NOVEMBER 2017 | 29
News
Read online at www.proinstaller.co.uk
THOUSANDS ATTEND
SCREWFIX LIVE 2017
Now in its fifth year, Screwfix LIVE welcomed more visitors
than ever before to the annual exhibition. The event, which
took place between 29 September and 1 October at the
Farnborough International Exhibition and Conference Centre,
broke records in terms of both visitor numbers and exhibitors.
Over 170 top brands show-
Being on the job and know-
ing that you are losing money is
really hard to take. Customers can
be sympathetic. But most won’t
be happy if you try to change
the price when the job hasn’t
changed.
You may think that all custom-
ers care about is price, but for
most of them this isn’t true. Look
at their car, have they bought the
cheapest possible car that they
could? For most people, that’s a
no.
That’s why you need to charge
the right price for the job. You
need to properly estimate and you
need to set your customers’ ex-
pectations of the sort of ball park
price they will pay, before you
even give them their quote. Un-
der-estimating causes huge stress
and is also one of the most com-
mon causes of business failure.
Of course, it’s a challenge to
get your estimating right but like
most things you can improve with
practice. The way to do this is to
review each job after its finished
and then compare your estimate
to the actual cost, including time,
materials, everything. Rules of
thumb can help a lot for the
future, so you should take your
experience of a job and look at
what it cost. Create a simple rule
of thumb that would have given
you the correct answer. Then use
that on similar jobs in the future.
Don’t forget that richer custom-
ers in the biggest houses proba-
bly want everything done to the
highest standard. That will cost a
lot more than a simple, quick and
cheap job. Take everything major
into account.
Remember to always include a
clause in your quote that covers
unexpected things that come to
light after the job has started. It’s
not reasonable for you to take
the risk for such problems. One
tradesman, John McLouglin, ad-
vises: “On my quotes I always say
‘subject to no significant discov-
eries that could not have been
reasonably anticipated’.
Get your stress down
Running your own business can
be immensely rewarding, both
financially and from a job satisfac-
tion point of view. The problem
is, it can come with a lot of stress
too. We can all fancy a life without
stress, but choosing to run your
own business pretty much guaran-
tees that can’t happen. However,
that doesn’t mean that some of the
causes of stress can’t be addressed
and I hope that some of the ideas
in this article will be a help.
About the author
Benjamin Dyer is CEO and
co-founder of Powered Now.
Powered Now’s mobile app aims
to take the pain out of paperwork
for installers and other trade and
mobile businesses.
www.powerednow.com
cased their latest products to
tradespeople, serious DIYers and
their families during the three-
day exhibition. With live product
demonstrations, competitions,
show deals and giveaways, fun
and innovation was the order of
the weekend. Football legend,
Soccer AM Host and former dec-
orator Jimmy Bullard even made
a personal appearance and met
some of the fans in attendance on
Friday and Saturday.
With 53 first-time exhibitors, a
huge range of new products was
showcased from power tools,
painting and decorating supplies
and work wear, to electrical and
plumbing essentials – something
for any job at hand.
Graham Bell, CEO of Screwfix
comments: “We’ve had fantastic
success with Screwfix LIVE for the
past four years now and I’m de-
lighted that we’ve had yet another
record-breaking year in Farnbor-
ough.
“Screwfix LIVE is about bringing
together customers, suppliers and
Screwfix staff. If we’ve learned an-
ything in the last five years it’s that
this setting is invaluable to the trade
and serious DIYers and the biggest
event of its kind in the UK.”
BREXIT THREAT TO
SUSTAINABLE TIMBER
Responsible timber sourcing
is at risk of being ‘quietly forgot-
ten’ during the Brexit process,
according to the Timber Trade
Federation (TTF).
The TTF presented its latest
projects and publications at Timber
Expo 2017 at the NEC Birmingham.
During the three-day event, TTF
had a joint stand with the British
Woodworking Federation (BWF)
and the Structural Timber Associa-
tion (STA) – all under the umbrella
Confederation of Timber Indus-
tries (CTI).
At the event, TTF also offi-
cially launched its ‘Timber You
Can Trust’ campaign aiming to
promote the use of responsibly
sourced timber in the UK. Visi-
tors were urged to sign the TTF
o