I joined the Royal Marines at age of 20 and left after 14 years at rank of Sergeant feeling unhappy with why we were doing all the politicians dirty work and seeing a lot if my friends and companions getting seriously injured or killed. Especially as there was no real aftercare for these brave men thus several charities having to start up. 
I had always been a hands on guy doing several of my own houses but couldn't get to grips with plastering. As part of leaving the Marines they give you funding to learn something new to move into civilian life. I chose plastering and did a six week intensive course that gave me a qualification and a basic understanding of the trade. 
From there I went straight into the deep end on sites and had to learn fast, sink or swim scenario. I quickly became confident enough to start on my own building up a small business and taking on many apprentices who have now gone on to working for themselves and doing well. 
I now have scaled it back taking on my son as apprentice and going for more high end work like microcement and other bespoke areas. It's been a tough ride but feels like I'm about to come out he other end of it doing well. 
MEET THE MEMBERS 
Been plastering since I was 14 ,family all plasterers, it was a case of mix up or learn, soon realised which one was best,we didn't have mixing drills back then ,stick and angle bead to get lumps out, metal bath for the browning, and outside on the mixer sand and cement which there was a lot of in them days. 
But hay ho stuck at it ,made a bloody good living and still do! Love the job don't work a day in my life enjoy it all the time ,always learning new stuff, wouldn't change a thing ! 
MEET THE MEMBERS 
Now then where to start, I got kicked out of school in year 10, sent to a construction college 2 days a week where I gained a Lvl 1 diploma in plastering, bricklaying, paint+dec, plumbing, tiling, joinery/carp, and H+S. They got me an apprentice at a large drylining firm, I got suspended with full pay 8 and a half months into it and sacked on the first year mark. I got signed up with another firm instantly but work drylied up so they agreed to leave me signed up until end of apprenticeship. I instantly went self employed with all my contacts gained and growing, I eventually found my own way up. Its only took me 5 firms(2 as an apprentice) 14 work partners(9 as an apprentice) And a couple different builders which supply regular work, In 3 and a half years but im finally settled as a self teaching internal plasterer with constant work(till dec 2021 so far) and everything possibly needed for internal plastering. 
The only downside is not being able to drive and have a vehicle but I employ my older half brother as he drives or I have a few drivers on tap, failing that taxis will do if tools are on the job. 
Im 19 and feel more than competent on majority of modern internal plastering, although Im still learning day in day out through groups such as these, the contacts Ive made along the way and solo on-the-job experiences. 
Im earning £130-£180 dayrate and usually between £120-£230 on price work so theres no issue there. All me family are dole dossers so Ive never witnessed anyone commit to any job or career so theres my motivation but it sure is hard when all others have had 3+ grants and Ive struggled through the whole of it lol. Cheers for listening, take care. 
MEET THE MEMBERS 
Started plastering 4 years ago. Learnt off a chap that I was working with. 12months mixing up and the odd trowel up at the end of the day. Slowly started doing more and more for the next year then he left and had to learn a bit more on my own. 
MEET THE MEMBERS 
I’m a third generation plasterer, I think it’s in the DNA. Never really wanted to do it but it gets addictive. I also do plastering videos it’s become a bit of a habit :-) 
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Sunday, 14 March 2021
MEMBERS CORNER
Saturday, 13 March 2021
THE FISHERMAN
THE FISHERMAN
Written by Stuart Roberts (20min read)
Provider
Carrot on a stick
It had been a long old day on the tools. The shoulders were stiff & the blisters on my palms which were once red & burning had now hardened to form a row of tough white calluses.. I reflected on years past by 'Thick skin you need in this game kid' I could hear Steves big loud voice echoing in my thoughts. I hadn't seen Steve in some time. I was earning my own money now, treading my own path. Some days it felt more like treading water. Although I was doing much better there was still work to be done in my business I was still learning how to balance everything & how to get more quality leads coming in. If my own business was to get going properly I needed the money to start flowing. The money I earned as a lad wasn't enough anymore..I was soon to be a father. I had to provide.. & waiting for work to knock my door wasn't a game plan I wanted to entertain.
Cleaning down my trowel for the last time on an overcast Monday afternoon my phone lit up with a new message from my wife 'Babe, pick up bread ' ... (The last thing I wanted to do after the big set I just threw on was to go shopping, but the least I could do was pick up some food on the way home considering the toll pregnancy was taking on her body) I was tired but I appreciated what she was doing for us, for our baby & I wanted to show my love..after all I couldn't do much else when it came to the growing of our child. 'Sure' I replied.. 'Anything else?' .. 'Yeah grab some toothpaste too'
Whilst moping around Tesco's looking like an earthquake victim I found the toothpaste shelf a little overwhelming to say the least. 22 different brands of toothpaste I counted. I didn't have the energy to go through each toothpaste reading up on why their brand is the best so I chucked a tube of Colgate in the basket & made my way to the checkout. Job done I said to myself. While waiting to pay I noticed a fishing magazine & it got me thinking..customers are a little like fish..You can't always see where they are, they're hard to catch & they can be slippery buggers at times..it reminded me that I only had 7 days work remaining on my job & after that I had nothing to go at.. I needed to go fishing for work..& I needed some bait.
