Sub out the small jobs to your lad who just set up on his own little margin on for your admin etc. Someone you know and trust meaning the chance of the big stuff is still there
Problem with this strategy (and I have tried it in another industry) is that you don't really own the customer relationship, which is a problem in the long term.
Personally speaking I wouldn't throw away small jobs, sometimes even though rare. The small ones can lead onto well paid and larger scale work, we've recently had a very small half a day job which has since ( 6 months down the line ) turned into a small development which were now completing for the client. If you have a good level of trust with the lad who's recently left in terms of ability etc. then perhaps pass the smaller works his way, and if anything larger comes from the small jobs you pass on, then im sure if you get on mutually that he may ask you in return for assistance to complete a larger scale job which he perhaps couldn't do on just his own? Just a thought
Exactly, I remember pre last recession and then during, you couldn't get a plumber, sparks etc .... If you could they'd literally raps you on price..... Small jobs were given 2 fingers.... Backfire on many so it did
For all jubs under 4 hours we charge a call out fee. In London this could be £150.00 which also covers the first 30 minutes, then add hourly rate after. These jobs can be quite lucrative especially if you can cut down travelling time
I work in commercial but sometimes do weekend work. From small job I ended up doing a rewire on their daughters new house. From that she spoke to her friend which could potentially be another rewire. All adds up, I’ve had people recommend me but small jobs and if they’re not worth it I just respectfully decline. After a 50 hour week I only do work I feel is worth my effort.
Interesting to see how you guys handle it for small jobs. We always charged the customer from the moment we either left the company in the morning or when we left the previous customer. Lets say: A. You load your van at 8:00 and start driving to your customer at 8:15, its a 45min drive, means you arrive at 9:00. We handle the driving time from 8:15 to 9:00 as work time which gets paid by the customer. B. You leave the previous customer at 12:00 and start driving to your next customer, its a 20min drive, means you arrive at 12:20. We round up to the next fourth, so the driving time from 12:00 to 12:30 is again work time which gets paid by the customer. C. You drive back to the company for the end of the day, its a 45min drive. Okay that is time that goes out of your pocket. It has multiple benefits in the end. 1st You don't have a ton of small jobs all over, 2nd If someone is further away they either have enough money for them not to care about it or they eat the cost just to get you because they want you, 3rd You leave a lot of jobs on the floor that aren't profitable and 4th You can basically chose what you want to do and what you don't want. Of course someone has to do those but you aren't the only company around. You have more time for bigger jobs and if you have small jobs, it is small jobs that don't end in a loss. For driving in between to the wholesaler, well that is also time paid by the customer. If its something simple like a two pole switch, well okay you can say I will cut off 15min for the drive to the wholesaler for that customer, they are happy about that and you don't loose too much because you have some puffer with the driving time.
in response to the brake discs, brembo make alot of OEM manufacturer parts which is why they can be picked up cheaper than you think and will perform as well as the brakes that came on the van originally. odds are the brembo stuff he had was the exact stuff they fit in factory
If you have volume of large work to focus on that keeps everyone active generating money for the business. Going into a niche of that is great. But equally churning smaller jobs with quick cashflow has merits. Min callout to cover travel to and from each job then per hour rate the biz needs each worker to be generating billed to the client. Some clients may fall away but your time is spent on more productive and value driven work. Different for everyone and our circumstances/wants. But essential that everyone is kept busy
Keep doing the small jobs, the main point of a business is to do business, you can always get another guy to do the small jobs when they start growing in numbers. Charge a callout, try to get something so that the loss isn't a huge one, but don't expect a no loss, work with something manageable, a middle ground between you and the client. Charge your prices and do your business at your fair price also. For someone that wants cheap work it isn't worth the time, but people that pay a fair price and understand quality and proper work are normally good people and they can get you a little more business with the same quality of people. In the IT segment i mostly focus on getting the right clients with the proper mindset that understand what a professional does and what they get out of every job. Choose quality of customers over quantity every time and it will help you in the long run.
A tip for keeping tools and equipment clean ... I use to blow the tools off with compressed air then moved to spraying WD 40 on my equipment and wipe them clean and polish them with a buff on a bench grinder ... now I use baby wipes for everything ... from wiping switches and plug sockets ... to my tools and machine ... and even my hands ... just think ... all that dust and sand blown into the machine at high pressure ... consider the grease and bearing etc ... I dont use anything more than my makita blower to remove brick dust etc.
Hard to compare, but as an electrician in Norway we've always charged travel time. Mind you it's rarely more than 30 min and customers further away are well aware. Definitely helps that all companies around this part do the same.
Sum these small jobs up, visit if necessary, _then_ decide yes or no on the merit. Don't completely just say no to smaller jobs, consider each on their merit if you feel like doing it (you'll instinctively know), just give an honest, realistic quote -- and if they then quibble, just walk away, apologise and just explain why you can't do it for less.
Completely agree on tool cleaning. You are not in construction sites generally, you are in people's homes. Don't track in mud... Suggest you send the smaller KAIWEETS meter to Big Clive. Can you add some braking to the Runpotec spool handler to slow the un-spooling and prevent the momentum of the cable weight from over delivering cable? There are pencil soldering Irons that run off 12V and since you have Bosch 12 tools you just need their adapter (GAA12V-21) which offers a USB port and a coaxial 12V connection. Might already be in your Bosch warming jackets. Love Sortimo!
Do you get pictures of the job first so you know if need special stuff? With the superrod Chinese finger trap put a little tape around the edge if you might need to pull cable back because if edge catch's can be game over :)
Whoever gave you that case with half a beach in it needs to be given it back and a pack of earbuds and told to clean the tools after hours in the unit. Outrageous.
For your small jobs, just charge each client for the drivetime to the job site. Londoners need to deal with the realities of city life. Additionally, wear gloves while air cleaning your tools. Compressed air is not safe on exposed skin, it can inject particulates directly into your pours.
Waylon Jennings sang the theme song for the series "The Dukes of Hazzard". You've started a trend now: In a year's time it'll be almost impossible to call someone out to change an RCBO. You seem to spend more time cleaning/polishing/servicing your vans than you do actually using them. I could so do with that home security system and/or the 1000 Watt power bank. Please bear me in mind if you're doing a giveaway on either/both. :) As you were sticking your finger in that Super Rod piece I was imagining you going around all week with it stuck to your finger.
