lemoncurd1702 wrote:Don't sign up for VAT unless your hitting the turnover threshold which is around £80K.
I would imagine if your regularly spending £8k/month on materials then you've probably already exceeded the limit.
Commercial work. You will have to jump through all sorts of hoops to get in with councils or large construction firms. Most will insist on being with ConstuctionLine, Chas accreditation plus the cscs and worse. I honestly don't know why anybody bothers there is so much red tape involved.
And you will probably be kept waiting 60 plus days for your money.
At least with domestic the money is there on completion.
I've only done 8k on materials a couple of times in the summer. The sad thing is I hardly charge any labour money. My invoice program doesn't say anything near 82k or whatever the threshold is.
It just seems that most people when you go to a quote either don't know what paving projects cost and therefore aren't so serious about having the work done or they haven't even got any money and are just taking advantage of the free quote. Things like checkatrade are probably a bad thing in the long run for the building/groundworks industry due to the increasing number of people joining; it just makes more and more competition hence bringing down the average pay in the future. Extremely counter-intuitive.
I've put out 28 quotes in January and not one has came back. I'm hoping that these potential customers are planning for spring or something.
On another note, is it a good idea to go limited and up public liability to £5,000,000?
28 quotes and no response, bloody hell I've got a better strike rate than that in the betting shop.
Do you chase those quotes up. I don't mean give them the hard sell, just ask for some feedback to find out where you're going wrong.
How the F&%$ do you get 28 leads in January anyway.
Please let me know the secret?
Actually no don't!
I couldn't cope with viewing that much work :p
I'm on checkatrade which is based on feedback. When a customer puts a feedback in based on my service I go to the top of the search results until someone else puts one in on another firm so for a few days you're just inundated with inquiries.
I'm just hoping that the last 28 quotes are people planning for the spring; I normally win about 20-30% of everything I quote for. The main problem with checkatrade is that as a customer can take a free written quote and get it beaten by 50p which most people are happy to do regardless of even looking at the spec they are offered by the competitor.
For example I quoted up a patio a while back for 3 size riven buff pre-cast bedded onto full mortar with buff dyed pointing and another firm quoted about £100 cheaper for 450x450 utilitys butted together onto a grit screeded bed which I could've done in a day! I always try and get the best look available for the customers on a budget but them imagining what I'm talking about to them on a quote is hard to visualise. Slabs are slabs to most people. I'm going to print up a colour brochure with sample images of the products I use to take on quotes soon which I think will help.
I generally don't chase quotes up but might start to. I have driven past driveways that the customer still didn't get done so it seems that most people just toy with the idea. Either that or I'm so cheap I don't seem professional enough!
lutonlagerlout wrote:some time bigger firms get better trade rates because they do more business with suppliers
if you do 20k a month with someone they will give you better rates than someone who spends £1000 a month
also reputation is all
I point blank refuse to bodge anything and over the years this has helped me long term (some short term pain from lost work though)
never buy work I.E. a sprat to catch a mackerel
and try not be be worried about talking big numbers to people
the biggest patio job I have priced was 28k if you say it quick it doesnt sound that bad
and he had it done
cheers LLL
£28,000! How many m2 was that?
160 but multiple steps,walls and groundworks
LLL
160m2! I'd love it. I'd be going to sleep at night with the pattern burnt into my eyelids from staring at the ground all day!
Filthy Slab wrote:I'm on checkatrade which is based on feedback. When a customer puts a feedback in based on my service I go to the top of the search results until someone else puts one in on another firm so for a few days you're just inundated with inquiries.
I'm just hoping that the last 28 quotes are people planning for the spring; I normally win about 20-30% of everything I quote for. The main problem with checkatrade is that as a customer can take a free written quote and get it beaten by 50p which most people are happy to do regardless of even looking at the spec they are offered by the competitor.
For example I quoted up a patio a while back for 3 size riven buff pre-cast bedded onto full mortar with buff dyed pointing and another firm quoted about £100 cheaper for 450x450 utilitys butted together onto a grit screeded bed which I could've done in a day! I always try and get the best look available for the customers on a budget but them imagining what I'm talking about to them on a quote is hard to visualise. Slabs are slabs to most people. I'm going to print up a colour brochure with sample images of the products I use to take on quotes soon which I think will help.
