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New Member Needs Advice!


superalarman

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just joined the tsi website think it a great idea for sharing and gaining knowledge..

my problem.. been an installer of intruder fire access cctv and data for 8 years now, been working for a relitivly small company on a reltivly small wage and cant decide at this stage of my career wether to go it alone and try to make it on my own!! got so many pros and very few cons so far!!

so any success or disaster stories would be a massive help!!!!

many thanks,

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being the eternal optimist.... cons could be

having enough work,

the risk of not getting paid,

being unable to work due to illness,

work life balance, you might work 60hrs a week to build a co. miss holidays & social things, your kids growing ect.... & still end up with little to show for it

Mr? Veritas God

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mr happy.. all your cons have been through my mind a thousand and more times!! just to give a little more info of were im upto and what ive got in place.. its actually me and a work colleague( we served as apprentices together) so we have faith in each others abilities who are thinking of taking the leap.. we have already registered a company name set up a business bank planned leaflets advertising etc spoke to ssaib..

back to your cons social life isnt an issue anymore as were both recently married:( lol..

illness isnt to much of a worry, and we both live to work..

our biggest pro is the fact that we work for a small company and we see what work comes throgh the door and we reap little benifits and half the time its us getting or following up the leads.. very annoying!!

on the work/money front we might throw a thousand pounds away taking the plunge and if it fails i have full faith that me and my friend could work straight into vacant positions at other local/nationwide companies.. what to do grrr!!!

peter.. a relitive low wage is less than 300 inclusive of call and no overtime!!!! i can make that on a weekend most weeks doin my own work!! grrr!!

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All I would say is working alone you will have several overheads like vehicle, fuel, insurance, (vehicle and public liabilty), NI, advertisements, and thats just off the top of my head when you want to go on holiday you dont get paid £19,500pa is not such a bad deal

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OP

Id want to know how much work you get without the work you get from the firm.

Id also say that the firm employs you and rightly expect certain things,

However. there are plenty of stories from those that have have left and been a success. There are more from those that have failed.

Its not a simple decision, granted you may feel that the work you are doing for someone else is good.... but you need the work in the first place.

Ive met many engineers over the years that think a 2k system is 1.5k profit. It isnt im afraid.

Im not saying you shouldnt better yourself, im saying be aware of the facts before you try.

James

securitywarehouse Security Supplies from Security Warehouse

Trade Members please contact us for your TSI vetted trade discount.

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try pressing Shift F5

but this is the new sw from ipb. Its new but as you know i avoid bleeding edge for tsi. This is a few days old.

That may of fixed it ? but not everyone will know to press shift F5

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We had an engineer who was an active member here a few years ago. We at the time were a small NSI gold... 4 engineers and x2 apprentices. He was doing loads of work for friends and family, got work coming out of his ears. So decided to go it alone. All that work he had backed up was probably cleared in a month, then nothing.......He did poach a few of our bells only contracts, and by that I mean around 5, but most have come back. Not sure what he's doing now, last I heard, was he was in the local shopping precinct conducting surveys! Not sure what for like

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In todays climate, better off holding down your current job, do as much work as you can in your spare time (legit, under the company you have registered), two of you

should be able to handle it ok, especially when you get no overtime with your current employer. Build up a customer base and a reputation of doing a first class job,

then when you think you have enough work to go full time, leave your employer and poach all his customers. It sounds like both of you do all the work anyway so his

customers will probably know you better than they know your employer and they should not be hard to persuade to make the move.

You will not go anywhere if you don't eventually take the risk.

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leave your employer and poach all his customers. It sounds like both of you do all the work anyway so his

if you actively seek your former employeers cleints then I guess it would be fair game for them to approach your cleints ?

Mr? Veritas God

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In todays climate, better off holding down your current job, do as much work as you can in your spare time (legit, under the company you have registered), two of you

should be able to handle it ok, especially when you get no overtime with your current employer. Build up a customer base and a reputation of doing a first class job,

then when you think you have enough work to go full time, leave your employer and poach all his customers. It sounds like both of you do all the work anyway so his

customers will probably know you better than they know your employer and they should not be hard to persuade to make the move.

You will not go anywhere if you don't eventually take the risk.

Unless your company has an effective restraint clause in your contract... in which case this would be highly inadvisable. Most contracts will also require your employers permission to get a second job, which self employment would be.

We had an engineer who was an active member here a few years ago. We at the time were a small NSI gold... 4 engineers and x2 apprentices. He was doing loads of work for friends and family, got work coming out of his ears. So decided to go it alone. All that work he had backed up was probably cleared in a month, then nothing.......He did poach a few of our bells only contracts, and by that I mean around 5, but most have come back. Not sure what he's doing now, last I heard, was he was in the local shopping precinct conducting surveys! Not sure what for like

Sounds like he concentrated on the work at hand, rather then pacing himself with that and getting out soliciting new business!

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then when you think you have enough work to go full time, leave your employer and poach all his customers. It sounds like both of you do all the work anyway so his

I think thats the crappy advice I have ever seen on a forum regardless of people in glass houses and all that.

Lets look at this from the employers prospective, he gives the chap a job trains him up, benefits like mobile phone etc, turns a blind eye to the PJ's even though he knows his vehicle tools and ladders (not to mention the odd roll of cable) are used. Only to get a double whammy of not only losing an employee and that employee takes all his customers.

Ive seen it happen and good companies have gone to the wall because of it, all it does is undervalue this industry and it makes me angry, we all want to earn more money from this industry but most of the people moaning that they dont earn enough are the ones doing the undercutting!

I'm so pleased my employee contracts are written so tightly that my exemployees cant fook me over

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Sounds like famous last words there Peter! Employer>Employee relations are heavily weighted by the courts and law towards the employee, restraint of trade contract restrictions need to be very carefully worded, too broad a restriction and they become unenforceable.

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