I'd already been the 'cheap guy'. I knew this strategy wasn't going to get me to where I wanted to be. I'd knocked up some flyers & littered the local area..Each job I won I would get positive feedback from my customers 'Youve done a lovely job'.. 'We're really happy with the finish' .. 'We'll recommend you to all our friends'.. This feedback gave me a boost. But the leads were few. I knew I was good on the tools & when my customers were happy it made me happy too, but the recommendations didn't come around quick enough for me, I needed work thick & fast. I told Steve about my struggles but he only offered me more Saturday shifts..though I appreciated him helping me I didn't want to become reliant on Steve's work again. I wanted to break away & build up my own customers so I turned it down. Part of me felt like a fool. I was about to become a dad & here I am turning the graft down what am I thinking.. that's when I just blurted out 'Steve How do you find so much work?' He smiled.'I don't find work..work finds me kid' he said. Steve had been going a long time & so I just assumed thats what he meant by that statement. I laughed along & we parted ways.. 'Get yourself online kid' he shouted as I left his site. 'Will do' I yelled with a big thumbs up. Not really knowing what to focus on or where to go next. He had mentioned this to me before. I pondered over it.
Web of lies
When it came to the world wide web I was completely clueless. Information technology wasn't my strong point at school & I'd just spent the last 5 years training on the tools to get a trade under my belt so where should I begin?..
'whats everyone else doing?' was the first question that sprang to mind. I remembered bumping into a lad I went to school with some weeks earlier telling me about his plumbing business & how he's been 'stacked out' with jobs after joining a trade association site. 'Whats that? I asked.. 'it's great' he went on.. 'You pay them money & they give you phone numbers' .. me: 'What phone numbers?'
'You know, jobs.. people wanting work done'
My first thought was where are they getting the numbers from? I didn't understand it but if it worked for him I thought I'd explore it so I hit Google to see what all the fuss was about..
After searching I quickly stumbled across an add 'TRADESMEN WANTED' or something along those lines. I clicked on the link which shot me off to a website with all the bells & whistles.. Banners & testimonials from builders & tradespeople but also homeowners too pasted all over the place.. messages like 'TRADESMEN VETTED & CHECKED' along the page header. I called my mate who told me it was the same site he uses so I clicked on 'become a member' where I filled out a brief questionnaire.
The site stated that ' Our customers are our first priority' I was confused by this.. Was I the customer? or was the person wanting work done the customer? Were we both the customer? Anyway I continued with the application where I had to give them an address of a recent job I'd done. The site specified that 'an expert' would visit the job to check my work. I also dug out my plastering NVQs as I assumed I'd need to prove that I'd been trained before they'd let me in but I was never asked to forward this information which I found strange. After ticking a few boxes I was sent to the membership payment page Where I was shocked to discover that in order to join up I had to pay a fee of £45 per month! Wow. I was surprised by this & annually this equated to £540. If this was to generate loads of work for me then it's fair game I thought..it would surely be an investment in my business? Down went the first payment. I was in. Sorted.
Now all I had to do was sit back & wait for the phone to ring with people wanting jobs done 'all round my area' was the sites sales pitch. While waiting for my leads to come in I thought I'd ring the refrence job that I put forward to see what this 'expert' made of my plastering work, but my customer had no idea & said that nobody had called or visited to inspect anything. Odd I thought. A few days passed & I was getting increasingly anxious knowing I only had a few more days of work remaining on my job. I logged into the site again & discovered a notification for a lead in my area 'great here we go' I thought. I opened the lead which read 'Plasterer required full house board & skim Coventry' Perfect! This looks like a decent size job for me..But hold on, what's this 'Purchase now £43.50' wait I've already paid my membership? I must have been that excited to join up I hadn't read up on how this thing worked.. not only do I pay a monthly membership but I have to also pay for each job lead? Shit one. Still, I figured a job like this I could factor in this initial layout in my price & could recuperate the costs in my profit? So I clicked through to get the customer contact details. That's where I discovered the next problem. Turns out I wasn't the only spread invited to this party.. under the customers contact information was a message .. 'Sjt plastering services has quoted.. JL renovations has quoted.. 1 quote remaining'.. I was obviously the last remaining quote. What the fuck? I was baffled by this system, not only had they took a monthly membership but they were charging me for each individual lead then pitching me against 2 other local plasterers! All 3 of us had paid our membership & also the £43.50 for the same job! The final kick in the nutts was a message from the customer in the job description which read 'budget £1500' What the? This must be a typo I thought..How do homeowners know how to cost up plastering work?
I went ahead & quoted for the job despite being suspicious, I needed the work. I was unsuccessful in my bid. Aparantly I was 'almost double' the price of the first quote & 'significantly higher' than the second. This hit my confidence hard. I couldn't understand what I had done wrong? I'd priced the job the same way I always priced right down to the pound..only paying myself what I needed in order to maintain my business & cover costs. 'Double?' I couldn't sleep right that night & tormented myself with the idea that I was just too expensive & must have got my figures all wrong. After all these other guys had been around longer than me so must be clever, better at pricing work? It was my fault. I'm too expensive.
