looking ahead to 2011, I can see problems with the imminent VAT rise,the same as a lot of things it causes a last minute rush but then everything tapers off when it comes in
no one wanted to pay VAT at 15 % show me someone who wants to pay 20% of their hard earned?
we will end up like Italy where tax evasion is de rigeur and a national sport, apparently if you pay all the tax you are supposed to in italy its not worth working
also the only way is up for interest rates
they are up to 5% in china,be a matter of time for us
I will try to get a fixed rate for 5 years ,when my renewal comes up later this year (probably Miss the boat as usual)
anyway good luck for 2011
LLL
The vat even before the rise, is a killer in the driveway market,the reason being the majority of contractors we're up against dont include it in their quotes.its pretty much at the stage now where if your not willing to work for cash,you'll not get the work.
We are busiest ever been work booked in till April, struggling to finish all the work I have on. Commercial clients expanding and looking to the future good for us and them.
Doing a few small domestic job on the side but to be fair they're a pain, i like this commercial vibe once you get used to 30 days payment.
But everything is done right no client pushing you to cut corners or moaning at you why it's £1000 to shore up an excavation etc and we are inside during the worst of the winter.
Giles
Groundworks and Equestrian specialists, prestige new builds and sports pitches. High Peak, Cheshire, South Yorkshire area.
Still a lot of companies out there doing work for just wages, keeping rates low but our order books are buoyant and looking good for 2014. Long may it continue.
RW Gale Ltd - Civils & Surfacing Contractors based in Somerset
update
I think I can safely say the boom is back
not that that is a good thing,because we all know what follows boom
80% of what we price now we get,historically it was around 35%
everyone I know in this area is flat out busy
because the last recession robbed the industry of 5 years of apprentices there are not enough decent tradesmen to go around
of the 12 blokes that we have used regularly for the last 15 years the average age is now around 50
sadly this supply and demand factor means that all the shysters will be crawling out of their factory jobs and taxis and back into the building game (no offence to either but in the recession a lot got out of it to do those kind of jobs)
we priced a job recently in an affuent area at 45k +VAT ,another price was 43k+VAT and some twerp from north london came in at 115k +VAT
we got the job but it gets you thinking
if the guy from london had got the job he would have made around 75K profit on a 9 week build
Tony, did you post the above yesterday, it's showing the date as 2013 and yet it's the most recent post in the craic.
Things are well on the up in south Wales, has taken a while for the ripple effect to get here. I remember though watching the bad news years back and wondered what recession, then the next year it hit.
There were some real low points the beginning of 2010 was particularly bad.
I take part in a monthly government commissioned survey and get the reports through. Looks like there is growth in all regions particularly the south west.
May it well continue.
There are still plenty of numpties around though who are doing work for beer money.
That last recession was awful. I had to stop paving because we were working on 20 year old rates and we couldn't make it pay.
I pulled in 12k gross one year, decided I'd be better off with a paper round and went off to do agency work.
The agency work paid quite well but it was hard because I didn't know if i'd be working from one week to the next.
luckily the agency's looked after me well considering the lack of work in general.
I spent a year with one of my Dad's mates roofing. He helped me get started out on my own, I learned a lot about running a small business from him. He basically encouraged me to get domestic paving jobs in and helped me out with everything I needed to get started, cheap van, borrowed kit, labour, materials and kept me working on his jobs whilst I was building up.
What more can I say apart from I owe him a lot.
In April last year after a lot of hard work the business really took off and to be honest it's dragged me along kicking and screeming.
I've always been self employed but there's a big difference between being a subby and running a business.
I'm getting the hang of it now though.
How much of it is down to my hard work, the quality of the work we have been putting out and the economy picking up I don't know but things definitely seem to be better for most which can only be a good thing. long may it continue
Edit. Because my stupidly expensive tablet has got a mind of its own.