Great video Tom. Regarding the little jobs. Try not to give them up, you may get asked to fit a couple of double sockets in someones house, and unbeknown to you they could be a company director who is looking for someone to re-fit a distribution warehouse. Your little jobs are a testament to how your company approach and carry out their work, and quite often - maybe by word of mouth or actual experience; Larger projects can materialise from them. Or you could simply refer them to Joe, I'm sure he would be glad of the work.
As for little jobs you never know that customer mite give someone your details and that could turn out to be a big job etc.... and I've always been told to keep your tools clean they last longer, every week I give my tools a clean big wipes etc 👌 your no the only person who does it Tom
Start charging a standard call out fee plus your hourly. As long as your up front with the fees the customer can always go else where if they are not happy to pay
Tbh I wouldn't be bothered by the sight of dirty tools unless the dirt is literally falling off them on my carpet (which I'm sure would be cleaned up anyway), but I think it is still a good practice to keep them clean for the sake of longevity. Though I'm not sure if doing it with the compressor is a good idea since you are blowing it off, and the dust can get behind the grills and into the motor, royally fracking it up. Seen that, been there. Now I use a dry cloth (or sometimes dump for more stubborn dust) to wipe the dust off my personal tools once used. It's much quicker anyway as you don't need to fuff about setting up the compressor.
Definitely keep all your stuff clean and any work areas too. I use a vacuum cleaner with a brush attachment. My pet hate is finding cable clippings on a work bench or rattling around in tool cases etc.
I used to be the QS for a company covering the west of london. A lot of the work was for the likes of homeserve, so insurance jobs, water damage etc. You'd be on site for up to 30 minutes but would only get to do three or four of them across town. Thankfully we had an agreed rate for each call which covered it. Getting the lads on the bigger installs was always encouraged but it's the visits to the smaller jobs where good relations can be made with customers and planting of acorns yadda yadda. We ended up with two lads doing the small works - they were competent but mainly chosen as they had great communication skills with clients and kept the wagon spotless.. then we had a crew for the bigger installs.
Use to work as a surveyor for a large building firm, building major housing projects and commercial buildings with contracts up to a million pounds. But we also had a small works team that went around snagging all our new builds. But they also went around doing odd jobs such as adding new sockets, small plumbing jobs etc to the general public. This seemed to work and pay for itself
I have been running my own company for 15 yrs Tom and i would never turn down the small jobs ever as you say small acorns fall from big trees and that will never change ,love the videos by the way ,you have done well !!
From the way you describe it... the only way you can really deal with "Small job" issues is to have a big enough team that you can take in a lot of jobs in one area so you can cut down the transit time. Thinking about it, that might be how some of your competitors are getting away with charging less. So, for a relatively "small" team like yours... yeah, the costs become prohibitive.
I work as an industrial door engineer (I've noticed you've got a crease in your sectional door panel!) and we have always charged travelling to and from site
Travel is always going to be a factor, we try an plan work for areas, an box off jobs in one day. To try an save spending times travelling. Small little jobs don’t always pay the job but your risking as you say not getting the bigger jobs plus work is work an it should level itself out over time. I wouldn’t cut it off yet
You can segment your company and have dedicated workers to go on small jobs. You can try and build a EDC tool kit for small jobs and fit it in a motorcyle. One guy with a bike with tools and a backpack can do more small jobs a day and park easier. And you can have 1 van to support when the job happens to escalate to something bigger...
I guess a lot depends on your overall staff to work load levels but like you mention smaller jobs can sometimes lead to additional work and referrals. Keep up the good work and stay safe.
Regards the flat battery problem my gess is that the vans activate the glow plugs when you unlock the doors (to allow instant start),so if you lock and un lock the van in unit several times it drains the battery.
Plumber here, with small non urgent repairs like dripping taps etc I let the workload build up for say 2 weeks then set aside a day out a week to catch them all. Earned some really good customers from it and needless to say the big jobs follow.
The spark I use has a menu on his website so the customer can determine what job is needed (broadly) and also know up front what the price is going to be up front. You could easily cover your time with the pricing and the customer has a measure of comfort as well.
I’m thinking Tom, you can have another employee doing purely reactive call outs/small little jobs on your books, and another team dedicated to larger projects. The employee Doing the service calls can always jump over to help out the boys doing the larger projects to fill out the rest of his day if need be. That way you still have full control and keeping your foot in both markets. It’s a juggling act but I think you can make it work. There is still good money to be made in the smaller jobs. If you perhaps up your call out fee and then charge $100 per hour on top, plus parking, equipment etc, it still can be a good flow of income coming in
For battery packs, it might be worth looking into jackery. ive heard really good things about their stuff. And for soldering irons id reccomend a ts50. It heats up in a couple seconds, is super fine so is great for led and it works off 12v so with an adapter you can run it off a drill battery.
I completely get keeping tools clean like impact drivers/combi drills or even the sds but an angle grinder normally doesn't come out unless you are making a mess... the battery/charger and inside of the case being a mess is a different story, close the case. And charge the batteries somewhere else
To your question about travelling. I live near Gatwick and if my travelling is more that 15 minutes I charge travel time and diesel. But I charge a fair hourly rate. I had to go to London last week so I charged 3hrs travelling and £25 diesel. It’s the customers choice if they want you or get someone else.
I 100% agree re Brembo brake pads. The kit I got has stainless steel anti rattle plates and a rubber compatible grease pack not just the pads as in normal kits. I am in Australia and the price for front and rear was cheaper than OEM's from the dealer via Ebay.
That’s actually surprising that you really can’t invoice your travels to/from a job. Here in Finland that’s pretty much given, talking as a customer here, never gotten an electrician over without kilometer fee invoiced with parts and labour. It’s nothing extravagant, just some common rate per km. And surely if you can’t invoice that by itself, you need to work that into your labour costs anyway when you invoice? Otherwise that does sounds like a proper brutally competitive environment 😬
You can treat "little jobs" as loss-leader lead gen. I don't know about the UK, but in the US, there are ways to recoup these costs at tax time. In other industries, you would setup lead qualification criteria/metrics to help you decide which jobs to take on as loss-leaders, refining your criteria over time as you learn which questions to ask to understand what data indicates the possibility of a much bigger job.
To be far we charge for traveling time, not an excessive amount but we do cover out time, you have to. It’s like what you said on one of your recent videos about the cat and the surgery, payed £150 and you still had to go to them.
