Are we in need of another recession?

Technically it is. Been ringing around for products that will go on my 4wd. Lol ;))

Agreed.

Im a tradie, like to think im one of the better ones :) Spot on what you say though.

Its not quite that simple.
For example...you ring a tiler...
Say he works on his own he will be out of control....quoting...GST...trying to get money out of people....ordering tiles/stock so they turn up at the right time and then tiling.
He doesn`t want to say no to your job in case joe blogs pulls out of getting his job done. He doesn`t want to miss a days work cause he is making stuff all out of poky bathrooms.
But somehow in the confusion of it all(or a job runs overtime where he has to work night and day) forgets to quote your job, the slack bugger!

So when it gets to much he goes and works for a company.
The company has 10 times as much work going with staff that bluge and just don`t turn up when ever they feel like it. They can`t sack them cause of the lack of tradesmen out there.

Its just the way it goes and will only get worse. I don`t even quote bathrooms, builders give them to me do and charge and I won`t do them at all for the public.

We have a Medium size Plumbing Business, we contract to a
National Wide Government Agency, we have Two Sub Contractors,
working for us, 85percent of the time, we have had constant work
for many years, forget the boom at the moment, we get several calls
every day from people wanting jobs done, if we cant do it, we will
organise some body who can, if they let them down, they dont get
any more work from us, its the only way to keep a good name in
business.

Cheers
Daza

Hi Daza, you sound like the sort of bloke I would like to be dealing with and obviously keep your customers happy. If a tradesman comes to my house to give a quote I either accept it or I dont. I dont try and talk him down. Yes I will get different quotes depending on the job but will never try and talk him down on his price. I know that not the cheapest price is the best thats for sure. We had a gas pipe run from the meter outside to our lounge room and had it not been for the sparky putting in the aircon (he also had to go into the wall cavity) there was not one saddle(spelling) holding the gas pipe to anything just floating in the breeze. Was done by AGL but probably not by there own staff. Probably a contractor. I have worked with customers alot over my years of working and yes alot of them can be a total pain in the ar@e. My wife also works in customer relations everyday of the week and said that 95% of customers are great. I have never ran my own business but have many family members who do and can be very stressful at times. I also agree with Stu-k but in the end a quick phone call to say sorry mate can I ring you back tomorrow or I dont have time at the moment is all that is needed. Chances are because he has at least had the decency to ring back I will wait till he is available unless of course its urgent then you have to pay the price. In general I think most tradies are reliable and except the gas pipe have never had to get any one back to fix any stuff ups which has been great. Been here ten years and been a new house at the time I've had a lot of tradesman doing things, driveways,slabs,sparkys,plumbers,builders, brickies etc. Just that phone call LOL. Regards Steve M

that bloke will always have a job. In the good times and the bad. Hard to find

Hairy

Don,t you work for the government?

No....

Sorry i thought you where a teacher.

in total agreement. reserch research research then dig in and have a go ya self. weather it's home improvments or workin on the forbie, it's amazing the satisfaction you get from seeing something your own hands created (or fixed).
the old saying you get what you paid for dosen't mean jack these days!

Agreed...........a wake up call is needed. Money management is becoming a lost art and I'm not referring to juggling credit card accounts. Cold hard cash is still the requirement when things go wrong.

The main problem with a wake up call occurring, is that the " average " australian who is not receiving the statistical " average " wage is always the one that suffers.

Unfortunately the treasurers always try to blame the reserve bank as the RB has to do the dirty work in reaction to policies of treasurers.
You can liken it to a car. The treasurer is the driver and reserve bank/economy the vehicle.
If the treasurer steers it into a s++thole you cant blame the RB, their policies reflect what they are given to work with.

Purposely slow release of land and shortage of tradies has been no small part of the problem either by the way.

" thank you mr hooker "

lolol