The shrimp boat
I called Steve again for some pointers. I explained my pricing process & told him I ran the numbers 4 times but I've fucked up somewhere. 'Ha! You've fucked up alright he said.. youve joined the crowd, your on the shrimp boat' he chuckled. Shrimp boat? What do you mean? 'They don't care about you & your little business Stu.. it's a cash cow, a money machine, do you not see how this thing works? They've created a poster & pasted it on a big fuckin wall kid, call this number for trustworthy honest reliable tradesmen.. Anyone can join the club see! the customers see this poster & they call. But it ain't them they charge see it's you. They make their money off the back of the grafter.You do the graft they chuck you some shrimp. Stick with them & you'll be eating shrimp the rest of your life..' I don't understand? why do customers go through these sites? why don't they come straight to us? The tradesmen? .. 'They don't know you exist kid.. they trust these sites because they see them everywhere..TV, the web.. they don't trust you because they don't know you..when customers need a job doing they turn to a brand they can trust.. You need your own boat kid, Find your own fish'
In typical 'Steve' style he had made me feel like a cunt but he got his point across really well at the same time. I thought about what Steve had said. I thought about how wrong this all was. paying membership, paying for the leads, then being told how much the job should cost by the customer? I felt like I was auctioning off my worth, my skills. I'd had enough of this crap already. I was on the shrimp boat & I wanted off. I needed to lose the crowd. Fuck this. There has to be another way? Then it hit me that night whilst brushing my teeth. 'Colgate'. This whole brand trust thing. I thought about the toothpaste scenario again. I thought about how when I was confronted with 22 different brands of toothpaste all stacked neatly together along the same shelf screaming at me for attention I automatically turned to a brand that I knew & trusted. In my head Colgate was the winner because it's tried. Tested. Trusted. Like Colgate I needed to set myself apart if I wanted to get noticed. But how?
Fairplay
Creating a platform where tradesmen & homeowners can come together is a great concept if done fairly. Providing it profits at the service of both parties involved. Not at the expense of just one. If you get the impression that your being taken for a ride by these platforms then you probably are. Spending hundreds on leads but getting little back in return will corrode your business leading to loss instead of profit. Many newly self employed trades turn to these sites in order to get the wheels turning in their business. In some situations outsourcing lead generation can work. As long as the membership fees & lead costs over an annual basis works out to be much less than the overall sales made from the jobs you have won also leaving you with a healthy amount of profit for yourself to reinvest. Bigger businesses with large sales often outsource this side of things, however, Sole traders & self employed tradespeople can find themselves throwing money into a pit if leads do not convert so there are precautions to take if you plan to join these kind of associations. An example of this is your customer reviews which you have worked so hard to build up will be lost should cancel membership leaving you with no online job refrences for future customers.Personally I do not believe that these sites are a good long term strategy for generating leads in your business especially when first starting out. This is because every pound you make in profit in the early days you will need to reinvest back into your business so spending a couple hundred per month on leads can wear down on your working capital. A common thing we do as plasterers is say things like:
'I'll use the sites for a while, then cancel my membership'
There's a couple of problems with this plan. If you were to decide to cancel your membership then your leads will immediately stop. Leaving you with no lead generation & basically up shits creek without a paddle. Another issue is when you rely on an outside source from the get go without understanding how that source works you can become trapped into believing that your business needs it in order to survive & the cost of membership can mount up especially when the monthly/ annual costs can not always be factored into sales for example during the quiet winter months. So tread carefully when using these sites is my advice.
What is lead generation?
Lead generation is about creating leads instead of sitting around waiting for the phone to ring. It's about being proactive.
Firstly let's look at how these trade association sites actually work so that we can begin to understand the machine then replicate that machine in our own sole trader business for FREE.
1. They create consumer trust. Using media platforms. TV, radio, web..
2.They use Google & other search engines to generate leads..when a customer searches 'plasterer Sheffield' for example these sites will often pop up on the first page & consumers will be directed to a website.
3.Then they collect customer information & sell it to you. The tradesmen.
This is a simplistic way to view lead generation but in a nutshell that's all it is. It's not complex or difficult.
As self employed plasterers we have already done the hard part which is learning how to actually plaster walls & ceilings. But if we want to sustain a long enjoyable career working on our own terms, this involves choosing where we work, who we work for & how much we get paid. All this is very achievable once we know how to market ourselves effectively.
So let's look at this again step by step.
1.Creating trust.
What is trust? According to the English dictionary trust is 'A firm belief in the reliability, truth, or ability of someone or something' If you were to think of someone you trust right now who would that be? Picture them. This person has earned your trust by consistently doing what they said they would do. Being true to their word. By doing this they have built trust. They have a reputation for being dependable, reliable.
So in order for us to build trust as a business, As a self employed plasterer, this always starts with one customer, one job at a time. We look at the job, tell them exactly what we are going to do, give them the price. Then if they proceed with the quote we carry out the job in exactly the way we have promised. We charge the amount we stated on the quote. Doing all that to the best of our ability, with a good attitude & leaving the area clean & tidy..this will build trust with that customer. That's step one.
Then we move onto the next job & repeat. Then repeat again & again.. doing this week in week out over a sustained period of time will build trustworthiness within your business. So now what? What does all this have to do with online marketing & lead generation? Well, it all goes hand in hand. Nobody will buy from a business they don't trust.
2. Search engines & the magic of online reviews
Earlier I mentioned that I would get positive feedback from my jobs & how it gave me a boost 'we'll recommend you to all of our friends'.. They probably did recommend me to a few people. But what if I could capture that delighted feeling they had when seen the finished job. What if I could show the world how they felt about my work? That's the magic of online reviews. Showcasing to the world what you stand for & what your customers think.
A handful of quality online reviews from your customers will have more pulling power than any marketing gimic you can buy. An online review is a referral it's modern day word of mouth marketing except its reach is far greater than a verbal mention or recommendation. It's a permanent statement which brands you trustworthy.
How do I collect reviews & where do I put them?
Just like the big trade association sites, You collect reviews by asking your customers for them. Of course this will only work if you've made your customer happy. So you must complete your job to the best of your ability on time, on budget be polite, be courteous be clean & tidy, finish the job then politely ask your customer for a review. Getting reviews can somety be a chore, people live busy lives & often forget to write a review. So remind them. Be persistent.