About the "airing your tools is useless" ... NO NO it fucking isn't. Tools are lubricated, in order for that lubrication (oil / grease) to work correctly and do its job, small particles should not be allowed to reach said lube. Blowing your tools clean is a means of maintenance that will prolong the life of the tool before it needs to be sent in for repair. I work with pneumatic tools and sprayers, cleaning is an essential part of the job, and will easily cost you 1000+ € if you let dust build up and clog shit.
I have a Bosch wall chaser, it must be about 15-20 years old, I have never cleaned it or put an air line on it, it gets covered in dust, and it runs like it did from day one, if it were to fail now because of dust I would say I have had my monies worth out of it.
Elton John once said he didn't like Crocodile Rock, but understood that his fans loved it so he kept doing it in concerts. On the small jobs issue, I would try to configure my schedule so that I'm in one area of town on a given day and just do work in that area. Don't set up client visits across town from each other on the same day. I think you'd find this would reduce your travel between tasks a great deal. Yes, there will be some that you can't fit into that plan and maybe those are the ones you have to turn down. But at least you're not cutting yourself off from much future work for your clients. Does that make sense?
Once worked for a similar sized London firm, we had just one guy doing the jobbing work full time, he was on a small percentage and had a van with all the gear onboard including a debit card machine. He could do upto 8 jobs a day, but if it was quiet he would often turn up to help others.
Will you be fitting a ring video door bell? Because everyone else is. I wouldn't put the transformer in a Din Rail case with no air flow though. We shall wait for them to find that one out the hard way...
I have a minimum charge for small jobs. More than an hour but three 1 hour jobs can mean 7/8 hours of chargable time. I would not stop them as they always lead to bigger work. Customers really appreciate you coming out as they can find it hard to attract tradesmen for small jobs but they have to pay.
Great Video as always Tom. Yes you need to do some free give aways wirh all the goodies you are getting sent then not using. Well done on building your business to the size it is
we bill for traffic, but it may be different simply due to us being more rural, so if we are doing hourly jobs we bill from home - home, although some of our competitors do charge different rates for travel and work, most in the local area are one rate shops. although i have seen commercials from the big cities with no travel charges and minute rates rather than hourly rates etc. if i have half an hour travel, and half an hour work, thats one hour, my hourly rate is 550dkk+vat, if i werent charging for travel i would have to make my hourly rate 1100dkk+vat to make ends meet on the same job, but then if i have 5 minutes travel and 8 hours work that has now gone from 4400 to 8800dkk+vat and nobody would hire me.
Must admit, I have never understood that term, why anyone would do something to lose money is beyond me. The older you get, the wiser you become, and a lot of the time it's a sprat to catch a mackerel.
If your small jobs are reactive breakdowns have a site attendance fee including 1st hours labour instead of only charging time on site. Say £180.00 site attendance fee. This will cover travel. If they dont wanna pay it dont go
Hi tom, I do the same thing when I finish work. I clean down my tools, give them a wipe down with a piece of rag. Clean all the shit out of the truck. Ready for the next job.
Like others have mentioned, charge more up front for small jobs. Don't even call it travel cost it's just "small job fee". Bigger jobs don't have the "small job fee" because economies of scale work in favor of big jobs.
Different vans doing; - servicing - reactive repairs - planned day jobs - planned price work If anyone gets done quicker than expected everyone pitches in to get everything done quicker, but then when things start to get booked in relevant to your van you go straight to that.
I had the same thought about brembo disc and pads, I brought a set to replace my crossland rear disc and pads on my 20yr old Vauxhall. The difference is unbelievable, better hand brake and much better braking on the pedal. I’ve had trouble recently with crossland discs warping. I’m not a crazy driver either. It’s good to know that you / The ‘ghost’ 👨🚀 cameraman had the same experience. Surprising.
I guess you’ll need to weigh up how much major works follow from the 1h jobs. If it has a 50% chance of a cu change or eicr, then it’s probably still worth it for job pipeline.
Funny, as a photographer, I was selling, "6x4"'s for €5, base cost was €0.50 ... and could not keep up with demand and going broke .. , I had to have €20 to stop drain. Naturally, no one would pay €20 for a 6x4 print.
The small job conundrum; I can't understand why companies charge by the hour, including you! I charge a minimum of two hours, then after two hours it's chargeable as half a day. If it reaches half a day then I'm charging a full day. Never had complaints about that, I'm not driving for an hour, earn one hours pay, then drive for another hour! That's three hours for one hours pay. It's not my fault the job's miles from my front door! If you want my services bringing to you, you're paying for that. Otherwise you can load your house or office onto a low loader and bring it to me!
Don't turn down small jobs, simply set a minimum number of hours charged for any job - say 2 or 3 hours. The important thing is to let the customer know in advance, so they know what they are committing to. Let them know that it is due to excessive travel time in London. You can even ask if there is anything else they would like you to look at whilst you are there or if they have a neighbour or similar that might want some work done at the same time. Turn a problem into a chance to find more work that can be done economically.
If it isn't costing you and you're breaking even on small works then it is A) Free advertising/brand awareness at the very least and B) Good Quality lead generation at the very best
Just charge the travel time to the customer for each small job. A lot of small job's will go away but you will retain good customers and still bill 8 hours a day.
I have worked similar small jobs in the it sector. When your starting out they are your bread and butter, and those that you would call your regulars when you get bigger you want to keep those going as they can give you good fill in jobs between the bigger ones. Like has been said, I would be subing out that smaller work you don’t want to be doing as much of to a trusted partner
i also air out the tools... sometimes feel pointless but back of the head you get sens that one cares about tools then reflect on the job.. and i recently opend up my small makita recipsaw and i have blown out gypsumdust everytime i have used it... the amount of gypsum and sawdust still in it was just O_O
I personally would choose to hire another electrician with a small van just to solely take care of the small jobs... as long as your hourly rate is large enough with profit margin to counteract the electrician's wages then everyone's a winner. You still net larger jobs, grow a little more and have an extra pair of hands for the bigger projects. Easy to forget the small fish when you get big enough but don't forget there is a massive market out there domestically for small electrical jobs- no-one wants to do them! From a sparky with 8 years own company.
I don't work in your industry but the small jobs are important, they keep you ticking over financially (not much but) and keep you busy (not always good for your type of work in london) but you never know what they will lead to. Word of mouth on the smaller jobs can be huge imo, all it takes is them to mention how good of a job you did to a family member who owns a business.... Also, 10000% agree with the dirty tools. It makes you look like you don't care, if you don't care about the tools you use to make you money then what else don't you care about? People may not directly think about that conciously but I agree that 1st impressions are important!
