Setting up and Electrical company yay or nay??

kevh1987

So I am at abit of a crossroads and not sure which way to turn....

I am a fully qualified electrician and have been working in the electrical industry for the past 11 years. I took a break for abit and wentertainment back to college to do an energy engineering degree.

Currently back working for a company with acompany van and we are very busy. I would love to set up my own electrical company and also combine my energy knowledge from college.

Has anyone set up a company on recent times? Is it worth it when theres a steady wage coming in every week? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Anongeneric

If you have enough 'nixers' on the go at the moment than it could be worth considering it.

However if you are just doing a day's work and locking up the van at night, then try angling for some 'nixers among friends family etc.

If you do set up you will be working every hour that god sends so it might be an idea to check out how you fare under those circumstances.
If you find doing too many hours is not for you then, you gave it a go and you can walk away without having over invested, financially, physically or emotionally, (it's a serious pisser when you have to close a business you given a lot of yourself to), and still have your job to continue with.
If you're enjoying it and find the financial rewards are good trade off for free time than look at increasing your 'nixers'
and turning it into a full-time business.

Construction does seem to be on the up so from a 'is it the right time' point of view, it's probably as good a time as there has been for almost a decade.

Calahonda52

There are two separate questions in the post:
1: stay as employee or work for self
if work for self: sole trader or self employed
Thats a whole topic in itself which is outside scope, I think

2: work for self using energy degree or stay as sparks.
If its a Level 8 degree and you are qualified to work on LV and MV, then you could build a career as an energy engineer with the elec background: for bigger companies, they wont let you near their kit, smaller SME's tend not to have an onsite sparks so the problem I have is that I have to pay someone to install CT's on meters, or elec motors etc.

If you want to go down the energy management road consider doing the CEM before u jump ship from current employer.
http://www.aeecenter.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3351

Lots of stuff on Energy Mngt on the SEAI website
http://www.seai.ie/Your_Business/Large_Energy_Users/LIEN/LIEN_Events/Justifying_the_financial_case_for_M_and_T.pdf
http://www.seai.ie/Your_Business/Large_Energy_Users/LIEN/LIEN_Events/Energy_Awareness_and_Management_Systems.pdf
Also have a look at iso 50001
The 4 yearly SI 284 audits, again on SEAI website

HTH