@tradelinkers
We build TradeLinkers and we run this board. We start threads to get conversations going — the answers come from the trades who post here. Anything marked Team is us, not a tradesperson.
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Welcome. This is a board for people who work in the UK trades — on the tools, running a van, or running a small firm. What it's for. Asking what a job should be priced at. Checking a reg before you c…
Genuine question and we read every answer on this board. If there is one thing TradeLinkers does not do that would take real time out of your week, tell us what it is and roughly how often you would…
Nobody puts a photo of a properly dressed board or a first fix on Instagram, and those are often the bits that took the skill. Post the ones that look like nothing and took twice as long as the shiny…
Plenty of jobs happen in a plant room with no signal, in a basement, or out somewhere with one bar. If you have used TradeLinkers with no connection, what worked and what did not? Did anything fail t…
You get called to a small job, open it up, and now you are looking at something that is not safe and is not yours. What do you do — refuse to touch it, quote for the remedial, do the minimum and put…
There is almost always a sign, and it is almost always in the first conversation. What was yours? "The last three trades were useless." Haggling before you had given a number. Wanting it started tomo…
Every trade has one. Choc blocks in a wall void, a live feed to nowhere, a joist notched to within an inch of its life, a soil pipe going somewhere it definitely should not. Post yours. Half of this…
Not the biggest one. The one where it all went right, the customer was decent, and you drove away pleased with it. What was it, what made it good, and is there anything in how you ran it that you hav…
If something in the app is not working, post it here rather than giving up on it. What helps: what you were doing, what you expected, what happened instead, and whether it happens every time. Android…
Not the one you enjoy owning. The one that shortened jobs or won you work you would otherwise have turned down. What was it, roughly what did it cost, and how long before it had paid for itself? Bonu…
Once you have eight batteries and a charger in the van, the platform has you, and everybody knows it. Which are you on, how did you end up there, and if you were starting again tomorrow would you pic…
Wide range on this and the published minimums are not what most decent employers actually pay. What are you paying, what year are they in, what trade, and roughly where? And does it step up on a sche…
Not everything needs to be the top of the range version. Some of the cheap stuff is just better, or good enough that spending more is money burnt. What is yours? And on the flip side, what did you bu…
The jump from working alone to being responsible for someone else is the one most people get wrong at least once. Which way did you go first, and what would you do differently? Interested in the prac…
If your patch crosses a charging zone, this is a real line on the P and L and it rarely gets priced into jobs. What are you paying, do you pass it on to the customer, and has it changed which jobs yo…
Almost everyone has a story, and the useful part is always what people did afterwards. What went, how did they get in, and what did you actually change — deadlocks, alarm, emptying it nightly, a diff…
Proper racking is expensive and heavy. Crates are cheap and become chaos by Wednesday. What have you got, what did it cost, and would you do it the same way again? Photos welcome if you are proud of…
Renewal quotes seem to be arriving with numbers that bear no relation to last year. What are you paying, for what van, with what cover, and did shopping around actually help? Also whether tools-in-tr…
Mileage, age, what has gone wrong, what it costs to keep on the road, and whether you would buy another one. Especially interested in anyone running something with serious miles on it, and anyone who…
Four years of investment walks out the door for an extra pound an hour somewhere else. What has actually worked — pay, progression, giving them their own jobs, a van, a share of the work they bring i…
Everyone gets told "once you earn X, go limited", and the real answer seems to be a lot more personal than that. What made the decision for you — tax, liability, a contract that required it, or an ac…
Deposit, first fix, second fix, completion. Or thirds. Or weekly. How do you split it, and does the customer ever push back on the structure? Particularly interested in how people handle the final pa…
Materials on your card for three weeks is your money funding their kitchen. What percentage are you taking up front, does it change with the size of the job, and how often does someone refuse? Also i…
Everyone has a first reminder. Fewer people have a second, a third and a point where it goes somewhere else. What does yours look like, and at what point does the tone change? And has anyone got a de…
It is in most people's terms. Almost nobody applies it. Have you ever actually invoiced for it, and what happened? Did it get you paid, get you paid faster, or get you an argument and a lost customer…
Work is done, they were happy on the day, and now the phone goes to voicemail and the emails do not land. At what point do you stop being polite? And has anyone had a customer resurface months later…
The bit nobody warns you about is that going over does not just mean paperwork, it means either your prices go up for domestic customers or your margin goes down. For anyone who has been through it:…
Wildly different answers depending on who you ask, and it is rarely clear what is included until something extra gets billed. What are you paying, monthly or annual, and what is actually in it — acco…
Deductions, verification, gross payment status, getting the statements out of a contractor who does not answer emails. What has caught you out, and what do you check now that you did not before? Usef…
Software, spreadsheet plus bridging, or the accountant deals with it and you send a shoebox. What are you using, what does it cost, and is it actually less work than what you did before? Straight opi…