General Discussion
Advice please
On this forum there is a services section a neighbour of ours has a post on there for over a year now, though with out a single call, he has placed ads at £5 a week on gumtree without a single call, he asked me how he could obtain more work I gave my 2p worth
What do you think ?
Household service
The best FREE way to more work is by word of mouth, do a good job and more work will come .
Or go and see Swift Prnt.
I have been working for myself over 55 years and the FREE WAY IS BEST.
Agree. If you are good there is no need to spend money on adverts.
I would think twice if an Electrician or alike has to advertise for work.
If you are not on 'Checkatrade' or recommended by someone they trust then most people won't pick up the phone.
I had a look at checkatrade funny thing is I didn't find any dawlish businesses, does this mean they are all c ap and untrustworthy ?
@ Andy
Hi mate.
To be honest, I am not at all surprised by that.
Some years ago (approx 10) I asked a few reputable builders about building a front porch on my house.
Out of the 6 that were asked, only one (who was the last one I asked) had the decency to come round to view the site, measure up, and give me a proper written quote.
The others said that they either didn't want to do it or gave me a verbal quote that was so unacceptably high that they knew that I wouldn't accept it.
Needless to say that the builder who built my porch (and who was happy to get the business) wasn't from Dawlish, and since then, I have been very reluctant to use a 'tradesman' who is local.
I can recommend a local builder if anyone is interested. He was recommended by our neighbours when we first moved here very nearly 8 years ago. Not often I agree with Wondering but on this occasion I do. Word of mouth - best advertisement there is.
My experience of local so called trades people so far has been very poor, I now personally bring all our required trades in from the Midlands except a gas engineer he's from Torquay.
I know a builder who has been recommeded but I haven't used him.
To be honest I use trades people every month have done for 20 years only ever been asked a dozen times for a recommendation.
Word of mouth can't produce enough work otherwise people wouldn't advertise
I moved here three years ago last week and it seems to me that if the tradesmen haven't gone fishing then they are in the pub. I have lost count of the times that people have said they would quote or turn up here and didn't.
The only way I have found, is like Andysport, is to import them.
"Word of mouth can't produce enough work otherwise people wouldn't advertise"
but the builder I use doesn't advertise - he doesn't need to. Word of mouth is how he gets his work. And he's busy.
Andysport, There are good roofers, Gas fitters, electricians, plasterers,general builders,great local trades i needed my roof looked at yesterday he was here within the hour coming back in the morning to do the job maybe its not what you know but who you know.
Interesting comments. I've aways used locals, some good, some average. I had a big job recently. The local supplier/installer was based in Newton Abbot and for two weeks he promised to come out and price it up but didn't. In the end I went to the main supplier who pointed me further afield to a highly rated competitor, a Romanian. I'd have no concerns if he lived next door to me, he was a pleasure to deal with.
@Mcjrpc - windows and door eh? those things that can let people in (immigration) and let people out (emigration).
Roofer = Lee Manning Dawlish Warren has a good name in the area, seems like a nice guy, I've not used him roofing I'd do myself.
Devon is cheaper for roofing than the Midlands at £20 a sq metre based on 30 sq metres.
Further to the above posts.
I need a general factotum, who can turn his/ hand to most things ie. grass cutting, painting, general gardening, household chores.
Prove me wrong, that no one like this in Dawlsh exists please. Good pay and you get to hear The King sing,
Message me !
Thank you for that roberta, I have been married for 48 years, as it happens, but now my wife is disabled, hence my request.
Elvis,
I do wonder sometimes what people think a good rate of pay is.
Local trades seem to be £160-170 a day or £27-£30 an hour
When I try and get £27 an hour for myself and my equipment i do struggle.
I cut the grass for someone using their £50 mower and their fuel, it takes 3 1/2 hours, my mower would take less than an hour, it costs them more, I just can't figure some folk out.
27 pounds an hour for eight hours is 208 pounds, over a five day week it's £1080, no wonder you struggle Andysport.
As with a lot of other things its time Dawlish dragged itself into the real world both when it comes to wages and to paying for services. Andysport's £27 per hour for manual labour is nothing compared to what people pay for a solicitor or decent accountant, but when employers down here only want to pay minimum wages then it probably does sound alot.
People are their worst enemy, anyone who works for the minimum wage has only themselves to blame, if no one took the jobs then the pay rates would have to increase.
As for local tradespeople look very closely at their qualifications, past work and recommendations before taking them on. There are lots of cowboys out there .
1. how many lawns are big enough for me to take 8 hours to cut ?
therefore several jobs per day travelling time, fuel etc etc
My equipment costs in just the last 2 years has been £40,000
I have 1 piece of kit coming later this month that was £20,000
My fuel costs in my mower can be upto £12 an hour, if ran flat out for an hour
I'm so pleased I don't do much work for domestic customers, no wonder my neighbour is struggling.
Understanding someone elses point of view is good, so do please keep them coming, people may I included may well learn something from this debate.
I hesitate to recommend anyone I use on this forum after previous comments. I'd struggle finding someone who would do all those things @elvis presley. i could recommend someone for gardening and one of my neighbours uses a cleaner i could find about about if you are interested. i know the people at lanherne use a general caretaker for odd jobs, not sure if he works for anyone outside of there. pm me if you want some details.
Sorry did not know. So you should get loads of benefits so you should be able to pay someone to do it for you .
Good for you.
These days people do like to read trade reviews (checkatrade) or ask a friend for a recommendation better still. If you want business you have to have at least one of these types of strands in you favour. Having said that, in spite of all my best efforts at getting a good trader, they will always be minded to put too little cement in the concrete or source dirt cheap materials, as if it's their money they are being deprived of. Andysport you sound like a good'un though.
Clive, I was a builder building maintenance back in the Midlands 28 years, had 46 woking with us at one point 9 at the end, just because 9 is an easy number, sold the business moved down here, bought a small business part time really & the wife looks after it really, I'm doing a barn conversion for ourselves at the moment, I have a huge garden so we have huge kit i'd just like to earn a bit of money from it.
Oh and yep you don't get many like me (old school but only 46)
I cut an acre of meadow last night for the sea cadets (for free)
clive if you want good materials at decent prices i have trade accounts with all the big boys
Back in November last year, when we had the first few storms, my guttering was leaking. I rang a local chap whose number I got from the dawlish trade magazine. He popped round the next day, replaced a short section of guttering and put his card through my door to let me know it's all done. I rang him and asked for the bill and he said it took him 10 mins and he had a bit of guttering the right shape on his van so don't worry about it but to give him a ring if I want any more roofing jobs done. I was so surprised that there are still tradesmen who don't look for every penny but look to enhance their name, I'll definitely be using him again.
On the other side of the coin, I emailed and contacted via websites 6 local iron works companies about a price for some railings, not one of these companies replied to me!! Maybe they are all to busy and don't want my work???
Being a tradesman myself there is no excuse for not contacting a customer even if it's just to say unfortunately you are to busy for new work.