Boat Electrician needs your thoughts!

[mormargh]

Marina/boatyard is charged additional premium on their liability insurance to allow for the possibility that contractors insurance doesn't pay out for some reason in the event of a claim or does not have a big enough limit. They recoup the cost by charging the fee, usually £5 or £10. Some contractors who do a lot of work (e.g. riggers) may agree an annual fee with the marina/yard instead.

Regrettable consequence of UK society today, whereby it isalways someone elses fault.

 

[emnick]

I wish you all the very best. As said by others if you are good you WILL suceed.

One small piece of advice is that when you do start getting busy you will spend a huge amount of time on your mobile phone, sorting work, supplies, bookings, problems etc all this has an impact on the job in hand. If your customer is with you paying by the hour and you spend most of it on the phone this can cause problems. From the outset try to get somebody to 'field' your calls, book work for you etc. The job you are doing will finish on time and you wont forget to call people back, order that part etc etc.
Hope it goes well for you.

 

[William_H]

The comments are all good and reflect the customers point of view.

However from your own point of view.
1) you need to make a decent income. Comparable and more than working for a wage. The additional margin being to cover the lean times holidays sickness etc.
2) The customer is paying for a job to be done. This value is related to the value of the boat or individual electrical item but you need to charge by the hour. This conflict is the pain of servicing of any technology. The technology is complex. You (even the smartest of technician) can spend hours on wild goose chases looking for a fault. The cost of the time spent often has to be written off just cos you can't charge that much. So you must charge an extra margin on quick easy jobs to just keep your head above water.

The real easy money is in selling new gear and possibly installing it. The difficult game is trying to fix obscure /intermittent faults. These can cost both you and the owner a lot of money with often still no resolution.

I spent many years doing radio service at a local small aircraft airport. The radios got cheaper to replace and harder to fix. I worked for a large nation wide company but later they gave up. It is run as a small business now but no one is making a fortune.

Its funny many customers used to take me aside and try to encourage me to start up on my own. They wanted another option when they failed to pay for the existing service provider and were constantly looking for a better deal for themselves. Fortunately I was not tempted and escaped to a government job.

So give it a go. if you are young and energetic and willing to put in a lot of effort you may be able to keep the customers happy but there are sure to be disappointed customers along the way.. That is the nature of the business.

What might be a better deal is to set up a training school for DIY yachties so they can waste their own time on electrical problems.

good luck (and I mean that sincerely) olewill

PS if you want to make real money there are people crying out all over for good tradesmen in West Australia. Because of a huge mining boom you can just about write your own conditions. Assuming you can cope with 45degree temperatures (in the hot season) and frontier type living. Work is often 2 weeks on 2 weeks off with transport back to civilisation.

 

[pagw]

Hi all

Thanks very much for all your feedback, its been a great response, and really helped me. It seems that if I get the basics right, customer service and pricing, then I could eek a living out of it.

So just to follow up I have a couple of further questions based on your feedback:

1. Get the big one out the way first! What do you think is a reasonable hourly rate to charge?

2. Whats the best way of advertising/marketing to reach you?

3. Would there be any value in widening the service offered, eg engine maintenance?

Thanks again for you responses!

Cheers

 

[Phoenix of Hamble]

1] I reckon about £25 per hour is right...

2] Via word of mouth!

3] Nope... stay specialised....

 

[alan]

(1.) Don't know about U.K. rates but €40-50/hr would be about right.

(2.) Word of mouth and internet. I go to the internet for everything these days!!

(3.) I would keep to a specialist field, else you are competing with mechanics e.t.c. and unless you have the workshop facilities you would be limited to oil and filter changing ......... would it be worth the effort? However, you may consider engine electrics (alternators, gauges, batteries, charging systems, solar panels e.t.c.) as most mechanics are completely ignorant of this and it is not easy to find a good "car electrician" who knows boats.

Good luck,

Alan.