I generally don't chase quotes up but might start to. I have driven past driveways that the customer still didn't get done so it seems that most people just toy with the idea. Either that or I'm so cheap I don't seem professional enough!
I tried Rated people during the darkest realms of the recession. I did get one decent job out of it but other than that, time wasters and those who only see the bottom line.
Spend your money on a good website.
Don't waste it on printing brochures, you get them for free: Marshalls, Bradstone, Brett, Npp etc. Staple your bus.card to the front of them if you like.
Pick a load up in your Fav. merchant or ask Marshalls et al and they will be happy to provide.
I achieve a 40% conversion ratio which I'm quite pleased with. I think I've sent out 35 quotes this month so far, it is certainly busy on both the work and enquiries front.
I don't chase up quotes - perhaps I should do, but I haven't the time and with a 40% ratio, I don't need to. Fortunate, I know.
I'm more worried about people not receiving their quotes - I used to send a lot out by email, but I found too many got lost/went into spam folders etc so I now only email if they give me an email address and I also send it through the post, belt and braces, like.
Advertising - my best form of advertising is word of mouth, together with clean, modern and smart kit, it is also vital these days that you have a website and some form of social media presence. People spend a lot of time on their laptops and iPads, so you must have some sort of presence there to catch people's eyes.
RW Gale Ltd - Civils & Surfacing Contractors based in Somerset
Lol I tried ratedpeople this time last year to try and fill a few gaps biggest waste of money ever. One job was started before I viewed it the other two the other two both their budgets wouldn't even cover muckaway and material costs
Ive struggled with this for years, only the past two years have a kept consistently busy. I used to chase up work, send out re-quotes knocking bits off all sorts of stuff just to keep busy.
Just a busy fool, i got in with an architect, a developer, a structural engineer and an equestrian place, thats my entire customer base. Things definitely improved when i gave up on the cheap end. Just do good work, it'll get noticed and eventually some decent customers will turn up.
I run a relatively new business.
I struggled at first because I was trying to compete on price and quality at the same time.
After some advice from members on this forum and my marshalls assessor I decided to up my pricing and give people the best I can.
It worked and I'm busy.
28 and 35 quotes going out ! What am I doing wrong I've had 3 phone calls this month, 1 didn't want the job doing just wanted a price, 2 forgot I was coming, 3 wanted 40m drive done in the york setts he'd seen on my site for £1,500
Job I'm on at the moment is returning customer from sett drive I did last year.
Don't like the thought of signing up or passing any dollars over to the checkatrades, rated people etc etc
All my work is either recommendation or from my website. I do the website myself.
DempseyLiverpool wrote:28 and 35 quotes going out ! What am I doing wrong I've had 3 phone calls this month, 1 didn't want the job doing just wanted a price, 2 forgot I was coming, 3 wanted 40m drive done in the york setts he'd seen on my site for £1,500
Job I'm on at the moment is returning customer from sett drive I did last year.
Don't like the thought of signing up or passing any dollars over to the checkatrades, rated people etc etc
All my work is either recommendation or from my website. I do the website myself.
Balfour Beatty didn't put out 28 quotes in January !
Maybe he's counting flyers thro the letterbox as a quote !
I've had more enquiries this January than in any January since I started trading 23 years ago.
Not 28 though, probably averaging 2.5/week and that's quite enough.
I do try to pre-qualify before paying a visit to avoid time wasters. When I do visit I try to suggest a likely cost to see if their eyes glaze over:rock:
(Spell checker on here tells me I'm spelling enquiries wrong had to check with the Oxford English and I was right)
Most my work is repeat custom or word of mouth, commercial work is my preferred area there is a specification and its done to that any alteration or extras are extra and you get paid on 30/60/90 days contract dependent, you have to be Jonny on the spot with Rams and making sure you are safe and professional.
Quoting is hard but it gets easier the more you do, as has been said don't buy work and never change a price unless the amount of work or materials change price is a price. I'm 34 now and getting over that not being trusted because of age thing.
If you are doing private work stay off the vat as long as possible
Giles
Groundworks and Equestrian specialists, prestige new builds and sports pitches. High Peak, Cheshire, South Yorkshire area.