3. Leveraging your trust
Big trade association sites gather leads & sell them to us. This strategy is about gathering up our own leads . So your customer has agreed to write you up a review. Now what? Where do you bank them? Well the choice is yours here. Contrary to popular belief in order to create an online presence for your business you don't actually need any money. You don't need any money to build a website. You don't need any money to collect & showcase your reviews. You don't need any money to showcase your work photos or generate leads..because all of the tools & platforms you need to build up a presence on the internet can be accessed completely free of charge.
If you want to showcase your reviews for free you can use platforms like
*Free index
*Facebook
*Google my business
*Trustpilot
Your smartphone & a willingness to succeed is all you need to build an online presence & start marketing your plastering business online for free. You don't need to be a tech head or pay hundreds or thousands to web developers or clever ad campaigns. Once you have built trust it's just a case of leveraging that trust & displaying it for your potential customers.
If you build it they will come
We've all heard of this saying. its true in this case. There are customers right now searching for plasterers in your area.Not getting any work? That's because they don't know you exist which is why you aren't getting the call. If you want more calls then you need to be seen.
The starting point here is putting together a portfolio of good work photos which you can then showcase to your potential customers. Choose a free platform, get stuck in, build a profile & paste in your photos. Next is your website. There a number of free website options. Google my business is a simple app you can download which will put you on the map for plasterers in your local area & also give you the option to build a simple website which will include a click to call / message button. The websites are user friendly & optimised all you need to do is fill out the blanks. I like this option because it's made by the company you want on your side. Google. Once you've put your website together you need traffic. SEO (search engine optimization) will determine who gets to see your website & how it ranks in search results.
Get focused
Nobody cares about your business. This is a bitter pill to swallow in the early days. At one stage I would outsource the marketing with AdWords & all the rest.. I had some bites but nothing worth getting excited about. I needed consistency. Let's go back to fishing again. I named this blog post the fisherman for a reason. The fisherman sets out alone in his small boat armed with some bait & a rod. If he comes home empty handed his family doesn't eat. He has 2 options he can continue to keep fishing in the same spot day after day with poor results or he can look at the bigger fishing boats & replicate what they are doing. The big boats know where the fish are at & they have a big net. So the first step is to go where the hungry fish are (in our case hungry customers) instead of waiting & hoping for a bite we need to advertise in areas where customers have the means & intention to buy from us) Next is we have to ditch the rod & get a big net. It's no good posting a Facebook post advertising your plastering business then expecting that one post to generate a months worth of work it's unrealistic it's poor bait & its not enough to feed lots of hungry fish. We need to cast a big fucking net. A big net in internet marketing terms is multiple free sites being leveraged all at once, Facebook, Google, Instagram, YouTube , Free index, yelp.. any platform you can find. Not only will this give you an edge but it will put you on the map in terms of web presence when your customers are searching for you.
Shout from the rooftops
Spend a weekend hammering the internet & building as much content as possible & get your name out there. Force your name out there don't be polite about it you have to cause disruption. Join Facebook selling groups, post gumtree ads, post Instagram & YouTube videos & get noticed. All of these platforms will get you attention but nothing will bring leads in like Google can. Google is the big dog. Once you've gained a number of quality reviews in your Google my business listing you will be relevant & Google will begin to rank you higher. Adding lots of good pics to your Google listing along with informative descriptions & back links to your site's Facebook page will all help in your marketing efforts. Local marketing is where we can really excell & win alot of work. Your area should be part of your marketing strategy & should be included in all of your marketing an example: 'Plasterer Sheffield' Sheffield Plastering services etc.. should be included with your name when marketing on Google.(If you live in Sheffield of course!) Once you have this down you can then replicate it building multiple sites on different platforms. Eventually you will generate so many leads that you will be busy & can then start to cherry pick jobs & focus on which jobs you do most effectively, the jobs that bring out your best. The lead machine is working.
Branding
Be congruent with your branding, Your logo.The logo that's on your website should be the same logo that's on your van..& on your workwear & your email correspondence & invoices. It's about creating certainty in the mind of the customer. If Mrs Smith calls you up after seeing your website or Facebook page or freeindex listing whatever it is.. She has already seen your logo. When you pull up outside her house to quote the job if she sees the same logo on your van this will create congruency. If she opens the door & you have the same logo on your shirt this will again create congruency & certainty for the customer it's about getting off to a strong start & making an unshakeable first impression with your customers coming across as a professional business that cares about their brand.
Get a site board
When you are first starting out. You are invisible. You have built an online presence.The wheels are turning but alongside this it's a good idea to get a few site boards knocked up from your local signage shop. Usually your van signage company will do this for you & they are relatively cheap. On your site board include your logo, what you do in clear bold text. Then underneath have 'Need a Plasterer? Pop in anytime for a chat' or something along those lines. This not only lets passers by know who you are, what you do,but it is a direct invite to meet you & view the quality of your work where you can hand them a business card & make a strong impression.
'I don't find work..work finds me'
When Steve said this I laughed. It wasn't until I got my business online I finally began to understand what he meant & how online marketing works. For years I had Struggled to generate leads on a consistent basis I had always been the moth looking for a flame so to speak I had finally learned to attract customers by displaying my capabilities online. I learned to become a flame & to stop being the moth! Once you've built trust, established yourself online & created congruency people will be magnetised toward you & just like Colgate consumers will always turned to a brand they can trust.
