Setting up as self employed

[peachy94]

My OH has been a commercial plumber for 8 years, he’s just done his domestic gas safe training and wants to go self employed. Any advice for getting word out there and getting him work? He’s set up a Facebook page and gotten people he’s done work for to review and share etc. He’s got lots of tradesmen friends so hoping to get some reccomendations from them. He’s looking at contacting landlords and estate agents and advertising in the paper. Is it worth joining the likes of trustatrader? TIA

Unless you're in an area already saturated, then his customer base will grow quickly once he starts. Word of mouth is the answer. He needs a decent van that's well sign written to give an air of professionalism. He also needs to do a good job, turn up when he says, be tidy, etc., and the referrals will flow. Just don't try to compete on price - it's more about quality and reliability, so he shouldn't need to compete on price - otherwise he'll end up being too busy and not actually earning much.

It sounds like he's doing everything he can so far. Word of mouth will his best advert. Might be worth getting some little magnets with his contact details on and giving them to people after he's done a job for them. I have one on my boiler from the company that did our service.

Definitely get branding on his van or even car if that’s what he uses. I always note who is working for my neighbours based on their vans.