working overseas

[SquareEyes]

Hi Everyone,

Got a question for the gang. Should you change your prices if offered a job overseas - if so, why and what should be taken into consideration?

Thanks for any light shed on the matter.

 

[The Legend; Phil Hobson RIP]

Hi mate, I worked in Germany years ago, also did three stints in the USA. Prices have got to be good to get me to travel. The fact that you are away from home, and loved ones, needs some compensation imo. I only work away now if the money is to good to refuse, ( even in the British Isles)

 

[Time's Ran Out]

I'd suspect that it would depend on which country you'd be working in and for who.
I doubt you'd get a fraction of the price if it were in Spain (unemployment and number of 'tilers')
But in the South of France or Middle East you should be including everything and more (including travel time to your destination).
But then again it's just like going on holiday!

 

[SquareEyes]

Thanks Phil, John.

I hadn't thought about travel time to destination. You see this job is in Russia and I'm pretty sure they're from the higher echelons of society, which is why I want to make sure I cover myself. High end jobs are great, but also have potential high end costs if anything goes unchecked or wrong.

The obvious for me is to check that they have all the right materials or whether I have to ship them over. Aswell as the right kind of tools, is there prep work req'd, Accomodation and last but not least - labour.

cheers for the input guys. ill let you know how it goes!

 

[jonnyc]

ive done many jobs for private customers overseas over the years.
apart from the obvious extra cost of travel/shipping tools paying your workers more to be away/travel time.
there are a couple of key points and i have come unstuck on these in the early days of doing this kind of work.

1. make sure that you are ok to work there even it is a private job, because if you bring tools with you on the plane and get stopped, customs will be asking you what they are for.
i have not actually had a problem getting a work visa as i was always laying genuine antique reclaimed stone flooring and applied on basis that it was a one off job and very specialised.
sometimes the client had to put an ad in local paper offering job to a local but of corse he was obliged to take that person.
I have paid as much as 2000.oo pounds for 4 of us to get a 5 wek visa for a job in bahamas but when the client spent 200k on the stone its no big deal.

Another time we got arrested at airport in South Africa because my client had not got us the work visa he promised.

which leads me to the most important factor.
make sure you get 50 % up front before you even leave the country at least, enough to cover a good part of any guys wages you take with you.
My nice employer only gave me 5% before I left uk then gave me a load of **** and bull for weeks about not being able to get rest of deposit in foreign currency.
when i finally got some dosh we went for weekend up to casino at sun city and i duly handed out cash to my guys and we promptly got arrested for carrying forged notes.

things just got worse and worse after that.
And if it goes wrong in a foreign country it real hard to take legal action as i have found.

can fiull you in more if you like

 

[jonnyc]

If you are Swedish mike as the name suggests, but you may be an itinerant traveller as I used to be, I can only say as a follow up to the bad experience in south Africa,I came home and went off to Sweden within a month to lay an old reclaimed french stone floor in a castle in Sweden in hanaskog castle near kristianstad. What a different experience . We were given a bottle of scotch every night by the owner who would be very disappointed if we hasn't finished by next morning. Harrodsb hampers for lunch,no jest and we wre fixing stone that cost 300 pounds per sq mt and
splash back in kitchen of hand painted delft tiles that cost 52 thousand pounds .
heated toilet seats in the dunne,defrosting sand every morning before a mixing was a very different experience from s.africa and the Saturday night out in kristianstad was an experience akin to the craziness of arrack attacks in Eilat with silly swedes.