Conclusion
Out of pure curiosity I searched Steve's business name in Google & seen that he was ranked very high on many platforms & had dozens of 5 star reviews with all of his work showcased for all to see. I was impressed. It wasn't a gimmicky show off kind of website but it made an impression. This is why Steve was always busy & not just because he had years & years on me. That's all we need to do as plasterers we need to make an impression & get our businesses out there without spending stupid money on adverts & marketing. Online marketing is about trust, congruency & consistency & any of us can learn the basics needed to market ourselves. Just like learning the art of plastering you get to grips with the tools, learn one skill, then move onto the next. Before you know it you have it down & the skills are yours & your well on your way to business success.
Thank you for reading The Fisherman.
I've included a few links for you which may help you to get off the shrimp boat, get online & start smashing your marketing game plan out the water. In the next blog we will explore lead conversion & how we can increase our chances of winning jobs. Good luck.
(Don't forget to leverage your social media accounts!)
Please share & comment
Saturday, 6 March 2021
TELL YOUR STORY
Thank you for joining trowel talk & for sharing your story with the group. Whether your a beginner to plastering or have many years behind the trowel we want to hear about your experiences.
The story can be in any form..There are no rules to what you must write about. Feel free to make it as long or short as you like & if you feel you can offer advice to the younger spreads who are up & coming in the plastering trade please do so 👍
Thank you
Tuesday, 2 March 2021
GOING OUT ALONE (HOW TO START A PLASTERING BUSINESS)
GOING OUT ALONE
Written by Stuart Roberts (15 minute read)
I named this topic 'Going out alone' because that's precisely what you will be doing when you quit your job & take the leap into self employment. They'll be no more depending on your gaffer or work mates but sometimes these very people maybe part of the reason you want to go solo in the first place..
Feeling fed up in your day job is what led most if not all of us to step out into the unknown & set up our own businesses. But what that actually involves you cannot prepare yourself for. Working as an employee on the books gives you a level of security & systems are in place which take care of your tax, national insurance, holiday pay, wages & free time. When you go self employed none of these systems exist especially when it comes to how & when you get paid & it's on your shoulders to set everything up correctly. So here I've put together a starter pack in the form of my story for anyone who wants to venture into self employment. Everyone has a different take, a story of their own as to how they survive the ups & downs of being a self employed plasterer. Different things work for different people. I'll talk about what worked for me & also what didn't work & how I got mugged off in the early days & how you can avoid those mistakes. So let's get stuck in..
WHY GO OUT ALONE?
You will have your own reasons why you want to knock your job on the head & do things your own way my reason was that I was working for a guy who I felt was taking liberties. This combined with my personality type which is better suited to self employment meaning I've always been a grafter who didn't need to be told what needs to be done next I would see what needs doing then just crack on & do it Sometimes this would get me into trouble on site because my gaffer would see it as me stepping on his toes. Also I had a bad habit of questioning things, How & why we were doing things at first this would be seen as keen but later it would be seen as cocksure & arrogant. The truth is in my heart I always had wanted to work for myself this probably came through on the job & though we respected one another, things between me & my boss slowly became strained & it was time for me to leave. It's important for me to say here that before I ventured out working on my own in people's houses by this point, although I was young I was working completely independently & unsupervised in most areas of plastering with a good understanding of the different aspects of the trade. I was by no means done in terms of learning but my belief is that no plasterer is ever truly done as we are constantly learning & perfecting our craft. But again, I could use the straight edge & the float, could finish to a good standard with the trowel & had a good overall understanding of backgrounds & setting times on a variety of materials I would never advise or encourage anyone to start their own plastering business untill they have got those hours behind the trowel & can turn out good work that lasts.
GETTING INSURED & TOOLED UP
Luckily during the time I worked for my old boss I was able to build up a small tool collection consisting of a 16" ragni trowel covered in rust, a hawk, wet brush & a 3rd hand paddle mixer. What's so good about the plastering game is that the tools that we need to get us started can be sourced relatively cheaply & easily compared to other trades. This will work in your favour when you decide to make a crack at running your own plastering business. I'll discuss getting registered at the end of this post & will include a link for people wanting to take the plunge. Business insurance is also a must, you have to get your public liability in place from day one before you start throwing plasterboards about in people's homes..the last thing you need when you first start out is the customers new 60" TV doing a cartwheel or a bucket of skim knocked onto the new rug pile no matter how careful we are accidents happen so get yourself covered.
The next problem I had was getting a set of wheels sorted. With no cash in the bank & no work Infront of me I did what most young lads would do, went grovelling to any family member who would lend me some money. If like me, you don't come from money trying to get hold of the stuff when your not working can prove tricky but I managed to pull together a grand which purchased me a red sun bleached ford escort van & a first installment on insurance which being a young lad was more than the value of the van & my kit put together. The van was a shed but the feeling I had when I sat behind the wheel of that van with my handful of tools chucked In the back was the best feeling in the world. Unfortunately shortly after purchasing the van It was robbed with my tools inside. It was a crushing moment for me especially as I didn't have a pot to piss in at the time & was now back at square one. I picked up some shifts working in house removals which earned me enough cash to begin buying some more kit & eventually another ford escort van! This time with my tools removed each night & a lump of a steering lock bolted down each night too!
