Going self employed as an electrician

[Olza23]

Hi all

I'm thinking of starting my own business in 2015 as an electrician. I have qualifications in the electrical industry and have experience on my tools but have no continuous experience in house wiring, however can do it.

My question is how do I start? Where do I start? IF it's feasible... I'll do evening and weekends at first to see how I get on then quit my current job.

what accreditation a will I need etc?

Many thanks I'm sure there are lots of questions I've missed. Any help will be most appreciated

[Eric Mc]

Have you any friends who are self employed electricians?

Do you know any other self employed tradesmen you could chat to?

[Olza23]

I have and have spoken to him, more about the work of I am honest though. I wanted to know the legal and paperwork side of it first. He mentioned you need 17th edition, niceic etc.

I want to know the formalities etc at this point.

Thanks buddy.

[Eric Mc]

I wouldn't be qualified to talk about the technical qualifications. I do know that at one point domestic electricians had to hold a Part P Certificate. I don't know if that is still the case.

[Olza23]

From what I can through my research I've done so far, it seems I will need:

17th edition (£450+vat course)
NICEIC accreditation (£410+vat) - however there seems to be a requirement for an external auditor to check my work?
Part P training course (£800+vat 5 day course)

Say I complete all these, Is that all I require? Are they all necessary?

[Mr Pointy]

It might be worthwhile asking over on the DIYnot forums as they have a section for electricians, although they can be prickly at times.

http://www.diynot.com/forums/

[ch427]

Olza23 said:

From what I can through my research I've done so far, it seems I will need:

17th edition (£450+vat course)
NICEIC accreditation (£410+vat) - however there seems to be a requirement for an external auditor to check my work?
Part P training course (£800+vat 5 day course)

Say I complete all these, Is that all I require? Are they all necessary?

That sounds about right but budget foe decent test equiment too as you will need to test and sign off your work. I did a similar thing 4 years ago but lack of work and a job offer forced me to call time on it before i started!. I was advised to go with someone like napit rather than niceic.
Back then you needed to undergo an on site assessment before you could start anything.

[mrsimmers]

What happened to the 3 year apprenticeship, when i did mine you had to do C&G 2360 part 1 & 2, followed by AM1 & 2.

I was then issued a JIB card.

Also did 16th & 17th edition plus C&G 2391 inspection and testing. This was required to gain qualified supervisor status within the NICEIC.

Seems nowadays you do a quick part P course and thats it.

Underpining knowledge was what we was told.

Rant over.

Edited by mrsimmers on Tuesday 30th December 20:45

[Olza23]

Totally agree, however I've done my 4 year apprenticeship in the electrical industry just not household wiring and want to know how to transfer my knowledge and skills.

Today it seems more about what paperwork you have then what you know.

[DrDeAtH]

Another '5 day wonder' ... Just what the industry needs.

Got to college OP and get the City and Guilds qualifications. Forget doing a 5 day course. You will not learn enough.
Also you will need to do the inspection & testing course.
Factor in a good condition used Megger or Fluke tester unless buying new..
Tools
Public liability insurance
Professional indemnity insurance
Waste carriers licence

[Jamster123]

I only ever became self employed as I had enough "homers" to get going, while working with another company.

Don't expect to get qualifications and suddenly be running your own electrical company.

You need site experience and you need to have work available.

Only after 10 years experience and around 2-3 years gaining contacts and creating a reputation did I feel comfortable enough going it alone.


Never looked back though.

Edited by Jamster123 on Tuesday 30th December 23:32

Edited by Jamster123 on Tuesday 30th December 23:34

Edited by Jamster123 on Tuesday 30th December 23:35

[Olza23]

DrDeAtH said:

Another '5 day wonder' ... Just what the industry needs.

Got to college OP and get the City and Guilds qualifications. Forget doing a 5 day course. You will not learn enough.
Also you will need to do the inspection & testing course.
Factor in a good condition used Megger or Fluke tester unless buying new..
Tools
Public liability insurance
Professional indemnity insurance
Waste carriers licence

Your right I give up.

[R1 Indy]

I did just this this year, well the end of 2013 actually

I also didn't have much experience working in the trade, but knew what I'm doing.

I started off doing smaller works, before I joined the NICEIC.

Requirements for the NICEIC is very easy, as long as you have similar to C&G 2330 L3 and the 17th edition you will be fine.

I used rated people to get the original work, in fact over the year I spent around £8K with them which generated just over £50K of work for me (turnover) and a sizable client list. Towards the end of the year I was getting plenty of return customers and reccomendations. So money well spent in my mind.

In my mind, you don't need to be cheapest, you just need to be reliable and do a cracking job.

But keep your eyes open at all times, there are people who will try anything to get out of paying!

[ch427]

Getting the work is the biggest stumbling block but if you feel confident then go for it!

[hairyben]

part P is about local building control authorisation to carry out electrical work; to comply you need to either self-certify (via schemes like NICEIC or others) or have notifiable works independently tested and verified (more for DIY'ers and 2 bit builders etc). who is offering a "part P" course? what does it entail?

If you contact a scheme provider such as NICEIC or one of the others they'll inform you what qualifications or courses you may require to enroll.

Like others have said house bashin' is a skillset in itself that if you've not experienced, even if you're electrically competent/qualified, you'll need some experience of before diving in and expect to make profit and not look a bit silly.