Where To Start - New Electricians Guide?

[Stephen Mcnally]

So thinking of starting up on my own but in all honesty don't know where to start.

17th edition inspection and testing electrician 8 years experience in commercial contracting and 3 years experience offshore with a drilling company. Have recently resigned from offshore post as I have a young family and have missed to much even in a short spell, starting with a contracting company to get back into a routine but feel in the long run going solo would be the way for me.

where to start

1. what jobs can I do with out having to be niceic, elecsa, napit etc
2. how do I become registered with such companies
3. where can I download test certification to record results
4. pricing????
5. recommended insurance

cant think of any other things at present but I'm sure if your reading this there will be other aspects I have not thought of and you can enlighten me.

all advice will be greatly appreciated thanks in advance

 

[dansk]

Going it solo is rewarding and also time consuming, if you have already missed too much family time then self employment isn't going to improve this, in fact I would estimate it will go against you.

If family time is what you want then why not consider employment as a maintenance spark for example? Regular hours and paid leave.

If you really want to go it alone, start with downloading part p, speak to tax man, accountant, friends and family to start getting work, insurance comapny, certs can be downloaded from IET website, business cards, the list is almost endless.

Good luck mate hope it works out.

 

[Andy78]

As Dansk says, starting a business from scratch is a time consuming affair where you need to be prepared for periods of low income and maybe a couple of years to get steady incoming work. If you have contacts and promises of regular work to start up with though this could be significantly easier.

More time off with the family is no guarantee when self employed, but more flexible hours certainly are.
This summer I have been able to shuffle customers around almost at will to capitalise on the sunny days I want to spend with my kids. I have also had to do some out of hours shop fitting work, 4 til midnight, and the odd Saturday though.
It's pretty much always like that, although I only take weekdays off during school holidays. This is counterbalanced by the paperwork that has to be done that can populate your evenings and thus take away your family time, but if you are good with time management this need not be too much of a problem.

Sometimes I'm better off, sometimes worse off. I wouldn't change it though.

 

[GMES]

I have to agree with others and say if it's family time you want then don't go self employed. My business is well established and I employ 3 lads and I still get very little time to relax.
And even if you're a one man band it's hard and in some cases it can be harder, it will be you doing all the pricing and chasing parts , trying to get constant work, and actually then doing the work. your home becomes your office so sometimes there can be little escape, don't mean to sound negative because I love my life and wouldn't swap it with anyone but it doesn't suit everyone.
A 40 hour cards in job sounds like the better option from what you've said.

But if you do decide to go for it then I wish you all the best.

 

[Stephen Mcnally]

thanks for your replies will take your points on board and weigh up what is best. family comes first but still need to put food on the table