MOONLIGHTER
Moonlighting is a thing I did alot of on the build up of my plastering business. In the early days I would work shifts on the removals or go jobbing for local builders for the odd day on small plastering jobs then on weekends I would would be doing my own jobs mainly for family & friends. This went on for quite some time while I slowly learned the skills needed to survive off my own work. This proved really hard for me as it seemed one week I would be flying only to crash the next with jobs being thin on the ground. I remember this hot & cold work load getting me down alot in the early years & I wanted to quit & ask for my old job back on a number of occasions especially when I would see my mates buying new cars new clothes & booking holidays all paid for on tick because when you have that regular wage banks & credit card companies are your best friend, For the self employed, it takes a number of months even years before a bank will take you seriously. It doesn't help when you have your family & friends all in secure jobs telling you to 'just ask for your job back' it's a safe secure job with a regular wage' They were right it was a safe secure job & the money though it was crap it was consistent unlike the money I was earning off my own jobs which was like the work, there one minute gone the next. But I didn't want a job, I didn't want to work for anyone as by now I had already had a taste of working for myself & the freedom it gave me. I knew that for me to do this week in week out I needed a way of finding work instead of just relying on mates & family to pass my name about I needed a more reliable & consistent way of generating regular work.
GOING IN CHEAP- A RACE TO THE BOTTOM
My cleverly thought out plan to get loads of work was to undermine the established local plastering firms by going in at a fraction of the price they were quoting. After all I had no overhead & only had my beat up old van to pay for, & as long as I could earn similar money to what my old gaffer used to give me I was being fair right? After all my earnings were only used for nights out & rent. As a young lad my thoughts were 'If my gaffer was paying me £240 per week then it's right that I charge similar as a self employed person?' This was my naivety & eventually my downfall as I learned how far & wide the self employed persons income had to stretch when compared to an employees wages. Another problem I faced early on was working for dickheads. Going in cheap meant I was attracting alot of bellends to my business, people who wanted not only cheap work but who also had no intention of paying me once I'd completed. I'll talk more about how I overcome this problem as we move through my story.
UNDERVALUING YOURSELF
I quickly learned that undervaluing yourself & your trowel skills is a self-defeating behaviour that every self employed plasterer is guilty of doing at one point in their career. Especially when first starting out. The fear of no work messes with the head & we end up telling ourselves that shit paid work is better than no work at all. Some plasterers who I know who are well into their 40s & 50s still operate under this mindset. What's so wrong about this way of operation is that not only does it fuck you over in the short term but it's also a vicious cycle of self sabotage because you become known as the 'Cheap' guy & you get stuck in a rut. I speak from experience when I say that having a reputation for being a cheap plasterer will trap you into low value jobs meaning that you have to graft hard for a small amount of pay working for people who do not value your plastering ability. I was the 'cheap guy' for a number of years in my early days & I would scoff at the older more established plasterers in my area, I would use phrases like ' they rip people off' they're greedy' & at that time I genuinely believed my own bullshit because the pay I was getting allowed me to keep working & I was busy so I couldn't understand why anyone would need more earnings than what I was getting but after a long time working like this I realized I was just a busy fool & I had little to no money left at the end of each week & although I was living frugally I was always out of money. I could barely survive & was just turning money over. I knew that if I wanted to make this sustainable I needed to make a change & get a better understanding of working for myself especially if I ever wanted to take on a labourer because there was simply not enough money to do this working the way I was. Another point I want to make on going in cheap is that the art of plastering was never designed to be rushed. We have to allow time on the job in order to deliver a flawless clean finish. The cheaper we price work the quicker we want out. So we tend to rush which results in less than average work we then end up attracting more & more cheap, shit jobs as our name is passed around the area. I had to learn the hard way when going in cheap caught up with me & I started to lose work to even cheaper guys! You wouldn't believe how many of these guys exist & alot of them. Cheap spreads will always compete with other cheap spreads & they end up in a bidding war in a race to the bottom. The cheaper they go the quicker they work.. & the cycle repeats itself until eventually they go in so cheap they don't even turn up to their own jobs half the time. I finally stepped off the cheap train when I learned to value myself & the skills I had spent so many years perfecting. Instead of looking to the cheap spreads to see what they were charging & how 'quick' they were working I began to instead look to the established businesses that had work coming out of their ears working for people who respected their skillset & who paid well. I decided to focus on learning more about self employment how to position myself better.
LEARNING
In order for me to grow as a self employed plasterer I needed to learn. Although I had the trowel skills I knew nothing about business. I knew of a few older guys who I got on with who ran their own businesses & one in particular took me under his wing as he said I reminded him of himself when he first started up 'wet as fuck behind the ears you are kid' as he liked to put it. What was good about Steve is that he would expose my weaknesses for me not in a kind way but the same way a big brother tells you that you stink & need a shower, you don't like it but you need to hear it. If you believe the person has your best interests at heart & wants you to succeed you will listen to them & learn. So that's what I did. 'How long you been working solo' Steve would ask me. '6 months I replied but not every day like'.. '6 months? How much savings u got after 6 months' I laughed.. 'savings?' your joking aren't you I can barley pay my rent' 'Then your doing something wrong' he said. How much you charging per day?' erm, £80 I said. 'Are you mad.' Your self employed son 'That figure needs to be doubled & eventually trippled if you want to get ahead in this game. I've seen your finish it's worthy of double that money.. you just need speed now son but more important you need confidence'. It was long chats like this with Steve that helped me to gain momentum. It was at this point I asked Steve if I could work along side him a few days per week while I try to build my own work up. 'Sound' was his reply. Steve was one of them blokes you come across from time to time, A dying breed of spread. No fucks to give honest as they come, hard as fuck & would give you the shirt off his back if you needed it. But you didn't fuck with him. That was a given.
