Toolbox 6. How To Start Your Own Electrician Business Properly

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[00:00:00] Ben Poulter: Start up on your own electrical business. Yeah, it can be challenging when you first start out, so you wanna be able to give yourself the best start to get going as fast as possible. And there's a number of things that I wish I did from the start that would've helped my business grow a lot faster.

[00:00:19] But then saying that there's also some things that were a complete waste of time that in my head thought, yeah, this will make my business grow. This will be fantastic, but ended up being a complete waste of time. So this is why I'm here today in this podcast where I'm going to tell you just what not to do when starting your own business and some great tips on what, not to do at the beginning that will help your business grow as fast as possible.

[00:00:44] Hey there. Once again, Ben Polter, your host of Toolbox Talk for electricians here, and having spoken to a a few sparks in the group, the right steps to start in your own electrical business, they're not quite as straightforward as maybe you assumed at first. So today I'm going to help you out by telling you just what I did to grow my electrical business that still to this day, keeps that phone ringing all the.

[00:01:14] So it starts out exciting. Like you're excited to start your own business, you're gonna be your own boss. It is. Is that excitement can, it can make you do stupid decisions sometimes. Like when you first sort of name the business, you go out there, you think, yeah, I'm gonna have a great name. I'm gonna call myself Sparky or Electro or the UK electrician.

[00:01:34] Yeah, all these names. They might sound fun but you, you don't wanna sound fun in the long run, you want to sound profess. And if you look out O over online everywhere sort of thing, just I Yellow Pages, if it depends , how old you are, wherever you look at the Yellow Pages. But if you look at maybe on Google, the most successful electrical business I know personally are just simply their initials with electrical after it.

[00:01:59] Just as simple as that I, , in my opinion, the simpler, the better. You want people to remember your name and who you are, and your name is your brand, basical. My first business, it was called B R P Electrical, for the most complicated reason that my initials are Ben Roger Polter. So I just called myself B R P Electrical.

[00:02:22] Everyone ripped me saying, oh, Brook. Oh, Brooke. Yeah, Brooke Electrical, they were calling it, but it's stuck in their mind. I can guarantee you that. . So when starting out and you're thinking of giving yourself a name, taking a little bit of time, but I would say that your best is your initial, , like, there's ar, electrical, br p, electrical, so sticking to something nice and simple just with electrical in it.

[00:02:45] And the next step, once you've decided what your name's going to be. It doesn't even matter if , you haven't done any jobs. Just get yourself in front of many eyeballs as possible, and what's the best way to do that. Well, if you think of the last time that you had a job done, maybe you wanted your, your car fixed or your garden cleaning, or maybe your house painted 99% of people all over the world, they Google it and with 8.5 billion searches every day, Google is undoubtedly one of the biggest platforms.

[00:03:21] And if you're not on Google, then where are ya? You're not gonna. Anywhere, like you've got to be recognized on Google. Everyone googles it these days, and if your name doesn't come up somewhere, then you're missing out. It is the best place to get noticed where people will Google and find your name and you can create a detailed account for absolutely free.

[00:03:41] It doesn't cost you a penny and you can detail it. So , it'll only be shown up in the area that you work in. So you don't have to be open to the whole wide world. You can just say, right, I work in Essex. That's the only area I'm gonna work in. put on your profile. You only wanna be shown to people in Essex.

[00:03:58] And a little tip , after you've created your, uh, your Google business account, get your customers to go on there and leave you a review. Google loves it when people interact with their platform, cuz that's the whole thing of them being on there. Social media, it's sort of online. So to , reward you with the interaction they reward you with putting you at the top of the Google search.

[00:04:18] So the. Customers sort of reviews you get on your page. Even the better for you and what I have heard of as well with people doing is just getting their friends and family to go on there and leave a review. They've known you over time. They can give you a knowledge review so they can go on there and say exactly what you are like, is an electrician.

[00:04:38] Trust me when I say that. This can be powerful over time to generate some leads and some customers into your. And at the start of building your business, you don't wanna be charging a huge amount. Over time. Your customer base will, it will grow as it goes over time, and you'll be able to pick and choose what jobs you wanna do.

[00:04:57] And then something else that I suggest you always do is to issue a written quote. A written quote is gold when it comes to getting paid, especially if you're v t registered, cuz a customer maybe they didn't see that 20% is added to the final invoice. And on that written quote, you want to go into specific detail about what you're gonna do.

