Getting Started as a Freelance Electrician
If you’re a knowledgeable electrician or even a recent graduate and you’ve been thinking about taking your skills and business activity freelance, you’re in the right place. We’ve assembled the essential information you’ll need in order to get started as a freelance electrician.
As a full-time, freelance electrician, you can expect to begin making a decent salary relatively early in your career. While salaries for beginners start around £18,000 per year (in the UK), the salary you can expect rises steadily, attaining around £25,000 after a few years of experience. Indeed, among tradesmen in the United Kingdom, electricians are the most highly-paid. Knowing this, you may either be just finishing your studies or apprenticeship, or you may be an experienced electrician working for a company but wishing to strike out on your own. There are several things you’ll need to take into account while you get started as a freelance electrician, so read on for our best business advice.
Before addressing anything else, you’ll want to head over and check out our free business plan templates available for download. Just because your business is self-run on a freelance basis doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t have a plan for your business set down on paper, as well as basic information like where you’re getting your start-up capital (if you have or need any), and where and how your business functions.
Get Started as a Freelance Electrician
Because you’ve already established that you’ll be setting up a freelance enterprise, you’ll need to register for a sole proprietorship or an auto-entrepreneurship in your region. Luckily, we have articles relating to setting up business structures in the United States, the UK, and France. available for reference.
Before you get started as a freelance electrician, you’ll need to decide upon a name of operation, if not your own; open a business bank account for your activity, and register for regional licenses and permits specifically to market yourself as an electrician. In the United Kingdom, this license is known as the Electrotechnical Certification Scheme, and you’ll need to be a card-holder. You can start registering for it online here. You may also need other certifications in your region; in the United Kingdom you’ll need a level 3 technical qualification; this certification comes from your apprenticeship or relevant work experience, so you may already have it.
In the United States, licenses exist for apprentices, journeymen, and experts, and are granted by state licensing authorities whose requirements vary but do remain rather strict. You’ll need to do research on licensing practices on your specific state if you wish to practice in the USA.
When you get started as a freelance electrician, you’ll also be accepting that you practice a profession that does carry with it certain risks. While we have no doubt that your skill level is beyond question, it’s important for all freelance electricians to protect themselves from lawsuits and legal claims that could become costly. On top of the fact that you’ll need to reconsider your automobile insurance for using it for work purposes, as well as your own personal liability for your business debts, on top of that, you’ll also need to seriously consider investing in personal liability insurance tailored towards craftsmen like yourself, whose potential mistakes or accidents could end up costing them millions in lawsuits. Trust us, insulating yourself from outrageously costly lawsuits and liability claims could end up saving you many sleepless nights one day.
Marketing Yourself
To get started as a freelance electrician, you’ll need to take marketing yourself seriously. Of course, one of the best ways to get the word out about you and your business is by providing great service to your clients. Make sure that you research the normal price points in your area for freelance electricians, as well as electric companies, and see where you can realistically place yourself on that spectrum while remaining lucrative for yourself and attractive to potential customers. One of the advantages you hold as a freelance electrician is that you offer more personable service than an electric company who might send a different electrician to a given premises every time. Make sure that you capitalize on this on an individual and business-to-business basis alike.
Like any freelancer, you should have a website of your own, dedicated to your activity. Including client testimony, your contact information and operating hours, and the geographical radius in which you’re able to work. Being active on Instagram and using it to make contact with neighboring businesses and your local community is also a great idea, as it serves as a point of contact between yourself and customers who, at any moment, may need your services! Just because you’re a freelance tradesmen doesn’t mean that you’re limited to fliers in terms of seeking out new market segments; you know it better than anyone, everyone needs an electrician’s help at some point. By putting out feelers in your community as soon as you get started, people will be more aware of you and more likely to call you when they need help, rather than that company with the billboard near their exit.
As a freelance electrician, you’ll have the opportunity to work when you want, how you want, and where you want. This is indeed the beauty of any freelance profession, but as a freelance electrician, you’re unique in that everyone will need you at some point. From small cottage wiring systems to office buildings, you’ll be given the variety you need to keep your job feeling fresh every day. There’s never been a better time to get started as a freelance electrician with all of the tools at your disposal to be self-sufficient. What are you waiting for?
