Thinking of packing in

[bathroomboy]

Reading Cornish Crofters post the other day made me think is it all worth it, the last couple of months are the quietest Iv'e had in the 5 years self employed, I do full bathrooms and until recently have not had to advertise but mid October last year it all went dead, I have put ads in the paper and remember I do plumbing, tiling, electrical all to a good standard but each year I am not making a great deal, in the next few months all my insurances, van service and mot, cps, accountant, will be going out, have just paid a fair size tax bill and nothings coming in. I just feel like selling the van and signing on, try for a job somewhere but with my age being 53 this is not easy either. Each year I look at my overheads and income and it's not clever.

 

[doug boardley]

sorry to hear that. It is, unfortunately, a sign of the times I'm afraid.

 

[Ian]

Its a really tough time for many people at the moment. The only advice I can give is get out there and actively seek work, act as if you were starting your business from scratch. Go into all the tile, kitchen and bathroom suppliers in your area, ring all the builders. Get a few thousand business cards printed and deliver them door to door, it only gives a 1% return but it does work. Keep trying, don't give in and most of all dont sit on your backside and hope work finds you! (Meant in the kindest way, please don't be offended!!!)

 

[kilty55]

hi bathroom boy,very unstable times mate

dont go beating yourself up about it,i used to use the local papers and they did wrok very well for me then as soon as the recession hit they stopped working.
you may find a website finds you work,it has certainly taken some time for mine to get me the amount of work i wanted from it and it was slow at 1st but i try and get every customer to leave feedback on my work which in turn has really got me lots more work recently

maybe keep the business going mate and pick up a part time job in the meantime if you can to keep you occupied and some money coming in?

by the way are you aplumber by trade? if so you could get a plumbing website ,a bathroom website and a tiling website all seperate and try every avenue on the net to make that work for you

the yellow pages is looking more like a handbook this year and is getting smaller....the net is the future.
stick in

 

[mikethetile]

I Agree with Brian on treating this as a new start up, ive just had my annual assesment for csa and feel the same, its over 5k a year and Its not that I wont pay for my daughter its that I cant pay that much, I could sign on tommorrow and put am immediate stop to the demand but instead ive spent half the day arguing with them and I am now going to be reasessed

add to that all my business expenses and its a lot of money to find in order to work. I do have some work in the pipeline but with the way things are im worried about getting in new work at the right price, so Ive been doing a marketing plan to help find the right work and enough of it to pay my way. its going to be a tough year with a lot of businesses going under and a lot of new start ups

when the going gets tough the tough get going and thats the only way to approach this, so no dont give up BB , get out there and get the work in

 

[aph257]

Chin up BB, i think it's all been said already.

 

[SandyFloor]

You're not the only one suffering at the moment BB and remember it's the worst time of year. We've all been where you are and it can all turn round in a few days. I've seen myself go from no work to a couple of months worth within a week. Just remember to help it happen as much as you can. Lots of good advice been posted above. To add to it there's a few free marketing sites it's worth registering on. I've had a lot of business through www.gumtree.co.uk and I'm sure there's others. So pick yourself up and be productive with your time and it'll all come together.

 

[Alberta Stone]

We have been in the same boat.
We had 2 major contracts one of which was to commence in July and the other in the autumn both decide in the end of June that they would wait until interest rates went down and the economic situation improved.
Those jobs we were depending on for the summer's work and we had done lots of legwork already with detailed quotes and prints (which is days worth of time to create).
Even scrambling to find work we found only minor little jobs and ended up building a few decks and painting a few houses, which didn't do more than pay the bills.
Then in Autumn things dried up even more.
We beat the bushes hard, but there was just no work and the savings were completely gone due to the poor summer.
Finally found a commercial job to do over the holidays and have slaved every day (no time off for 7 weeks)
And now the contractor is playing money games as in oh we are overextended in our other contracts and such and have to wait to pay you.
We are still waiting for our Dec. 15th invoice to be paid out, and our work has had no deficiencies.
Taking them to court would result in a positive judgement for us, but then we would still have to collect and by that time could be evicted and homeless.
In 23 years I have never been in this situation and so I feel pretty much the same way.

These private interest manufactured depressions are utter BS.
Damn them all.

 

[bathroomboy]

A quote I did recently has just been confirmed, not a big job but who knows it may kick start the year off, sorry to sound so negative but sometimes being self employed can kick the enthusiasm out of me, something that can't be controlled is the amount of work, I have many times turned work down because I can't fit it in, Thanks for the replies.

 

[White Room]

I've been self employed for thirty years and believe me there have been many low times in that period...

It will come back, slowley perhaps, so don't sell your tools just yet.. I'm 54 so don't beat yourself up about it

 

[cornish_crofter]

I've been self employed for about 6 years now. I've had quiet times and was worried about work but then I've got booked up.

This year is looking a bit quiet. However I have still got this nightmare wetroom job to finish, then I need to go to finish a job I started before that one (outside garden wall needs rendering).

I've had a few enquiries that I'll need to remind people they made.

People are worried about interest rates etc at the moment. You may need to offer a low price package. When I started up I worked out that I could do a £400 bathroom, using a cheap B&Q suite and fitting only with minimal plumbing alterations.

You go in with 'Bathrooms from £400' and do a quote depending on what extras are needed. I did get a bit of interest around this. I ended up fitting stuff that other people had bought but doing other work as well (tiling etc). That was assuming you could get a suite for less than £200 and spend around £30 on consumables. That would leave you £170 or so. I suspect you could do a suite in a day, so is £170 enough for you? If not have a think and do the figures, or use it as a loss leader and make it back on the extras.

I was aiming my package at the bulk of people who reckoned they could take on the tiling themselves (if they wanted to re tile that is) but felt that the plumbing and fitting was beyond them. There are a hell of a lot of customers in that category.

Think of other packages you can offer, such as outside taps (summer's coming).

When looking at bathroom suppliers, don't overlook the likes of B&Q and Wickes. An ex colleague of mine was fitting kitchens for B&Q and doing very well at it.

Have a look at your Local Authority as well. I was on the scheme to do jobs for Devon and Cornwall. There are risk assessments etc to do but it's not too onorous.

Above all, I'll give you some advice I've had from here in abundance. It's easy to become despondant when some aspect of your business is going pair shaped. But, you sometimes need to pug away at it. We've all been there. As some have said, approach it like you're starting up, but this time you've got experience in it.