Might sound dumb but you could always price yourself out of the ‘small works’ in the sense that if you get said job because you have priced high you can allow for the issues you mentioned.
Hi Tom, The small jobs issue is simple from my perspective and I was under the impression that this is common place throughout the industry. You charge a first hour/call out fee for the first hour. I don't know how much you charge but our day rate is £320.00 per day. That's £40.00 per hour. Therefore we charge £90.00 for the first hour and £40.00 per hour after that, with a cap of £320.00. This way, you will always have up to an hour paid for travel to the job and £10.00 fuel accounted for. Also, hopefully the job is quick, such as changing a pull cord, fan, CB. Then there is potential to make more than your normal day rate.
Most of my work is small jobs. We can do 4 1 hour jobs a day which is enough to cover costs but you do need to make sure you're pricing them accordingly. We just make sure we manage the diary properly so there's the least amount of driving possibl.
Why not have a second smaller unit / office set up where travel time is less and have the London main office handling all big rail and highways and have the smaller dispersed unit doing domestic ?
I did a 3 hour job for one customer that could only be billed as an hour + materials, ended up getting over £60k in large jobs from it. Sometimes they don't pay but it never pays to have all your eggs in one basket, I've worked for and seen other peoples businesses go under far too often because of it.
In Austria it's commonplace to be billed for the distance the contractor has to drive. Many have a flat fee, no matter wether it's 10 min or 1 hour, it's like 50 to 60 quid.
Anran is the sort of brand that sits in line with Swann, comes with everything you need to set up a rudimentary camera system but it's not really the best kit going. I personally use Concept Pro, it's pretty decent trade-only kit, the picture quality and AI algorithms are brilliant.
Im based in Bristol and have a set call out charge which takes into account travel time etc. I have charged millage for jobs outside of Bristol though.
I work for a commercial refrigeration company. We bill 65€ call out charge and then 65€ an hour. So for the first hour customer billed 130€, might be different as an electrician but we never get any questions on that format and it seems like every other company we know do the same. The odd customer who complains and doesn’t understand why we charge a call out fee isn’t worth having in my opinion. Then again we are only dealing with businesses so it might be different.
I work for a mechanical contractor in USA . We are a medium size company with 500 employees. We can’t bill travel time on small jobs either although some of our competitors who have specialized service divisions do bill for travel time and customers pay it . Our company set up a small projects group to focus on fast in and works but inevitably it took on so much overhead and resources that it was virtually indistinguishable from the other groups. Now we only do small jobs for existing clients. Overhead is the same for a £10,000 job as it is for a €5,000,000 project. Be selective .
i fit TRW pads to my van. work very well. as a mobile agricultural engineer i add up all my driving time and mileages and divide it up between the days jobs and bill it to the customers this is standard practice. im surprised you don't charge driving time and mileage. if parts are required the customer is sent or i get them and they are charged the hourly rate and mileage
my brother did the same thing, dropped all the small stuff, took on 5 big companies inc well known purple chocolate bar for 5 year contract that he knew he would loose any way once the time had run out. The other companies were on rolling contracts, pluss he took on his standard stuff but only things that paid 5k pluss a job... well all in the same year that he was loosing the said chocolate company, the other 4 dropped him, he was undercut buy a new company on all of them, he had had these rolling contracts for over 10 years and did the job well and alot better than the company that undercut him, he was asked the following year to come back by all them, but it was too late, he had to let 4 out of 7 staff go and he ended up merging with a friend in a different county.. But my point is it was too hard to regain the little stuff when you really needed it, cause, Word Of Mouth disappears.
Small jobs, as you say it's a difficult one but can be worth it in the long run. Call out fee & minimum 1hr labour - if they don't like it then let them go. Those that know your quality of work would be prepared to pay.
Small jobs will work if you have several in the same area so book the non emergencies together so none are more than 10 apart. Other than thay maybe sub put the small to a startup company that can introduce if the jobs expand with a commission pay scale.
Repeat customers are helpful. It is probably about balancing smaller jobs and maybe you dont take on too many at once. This means a customer may have needed some major work (a few days or week) then they need you for an hour or two down the road; that can be continued support and continued good will. Its hard to put a price on trust and good faith. Maybe increase your service call fee so someone asking you for a day’s worth of work is having to pay you less for your drive time and more for actual electrician time. “Market will bear” kind of principle and surely you will find that value. I think you see that with customers who had you for an initial quote, went with the cheaper electrician that did too many shortcuts and now they want to pay you to do it right. Obviously some customers will never care and want the cheapest ‘solution’. They are not your customer. Yet you want to support the customers who care about your quality of service.
Handymen charge for all material they have to go and get,It is expected in that area that all we should supply is tools and possibly fixings. Some trades such as sparks or plumbers carry stock, but you are charged for material as somehow it seems implicit that they should carry stock in their trade. If I have to get paint that has not been bought by the customers they will get charged for time and materials plus a percentage., However your terms and conditions need to show this, I work by the hour unless I know it is going past a certain time when I will charge a day rate as being better for the customer. All parking is paid for by the customer.
Sub out the small jobs to your lad who just set up on his own little margin on for your admin etc. Someone you know and trust meaning the chance of the big stuff is still there
Tom that's like a win fucking win mate😂 I wouldn't be surprised if he's already made the call
Great idea then if he gets to busy may be Thomas can send in help on larger jobs
Problem with this strategy (and I have tried it in another industry) is that you don't really own the customer relationship, which is a problem in the long term.
Genius
The small margin ain't worth the work if your still going to fund it, manage it, administrate, price it ect.
Personally speaking I wouldn't throw away small jobs, sometimes even though rare. The small ones can lead onto well paid and larger scale work, we've recently had a very small half a day job which has since ( 6 months down the line ) turned into a small development which were now completing for the client. If you have a good level of trust with the lad who's recently left in terms of ability etc. then perhaps pass the smaller works his way, and if anything larger comes from the small jobs you pass on, then im sure if you get on mutually that he may ask you in return for assistance to complete a larger scale job which he perhaps couldn't do on just his own? Just a thought
Exactly, I remember pre last recession and then during, you couldn't get a plumber, sparks etc .... If you could they'd literally raps you on price.....