[00:05:17] If it's to fit maybe a couple of sockets in a living room, then make sure that that customer knows and understands that the way you're gonna. . And when you say to a customer, you're gonna wire it in like maybe mini trunking or you're gonna chase out the wall to a certain depth to cover the cables with capping or in conduit and I, it's might be over the top for the jargon for the customer.

[00:05:39] They don't need to know that, but then at least they know for when it comes to paying. Because it will save an argument later on when they say to you, well, who fills in the chases? And that white drunken stuff? Yeah, looks ugly. You won't believe how many people think You can just put a socket on the wall with no wires to it and then, hey, presto, and make it work.

[00:06:01] It. It doesn't happen like that. You need to get the wiring from somewhere. You need to power. You need to do it safely so that a lot of customers don't understand that. I always explain it like taking a TV camp into a middle of a field. You can take the plug with you, but you still need to power it from somewhere.

[00:06:18] So make sure they know like maybe the mess you're going to make as well. Cause sometimes they say, ah, thi this is messy. Well, yeah, you've gotta knock the plaster off the wall and you might have to get a decorator in at a later date. Or sometimes within your quote you can say, right, I'll fill in the chases.

[00:06:32] But it's not going to be to a plaster of standard. You're gonna have to get a paint wound decorator, or maybe a plasterer come in to make. And there's another thing that happens when you're an electrician, I'd say, is mistakes. Mistakes will happen. It's the nature of the job when you turn it to a property and you've gotta work.

[00:06:53] In that bedroom where it's jam-packed full of stuff, but you need to get the carpet up. So always get maybe the customer to be with you when you move it or , make them help you move it. That'd be the best bet. I can't count how many properties I've been to and I've left them with a 10.

[00:07:12] Tidier place than when I got there. The customer even had to call me once in the evening because I'd put something, I ti I tidied it away. I put a box with uh, load of valuable things in, on top of the wardrobe out the way. Cuz I didn't want it in harm's way. I didn't wanna damage anything inside that box.

[00:07:26] I didn't wanna damage the box. So I'll put it out the way on top of the wardrobe where I could get the carpet up. And I'm just glad that that customer phone me up and asked me where I put it, rather than thinking, cuz it crossed my mind thinking they, they might have thought I stole it if there's valuables in that box.

[00:07:39] They obviously thought, oh, , I might have took it with me. So it's quite, , nice to know that. Then they phoned up, they said, but look Ben, we know you tied it up. Where did you put this? So if you do it with them, then they'll know exactly where you put things. One of the worst mistakes I ever made was when I installed a new outside light on a garage and it was wired from the inside.

[00:07:59] So I had to knock , all the electricity off. Cuz when I test, I unplug everything on, on that circuit just to make sure that nothing gets damaged. Cuz you never know these days if you're testing a new cable and you've put it in to make sure it's not damaged, you're gonna test it at 500 volts.

[00:08:13] So I didn't wanna damage any circuit boards or anything. So I unplugged things, but I left the freezer unplugged. Ah. And I said he sat there for a couple of days until I got a call. And straight away I insisted that customer went down to the shops and filled that freezer up to the top. And then obviously they like, just send me the bill, send me how much it costs, fill it for whatever you want in that freezer.

[00:08:36] Cuz I had to help my hands up. It was my fault. And these little mistakes they do, they make you feel like an idiot. I can guarantee you that's never happened again. That happened once and I learned by that mistakes to think when I finished the job, plug things back in it. It helped me a way. Taught me a lesson.

[00:08:55] And that's the way that I've ran my business for over 20 years is always make sure that the customer's happy, however small the job is. If your customer is happy with the work you've done, that can le lead on to sort of 10 times more customers when they tell the story to their friends or their family.

[00:09:11] I think it's quite a funny story and no doubt they've told the story. And while he was good enough, he held his hands up and he filled the freezer back up. That'd be hopefully be good. So yeah, he's a good electrician and I have got plenty of work at , that same customer. But as I mentioned at the beginning of this podcast, there were a few things that I did when I first started out my own electrical business that were, well, just a complete waste of time.

[00:09:36] I had a thousand of them, a five leaflets designed and printed, and I got the kids to walk around the estates with me and post 'em through like people's letter boxes. I think I got about one job from that a year later. I always remember someone phoned me up saying, oh yeah, we've got this leaflet in our drawer.

