Toolbox Talk - How Can other Tradesmen

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[00:00:00] Ben: If you actually follow and believe all the hype of the stereotypical type, the electrician that people actually think the electricians are like where they've got wad of cash in their pocket. They turn up on site for an hour and charge for the whole day, and they never get their hands day. Then, let's be honest, you're living in a dream world.

I did actually turn upon sight the other day, and then when I got out I stood straight in a puddle and I had to use a 50 pound nose to clear my foot off, and it took me ages for them fifties to dry out on the dashboard of Rain Rover. And let's be honest, electricians don't just hang around with electricians.

We're not some sort of cult cuz it's a good idea to actually not to hang around with electricians. And in this podcast I'm gonna tell you the exact reasons why toolbox talks for electricians, helping electricians reduce stress, game back time, and earn more money. Hello. Hello, hello and welcome back once again.

I'm your host Ben Pol. An electrician who has a number of friends with all different source of trades, builders, plasterers, ground workers, plumbers, carpenters, car salesman, and even police officers here. There's a bit of a funny story about a police officer that I know, but I'll, I'll tell you about that later on.

And the banner that goes around is believed that every trade hates every other trade. And electricians hate plumbers. Plumbers hate electricians or builders. They sort of, it's stereotypical that we hate each other. Yeah. Cuz we do get on each other's nerves quite a lot. We get in each other's way when we're on site, especially when we're working on maybe a small site in a, a small domestic premises.

But we have to work together on so many occasions and it's probably a good idea to. Get on with each other rather than not, not just to make it easier to get the job done, but it will mutually benefit the both of us. We're all in the same position. We're all trying to build a business for ourselves and each profession, builders, plumbers, electricians, they're all skilled at what we do.

Cause I've tried fitting a rad and it took me ages and then it bleeding leaked when I'd done it. So I called a plumber and he fitted five RAs and the fixed the one that I obviously budge installed in half a day. Yeah, the right tools and the right knowledge to be able to fit them RAs properly. So yeah, don't try and fit RAs again cause it's just a waste of my time.

and this goes for all sorts of trades. Cuz as a gardener at the summertime, you wanna obviously tight your garden up a bit, make it look a bit nicer, cuz you'll more likely be spending more time in the garden in the summer. So you spend a small fortune maybe going out to the wholesalers, or if you love tools like.

A lot of tradesmen do, they'll get Maita kit or they'll get Milwaukee or DeWalt hedge trimmers, that batter because they, they've got the batteries already for them. I only know this, I've done this myself. I've got a Makita hedge trimmer, and they'll spend a fortune on that equipment. But have you ever thought about maybe just employing a gardener to do a day's work in your garden and to get.

All the trimmings off and neat and tidy. They do it for a, a live-in so they know what they're doing and they take all the cuttings away with them. So it walks away lovely and tidy. It's a lot less stressful. So that's exactly what I do now, and I haven't really used my Makita hedge trimmer that basically costs the same as a day's labor as the gardener that comes around.

So that was a waste of money. But as an electrician, you don't have any other options. Sometimes you've gotta work with the other trades, and you do get a big variety of different tradesmen in how they work. You get them absolute idiots who just really want to get the job done, their job done. They don't care about anyone else.

I just want to get their bit done and get the hell out of there. Now these guys, yet, you don't wanna have them working in your house, so there's probably not much of a point in being friends. . But if you make that little bit more conscious effort to maybe get along with other trays, like with plasterers, if you tuck your cables inside a box, cuz I know for a fact that they love to skim straight over.

They don't want to be having to tuck the cables. And if they skim up to it makes their life harder. So if you tuck your cables in the box and they can skim straight over, hopefully. They won't skim the plaster over and cover the box up and make a nice, neat finish. So you gotta believe, find the box later on.

That's basically what a lot of plasterers do yet, but some plasterers, they'll cut it out nice and neat. They'll do you a favor because you tuck two your cables in to make their job easier. So they'll in return, basically make your job a bit easier. And then if you working in a proxy, say with a, a plumber, and you've got, , they're doing the whole central heating and you are doing the whole re.

And to check with them, have a little conversation and say, look, where are you gonna run your pipes, mate? Let's keep out each other's way, because , I don't want my cables laying on top of pipes, and he doesn't want his pipes laying on top of cables. So it's just these small things that can lead to a bigger picture.

And the benefit of doing work for other tradesmen, like I've been around other trades per like builders houses before, where you give them a quote, they know how much your skills worth. So when you give them a quote, they don't try and knock you down or bargain with you, they're quite happy to say, yep, okay, I accept that quote.

