PING TMH

Yup, estate agents are very tuned into anything that generates them referral fees etc.

AFAIK that only applies if you claims 20% of the mortgage. 20% of lighting, heating etc is OK.

whatever

"change

Not heard of that but I guess which tax bill you are putting the "Use of Home as Office" against. If it's your personal tax bill rather than the companies it's not in the company books...

If you put it against the company rather than you...

I'm a sole trader so there isn't a me/company distinction but my accountant always puts a few hundred quid "Use of Home as Office" against tax into my tax return.

That is my understanding as well. So keep that bed in the spare bedroom you use as an office.

Thank you every one for all your comments, I have learned a lot.....

I've had a few more thoughts.....

Do customers make voice calls to Handymen or do they email instead?

reason I ask is that I am deaf so voice calls would be a *BIG* problem for me as it is not possible to lipread on phones. So I would prefer customers to email me. I'm content to have a 3G enabled Apple Ipad in the van for this purpose.

In a similar vein, many customers have smart phones so they could take pictures of the job and email it to me to make my job of quoting easier and/or more accurate without losing working time driving over to teh potential customer, viewing the job, writing up a quote & posting etc etc.

Also, customers don't like taking whole days off from work waiting for handymen to turn up. So perhaps some kind of automated text messaging service like Taxi's have to say "The handyman is on his way to you, his ETA is XXX mins" Allowing customer to nip home from work, let me in, I do the job, let me out and the customer goes back to work.

Talking of flexibility, what about adjacent neighbours deals. i.e. neither neighbour has a full days worth of jobs. I'd turn up do half day at one house, the other half day at next doors, and charge then a full days rate for both houses and they pay half each? and share half the call out charge? after all, I'd rather work than drive about.

I can go part time with my exisitin gfull time job so I'd have an insurance plan if the handyman thing fell apart.

You would have to make it a selling point; to avoid interrupting my work, I don't take phone calls while working. I suspect it will cost you business though.

I think that would be a serious mistake. You need to see the site for yourself to see problems that may not be obvious from a photo.

Quotes are part of the job and you need to factor in the fact that you have to make them and that some, possibly many, won't be accepted.

Colin Bignell

I think you will struggle..

Traders who are using mobiles or other anonymous communications (mobiles, email, personal numbers) are a no-no, you just never know who they really are and can't be sure how to contact them if you need to.

You really need someone to answer the phone and answer questions.

On 13 Mar 2014, RJH grunted:

Too right. Personally, I made a conscious decision some years ago and went self-employed so now I work the hours I want to. Far fewer hours per week and less income; and my life is far, far better as a result.

You also need to see who the client is and work out whether or not they'll be worth the trouble...

The fact remains that most potential customers would rather talk to someone, even if it's not the person about to do the job. Maybe use an answering service? Once the initial contact is made, then things get easier.

And another thing, when I worked in the office for a landscape gardening company, and later on a coach company, and left the answerphone while we had lunch or were otherwise engaged, 99% of calls that got put through to the answerphone rang off without speaking.

In article , Stephen scribeth thus

They want to speak to you. I can't think of any who'd bother with mailing!..

Totally deaf?, Can't you have an earpiece for the phone or mobile?..

Well they could but they prefer you to come to them..

Could work!.. Delivery drivers have been known to do that..

It doesn't work like that, well from what I've seen of it anyway..

Up to you..

Landline number and divert that to the mobile when not in the orifice...

and/or use a PA service to handle calls and take bookings. There are plenty about that will answer with the correct script for the business being called etc.

I think you'd have to have a permanent answerphone message to the effect that "Thanks for phoning, but because I'm deaf I need you to send me an email"

They do pretty much the same for Ltd companies - lumping an extra few hundred in the directors loan accounts to offset the costs.

Probably the best answer, if the cost is acceptable. They will take the phone calls and translate them to email.

Colin Bignell

I used to use a voicemail service that did that. Spinvox. They went titsup, but...

Yep, there's still something similar :-