Dear Lee, I'm loving your channel & wanted to say hello, and am slowly going through your videos as they have popped up. I also run a small business, however not a bricklayer but all content I've see so far is relevant to me. Like yourself I have became a businessman who is also on the tools and understanding the business concept of profit, margins and schedules is key. The way you explained it here to everyone is spot on. I have now subscribed & wish you all the best.
I watch a lot of bricklayer videos and I have to say your right up there with the best of them in terms of being honest and giving people an insight into overheads and also pricing which I saw on one of your other videos it’s really been an eye opener keep up the good work and long may your business flourish.👍👍
Just found your channel ,really good stuff👍 I have run a building company for over 30 years and I absolutely agree with you ,re overheads , I also build in some lost time costs but try and run some interior work alongside my other works It’s very refreshing to see how open you are , I have always said the apprenticeship programme in college should teach finance as an important part of the curriculum.
great break down on your overheads , i recently left down the trowel after 23 years at it in Ireland, to go at telecom cations , work is alot easier but i miss the grind lol , only think positive in my new game is you can work when its pissing rain . keep the good work up 👍👍👍👍
Well done to you to point this all out, Government and accountants should give each person registering a company or becoming self employed an upload or booklet to explain to them what it involves. I spent my first 10 years as self employed with little more to show for it than exhaustion. Add cost of to my personal relationships it wasn't really worth the effort apart from it got me to the next thing. Tradesman to businessman..
I am 58 years old and was on the tools in the great recession of the 1980's. I left the trade and pursued another career, from which I retired 3 years ago. I am now back on the tools part time, and loving it. It is so refreshing, to hear a young man talking sense about the brass tacks of business is remarkably refreshing. No, 'bangin' 'em out', relayed in a mokney accent; or ludicrous claims of 1000's of bricks laid. No sponsorship of energy foods or gimmicky tools. This is pure gold. I wish that I had been in receipt of this knowledge, back in the day. I wish you every success.
This means a huge amount thank you so much. I guess we are trying to create the channel we needed when we first started. I agree with the 1000 bricks a day videos. I’ve actually shot a video addressing this culture. It’s utter rubbish. Really appreciate your comment 🙏🏻❤️
I'm always trying to get the message across to subbies regarding how to price your time. Be careful how you calculate.🤔 52 weeks X 5 days a week 260 Less 21 days holiday and 9 bank holidays leave 230 working days.
Spot on tbf. All I would add is mistakes. We are human not robots and it happens simple as that. Also preliminaries are needed in pricing due to some of your outgoings
I think it was one of the famous Murphy company who said many year sago, "if I don't make £2500 , every minute, every day, 365 days a year I'd be broke". I have a relative who has his own waste company, started on his own with a cage truck, now rents a yard to sort wood,metal, plastic, etc, has a few employees, rents out skips, collects waste in vans, and while it's growing, he's putting everything back into it without drawing much of a wage himself but if he's still going in the future he'll benefit.
@@Levelupconstructionmedia i want to go private/my own way this year and there’s a lot of things i need to cover before hand. It’s daunting but i’m excited for it
Cracking video I'm only a sole trader but it's nice to see someone putting the effort to explain all of this if I ever decide to go limited happy new year youth
Happy new year mate, I remember the jump from sole trader to director and I was a daunting one as wasn’t sure where I could get the info 🤙🏻👌🏻 cheers for the kind words Daniel 🙏🏻
I've been offered 5 houses but roughly know my prices for the brickwork £700 a 1000 and £20m2 100mm blockwork but dpc insulation don't know and also got to start a firm to do it do you think them price are acceptable
@@colleenmcfarland8298 not sure of rates that way mate but we wouldn’t do a job for 700 a thousand because of reasons I mentioned In the vid, depending what insulation is in it depends on price. Tuesday video on pricing. Maybe use a QS for first job 🤙🏻
Hi Lee - great video again. Just bear in mind that your OH calculations only work when you and Christian make up part of your 3-1 gang. As soon as you guys aren't part of the fee earning gang, you will also become an overhead. You might want to make an allowance in your OH calcs for the days you are not laying bricks - for example when you are in with your accountants, pricing jobs or otherwise non-productive. The cost of that non-productive time needs to be factored in as a OH cost also.
It's the truth that sorts the BS from the rest. You know who the Contractors who have stood the test of time from the here today and gone tomorrow merchants. Keep up the hard work.
Thanks Martin, totally agree. I remember when we set up discussing building a sustainable, reputable company and being in it for the long haul. Not just a gang that makes a quick quid. 🤙🏻🤙🏻 nothing wrong with that but just not what we want to be 🧱
And sometimes it's great not having far to fall or worry at night . If it's a toxic environment pick your kit up call them what they are and go ...I couldn't pander to a site agent or a customer my body would auto vomit .
Brickies on site generally always moan about subbies getting paid way more than they pay out. Personally, i was one of those until some years ago i became a subby myself, on a small scale. The realisation very quickly set in that i had to price 20-25% above what i was paying, minimum. Most companies will stop a 5% retention ( to a limit, 30k in my case) thats 5% you don't see for a long time. At the time i think i was paying £350/th on timber frame. I was getting £450/th. £100 would seem a lot but the reality was it was hardly enough. I supplied mixers/diesel/ tubs out of that. Jet wash afterwards. I should have been nearer £500/th. In essence my margin needed to be nearer 50%. £22.50 of every thou laid went straight to retention. It no longer bothers me what a subby charges over what i would get paid. Also, i can pretty much guarantee that any daywork the subby has to pay his price brickies, the subby is getting nothing out of it, if its not actually costing them because main contractors either wont pay it or pay way less per hour than the bricky gets. Another factor for that margin. Great vid, wish you all the best and success going forward mate.
Hi Martyn yeah some of it docked back. We can claim for stuff like fuel, vans, phones ands so on. That’s a great question and very relevant, forgot to mention that In video. Cheers dude
That’s really surprising because I always thought my overheads were about £70 a day, but looking at how short and cheap your list is I’m going to have to go through this and scare myself 😂
😂 I was surprised myself. We cut back a lot of stuff a while ago. A fair bit of ours is for content creation but that’s a big part of plan moving forward 👌🏻🧱🤙🏻
I think your accountant is rinsing you .! As a limited company I only pay £1800 annually 🤔🤔 perhaps your set up is different to mine😊your insurance seems cheap though, do you cover your subbies or do they have their own.? Bloody good profit margin.!
