I have spent 15 years working for several aerial companies and always thought it was a licence to print money, so last year took the plunge and set up my own company. As stated previously the costs involved in setting up, advertsing, stock, fuel, phones, websites, insurance is crippling. We need to cover an area with a radius of over 50 miles to try and get barely enough work to pay ourselves, and that has proved to be a real struggle.
We have worked out that to stand still and not do anything it costs us £248 per day before we see any profit and start to earn a wage. £120 to £150 is certainly a reasonable price for what we do and very rarely does a job take 30 minutes nearly always need at least 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours to do a good quality job with proper equipment and a guarantee. We go back to customers without question and rarely charge even if it is not a fault with our install.
For the first time in 22 years we are now needing to be supported by benfits because the economy is so bad and are certainly in the "fuel poverty" bracket. If people think that they can do this job properly and only need to charge a few quid abovce cost then they ought to try it themselves. This industry is just the same as any that needs to make a living for those that do the work, we can almost certainly buy car parts to repair our vehicles at a much better rate than a garage will charge as we can with almost any trade that has a wholesaler with trade prices.
Tuesday 6 December 2011 6:50PM
I have spent 15 years working for several aerial companies and always thought it was a licence to print money, so last year took the plunge and set up my own company. As stated previously the costs involved in setting up, advertsing, stock, fuel, phones, websites, insurance is crippling. We need to cover an area with a radius of over 50 miles to try and get barely enough work to pay ourselves, and that has proved to be a real struggle.
We have worked out that to stand still and not do anything it costs us £248 per day before we see any profit and start to earn a wage. £120 to £150 is certainly a reasonable price for what we do and very rarely does a job take 30 minutes nearly always need at least 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours to do a good quality job with proper equipment and a guarantee. We go back to customers without question and rarely charge even if it is not a fault with our install.
For the first time in 22 years we are now needing to be supported by benfits because the economy is so bad and are certainly in the "fuel poverty" bracket. If people think that they can do this job properly and only need to charge a few quid abovce cost then they ought to try it themselves. This industry is just the same as any that needs to make a living for those that do the work, we can almost certainly buy car parts to repair our vehicles at a much better rate than a garage will charge as we can with almost any trade that has a wholesaler with trade prices.