Questions nobody has settled yet. If you have done the job before, one paragraph from you saves someone an afternoon.
Hi everyone, I'm interested in how self-employed tradespeople manage new enquiries and follow up quotes. Do you use a spreadsheet, an app, or just keep track of everything yourself? I'm particularly…
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…
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…
Driving an hour each way to price a job you have a one-in-four chance of winning is a day gone by Friday. Some people charge a survey fee and knock it off if they get the job. Some quote off photos.…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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:…
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…
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…
Two ways to do it and the right answer depends on the van, the mileage and whether you use it privately. Which did you choose, and did your accountant agree? Interested in anyone who has switched, an…
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…
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…
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…
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…
An hour each way eats a day and you cannot pop back if something needs finishing. Do you have a hard radius, or do you load the price and let the customer choose? And has taking a job too far out eve…
Pay per lead, four other trades get the same lead, half of them are not real. Has anyone here actually run the numbers properly — what you paid in, what came out, over a decent period? Both direction…
A full wrap is not cheap and the payback is hard to measure — nobody says "I called you because of the van". If yours is signwritten, do you ask new customers where they found you, and does the van e…
Not where you think your work comes from. Where the last five actually came from. Word of mouth, a repeat customer, Google, a lead site, the van, a builder you sub for, Facebook group, a neighbour wh…
There seems to be a point where a profile goes from ignored to ringing, and nobody agrees where it is. How many have you got, how long did it take, and was there a point where you noticed a differenc…
For anyone coming up to renewal, or thinking about adding a category. What did yours cover, how long did it take, what did people in your group get caught on, and how much prep did you actually need?…
Scheme fees, per-notification charges and the annual assessment all add up, and the answer seems to depend entirely on who you signed up with. Which scheme are you with, what does it cost you a year,…
Self-certify where you can, notify where you must, and there is a grey band in the middle where people seem to do completely different things. Where do you draw the line, and has building control eve…
Everyone has one. The thing an assessor or an inspector always finds, that you now check twice before you leave. What is yours? This thread could save a lot of people a return visit.
Everyone carries it. Almost nobody has read the exclusions. What level are you on, roughly what is it costing, and has anyone here actually had to claim? Particularly interested in whether the claim…
Not the headline changes everyone talks about — the small one that changed quietly and turned up on an inspection eighteen months later. What did you get pulled up on, and how did you find out? Usefu…
The half-hour job forty minutes away is the one that quietly loses money all year. What is your minimum charge, does it cover the first hour or just the visit, and how do you communicate it so nobody…
Landlord wants a number, tenant will not give access, agent says "just give us a ballpark". Do you refuse, quote high and hope, or give a rate plus a provisional sum and put the risk in writing? And…
The one everybody searches for and nobody publishes. If you have done a domestic CU swap recently, what did it come to, and what was in that price? Worth saying whether it included any remedial work,…
Empty property, you crack on. Occupied, you are moving furniture, working round a toddler's nap, dust sheeting everything and explaining what you are doing every twenty minutes. Are you pricing that…