Watching him graft in his business, the early morning load ups, the big sets & though he would finish around 4pm his level of productivity during them hours was insane not that he would rush but he would just not stop only for a ten minute tea break here & there then head down again into his craft until 3:30 - 4pm often he would be on the phone booking in & chatting through jobs with customers whilst troweling up a ceiling 'Right let's call it a day kid' was his old saying. When he finished work be would pick his twin boys up from the child minder & change hats. Not only was Steve a true grafter but he was also a loving father & family man. He had carved out a decent life for himself through plastering with a big family, a nice house & a strong business. All the things I yearned for as a single young man in my twenties. I stuck with Steve for a number of months learning everything I could. Over this time he taught me the true meaning of self employment, from leaving each job spotlessly clean & tidy through to understanding a basic level of book keeping & marketing skills but most important he taught me to value myself & my plastering skills. I would watch how he spoke to his customers, how nothing was too much trouble how he always over delivered on his work, doing little gestures & extra little jobs for them just to make them smile he had a passion for the game that was for certain & that energy & passion rubbed of on me. But Steve was no Mug. 'Profit first' was his motto when it came to the business side of self employment. 'Cashflow is oxygen to your business Stu' I used to nod & agree but never truly got why he harped on so much about cashflow until I was in the thick of it myself some years later which is another story I'll be delving into at some point. The plastering trade can be tough. People like Steve who smile through the struggles can make a hard job fly by quickly. I learned that being positive, optimistic & good with people when your self employed is not only helpful but vital if you want to thrive in your Plastering business.
YOUR THE EXPERT
What I eventually learned through being mentored & by going out alone is that we are the experts. What I mean by that is if we think of situations where we have had to rely on experts to fix a problem for us whether that be removing a wisdom tooth, fixing our car or replacing a part on the boiler. Whatever it may be we call upon experts who are specialized in certain areas. We rely on these people heavily & we pay the price they ask no quibbles so that they fix the problem as we are unable to fix it ourselves. Thinking of your plastering business in this respect will transform the way you operate & the way you price your work. The work you take on will no longer be just chugging out the meters in order to get a quick earner instead you'll begin to see yourself as an expert in your trade a 'problem solver' & you'll begin to see a future in your business, you'll get a vision for where your headed & you'll begin to move away from the cheap clients who are looking to lower your price. After all if your an expert in your craft then you'll need expert equipment, expert knowledge & expert customer service skills all this comes at a price that good clients are more than happy to pay. Your beliefs about yourself reflect who you are & what you stand for, As you move from being 'Joe the cheap plasterer' to 'Joe's quality plastering services' two similar concepts but with different tones. Of course your still Joe the plasterer but now your the expert & your business is providing a quality service to your customers. When it comes to marketing how you see & present yourself, how people perceive your business & level of expertise is crucial to your success & your pricing strategy.
RAISING YOUR GAME
When I decided to raise my game & stop scratching around for scraps of work is when I changed direction as a self employed plasterer. Instead of taking on cheap work I began to study how successful small businesses were operating & the ones that seemed to be doing well were always customer focused. It makes sense when you think about it, It's the same as when you eat at a nice restaurant or stay in a hotel & the staff are great or you have a good experience on the phone with a business the good feeling you get when you were given an above average level of service. Good tradesmen are like gold dust. When customers find one they'll rave about them to all their friends. There's an old saying that goes 'if you do a good job they'll tell 5 people but if you do a shit job they'll tell 10. This is true to human nature if you've ever been wronged by a company you will warn everyone you know about that company you'll be so pissed off about it you'll even go online & leave a bad review to ensure people are warned. So it's so important to raise our game when working as a self employed plasterer we have to cover all bases from communication through to invoicing we have to be consistent. This might mean we have to change our approach when dealing with our customers, If we turn up late, half asleep, swearing acting disrespectful in people's homes, not sheeting up properly.. then we will continue to attract low value cheap customers but if we present ourselves in a professional manner, turn up when we say we will, email the quote when we say we will, do the work exactly how we said we would.. protecting people's belongings..we then begin to develop a reputation for being good then eventually great because from the customers perspective it's not just about having that wall plastered it's about their overall experience of your business from the initial enquiry through to sweeping up when your done we have to remain professional throughout the whole job that's how repeat business is generated over & over again & repeat business means free marketing for you & your plastering business.
