If you are a self employed tradesman chances are you have been doing this like me for many years and like me wouldn’t want to work for any one else. Maybe you are set in your ways of how you work. The times you work and the certain amount of flexibility that it gives you. Sometimes customers can of course be very demanding and expect you to be there at a drop of a hat and they think that you are there only customer right and then you get the customer that always comes back to you time and time again and these customers are our bread and butter, they refer you to others and hopefully increase your client base.
I don’t know about you but the customers that used to be loyal have a slightly different attitude these days. They look at price and how quickly you can do it, much more then maybe they used too and of course in these troubled times, I would be lying if I said that on many occasions I do the same I want the lowest price. And they expect you to do the job for much less than maybe you did before and your profit margin to get the job is much less than you would like. Because let’s face it we still have to pay out the same for our cost of living and more, they won’t say to us don’t worry you can pay less this time.
You may be one of those lucky ones that has your diary full and don’t need to worry about the immediate future and everything is still rosy for you.
And of course I do not want to sound pessimistic because I believe that everything has a cycle you get the bad times and the good times, the only uncertainty is we cannot predict the length of time that we are in that situation for.
Then there is the other side of being a self employed tradesman. Hard work the extent in which the body begins to feel the strain of working every day. If you are young no problem you work hard and long and still get up the next day and do it all over again I remember those days.
And if your work is paid on peace work like mine was it is not easy I had to lay down so much carpet a day to receive a good income and my knees were very sore and aching and the next day did it all over again.
Well I have a confession I cannot work like that anymore and quite frankly wouldn’t won’t too. So not only has my income reduced not just because of me slowing down. But the rate I get today compared to a few years ago has fallen with the cost of living.
I also started to feel that urge of do I want to keep doing this on a full time basis maybe I want something easier or maybe I would like to try something different.
If you are in the same position or have comments I would love to hear from you.
Leave your comments below.
February 13, 2009
Tradesmen