[00:09:52] , we've had it there for a year. You posted it. I'm like, oh my God. That's probably the only person that actually read the leaflet. And I think not only was it a waste of time doing that thing, I did like two or three days I spent posting them leaflets. But the people who did phone up, they asked me stupid questions.

[00:10:09] It wasn't the type of customers that I wanted to attract. They're , not the type of customers I said that I wanted to work for. Cuz they'd ask you questions like, , how much is six downloads in my kitchen? Well, as you know, as an electrician, there's so many different things you need to check first, like, is the consumer unit RCD protected?

[00:10:26] Can you access the ceiling above? Is the ceiling in the kitchen gonna come down so you can wire it like that? There's so many things you gotta think of that can affect the cost of the job. You can't just give one price for every property. I can tell you how much these live fittings cost, but I can't tell you how much they are to install.

[00:10:43] And that went for the same on sort of social media on , my Facebook page that I posted up there. I posted about, ah, yeah, I'm looking for work as an electrician. If you need all your electrical needs, I could help you out. All the same sort of people commented. And that's not the sort of people that I wanted to maybe do work for, because then obviously if it is an outside plug, it'll be a 20 pound for the plug and then maybe 50 pound to install.

[00:11:07] It's 20 pounds for the plug, mate, I'll buy my own. You don't really wanna work for people like that. It doesn't help you build a business in a way. Ideally you want people that are actually looking for electrician, looking for a, reputable qualified electrician where they go out searching themself and that's the whole reason you get your business onto Google and they look for you.

[00:11:29] But as you start out, you can't just like pick customers out the air. You can't just go up to someone's like, Hey, how old are you? Electric for you? Cuz they don't know you gotta build a reputation, you've gotta build your customer base. So what I'd say to do when you're first starting out is approach builders and kitchen fit.

[00:11:45] in my opinion, they're always looking for a good sparky. I dunno whether they've, um, lost out or I think the Sparkies sometimes do their own jobs, but for the bread and butter in a way, sort of in, they do a few kitchens or a few extensions for builders personally and just like on Google, you can go on onto Google and find their email and then send them , a presentation sort of thing.

[00:12:05] A document to say, look, I can do this work for you. I'm a qualified electrician. This is what I can do. Would you like to employ me to do maybe your kitchen or your extension and you meet up with them a few times? I went to people's houses, met up with them, had a cup of tea just to sort of get to know them a little bit, and then started working together and we did have a good working relationship for, whoa, a good, good five or six years.

[00:12:27] Working for builders and kitchen fit is obviously a good way as well to get your reputation out there, get your obviously some photos of some work you've done and to get your name out there to other customers. You'll meet the customers and yeah, they'll obviously keep your number for when they need electrician in the future.

[00:12:43] So my final tip for when you're starting your own electrical business, It's to be different from the rest. There are plenty of electricians out there trying to build a business, so you need to stand out from the rest. And if you think, what is the one thing everyone says about electricians? They never clean up.

[00:13:02] Spark is always leave it to someone else. And I suppose that's true for most of them, especially on site. But in my business I was a, a bit of a tidy freak. I like being a tidy freak. I'm a bit of a perfectionist , and when my daughter tells me that I've got O c D, but it's a good thing to have o c D.

[00:13:18] You like being clean and tidy. I like things being just so, especially when you've just finished maybe testing a 1.7 million pound house and you're about to ask for that final payment. You want to make sure everything's spot on. So I gave myself on that 1.7 million pound house. I gave myself a day where I just went round and I checked.

[00:13:40] Everything was spot on, everything was level, and everything worked exactly how it should I think. Ah, we had more than six intermediate switches down hallways and upstairs and bend lighting. So it was just to make sure that everything worked exactly how it should do. And then on my way round, I'd take my little hand re hoover with me.

[00:13:59] A lot of people say sparks don't clear it, but I have had a Henley Hoover since. I started sparking because, well, they're great sort of thing. You can recommend they're, they're quite durable. These little Henry Hoovers, I've had a pink one and a red one. I'd just like to make sure the end of maybe a job, especially a big job like that, that there was nothing that the customer can pick you up on.

[00:14:19] And the things that I talk about in this podcast will get you started in your electrical business on the right foot. And all you need to do now is jump inside the toolbox, talk for electricians group, and keep your business growing bigger and better. . So until next time, I'll see you again.