Is a career in the trades right for me?
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Starting out as a tradesperson can be a big leap. But have you considered exactly what it means to become a tradesperson? Veteran Carl Goulding shares his thoughts...
Working as a tradesperson is so much more than a career, it’s a lifestyle, and it’s important that you know what you’ll be getting into.
Ultimately, there are two paths you could end going down - employment or self employment. Although they have things in common, they’re different enough that it’s worth exploring both avenues.
Being employed
Employment is simple to talk through. You would essentially be working a very physically demanding 9-5 job. You will likely be provided with everything you need to do your job, will have the usual employment benefits, and will be limited to the flexibilities afforded by regular employment.
You may or may not have a choice about where you work, as building sites tend to shift around. This work might be on larger construction projects such as housing estates or commercial projects, or you might go in for the long haul with a smaller firm, doing domestic work.
It will be tough work and is not for the faint-hearted. If you simply love the idea of doing a good day’s work for a good day’s pay, don’t mind the physical demands, and want a level of security, then this may be for you. Someone else bears all the stresses - you just get on with things.
是自己创业
Working for yourself takes more consideration.
You’ll notice I said ‘lifestyle’ earlier, and while this may be a little exaggerated, it speaks of the reality that the trades are not something you just dip in and out of, especially if you want to go about building a stable business.
Working as a self-employed subcontractor
You could just register as self-employed and subcontract for someone else.
This can be seen as a stepping stone to running your own fully-fledged business. There are many differences to being employed but you still don’t have to deal with everything that comes from running your own business.
You’ll usually have to provide all your own tools and transport, and sort things like your insurance.
There’s no holiday pay or sick benefits, and you have tofile your own tax returnsas ultimately you’re working for yourself. It doesn’t have the security of being fully employed - but it does have it’s own benefits.
First off, there’s flexibility. You still get to choose which jobs you want to do, without having to drum up the jobs yourself. You’ll also probably earn more money. On top of that, day to day admin is minimal, and stress can be relatively low, as the ultimate responsibility for projects falls on your contractor.
Being your own boss
然而，如果你真的想独自创业，建立自己的企业，你就需要投入并成为“建设游戏”的一部分。你需要建立自己，建立声誉，收集工具，最终自给自足。这一切都需要时间，但一旦你做到了，就会得到难以置信的回报。
Of course, this path still requires the physically demanding work that the employed route takes, however you are far more in control of the work you choose to take on.
它可能会完全在人们的家里工作，你将每天开车上下班，处理个人项目。你将与你的客户建立个人关系，随着你的进步，你希望有更多的客户。Your ‘office’ changes every day (or week) and you’ll learn to embrace the constant variety,
You’ll pay far more attention to the weather, regardless of the trade you do, but especially if you work outdoors. You’ll love the summer months and will be the envy of all your office-dwelling friends as they spend their days trapped indoors. On the flipside, you can’t be shy of a little rain, mud, dust, dirt, noise, cuts, bruises, and hard work, but you’ll always remember that you are doing it for yourself and not your ‘boss’ which is always the best part.
You’ll learn quickly that the more you put in, the more you’ll get back. The trade off is that you’ll be spending a lot of your evenings and weekends visiting potential customers, pricing jobs,delivering quotes, and you won’t win them all. This will frustrate you and sometimes may concern you, but you’ll learn to adapt.
你会学会欣赏工作缓慢时的休息时间，并在工作顺利时充分利用时间。你会失去“假期”或“病假”的概念，这是福也是祸，这取决于具体情况。
You’ll get overly excited about thenew toolsyou’ve bought and the fact you didn’t need an ‘excuse’ to buy them, but you’ll start to worry about where you’ll safely store them all, and fret about how tidy or messy your van is.
You’ll learn to loveyour van. It will become the constant in your ever changing life and it will accompany you on every job.
You will ultimatelycarve out a placein the building industry for yourself, just the way you like it and you will be proud of everything you do (assuming you don’t turn into a cowboy). You will have good days and really tough days but you will always remember this was a choice of yours, and you (mostly) control your own destiny.
You’ll learn that being your own boss, supposedly the ultimate freedom, in actual fact isn't quite as freeing as you once thought. You are responsible for everything, and to have any order of success you need to consistently and constantly tend to your business tosee it flourish. But you’ll see that it’s still worth it.
It takes commitment and time to become established in the trades, so you have to be sure you want to do it. When you are sure, go for it with everything you’ve got. I’m not going to pretend it’s easy - but nothing worth doing ever is.
