and techniques that most tilers won't know about.

Its not exactly a lie just exageerating the truth,If I had the chance to have someone with 10 years experience or 10 months I thing we all know who I'd pick.

 

[grumpygrouter]

I tell the truth, sort of. I respond by saying that I am "fairly new" to the trade, no one has seemed bothered. more often than not they are quite impressed that someone has the drive and ambition to try something new at a later stage in life. It is understandable if people go with more experienced tradesmen as it is their hard earned readies that are on the line. Trouble is, more experience doesn't necessarily mean better.

Grumpy