Free forum for UK tradespeople. What a job should be priced at, which reg applies, which tool is worth it, and how to get an invoice paid without chasing it four times.
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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?…
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.
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 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…
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.…
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…
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…
Priced work rewards you for being quick. Day rate protects you when the job turns out to be a horror show behind the plaster. Which way have you gone, and has it shifted in the last couple of years?…
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,…