Part time tilers the death of full timers???

[UKTT Darren]

I know its easy to have a bit winge when things are down a bit , we all do it, what i say to everone on my course is look after yourself and try not to worry about the competition, let them worry about you, just means you have to be focused more and try and hunt out the business, market yourself more, try and find more contacts and potential business, they can only say no, but if you dont ask then your gaurenteed a no, Times are tough for everyone, how many people that are employed at the moment will be going back to work in Jan only to be faced with cut backs and redundancy, i understand your post but try and stick at it and look harder for the business, only the fittest survive, be one of them and dont worry about the people that fall by the wayside. When your self employed your loyalty is to yourself and your family and nobody else. Be possitive and focus on doing well and you will suprise yourself at the results, i found that if i went into do a quote feeling negative then you wont get the biz, try going in with a bubbly positive attitude and see the difference, people buy off people they like, get on with them and youve won the job.
Best of luck to you all for the New Year.

Regards
Darren the motivator

 

[Highlander]

I know its easy to have a bit winge when things are down a bit ,

market yourself more,

try going in with a bubbly positive attitude and see the difference, people buy off people they like, get on with them and youve won the job.

Best of luck to you all for the New Year.

Regards
Darren the motivator

Darren this is not me having a winge this is going to become a reality for a lot of guys and gals. I know how to market and network but if the work aint there it aint there and I aint one to go in not cheerful to customers mate never have never will be been through enough in my life to know how to win contracts/jobs.

I have loads of mates in the trade and other trades and they aint sitting on their butts they are fighting over jobs cutting the margines to get work hardly covering the costs. As you are in the training game it is in your interest to come out with the motivator speach and I am sure you will be finding this down turn as much as everyone and I hope all training schools are letting their students know the reality of the trade and not false promises like I still see one advertising earn 42k.

The reality is that there are lots of people struggling and look at tiling as an answer to getting them out of the hole they are in but reality is it is cut throat and only going to get worse. So it is not a winge its fact and if anyone is thinking it is short term think again. My mate is an upholsterer one of the best, traditional and was having a chat with him and he hit the nail on the head both trades we do are a luxury and the first thing to get cut when people are feeling the pinch is luxuries if people have lived with their cruddy bathroom for 10 years they will live with it for another couple till things get better.

Reality mate not a bed of roses but all the best for 2009.

Gary

 

[Alan.P]

Voted as part time, ex NETT course nearly 2 years ago, a stint in a commercial market after that ( full time ) and various domestic jobs since, will still be working 'full time' ( site co-ordinator ) for the company that employs me for the start of the year or until such time as my own business can support me and mine, I do see tiling as my future, sorry if that upsets some folk.

 

[doit4u]

I do tiling as one of the services I offer under the title of Do.It.4.U. so tile part time although self employed. Most of the people I know do tiling alongside other work i.e. decorating, plastering, plumbing.

Out of interest I looked in the local Yellow Pages that covers Swansea and West Wales and the vast majority of advertisers offer other services. The only place with a significant number that only advertise as tilers are in the Swansea/Neath/Port Talbot area. There is only one person advertising just as a tiler in Carmarthen.

I am wondering if this is a result of the number of chimney pots in an area. Swansea is a reasonable size city so there is probably enough work to work soley as a tiler, however Carmarthen only has a population of 15,000.

I find that people often don't want to be bothered looking around for different trades and once they have confidence in you will often ask you to do additional work. I am quite happy to do decorating, and in fact rather enjoy wall papering. I am also happy to do basic wood butchery as my father would call it - he was a carpenter by trade - like changing a door, putting up a shelf or cabinet. I have also built a fence, cleaned out gutters, assembled flat-pack furniture, power washed paths etc. etc.

I know my limitations and won't do plumbing, plastering, electrics, building and pass on the names of people I know to the customer. In fact I quite enjoy the variety and do a lot of small jobs for older people that others aren't interested in. I wish I could find someone who provided a handy man service near where my father lives {120 miles from me}. He has a flickering tube in the double fitting in his kitchen which probably only needs a new tube and/or starter and there is no way at 87 he could get up a step ladder. He tried a couple of local electricians and they wanted a call out fee of £60+ to even step over the threshold so it will have to wait until me next visit.

 

[doug boardley]

full timer,altho' as a youngster I mainly worked for smallish building firms where we had to turn our hands to all aspects of building. One day I'd be plastering, the next roof slating etc etc. I'm not to sure about all this "survival of the fittest" mullarkey tho'. Personally I think it is just as likely to be survival of the luckiest as well. You may have 2 tilers one exceptional, one ordinary, the exceptional tiler may miss ouy on a major job by a couple of quid a m2, the ordinary quality guy gets it and enough work for the year and to ride out the recession!

 

[grumpygrouter]

I think maybe a lot depends on your particualr "market". If you are mainly domestic, the guys with the good reputation may well be better off than those without, but if you do site work, I feel that price will certainly be the driving force here, reputation or not unless you are established with a good reliable contractor.

 

[Spud]

I started tiling over 20 years ago and have never done any thing else i have worked constantly and through out the last recession ,this will sound harsh but it really will get rid of a lot of the dead wood ,i am lucky were i am in a position where i am employing sub contractors at the moment ,i have let go all the part trained lads and the tilers who cant drive or dont have their own tools and will only use lads who are time served fulltime tilers , i have seen it with the other firms in my area it is only the reliable conscientious blokes who are working and the days of having to make do with what ever tiler you can get are gone for now , if i find my self out of work in the future i will be looking to work in europe with the exchange rate at parity now germany ,holland and belgium are looking inviting.

 

[faithhealer]

We all have to grit our teeth lads and get on with it, been shafted a couple of times this month but just getting on with it. (one to a 'dole waller'!) Not the fastest tiler in the world but still sticking to the 'do the best job you can rule' because that little bit of care and attention can bring in the next job.

 

[bigandy]

have voted myself as part time.

as i have recently stated i am coming back to the trade from a sabbatical(setting up another business)and have spent the last two months re visiting all my old haunts and finding some new ones.although i have found no work specific,just a lot of promises of work.
so i will be doing something else to tied me over until i can go full time again

 

[Rad2474]

An interesting thread Gary, I'm a part time course tiler but don't consider myself on par with the time served professionals. I know my limits of what i can and can't do so i don't consider myself a cowboy either. I tile for two reason's,one the extra money and two because i enjoy it,i've spent my life working in factories and to do something your proud of and get paid for it is a very nice feeling. You miss one very important point, at least in my opinion and that's the maasive influx of foreign workers who have taken jobs and who also have a bit of a reputation for undercutting british workers.