Small jobs were given 2 fingers.... Backfire on many so it did
That's what he said
Your face when the end flew off the pipe 29:35 😂
Ya...I replayed it several times :)
For all jubs under 4 hours we charge a call out fee. In London this could be £150.00 which also covers the first 30 minutes, then add hourly rate after. These jobs can be quite lucrative especially if you can cut down travelling time
charge what the job costs. that includes travel time. local tradesmen want about $120 to just pull up out the front.
@@ScottPankhurst good comment.
Tom the age and quality of the brake fluid can have a big impact on brake feel.
I work in commercial but sometimes do weekend work. From small job I ended up doing a rewire on their daughters new house. From that she spoke to her friend which could potentially be another rewire.
All adds up, I’ve had people recommend me but small jobs and if they’re not worth it I just respectfully decline. After a 50 hour week I only do work I feel is worth my effort.
Interesting to see how you guys handle it for small jobs. We always charged the customer from the moment we either left the company in the morning or when we left the previous customer.
Lets say:
A. You load your van at 8:00 and start driving to your customer at 8:15, its a 45min drive, means you arrive at 9:00. We handle the driving time from 8:15 to 9:00 as work time which gets paid by the customer.
B. You leave the previous customer at 12:00 and start driving to your next customer, its a 20min drive, means you arrive at 12:20. We round up to the next fourth, so the driving time from 12:00 to 12:30 is again work time which gets paid by the customer.
C. You drive back to the company for the end of the day, its a 45min drive. Okay that is time that goes out of your pocket.
It has multiple benefits in the end. 1st You don't have a ton of small jobs all over, 2nd If someone is further away they either have enough money for them not to care about it or they eat the cost just to get you because they want you, 3rd You leave a lot of jobs on the floor that aren't profitable and 4th You can basically chose what you want to do and what you don't want.
Of course someone has to do those but you aren't the only company around. You have more time for bigger jobs and if you have small jobs, it is small jobs that don't end in a loss.
For driving in between to the wholesaler, well that is also time paid by the customer. If its something simple like a two pole switch, well okay you can say I will cut off 15min for the drive to the wholesaler for that customer, they are happy about that and you don't loose too much because you have some puffer with the driving time.
in response to the brake discs, brembo make alot of OEM manufacturer parts which is why they can be picked up cheaper than you think and will perform as well as the brakes that came on the van originally. odds are the brembo stuff he had was the exact stuff they fit in factory
I put in Pagid brakes and they weren't as good as original vw pads. No idea why pagid are still oem
@@harpssingh1477 VW use so many so it’s hard to tell what’s used on what. I would use Bosch or Brembo for that reason.
If you have volume of large work to focus on that keeps everyone active generating money for the business. Going into a niche of that is great. But equally churning smaller jobs with quick cashflow has merits. Min callout to cover travel to and from each job then per hour rate the biz needs each worker to be generating billed to the client. Some clients may fall away but your time is spent on more productive and value driven work.
Different for everyone and our circumstances/wants. But essential that everyone is kept busy
Keep doing the small jobs, the main point of a business is to do business, you can always get another guy to do the small jobs when they start growing in numbers. Charge a callout, try to get something so that the loss isn't a huge one, but don't expect a no loss, work with something manageable, a middle ground between you and the client. Charge your prices and do your business at your fair price also. For someone that wants cheap work it isn't worth the time, but people that pay a fair price and understand quality and proper work are normally good people and they can get you a little more business with the same quality of people.
In the IT segment i mostly focus on getting the right clients with the proper mindset that understand what a professional does and what they get out of every job. Choose quality of customers over quantity every time and it will help you in the long run.
A tip for keeping tools and equipment clean ... I use to blow the tools off with compressed air then moved to spraying WD 40 on my equipment and wipe them clean and polish them with a buff on a bench grinder ... now I use baby wipes for everything ... from wiping switches and plug sockets ... to my tools and machine ... and even my hands ... just think ... all that dust and sand blown into the machine at high pressure ... consider the grease and bearing etc ... I dont use anything more than my makita blower to remove brick dust etc.
Hard to compare, but as an electrician in Norway we've always charged travel time. Mind you it's rarely more than 30 min and customers further away are well aware. Definitely helps that all companies around this part do the same.
I think it’s been ably demonstrated that unless you’re in the Four Tops you can’t “reach out”
Sum these small jobs up, visit if necessary, _then_ decide yes or no on the merit. Don't completely just say no to smaller jobs, consider each on their merit if you feel like doing it (you'll instinctively know), just give an honest, realistic quote -- and if they then quibble, just walk away, apologise and just explain why you can't do it for less.
Regarding clean tools, I was always told as an apprentice, “the sharpest pencil does the least work”.
Completely agree on tool cleaning. You are not in construction sites generally, you are in people's homes. Don't track in mud... Suggest you send the smaller KAIWEETS meter to Big Clive. Can you add some braking to the Runpotec spool handler to slow the un-spooling and prevent the momentum of the cable weight from over delivering cable? There are pencil soldering Irons that run off 12V and since you have Bosch 12 tools you just need their adapter (GAA12V-21) which offers a USB port and a coaxial 12V connection. Might already be in your Bosch warming jackets. Love Sortimo!
Do you get pictures of the job first so you know if need special stuff? With the superrod Chinese finger trap put a little tape around the edge if you might need to pull cable back because if edge catch's can be game over :)
Whoever gave you that case with half a beach in it needs to be given it back and a pack of earbuds and told to clean the tools after hours in the unit. Outrageous.
For your small jobs, just charge each client for the drivetime to the job site. Londoners need to deal with the realities of city life.
Additionally, wear gloves while air cleaning your tools. Compressed air is not safe on exposed skin, it can inject particulates directly into your pours.
Waylon Jennings sang the theme song for the series "The Dukes of Hazzard".
You've started a trend now: In a year's time it'll be almost impossible to call someone out to change an RCBO.
You seem to spend more time cleaning/polishing/servicing your vans than you do actually using them.
I could so do with that home security system and/or the 1000 Watt power bank. Please bear me in mind if you're doing a giveaway on either/both. :)
As you were sticking your finger in that Super Rod piece I was imagining you going around all week with it stuck to your finger.
Great video Tom. Regarding the little jobs. Try not to give them up, you may get asked to fit a couple of double sockets in someones house, and unbeknown to you they could be a company director who is looking for someone to re-fit a distribution warehouse. Your little jobs are a testament to how your company approach and carry out their work, and quite often - maybe by word of mouth or actual experience; Larger projects can materialise from them. Or you could simply refer them to Joe, I'm sure he would be glad of the work.
