Toolbox Talk Top Tips On Starting An Electrical Business

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[00:00:00] Ben Poulter: It is time for that leap. It's time to go out on your own and build something for yourself, your own business with your own customers. Is it a good move? Whatever fail and you don't get any work? What if this, what if that? But what if you don't try, and it's a huge success. Toolbox talks for electricians, loading electricians with the tools and the skills they need to reduce stress, gain back time, and of course, earn more money.

Ben Polter, your host of Toolbox talks for electricians here to tell you if all those thoughts and what ifs are stopping you from starting your own business, then get them outta your head today, straight after this podcast. Because this is where starting your own electrical business will be one of the best decisions you've ever made in your life.

Along with the scariest, there's a number of things you should think about before going out alone, and some things they aren't really taught in college. When you're at college, you are taught to prepare yourself to be a good electrician with all the wire regulations and the fault finding, and you are taught the skills you need to actually do the.

but marketing yourself to people who want the job done, basically. Who? The people that pay you. You're not really taught that. So what do you think the best way to get your services that you offer noticed out there, whether you love it or hate it, it's gonna be social media. The days of going to the phone book or the yellow pages, if you remember that, that you used to use to stand on to get onto the top of the cupboard.

They're not around. And to find a tradesman, or in our case an electrician, people go to Google. They just Google it. So you need to get some sort of online presence. Whether you start a business, Google Page or business, Google profile, as it is, a Facebook page, the Instagram page, anything or even all three plus more would be a good start to grow your business in the area of , where you do your.

And a massive tip. What I've realized over the time of being online and being a a social media presence, should I say, is that if you start with maybe a TikTok or a Facebook page or a YouTube page, you never see any of these YouTube sparkers sitting at home because they haven't got any work. They're always stacked out and kept busy all the time.

And one thing always to remember is that nobody ever started out with plenty of work and were mega busy and a success overnight. Cuz if they say that they're a huge success overnight, they're more than likely lying. It's a hard struggle and , everybody's got to start somewhere. It's more than likely that they've had a business before and failed, and then obviously learned a lot of the mistakes , to make a successful business.

If you think of that, , guy Simon Cow, before he actually became a millionaire. He was a millionaire three or four times before, but lost it all, trying to build a successful business, but he didn't give up. It carried. And I find there's so many people that sort of just give it a go. Yep, I'm gonna give it a go.

I'm gonna start up on my own. Yet two weeks later, you got no work, so you're gonna apply for a job, but then you get sucked into that same routine of working for a boss. I did it myself when I started up on my own. I was doing two or three days, but then I got a good contract with, Ee, it was with subcontracting and it was good money, so I got sucked in.

So building my own business got put on the back burner once again. It wasn't until I took the leap to say, right, that's it. I quit completely. I'm doing everything on my own. They actually started making a bit of success or becoming a bit more momentum sort of thing to getting a lot of work and getting me own.

So a good idea would be making a plan from the beginning. Make a plan of what you're gonna do and how you're gonna do it with a little bit of money behind you to get the business going. And I'm not saying a fortune, like maybe 10 grand or anything like that. Just enough to pay for your insurance and pay for the bills for a couple of months.

Why is it sort of getting traction and. Building up momentum and you're getting your name out there and your brand out there for your business. And a lot of guys, they say, yeah, I don't wanna start up on my own because I haven't got enough money to fund the materials for a job. If I take a job on, well, that, that's not a excuse at all because when materials it, it won't be a problem whatsoever.

Because no doubt you've worked in the electoral industry for a little while, so you know a few ho few wholesalers and you've got a few friends in there, pop into that wholesaler and start up your own account. You'll be given a line of credit. Their materials, they won't cost you a penny for 30 days and the job should be completed within 30 days in invoice.

Long before then she, you should be paid and have enough money in your account to be able to pay in 30 days. That materials list. And I'm gonna crush the. Of what people say is like, go out and get yourself a thousand business cards. Yeah, I did that. I did that back in, what, 2012 I think, and I've still got some of their business cards left.

People don't have business cards these days. They're quite old fashioned in my eyes. If everyone has your number in their phone, as long as it's a professional number for your business, that's what you wanna start handed. And then you'll get customers giving you a call, arranging a time, and giving you obviously the date.

They can just text you their address to be able to go around and give 'em a quote. And once you give them the that quote, that's where your all your details are. They've got your email, you've got their email. You can follow up with maybe. Offers are something you're doing at a certain time because as soon as a customer accepts your quote and you start doing work for them, then that's when they're your customer.

They become one of your customers that you'll probably do work for, for quite a long time in the future as well, and talking about being professional. Make sure that your email address, it will represent your business and your company. Don't have one of these email addresses that's at billy big bulls hotmail.com.

You're gonna put people off straight away. The one of these email adjusts that you had when you were 16, get rid of that change. It completely start fresh. And the same goes for your answer machine. If you've got an answer machine where someone brings up and the first thing it says is, where's up?

Something silly like that, you're gonna put customers off. Trust me, it's not gonna look good at all. Think of first impressions with a customer. If you wanna come across professional, then make sure that you seem professional for yourself. You've got professional email and you've got a professional answer.

Machine message for customers when they need to get hold of you. And then depending on the budget, what you are starting out with. I would say get some polo shirts with your name and your logo on. Cause obviously that looks a lot more professional as well when you turn it to a customer's house with maybe your clipboard or a lot of the times.

