Staying Safe As A Tradesperson: What You Need To Know
If you’re an electrician, plumber, or builder who contracts your services to other companies, you’ll need to work hard to ensure you always have the right protections in place. There are lots of risks and threats that could prevent you from earning money and place stumbling blocks in your path. Considering that, you need some expert advice to ensure you don’t fall victim of schoolboy errors and problems that stop tradespeople from completing jobs for clients and earning their livings. This article mentions some of the most common issues and then highlights the best solutions.
Protecting yourself with insurance
Before you do anything else, it’s vital that you check to ensure you have all the right insurance policies in place. You never know when something will go wrong and you might become injured. Likewise, there is a decent chance you will cause damage to someone’s property at some point in the future. So, at the very least, you must check your current deal to ensure it includes:
- Public liability
- Tools and equipment
- Contract works
- Capital benefits
- Employer’s liability (if you hire other workers)
If your policy doesn’t cover those insurance types, you’ll need to negotiate a better deal or switch providers as soon as possible.
Protecting yourself with health and safety
There is no getting away from the fact that health and safety has become a hot topic in most industries. However, it’s an especially important concept for tradespeople and other contractors. Be sure you always follow laws and regulations when performing your duties, and you wear the right protective equipment. Also, refuse any jobs that place you at risk of injury, and explain the health and safety rules that mean you shouldn’t undertake the work. If you need to increase your education, there are many health and safety courses available to people in your position. Take one of them!
Protecting your finances
As a tradesperson, you won’t have lots of time during your day to deal with accounting. The issue is that money could become an issue if you don’t focus on your books. With that in mind, do yourself a favour and outsource the job to professionals. That way, you don’t have to worry about your tax return, and you’re free to focus on your duties. Just try to identify the best accountant for contractors in your local area by asking other tradespeople for recommendations. That is the best way to sort the wheat from the chaff and ensure you don’t end up dealing with cowboys who just want to take your profits.
If you put the advice from this page to good use, you should manage to live a simple existence as a tradesperson in the UK. Of course, each week will bring new problems that you have to solve. However, that process is much more comfortable if you already have the basics under control. Now all you need to worry about is finding the clients who will provide you will work. Digital marketing is often the best idea in that instance because it’s much cheaper than advertising in the real world. Onwards and upwards!
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