As for little jobs you never know that customer mite give someone your details and that could turn out to be a big job etc....
and I've always been told to keep your tools clean they last longer, every week I give my tools a clean big wipes etc 👌 your no the only person who does it Tom
Start charging a standard call out fee plus your hourly. As long as your up front with the fees the customer can always go else where if they are not happy to pay
Tbh I wouldn't be bothered by the sight of dirty tools unless the dirt is literally falling off them on my carpet (which I'm sure would be cleaned up anyway), but I think it is still a good practice to keep them clean for the sake of longevity. Though I'm not sure if doing it with the compressor is a good idea since you are blowing it off, and the dust can get behind the grills and into the motor, royally fracking it up. Seen that, been there. Now I use a dry cloth (or sometimes dump for more stubborn dust) to wipe the dust off my personal tools once used. It's much quicker anyway as you don't need to fuff about setting up the compressor.
Definitely keep all your stuff clean and any work areas too. I use a vacuum cleaner with a brush attachment. My pet hate is finding cable clippings on a work bench or rattling around in tool cases etc.
I used to be the QS for a company covering the west of london. A lot of the work was for the likes of homeserve, so insurance jobs, water damage etc. You'd be on site for up to 30 minutes but would only get to do three or four of them across town. Thankfully we had an agreed rate for each call which covered it. Getting the lads on the bigger installs was always encouraged but it's the visits to the smaller jobs where good relations can be made with customers and planting of acorns yadda yadda. We ended up with two lads doing the small works - they were competent but mainly chosen as they had great communication skills with clients and kept the wagon spotless.. then we had a crew for the bigger installs.
Use to work as a surveyor for a large building firm, building major housing projects and commercial buildings with contracts up to a million pounds. But we also had a small works team that went around snagging all our new builds. But they also went around doing odd jobs such as adding new sockets, small plumbing jobs etc to the general public. This seemed to work and pay for itself
I have been running my own company for 15 yrs Tom and i would never turn down the small jobs ever as you say small acorns fall from big trees and that will never change ,love the videos by the way ,you have done well !!
From the way you describe it... the only way you can really deal with "Small job" issues is to have a big enough team that you can take in a lot of jobs in one area so you can cut down the transit time. Thinking about it, that might be how some of your competitors are getting away with charging less.
So, for a relatively "small" team like yours... yeah, the costs become prohibitive.
I started charging for drive time just a few weeks ago and havent had anyone complain yet about it. Cheers from the States
I work as an industrial door engineer (I've noticed you've got a crease in your sectional door panel!) and we have always charged travelling to and from site
Travel is always going to be a factor, we try an plan work for areas, an box off jobs in one day. To try an save spending times travelling. Small little jobs don’t always pay the job but your risking as you say not getting the bigger jobs plus work is work an it should level itself out over time. I wouldn’t cut it off yet
You can segment your company and have dedicated workers to go on small jobs. You can try and build a EDC tool kit for small jobs and fit it in a motorcyle. One guy with a bike with tools and a backpack can do more small jobs a day and park easier. And you can have 1 van to support when the job happens to escalate to something bigger...
they could make the arms on the cable spooler telescopic to help with holding the cable spoolout
I guess a lot depends on your overall staff to work load levels but like you mention smaller jobs can sometimes lead to additional work and referrals. Keep up the good work and stay safe.
Regards the flat battery problem my gess is that the vans activate the glow plugs when you unlock the doors (to allow instant start),so if you lock and un lock the van in unit several times it drains the battery.
Plumber here, with small non urgent repairs like dripping taps etc I let the workload build up for say 2 weeks then set aside a day out a week to catch them all. Earned some really good customers from it and needless to say the big jobs follow.
when the end poped off i cacked myself roflmao
The spark I use has a menu on his website so the customer can determine what job is needed (broadly) and also know up front what the price is going to be up front. You could easily cover your time with the pricing and the customer has a measure of comfort as well.
4:22 buy cheap buy twice is what I’ve always been told
I’m thinking Tom, you can have another employee doing purely reactive call outs/small little jobs on your books, and another team dedicated to larger projects. The employee Doing the service calls can always jump over to help out the boys doing the larger projects to fill out the rest of his day if need be. That way you still have full control and keeping your foot in both markets. It’s a juggling act but I think you can make it work.
There is still good money to be made in the smaller jobs. If you perhaps up your call out fee and then charge $100 per hour on top, plus parking, equipment etc, it still can be a good flow of income coming in
For battery packs, it might be worth looking into jackery. ive heard really good things about their stuff. And for soldering irons id reccomend a ts50. It heats up in a couple seconds, is super fine so is great for led and it works off 12v so with an adapter you can run it off a drill battery.
I completely get keeping tools clean like impact drivers/combi drills or even the sds but an angle grinder normally doesn't come out unless you are making a mess... the battery/charger and inside of the case being a mess is a different story, close the case. And charge the batteries somewhere else
To your question about travelling. I live near Gatwick and if my travelling is more that 15 minutes I charge travel time and diesel. But I charge a fair hourly rate. I had to go to London last week so I charged 3hrs travelling and £25 diesel. It’s the customers choice if they want you or get someone else.
I 100% agree re Brembo brake pads. The kit I got has stainless steel anti rattle plates and a rubber compatible grease pack not just the pads as in normal kits. I am in Australia and the price for front and rear was cheaper than OEM's from the dealer via Ebay.
That’s actually surprising that you really can’t invoice your travels to/from a job. Here in Finland that’s pretty much given, talking as a customer here, never gotten an electrician over without kilometer fee invoiced with parts and labour. It’s nothing extravagant, just some common rate per km. And surely if you can’t invoice that by itself, you need to work that into your labour costs anyway when you invoice? Otherwise that does sounds like a proper brutally competitive environment 😬
That's what a callout charge is for.
I'm pretty sure it is the norm in the EU, and UK was still part of it when got introduced. In fact, I'm certain it was even before The Referendum.
per km in london it would have to be £20-40 ish per km or more with routes and traffic.
if not in a city it could be less than a £1 an km
You can treat "little jobs" as loss-leader lead gen. I don't know about the UK, but in the US, there are ways to recoup these costs at tax time. In other industries, you would setup lead qualification criteria/metrics to help you decide which jobs to take on as loss-leaders, refining your criteria over time as you learn which questions to ask to understand what data indicates the possibility of a much bigger job.
To be far we charge for traveling time, not an excessive amount but we do cover out time, you have to. It’s like what you said on one of your recent videos about the cat and the surgery, payed £150 and you still had to go to them.