Now you turn it with your iPad so you can take some photos and take plenty of information on there. But have a logo on your T-shirt so it represents yourself. So you, you look professional and always have polo t-shirt cause they've got the collars on. If you've got a t-shirt and it gets a bit old and raggedy, it looks trampy.

So yourself, a polo shirt, they've always got a collar and polo shirts, they, they stay looking good even when they're a little bit worn. If you've got the collar on there, you still look quite. because if you think of the impression that you get from maybe a tradesman turned up to your house in tracksuit bottoms with a hole in the knee and an old coat on that they used on Sunday to dig the garden that's covered in muck, it just doesn't give a good impression to that customer.

You wouldn't want. That person working in your house, and that's what the customer will probably look as well and think, hang about this guy. He doesn't take very good care of himself. And appearance-wise, I've had it before. People knocking on the door trying to give me a leaflet to do block paving or tree surgery, and you think.

Hang about mate, you've just rolled out a skip. I wouldn't want you sort of lingering around my house. I want you off my drive as quick as possible. And I admit, especially with the current day and age and the the younger generation, it's a little scary for the first time meeting so many people. And you've gotta ask 'em so many questions about what the one doing, how the one doing it, and you've gotta write these details of the job down.

Well, this will get a lot easier over. . I make a point of saying to someone now when I come round, we'll have a cup and we'll discuss what we're gonna do. So it's a bit more casual sort of thing. You having a cup of tea and obviously that way as well, you get a cup of tea out of it. But don't ever think like you're gonna start this business and do it all alone.

There is people obviously around you. You've got family owned friends that will support you and they'll want you to be successful. So use their support and get them to talk about what you're doing and what you're starting your own business up, and you're going out on your own and ask them to sort of pass your number onto family and friends.

The more people you get to meet, the faster your business will. And it's not just family and friends that could help your business grow as well. Ironically, it is other electricians. It can be a huge benefit to you and your business. You can help each other out. Some electricians are good at free phase installs.

Others are good at cctv, so you've gotta find. What maybe someone else is good at and talk about them as well. Cause they will also talk about you. You can tell 'em in install you doing saying, oh yeah, I did this whole rewire of a factory at a free phase supply with star delta motors. They'll think hang about.

Cause a lot of people, they're not clued up too much on domestics. They're clued upon domestics maybe, but they're not clued up too much on maybe star out or motor wiring. And maybe you enjoy doing that. Maybe you like a challenge or they'll call you up, they'll call you up to for maybe a job that they.

Because I know for a fact that other electricians do, they pass up work all the time because if you've been running an electrical company for, well, maybe a year or even six months, sometimes you get a lot of customers that'll phone you up all the time and they'll say, right, yet, my, uh, my cook has gone off and my fridge is gonna defrost.

So basically they need someone now. A property, a property or a household, it can't function without electricity. So if Elec electrician is busy or they say, I can't come at the minute, mate, can they say, can you recommend someone else? If you are friends with a spark in, they can actually recommend you and that's gonna help your business grow in the long run.

Get your business and your reputation out there. It's not always a job that come wait a few weeks, so they need to get it done as. . So of all the friends you got, if any of them electricians, plumbers, builders, carpenters, swap numbers with them. Cuz that's exactly how your, the word of mouth is the best promotion that a tradesman can get.

And it goes for all trades. I think that when you work in someone's house, you think, like, there's always someone that will say, yeah, I'm having a, I'm a new boiler fitted, but do you know a good electrician? Well if your number's in their phone as the first electrician on there, then they're gonna recommend.

So keep that in mind when building your own electrical business. Another thing to keep in mind at all times is always remember why you begun the journey of starting your own business, of being your own boss and to run your own business. Cuz there's a number of benefits to it in the long run. And one of them benefits is I suppose you, you can't sack yourself and you'll always have work.

Once you're building your own customers, customer base, you, you can't get rid of it. Everyone knows you're, as an electrician, especially if you're good, they'll always ring you like myself, I sort of closed my business down for a year before. But then as soon as I started it back up, it took maybe, I don't know, three weeks to sort of that phone to keep ring, ring ringing and booking in jobs just like it was maybe two or three years ago.

So all these tough times that you go for about building your own business and building up your customer base is only gonna have to go through once. You are gonna have to do this once in a lifetime. You're gonna get your name out there and it is tough. It is tough at times and it is challenging, but it's also so much well worth it.

The money's. And the freedom you have is a massive perk. You can do what you want when you want. I guarantee you, after starting your business for a year, and if you listen to what I'm saying on this podcast to start your business, you'll be stacked out in a year or so. You'll be crossing your fingers hoping that a job gets canceled, hoping that a job gets put off, or maybe a couple of days where you have a few spare couple of days where you can do what you want just so you can have a day off and do nothing for once.

Cuz you are always busy. When you're self-employed, electrician, when you're running your own business, and the bonus that we've got as being electricians, you're open to a number of different opportunities, not just the electrical wiring in a domestic premises or in a factory or in a commercial office. I explained this in another episode called Other Jobs You Can Do as an electrician.

You should go and check that out. But if you are starting to think, mm, maybe I'm having doubts at not starting my own business, should I, shouldn't I, I'll be happy to jump on a call with you and you can ask me a thousand questions to try and help you out to get you started in running your own business.

So until next time, I'll see you again.