Guides
Getting paid, without the hassle
The admin side of the trade is where the money leaks out — vague quotes, no deposit, invoices that drift, customers who go quiet. These are grouped by the question you turned up with. Everything we've written, newest first, is on the blog.
Winning the work
Where jobs actually come from, what each source costs you, and whether the directories are worth it.
Where trade work actually comes from: the four kinds of source
Every route to work is one of four kinds — the ones you own, the ones you're granted, the ones you rent, and the ones other people control. Which mix suits you comes down to one number: what your average job is worth.
Where electrical work comes from, and the channel you're already paying for
Scheme registers, Local Services Ads, the lead platforms, EV charging and landlord EICRs — what each source costs an electrician, and why the five-year compliance clock is the one worth organising.
Where plumbing work comes from, and why call-outs and installs need different sources
Emergency repairs and boiler installs are two different businesses sharing a van. What each lead source costs, which one suits which half of the work, and the recurring channel most plumbers never work.
For builders, leads are cheap and quotes are expensive
Architects, the FMB register, planning data and the lead platforms — where extension and renovation work comes from, and why the number that actually hurts is the three days you spent pricing a job you didn't win.
Google and your website
Your Google listing, whether a website is worth paying for, and what to do when the one you have isn't working.
Setting up a Google Business Profile when you haven't got a shopfront
Every list of how to get work tells you to sort your Google listing. None of them tell you how to verify one from a house, why your service area isn't a radius, or which of Google's review rules you're probably breaking.
Do you actually need a website? An honest look at the spend
Almost everything written about this is written by people who sell websites. Here's what the UK evidence actually says, what a site really costs once the first-year prices expire, and the one job it does that a free Google listing genuinely cannot.
How much does a website cost for a plumber? Each route, three years out
Build it yourself, pay monthly, or pay once: what each route costs over three years rather than at the checkout, what you own when you stop paying, and the five questions to ask before you pay anyone. Prices checked October 2026.
Website builders for tradesmen, compared: who does the work, and what's in the box
The ways a UK tradesperson can get a website, side by side: the general builders, the trade builders that come with quotes and invoices, the one-person pay-monthly firms, an agency, a free profile, and ours. What each one does for you, what it leaves to you, and which suits which business. Checked 14 October 2026.
Quoting and pricing
Putting a number on the work so it holds up when the customer reads it back to you.
Quoting electrical jobs so you actually get paid
A practical checklist for sole-trader electricians: what to put in a quote, when to take a deposit, and how to set payment terms that get you paid on time — without the awkward conversations.
What should I charge? Start from what you need, not what he charges
The day rate that covers your wages, the van, the insurance and the days you don't bill — worked backwards from what you need to earn, rather than guessed from what the trader down the road quotes.
When the job changes: getting paid for work you didn't quote for
You open the floor and it's worse than it looked. What you're allowed to charge, why the 10% rule everyone quotes doesn't exist in UK law, and the piece of paperwork that decides whether you get paid for the extra at all.
"It didn't take you long" — when a customer wants to pay less than you quoted
You quoted a price, did the job well, and now the customer reckons it was too quick to be worth that much. Here's why you price the result not the hour, how to stop the argument before it starts, and what to say when it happens anyway.
Getting paid
Invoices that get paid, and what to do about the ones that don't.
Sending invoices and getting paid online
The gap between finishing a job and the money landing is where most sole traders lose time — chasing bank transfers, waiting on cheques, wondering if it's crossed the post. Here's what actually closes it: a payment link on the invoice, and reminders that chase themselves.
What you can actually automate about invoicing, and what you can't
The parts of getting paid that genuinely run themselves — numbering, payment links, chasing, reconciling — and the parts that still need you. Plus the bit that costs trades the most money, which isn't typing the invoice.
When a customer won't pay: a UK sole trader's guide to getting paid (and not getting caught out again)
Late payment and no-shows are part of working for yourself in the trades. Here's what your rights actually are in the UK, how to chase money without losing the plot, and the booking habits that stop it happening in the first place.
Unpaid for a job? When small claims is worth it — and how it works in the UK
A customer's gone quiet on an invoice and you're wondering whether court is worth the hassle. For UK tradespeople: the free step that settles most of it, how small claims actually works (it's different in Scotland), and when to let it go.
Tax and the money side
The bits that catch people out, usually about nine months too late.
The VAT threshold trap: why turning down work in October might be the right call
The £90,000 VAT threshold makes some traders' best year their most expensive one. How the rolling 12-month test actually works, what crossing costs when your customers are homeowners, and how to decide deliberately instead of drifting over.
What can a tradesperson claim as expenses? The van, the tools, the boots and the phone
The van, the tools, the boots, the phone and the drive to site: what HMRC lets a self-employed tradesperson claim, what it doesn't, and the records to keep, for the return due on 31 January 2027.
Going self-employed as a tradesperson: the first-90-days admin checklist
You've got the tools and the first jobs booked. Nobody teaches the admin. The checklist for your first 90 days self-employed: registering with HMRC, insurance, records, the tax you need to set aside, and the payments-on-account surprise nobody warns you about.
Sole trader or limited company? The honest version
The structural decision every trader makes in week one, with the numbers as they actually stand in 2026 — including two changes that moved the maths against incorporating, and one thing that catches Scottish traders that no comparison table online accounts for.
Certificates and the rules
What needs signing off, who can sign it, what registration costs, and what a handyman can do without one.
Who signs an electrical certificate, and what makes one worthless
Three signature boxes on an EIC, two on an EICR, and almost no law about who may fill them in. What the standard actually asks, what your scheme adds on top, and the things that quietly make a certificate worth nothing.
Notifiable electrical work: Part P in England, building warrants in Scotland
Three things are notifiable in England, and that list is wrong in Wales and meaningless in Scotland. What each nation actually asks of you, what it costs, and what happens when work wasn't notified at the time.
NICEIC, NAPIT or SELECT: what registration costs, and whether you need it
No UK nation makes an electrician register with anybody. What a scheme buys in England and Wales is the right to sign off your own notifiable work. In 2026 that costs £695 + VAT at NICEIC or £655 + VAT at NAPIT in year one, and it usually pays for itself within two or three jobs.
Gas Safe registration cost: the 2026/27 fees, renewal and the ACS behind it
Gas work for pay needs Gas Safe registration in law. From 1 April 2026 a new business pays £319.96 + VAT to register and £139.78 + VAT a year to renew online. Below: what each fee covers, what ACS reassessment costs, and who has to be on the register.
Running the week
Software, scheduling, and whether any of it is worth paying for when it's just you.
Is job software worth it when it's just you?
The money question is easier than it looks — £25 a month is about half an hour of billable time. The harder question is whether you'll actually use it, and there are four situations where the answer is no.
What job software actually costs, and the four ways it's priced
The monthly figure on the website is the least useful number in this decision. The four pricing models, how to work out what you'd really pay, the costs that aren't in the sticker price, and when someone else is the cheaper buy.
How to choose job management software, and what actually differs between them
Most of these products do the same things, and the feature lists are written to be compared favourably. Six things genuinely differ — where it starts, how it charges, what's on the tier above, and three more — plus how to run a trial that tells you anything.
Job management software for electricians: what it actually means
"Job management software" is a vague phrase, and the category pages explaining it are written by people who have never issued a certificate. Here's what it covers for a working electrician, where an electrical job stops matching the software's idea of a job, and what to do about the gap.
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