Self Employed / Mobile - Pros and Cons?

[Nicasso]

Hello All,

I'm a coded mig welder with over 40 years experience and now looking at maybe getting a little workshop somewhere or perhaps doing mobile work. I'm in Norfolk, so a rural area and might be able to do a bit of subbing for firms around Gt Yarmouth/Lowestoft. Is anyone else in this line of work and what are the pros and cons?

I'm at retirement age, don't want to be doing 60 hours a week any more, happy to potter about for beer tokens

Ian

 

[steve t]

forget beer tokens, figure out all your costs/ overheads and charge a decent hourly rate or it will become an expensive hobby, Id go for workshop work rather than mobile, as mobile leads to more kneeling, climbing, contorting into positions, allright for young bucks but tougher for us slightly older gentlemen,

 

[Nicasso]

Thanks Steve. Workshop is probably going to result in higher overheads, but I take your point about the mobile work, I don't really want to relaunch my gymnastics career right now. I've never worked for myself but I think £25-30 an hour would cover mobile work. Workshop might need a higher hour/job rate.

 

[Kent]

Hello All,

I'm a coded mig welder with over 40 years experience and now looking at maybe getting a little workshop somewhere or perhaps doing mobile work. I'm in Norfolk, so a rural area and might be able to do a bit of subbing for firms around Gt Yarmouth/Lowestoft. Is anyone else in this line of work and what are the pros and cons?

I'm at retirement age, don't want to be doing 60 hours a week any more, happy to potter about for beer tokens

Ian

Don't know what it's like down there but if you just mig you wouldn't get much /anything round the north west unless it was just filling in / helping out in bigger shops. Taking up the slack on bigger jobs and filling in on sicknesses.
Not wanting to do weeks heavy on hours won't help your case

 

[andymfell]

I used to work for a engineering company that had coded & uncoded fabricator welders and did both workshop and site work in roughly 2003/4 they had to stop offering on site hot work as their insurance renewal premium was going to increase iirc by £10000 per year
so it would be worth your while to enquire about insurance costs for what you are proposing to do

 

[Nicasso]

I used to work for a engineering company that had coded & uncoded fabricator welders and did both workshop and site work in roughly 2003/4 they had to stop offering on site hot work as their insurance renewal premium was going to increase iirc by £10000 per year
so it would be worth your while to enquire about insurance costs for what you are proposing to do

Yep, looking into the insurance - cheers Andy.

 

[Kayos]

Thanks Steve. Workshop is probably going to result in higher overheads, but I take your point about the mobile work, I don't really want to relaunch my gymnastics career right now. I've never worked for myself but I think £25-30 an hour would cover mobile work. Workshop might need a higher hour/job rate.

Different trade but I charge £65 per hour minimum. Your costs mount up very quickly

No point being busy and skint

 

[Nicasso]

Don't know what it's like down there but if you just mig you wouldn't get much /anything round the north west unless it was just filling in / helping out in bigger shops. Taking up the slack on bigger jobs and filling in on sicknesses.
Not wanting to do weeks heavy on hours won't help your case

Different trade but I charge £65 per hour minimum. Your costs mount up very quickly

No point being busy and skint

True, going to be a bit of trial and error I guess. What trade are you? £65 an hour, must be a sparky

 

[winchman]

I wonder if you would be better with a core business operating from the workshop to make the bread and butter money then the other stuff as a kind of bonus?
I work for some one else but have worked for my self in the past.
The biggest issue I see is the day to day running book keeping ordering etc can easily eat in to your day so less time welding and earning.
We used to have a local bloke who did machining in his shed, cheap paid cash easy money, but if he started going bigger costs would rocket, its a difficult choice
Have you spoke to a local fab / weld company about helping out with holiday cover peak times etc?

 

[Kent]

I used to work for a engineering company that had coded & uncoded fabricator welders and did both workshop and site work in roughly 2003/4 they had to stop offering on site hot work as their insurance renewal premium was going to increase iirc by £10000 per year
so it would be worth your while to enquire about insurance costs for what you are proposing to do

Did they kill someone? Or was it petrochemical stuff?
Not being funny but that sounds like rubbish from someone. Mine was £1500 when I first set up. It's now half that.

 

[Kayos]

True, going to be a bit of trial and error I guess. What trade are you? £65 an hour, must be a sparky

Im insulted

True king of trades Plumber/gas engineer/heating engineer

 

[Robotstar5]

Im insulted

True king of trades Plumber/gas engineer/heating engineer

"wetpants"

 

[Kayos]

"wetpants"

Only when a bloody sparky nails a pipe

 

[Kayos]

Almost as annoying as when a plumber screws a pipe fixing into a length of t+e, always bang in the middle of a long run too

It’s easier to move a cable, pipes should get priority

 

[Kayos]

When it's in a conduit behind plaster?

At least with a pipe you can bung a bit of tape on it and it'll be the next person's problem

I’ve soldered over a few nail holes when chopping it out wasn’t an option

 

[andymfell]

Did they kill someone? Or was it petrochemical stuff?
Not being funny but that sounds like rubbish from someone. Mine was £1500 when I first set up. It's now half that.

there were no accidents on site . locally there was a gas terminal but they didn't get any work from there , the main site work was on a paper producing plant ( bog rolls) but it wasn't a regular occurrence
the premium increase may have been related to the fact that 5 years previous they had a major fire in the workshop that burnt a 1/4 of the workshop down and they were under insured for the losses that resulted , they did change insurance companies after the claim process and appeals to the ombudsman for misleading advice by the insurance broker (they told the broker to increase the amount insured year on year but it didn't happen)

 

[Tinbasherdan]

there were no accidents on site . locally there was a gas terminal but they didn't get any work from there , the main site work was on a paper producing plant ( bog rolls) but it wasn't a regular occurrence
the premium increase may have been related to the fact that 5 years previous they had a major fire in the workshop that burnt a 1/4 of the workshop down and they were under insured for the losses that resulted , they did change insurance companies after the claim process and appeals to the ombudsman for misleading advice by the insurance broker (they told the broker to increase the amount insured year on year but it didn't happen)

Which company did you work for in barrow?

 

[andymfell]

Which company did you work for in barrow?

replied by PM

 

[BigDan83]

Mine was £1500 when I first set up. It's now half that.

Hope you don't mind me asking, who do you use for your insurance?

Cheers Dan

 

[Kent]

Hope you don't mind me asking, who do you use for your insurance?

Cheers Dan

Nfu they tailor make your policy so you ain't paying for the mistakes of others.
Getting good insurance however always trumps price for me