About the "airing your tools is useless" ...
NO
NO it fucking isn't. Tools are lubricated, in order for that lubrication (oil / grease) to work correctly and do its job, small particles should not be allowed to reach said lube.
Blowing your tools clean is a means of maintenance that will prolong the life of the tool before it needs to be sent in for repair.
I work with pneumatic tools and sprayers, cleaning is an essential part of the job, and will easily cost you 1000+ € if you let dust build up and clog shit.
I have a Bosch wall chaser, it must be about 15-20 years old, I have never cleaned it or put an air line on it, it gets covered in dust, and it runs like it did from day one, if it were to fail now because of dust I would say I have had my monies worth out of it.
Elton John once said he didn't like Crocodile Rock, but understood that his fans loved it so he kept doing it in concerts.
On the small jobs issue, I would try to configure my schedule so that I'm in one area of town on a given day and just do work in that area. Don't set up client visits across town from each other on the same day. I think you'd find this would reduce your travel between tasks a great deal. Yes, there will be some that you can't fit into that plan and maybe those are the ones you have to turn down. But at least you're not cutting yourself off from much future work for your clients. Does that make sense?
Once worked for a similar sized London firm, we had just one guy doing the jobbing work full time, he was on a small percentage and had a van with all the gear onboard including a debit card machine. He could do upto 8 jobs a day, but if it was quiet he would often turn up to help others.
Will you be fitting a ring video door bell? Because everyone else is. I wouldn't put the transformer in a Din Rail case with no air flow though. We shall wait for them to find that one out the hard way...
I have a minimum charge for small jobs. More than an hour but three 1 hour jobs can mean 7/8 hours of chargable time. I would not stop them as they always lead to bigger work. Customers really appreciate you coming out as they can find it hard to attract tradesmen for small jobs but they have to pay.
Great Video as always Tom. Yes you need to do some free give aways wirh all the goodies you are getting sent then not using. Well done on building your business to the size it is
we bill for traffic, but it may be different simply due to us being more rural, so if we are doing hourly jobs we bill from home - home, although some of our competitors do charge different rates for travel and work, most in the local area are one rate shops.
although i have seen commercials from the big cities with no travel charges and minute rates rather than hourly rates etc.
if i have half an hour travel, and half an hour work, thats one hour, my hourly rate is 550dkk+vat, if i werent charging for travel i would have to make my hourly rate 1100dkk+vat to make ends meet on the same job, but then if i have 5 minutes travel and 8 hours work that has now gone from 4400 to 8800dkk+vat and nobody would hire me.
Use them as a loss leader to get a big job from a good client or to fill in when you can on the route to other jobs.
Must admit, I have never understood that term, why anyone would do something to lose money is beyond me.
The older you get, the wiser you become, and a lot of the time it's a sprat to catch a mackerel.
If your small jobs are reactive breakdowns have a site attendance fee including 1st hours labour instead of only charging time on site. Say £180.00 site attendance fee. This will cover travel. If they dont wanna pay it dont go
Hi tom, I do the same thing when I finish work. I clean down my tools, give them a wipe down with a piece of rag. Clean all the shit out of the truck. Ready for the next job.
Like others have mentioned, charge more up front for small jobs. Don't even call it travel cost it's just "small job fee". Bigger jobs don't have the "small job fee" because economies of scale work in favor of big jobs.
Different vans doing;
- servicing
- reactive repairs
- planned day jobs
- planned price work
If anyone gets done quicker than expected everyone pitches in to get everything done quicker, but then when things start to get booked in relevant to your van you go straight to that.
I had the same thought about brembo disc and pads, I brought a set to replace my crossland rear disc and pads on my 20yr old Vauxhall. The difference is unbelievable, better hand brake and much better braking on the pedal. I’ve had trouble recently with crossland discs warping. I’m not a crazy driver either. It’s good to know that you / The ‘ghost’ 👨🚀 cameraman had the same experience. Surprising.
I guess you’ll need to weigh up how much major works follow from the 1h jobs. If it has a 50% chance of a cu change or eicr, then it’s probably still worth it for job pipeline.
Funny, as a photographer, I was selling, "6x4"'s for €5, base cost was €0.50 ... and could not keep up with demand and going broke ..
, I had to have €20 to stop drain. Naturally, no one would pay €20 for a 6x4 print.
I want to see what's in the Polish frog box!
The small job conundrum; I can't understand why companies charge by the hour, including you!
I charge a minimum of two hours, then after two hours it's chargeable as half a day.
If it reaches half a day then I'm charging a full day.
Never had complaints about that, I'm not driving for an hour, earn one hours pay, then drive for another hour! That's three hours for one hours pay. It's not my fault the job's miles from my front door! If you want my services bringing to you, you're paying for that. Otherwise you can load your house or office onto a low loader and bring it to me!
Thanks for the input! Really appreciated!
Try to group your small jobs in one geographical region in same day if its possible
Don't turn down small jobs, simply set a minimum number of hours charged for any job - say 2 or 3 hours. The important thing is to let the customer know in advance, so they know what they are committing to. Let them know that it is due to excessive travel time in London. You can even ask if there is anything else they would like you to look at whilst you are there or if they have a neighbour or similar that might want some work done at the same time. Turn a problem into a chance to find more work that can be done economically.
13:58 you needed that for your last video where you made a right mess of that back box ! 😁😁 The one that looked like it had been done with an axe!
If it isn't costing you and you're breaking even on small works then it is A) Free advertising/brand awareness at the very least and B) Good Quality lead generation at the very best
If they are general jobs we bill a higher rate for the first hour.
In the US, I have had electricians charge for their travel time to the job.
Bloody brilliant as usual.
Just charge the travel time to the customer for each small job. A lot of small job's will go away but you will retain good customers and still bill 8 hours a day.
I charge a minimum 2hrs for my first hour on site. Traveling is working so the customer has to pay.
That's right, you have to get there, you are covered them👍
I have worked similar small jobs in the it sector. When your starting out they are your bread and butter, and those that you would call your regulars when you get bigger you want to keep those going as they can give you good fill in jobs between the bigger ones. Like has been said, I would be subing out that smaller work you don’t want to be doing as much of to a trusted partner
i also air out the tools... sometimes feel pointless but back of the head you get sens that one cares about tools then reflect on the job.. and i recently opend up my small makita recipsaw and i have blown out gypsumdust everytime i have used it... the amount of gypsum and sawdust still in it was just O_O
I personally would choose to hire another electrician with a small van just to solely take care of the small jobs... as long as your hourly rate is large enough with profit margin to counteract the electrician's wages then everyone's a winner. You still net larger jobs, grow a little more and have an extra pair of hands for the bigger projects. Easy to forget the small fish when you get big enough but don't forget there is a massive market out there domestically for small electrical jobs- no-one wants to do them! From a sparky with 8 years own company.