That sounds reasonable. They know what they value, what you're gonna do. And if you do work for like a main contractor, that which is a builder, possibly on an extension on a property, it's nine times outta 10 that that builder is putting in a bit higher price for the electrics of putting a bit on top.

That's, that's how it works. How it works in the building trade. If that builder gets an electrician or a plumber in, they put a certain percentage on top or they've put in a price for the electrics to be done and well, they're hop. That it fits the same quote. Will you give them? Cuz I swear , I do believe the builders, they just pick a number outta thin air for maybe the electrics, cuz they haven't got such a clue.

Sometimes I've noticed that some builders these days are saying, look, man, it, it's costing a lot more than I put put on the quote. Well, I was like, yes, but the customer wanted. LEDs. They wanted USB sockets and these materials cost more. It's not necessarily my labor's gone up. It's the materials that you're requesting that you've told them that they can have the LEDs in all the nice fancy stuff.

This is why it's costing so much. But nine times outta 10, that builder probably just goes in there and he's completely undercut the price of the electrics cuz he didn't realize that, yeah, it's not gonna meet regulations and you need to put a new fuse board in. Or they're putting a stupidly extortion amount and they'll say, yeah, do what you want.

I've got plenty of money in it. So then these builders are obviously making a good amount of profit from the work that you are doing for them as well. So this is the reason I believe that builders, when I've done work for them, have gone around the house and given the quote for the work wanna be doing, or they, they won't doing even, they'll pay you whatever, yet you ask for.

They're not fussed. They've made a lot of money over, out of view over the time through working with them. So, They'll be respectful sort of thing. They'll get, they'll get you a bacon roll and they'll give you a few beers, maybe have you at end of the job. They're quite appreciative. I think builders are, this is what I've noticed in my experience.

So if you take that tradesman banter out of rti, hating each other, then's probably a quite a good idea to be friends or at least just get along. Because if you think about it, what's the most common thing you'll say to a customer after doing a bit of work? You say, yeah, you'll need to get a plaster into like make good the mess that I've created.

Because obviously as electricians we need to make holes in ceilings. We need to make chases, we need to cut out the boxes in the walls. You need a plaster to come along and fill in. It might be a little bit of hassle in, it might upset the customer sometimes saying, oh, what? You are not gonna make good.

But I cannot plaster to save my life. I've tried, I've tried to give it a go. Try and help someone else saying, yeah, I'll, I'll cover the chases, I'll make good. Yeah. It's not as easy as what you think. It is a skilled trade to get a decent finish on plastering cuz my dad used to be a plasterer and I had to call him once an hour ago.

I tried to plaster for an ex-girlfriend's, uh, an ex-girlfriend's bedroom wall that wanted it plaster and couldn't find a pla. Said, I'll give it a go watch a couple of YouTube videos. Yeah, it didn't work out. I didn't have a clue cause I had to call my dad up. Was it, how the hell would you get like a glass finish a lovely finish on a bit of blast to her?

Well, I ain't got a clue that you had to let it go off for maybe an hour or two hours and then flick a load of water on it. Yeah, I wear my cup of tea. It sounded like a completely different skill that I wasn't interested in learning, to be honest. So if you get a good ba, you're gonna recommend them to your customer.

But then that plasterer, he does a load of work in people's house. He does a load of work for different builders. He, he is in the trade. He sees so many different tradesmen. And what's the conversation that comes up sometimes? Does anyone know a good sparky? Well, he's gonna recommend you to his customers too, and it's probably one of the best ways to be able to grow a business is word of.

And I don't think this just goes for maybe plumbers, builders, plasterers, cuz when you do work for maybe a car, salzman, their job is to have a conversation with a customer and become their best friend. Obviously they want to sell them a car, so they've gotta talk about their life and they just get friends with them.

And if it's ever mentioned in that conversation that yeah, I'm getting a kitchen fitted and basically I'm, I'm struggling to find an electrician. Well, that car salesman will recommend you. I know this because this has happened to me over the past 20 years, so I think I know Car Salzman. I know builders, bricks, ground workers, and they do recommend you to their family and friends, and it'll grow into something that you basically can't stop.

You'll get calls all the time. If you hear of electricians, they say, yeah, you don't answer your phone in a day because you can't get anything. You get people calling you constantly cuz maybe, maybe asking you questions, say, oh, I've just fitted this light. I'm not sure how. But you can't tell 'em over the phone because, well, some people expect it.

Some people want you to say, just put the red in the blue in the brown, and. You can't, it's, it's difficult to do it. Or they want to FaceTime you. I've got friends that sometimes I have before say, look man, please just, I'll, I'll pop around tomorrow. Leave the light off overnight. You're gonna kill yourself.