GETTING PAID - YOUR TERMS OR NO TERMS AT ALL
I mentioned earlier about getting stung by non paying clients when I first started out. I think out of all the stresses that go along with running your own plastering business this has to be the biggest head fuck. You've parted with your own money to purchase materials, fuel & sometimes hired lads in to help you complete a plastering project so your all out. All you need to do now is finish the job : ask for the money & get paid. Simple. Right?..WRONG. It only takes one fucktard to ruin your life when it comes to self employment & I'm using dramatic phrases like 'ruin your life' because that's exactly what they do when they don't pay you. As the days & weeks go on with phone calls texts & emails being ignored, You start second guessing yourself, your confidence hits the floor & in some cases depending on how much is actually owed it can literally bring your business crumbling to the ground. Over the years I have came close to going broke due to idiots thinking they can get a free ride at my expense. At one stage I was owed over 12k & being a very small business that sort of money will end you if it doesn't come in. I eventually got the money but whilst waiting 4 months I was forced to use loans & credit cards to flow cash needed on other projects to pay my suppliers & workers. The stress caused by non payers can lead to mental health problems if you feel there's no way out of the situation & you can't source money from anywhere else.. bitterness, anger & even depression can consume your mind. It's toxic so it has to be prevented & as self employed plasterers we have to protect ourselves & our businesses from these situations. Now I use a system for getting paid in my plastering business which involves telling your customer how much the job will cost, then telling them how & when you will be paid. It's that simple. I'm talking about Payment terms. Setting up your own payment terms so that your customer understands clearly how much to pay you & when. In my business I take a deposit on anything over a grand. This is good not only for cashflow purposes but also for weeding out those nasty little cretins that have absolutely no intention of ever paying you to start with & we all know they exist. You only have to read the posts put up on the talk group.its no joke. Not all customers are good people. Some are bad, & by implementing this system into your business you will shine a light on those people who for whatever reason have no intention to pay. Another thing it does for you is secures your slot in your diary. True story here, I had a whole house to board out & skim using a thermal laminate it was an order in through my supplier around £800 worth of gear loaded the day before my start. Text received 9pm the night before 'Decided to go EWI Stu' sorry don't need you here now' Emma'.. That text changed the way I was operating so I'm glad it happened because I've never been in this situation since. At the time I was livid as I couldn't return the boards as they were ordered in & I had no other work for me & my lads to get on for those 8 days I'd booked in. The lesson here is stop shouldering all of the risk in your plastering business & stop acting like your a credit facility for any Tom Dick or Harry that thinks they can get you to do work on tick. Paying you whenever they choose.. days, weeks months later? No. Take control of your cashflow & get your terms set up. If anyone wants a template of my payment term wording drop a comment below & I will email it to you for free. Your welcome.
GETTING ONLINE & GETTING CUSTOMERS
In today's world when you start up a small business in any sector you need a website & you need to build an online presence this is crucial if you want to generate regular leads for your plastering business because everyone today searches for products & services online using their smartphones. Recommendations are by far the most potent form of advertising we can all agree on that however gone are the days when recommendations alone can provide enough regular leads for your growing small business especially if you are a new small business. Supply & demand means that the market is full of tradespeople. if in a small village out in the middle of knowhere lives say 1 or 2 plasterers, recommendations alone would likely supply them both with enough work but those days are gone now. If like me you live in a city, you only need to search 'plasterers' on Google maps to understand just how many of us there are all competing for work so it's not enough to wait for people to recommend you, you have to start recommending yourself. When this is done properly it will create a consistent amount of leads to your business website & will give you that regular work load you need to keep busy as a self employed plasterer. At the end of the day our businesses are invisible until we make them visible to people searching for our services so our website becomes like our shop or showroom a place to showcase our services for our customers. Being good on the trowel is not enough today you have to be good on the laptop too if you want to generate lots of high quality leads into your business. If you don't know where to begin in this respect, this side of things can be outsourced but be warned it will come at a cost that can eat into your profit margin. Alot of self employed plasterers pay big money to web developers or join trade association sites like checkatrade & my builder these sites generate leads for you & charge a membership fee. I understand why alot of plasterers rely on these sites but Personally I don't like these sites or how they operate I won't get into why on this blog but let's say there's only one real winner & it's not us plasterers. Spending some time to learn the basic skills needed to build a website, get traffic & convert leads & build up great customer reviews I feel it's what's needed in the plastering game especially if you plan to start your own business in the domestic market not only does this give you the skills needed to begin to understand this side of your business but it will save you a huge amount of money. Marketing your plastering business online can either be a massive cash vaccum or an investment in time & effort which will end up putting money in your pocket. Targeted marketing means that you get to choose who you work for & where you work. There are so many free online platforms we can use today to get our plastering businesses off the ground & sustain that business without having to spend a penny. Google my business, Free index, you tube, trust pilot, facebook, Instagram to name a few free platforms you can leverage to get your plastering business online & start building up customer reviews & adding photos. You'll be surprised how fast you can generate results just spending a few hours on the weekends building an online presence you don't need to be spending thousands of pounds on advertising. Keep that cash in your pocket so that you can reinvest it back into your business especially in the early years when your just starting out. When considering starting up your own Plastering business if you take anything away from this blog today take the online marketing advice it will set you up strong from the get go & will by far be the make or break of the business because at the end of the day without customers there is no business no matter how good you are on the tools.
GET AN ACCOUNTANT & GET REGISTERED
This brings this topic of GOING OUT ALONE to a close now. On the final point in this article it's important to mention about bookkeeping & tax. Setting up as self employed is simple. I have included a link here for anyone who wants to register themselves as self employed through the gov.uk website. To set up as a sole trader you simply choose a business name register your business & boom your up & running. The not so simple side of running your own show is the boring off the tools tasks such as invoicing, quoting ,keeping track of all the in & out transactions your business will be having during the year so it's vital that you get yourself a good accountant to take care of all the tax & payroll. A good accountant is worth their weight in gold & will be on hand to help you out on tax related questions, pensions, hiring staff & more. Trying to tackle all this & also market your business, win jobs & actually plaster walls in between is a recipe for disaster & so get the help in place early on. Keeping strict accounts in your business, staying ontop of receipts is also necessary & takes a bit of getting used to. There are apps available today which help tradespeople manage this side of business apps such as receipt bank, invoice simple & QuickBooks turn your smartphone into a mini office so you can fire off invoices off the cuff whilst sat in the van & take photos of your receipts so that they are all organised in one place ready to send to your accountant.
I hope you've enjoyed reading this & can relate to my story. If your a plasterer who wants to share a story we have a group on Facebook called trowel talk where like minded plasterers from all over come together to share work pics, ideas & knowledge. Please join us & let's continue to develop ourselves & our plastering businesses together.
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