dteagles

Hi,
I am about to be made redundant and have been thinking about what I should do with my career.

I am presently doing product management/development for C&W but have been considering re-training to become a plumber (own business).

Has anyone out there re-trained and started their own business as a plumber who could let me know what it was like?

I'm not doing it for some of the over-inflated claims on pay as I am realistic and have worked out that I would probably need to earn about 30-35K to live reasonably (wife and 2 kids).

I like the idea of having some control of my life/career rather than letting some corporate decide if I should make the next step.

I know it would take some time to build up a business but I will have about a years worth of money once I leave C&W and could also top this up with some part time work whilst I train.

Anyones thoughts or experiences would be appreciated.

Cheers,
Darren.

DRUNKNORGY

I am friends with a buildings/brickie/maintanence lecturer at the local college, I asked him about this a few months ago. He said all the plumbing courses are oversubscribed, and the acceptance for any of the building courses (which includes plumbing and electrical) is conditional of you already being in employment in that line of work as a plumbers mate or such.
You couldn't honestly be realistic about just doing a course on its own and then setting up offering plumbing services.
I don't want to burst your bubble, but its not as straightforward as it sounds, and self employed workers would take a few years to reach that sum. All retraining consists of eating shyte for a few years unfortunately. If it was that easy, there wouldn't be a shortage of them would there ? (I've already looked into it)
If you are serious about doing it, it would pay you to approach a few plumbing firms and ask them about vacancies with a view to training.

Ash

Adrian F

Like all trades a lot of the skill is gained from the apprenticeship with experienced trades men. To just have college taught knowledge is of little use out in the real world. To start as a plumbers mate is the best way in but you will earn very little. could try getting work thru agencies as plumbers mate but I think you could find it is a big shock going back to the bottom of the heap as most of your contemporaries will be spotty 16 year olds.

If you are lucky you could find a firm interested in having a more mature mate but they will not be interested in you if they think that you will leave as soon as you can, training people is expensive for companies and most of the time they like to think that you will stay for a few years after you finish training so they can get back some of their investment in you.

As to wages I think most people earn money because they work long hours I know about electricians and a lot of them when qualified working in central London are only on a £10 per hour wage rate with a total of 3 hours of commuting to and from work on top. Weekends and over time makes it up to a living wage but it is dirty boring work with little appreciation from people as you are only a tradesman. If you are good and stick it out and the shortage continues then yes in 5-7 years you could be earning 40K but you will be working all over the place in the bigger towns like London and Birmingham and regular weekends I would guess. I have a mate who lives up in near Wellingborough and he works in London and Birmingham even round to places like Guildford commuting each day. As a tradesman you have to go where the work is if you want good wage rates local maintenance jobs pay a lot less.

Tim-Grove

A friend of mine is soon coming to the end of his plumbing and gas fitting apprenticeship. The Apprenticeship was 5 years and of that 5 years only 2 years is taken up by a weekly day release plumbing course. My apprenticeship was 4 years but still only 2 years of that was a day release college course. Trust me you learn 90% of your trade from the guy’s you work with, so its gona be a lot harder if not near imposable if you don’t have anyone there to guide you along.

deano

Self employment is not all it's cracked up to be. People who work in the corporate world are dreaming when they think that self employment is the answer to their problems.

If you stop working, then you stop earning. That means no holiday pay, no travel expenses ect... You don't get paid for time on the road i.e visiting customers for quotes. You don't get paid for the hours you spend doing paperwork in the evenings either.

In fact, the only good thing about it (I have been s/e for 18 years) is when you get an awkward customer... You can tell him/her to **** off

dteagles

thanks for the advice folks!

Scooby96

learnplumbing.co.uk

Adrian F

Self employed does mean lower tax bills! well i got that when i was.