The Brew Cabin

lemoncurd1702 wrote:

Filthy Slab wrote:

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

lutonlagerlout wrote:

Filthy Slab wrote:

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

lutonlagerlout wrote:I have always worked on 3's with quotes

we aim to win 1/3 of jobs we price

1/3 are just messers looking for cheap cheap
1/3 are looking for comparison quotes
and 1/3 want you to do it

I try and avoid quoting unless it has come from recommendation

LLL

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!

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.