I was working with another contractor last week at one of my clients homes and the talk turned to new building regulations that are coming into effect, memberships, licensing and finally black market builders. He had not seen my website and as the talked turned to cowboy builders I felt a lot of tension from him. He asked if he’d end up with a Cowboy Of The Week Award if there was a problem with the work he was doing? My answer to that was simple. continue

In part one I discussed the fact that when a job opens up EVERYBODY applies for it. Unfortunately for the few that are just the type of candidate we want to see there are sometimes hundreds of people we don’t want to see. The reality of it is they are wasting every body’s time. What do you care right? Wrong! continue

I hammer away relentlessly at cowboy builders, electricians, gas fitters and DIYers who attempt, and fail to work to CURRENT Building Regulations. So I have to applaud Plumbfix as well as Wolsely (Plumb Centre and Parts Centre) for their stand on supporting CORGI and CORGI Registered gas installers by limiting the sale of gas related products to the general public. It would be fantastic if more retailers got on the ball and stopped selling certain items such as gas hoses and other fittings used almost exclusively by gas fitters to anyone without an up-to-date CORGI card. continue

Well, Reality Check please!

As a small home maintenance business trying to conduct business in an age of more and more stealth taxes I am not a big supporter of grandiose plans to drive me further out of the market place. The current multi million pound propaganda drive to convince us on how useful congention charging will be to Manchester is a case in point. I personally feel something has to be done to ease congestion, well pollution actually, I’m not sure I agree that charging small businesses to enter the very city the public wish us to keep running is the way forward. continue

I tell my contractor mates on a regular basis that they should follow up on everything they do. Not just quotes or estimates. If you undertake a Gas Safety Check for a client place their document in file dated eleven months from now and call them or send them a reminder. Once you find a client and they are happy with your work keep them close. Stay in contact.

Another good article here.

As I mentioned in Part 2, there are a few items that need to stand out for any application to make it past a set of experienced eyes. What you need to put on the CV of course is dependent on what type of job you are trying to land. So, if you are looking for a role which requires a lot of IT experience you should show your experience in that area. Don’t spend a lot of time showing all of the other roles you’ve experienced unless it’s relevant. If you are looking for a role and are fresh out of school you will not be expected to have much experience so don’t make stuff up either and don’t fill your CV with unrelated items. continue

We recently placed an ad for builders mate (a helper for one of our field operatives). The job would entail helping the maintenance engineer with day-to-day work in and around the Greater Manchester Area. We were not necessarily looking for any qualifications and hoped that we might get lucky and find someone interested enough to eventually work towards their trade papers.

Two very interesting things emerged from this experience. The first was that we received a great many applications from people who already had there gas papers (A.C.S.) and were looking to get their twenty job portfolio together so they could gain their CORGI/Gas Safe Register card. The opposite end of the scale was that we received many applications that were incomplete, displayed no real interest in working for us or anyone else for that matter. All but a few even mentioned plumbing, heating or electrical references in any context.

I have over the years had to hire and let staff go. It is not an easy job to do either and after having to sift through hundreds of applications or CVs you get fairly fquick at it. There are a few items that need to stand out for any application to make it past a set of experienced eyes.

To see what those items are stay tuned for part 2.