Leave it and I'll come around and sort it out because you can't tell 'em how to do it over the phone cuz whatever. You're a big banger, full of the steps. You're gonna have to go around there anyway. You'll find that everybody needs an electrician at some point and being a good. Will make the customer not only keep your number, but it'll also make them tell all their friends as well.

If you are a nice person. I take my dog with me everywhere I go and he's like an icon of my business. They said, bend the electrician with the dog and they talk about a dog that come out. They maybe meet the dog in the van or sometimes even invite him into the house. The kids to play with him. He's a grumpy guest, so he doesn't play with kids much anymore, but it's like.

It helps the customer remember you without a doubt. I dunno what I'm gonna do when he's just sits at home and doesn't want to go to work anymore. But he's my, my like my, my little sidekick, shall I say. Cause it was just, well, the other day that I was around a customer's house with the lights in the conservatory, they haven't worked for a little.

So I took 'em down and I found that one of the cables had been trapped in one of the brackets that the previous electrician have maybe installed, and also the terminals, for some reason, none of them were tight. I don't understand why electrician should work out their wrists. They need to do a nice, tight connection that obviously matters.

So I asked the. I said, who, who did this work last? Who left it like this? And he said, yeah, we had an electrician out. And, uh, he couldn't work out why it kept tripping, so we just disconnected him and said, yeah, you can't have a license in the conservatory. Well, I can only imagine that the tripping was maybe because of that court cable or a loose connection, but he, it'd gone round.

It disconnected them in all the lights and in the switch, which ended a day, if you were dis disconnected that circuit, there was a live neutral and an earth at the switch. You could have just disconnected at the switch and that would've. Eradicate any false that you're gonna get on that circuit, which I don't know, you get some electricians out there that are probably unsure what they're doing until they go over the top and ends up making a mess of things when you could have just basically fixed the problem and tested it to make sure that it works.

I don't know. But then lights have been like that for quite a while, and that electrician was never called again to that property to do any work, and it wasn't. That I was recommended to them that they thought about getting 'em fixed. Cause they thought, yeah, this guy's all right, he's quite good, he's good at what he does, so can we see if you can check out this fault that the other electrician couldn't work out?

And obviously I did, but that customer, I got recommended to buy a hairdresser. So once again, another trade that can recommend you. And then talking about other trades. Without going into too much detail, I was arrested a little while ago. It's probably about.

10 years, about 10 years ago, and I was taken to the police station and put in the cells before an interview. And if you've ever been there before, you must know how it goes. You, you spend a little while in the cells and then they interview you, but while you are going into the cells, you have to take your shoes off, your laces out, and you have to get empty your pockets and fill out all these questions.

And the police officer was asking him, him all these questions and said, what is your occupation? So I said to him, I said, um, I'm an electrician mate. I did the wiring for your garden lights a little while ago, and he just laughed and he said he un understood. He was just trying to be professional and didn't wanna say that he knew me, which I completely understood because it was also a little bit embarrassing for me as well, getting arrested lights.

I'm not a scallywag, I'm not a. Naughty person, really. But um, yeah, so he was just, he was fine with it. And I was not charged and I was let go in the end cause it was a complete misunderstanding. However, I must have started a conversation inside the cop shop because it wasn't until a few days later that a policewoman called me up to replace some lights in her house.

So every scenario , there's a good thing to come out of it. I got the conversation started inside that police say goes, oh yeah, there's a sparky.

He actually probably did a good job in my garden. Oh, I guess get his number cause he had his number in my in, in his phone. And yeah, she needed electrician. And my name come up in conversation, maybe in a roundabout way of being in the police station, but it was fantastic. I was the first thought of his mind when he was talking about maybe someone need an electrician.

So keeping your business in front of the customer's mind when someone says, yeah, I need, I need electrician. That that is priceless to keep. On, on your mind of your customers all the time. When someone says electrician, they think straight away. Yeah, Ben. Yeah, Ben, that is the best way you can and word of mouth.

That is the best way you can obviously grow your business. So this is why that I've created, uh, 10 emails. I call 'em email nails, and they're emails that I send to customers. , letting them know the sort of things that modern technology they can have maybe like USB socket or the smart central heating, how that'll save them energy these days.

That's, that's been a great one. I'll put a few of them in, because it's not just Hive and Nest anymore. There's loads of different heating controls that you can use with your smartphone. So I'll leave a link to that in the description below so you can get your hands on it. So until next time, I'll see you again.

Get inside the toolbox, talks for electricians group, and post your experience of what we've talked about today. I'll leave a link to the group in the show notes below. Until next time, we'll see you again.