I don't work in your industry but the small jobs are important, they keep you ticking over financially (not much but) and keep you busy (not always good for your type of work in london) but you never know what they will lead to. Word of mouth on the smaller jobs can be huge imo, all it takes is them to mention how good of a job you did to a family member who owns a business.... Also, 10000% agree with the dirty tools. It makes you look like you don't care, if you don't care about the tools you use to make you money then what else don't you care about? People may not directly think about that conciously but I agree that 1st impressions are important!
Might sound dumb but you could always price yourself out of the ‘small works’ in the sense that if you get said job because you have priced high you can allow for the issues you mentioned.
Hi Tom,
The small jobs issue is simple from my perspective and I was under the impression that this is common place throughout the industry.
You charge a first hour/call out fee for the first hour.
I don't know how much you charge but our day rate is £320.00 per day. That's £40.00 per hour. Therefore we charge £90.00 for the first hour and £40.00 per hour after that, with a cap of £320.00.
This way, you will always have up to an hour paid for travel to the job and £10.00 fuel accounted for. Also, hopefully the job is quick, such as changing a pull cord, fan, CB. Then there is potential to make more than your normal day rate.
Most of my work is small jobs. We can do 4 1 hour jobs a day which is enough to cover costs but you do need to make sure you're pricing them accordingly. We just make sure we manage the diary properly so there's the least amount of driving possibl.
Why not have a second smaller unit / office set up where travel time is less and have the London main office handling all big rail and highways and have the smaller dispersed unit doing domestic ?
I can recommend working in the industrial sector, then you will be months on end at the same location.
I did a 3 hour job for one customer that could only be billed as an hour + materials, ended up getting over £60k in large jobs from it. Sometimes they don't pay but it never pays to have all your eggs in one basket, I've worked for and seen other peoples businesses go under far too often because of it.
In Austria it's commonplace to be billed for the distance the contractor has to drive. Many have a flat fee, no matter wether it's 10 min or 1 hour, it's like 50 to 60 quid.
Anran is the sort of brand that sits in line with Swann, comes with everything you need to set up a rudimentary camera system but it's not really the best kit going. I personally use Concept Pro, it's pretty decent trade-only kit, the picture quality and AI algorithms are brilliant.
Im based in Bristol and have a set call out charge which takes into account travel time etc. I have charged millage for jobs outside of Bristol though.
I work for a commercial refrigeration company. We bill 65€ call out charge and then 65€ an hour. So for the first hour customer billed 130€, might be different as an electrician but we never get any questions on that format and it seems like every other company we know do the same. The odd customer who complains and doesn’t understand why we charge a call out fee isn’t worth having in my opinion. Then again we are only dealing with businesses so it might be different.
I work for a mechanical contractor in USA . We are a medium size company with 500 employees. We can’t bill travel time on small jobs either although some of our competitors who have specialized service divisions do bill for travel time and customers pay it . Our company set up a small projects group to focus on fast in and works but inevitably it took on so much overhead and resources that it was virtually indistinguishable from the other groups. Now we only do small jobs for existing clients.
Overhead is the same for a £10,000 job as it is for a €5,000,000 project. Be selective .
I would not nock back the small works because it always worth it long term, but rural guys like me do charge travel time or mileage
i fit TRW pads to my van. work very well.
as a mobile agricultural engineer i add up all my driving time and mileages and divide it up between the days jobs and bill it to the customers
this is standard practice. im surprised you don't charge driving time and mileage.
if parts are required the customer is sent or i get them and they are charged the hourly rate and mileage
Always good to watch your videos Tom.
That power packs must be so handy. Could use that rather than using a temp board that I usually use.
I’d keep the small jobs in all honestly, perhaps charge a little more for the first hour to cover travel time .
my brother did the same thing, dropped all the small stuff, took on 5 big companies inc well known purple chocolate bar for 5 year contract that he knew he would loose any way once the time had run out. The other companies were on rolling contracts, pluss he took on his standard stuff but only things that paid 5k pluss a job... well all in the same year that he was loosing the said chocolate company, the other 4 dropped him, he was undercut buy a new company on all of them, he had had these rolling contracts for over 10 years and did the job well and alot better than the company that undercut him, he was asked the following year to come back by all them, but it was too late, he had to let 4 out of 7 staff go and he ended up merging with a friend in a different county..
But my point is it was too hard to regain the little stuff when you really needed it, cause, Word Of Mouth disappears.
Excited for the video as always!!
Small jobs, as you say it's a difficult one but can be worth it in the long run. Call out fee & minimum 1hr labour - if they don't like it then let them go. Those that know your quality of work would be prepared to pay.
Small jobs will work if you have several in the same area so book the non emergencies together so none are more than 10 apart. Other than thay maybe sub put the small to a startup company that can introduce if the jobs expand with a commission pay scale.
Repeat customers are helpful. It is probably about balancing smaller jobs and maybe you dont take on too many at once. This means a customer may have needed some major work (a few days or week) then they need you for an hour or two down the road; that can be continued support and continued good will.
Its hard to put a price on trust and good faith. Maybe increase your service call fee so someone asking you for a day’s worth of work is having to pay you less for your drive time and more for actual electrician time. “Market will bear” kind of principle and surely you will find that value.
I think you see that with customers who had you for an initial quote, went with the cheaper electrician that did too many shortcuts and now they want to pay you to do it right. Obviously some customers will never care and want the cheapest ‘solution’. They are not your customer. Yet you want to support the customers who care about your quality of service.
Even in the early days of recording many artists were pressured to record songs that they were not passionate about that ended up being a success.
Handymen charge for all material they have to go and get,It is expected in that area that all we should supply is tools and possibly fixings.
Some trades such as sparks or plumbers carry stock, but you are charged for material as somehow it seems implicit that they should carry stock in their trade.
If I have to get paint that has not been bought by the customers they will get charged for time and materials plus a percentage.,
However your terms and conditions need to show this, I work by the hour unless I know it is going past a certain time when I will charge a day rate as being better for the customer.
All parking is paid for by the customer.