As an electrician, you can earn an excellent wage if you apply yourself and provide your customers with an excellent service. One of the best ways to increase your wage is to set up your own business, since you'll be able to control your hours, your rate, and the projects you work on. Let's have a closer look at how you can increase your electrician salary by upgrading your knowledge and your firm's tools.
1. Set Up Your Own Business
One of the best ways of supercharging your income is to set up your own electrician business. When you're working for someone else, you have a set hourly rate, and part of the customer's money gets passed on to your boss. However, once you work for yourself, you can keep 100% of your profit, and you won't have to share it with anyone.
Over time, you can expand your company and hire additional electricians, especially if you build up a solid reputation in your community. This allows you to earn even more and to decouple your income from the hours you work.
2. Take a Business Class
Serving customers well is one of the cornerstones of running a successful electrician business, but it isn't always easy. Almost everyone who would like their company to succeed could benefit from taking a business class, either through their local community college or through an independent institution. Such a course can teach you the basics about running a company.
You might learn more about how to organize your work, what tools you should be using, and which experts you need to hire. For instance, while some electricians do their own taxes, many benefit from the help of an accountant. Your business class will also teach you how to conduct yourself professionally and what marketing strategies you can use to get the word out about your business.
3. Keep Track of Customers' Information
Although attracting new leads is important, electricians make most of their money from returning customers who were pleased with the work. For this reason, keeping track of past customers is key. In the beginning, when your firm is still small, you might remember everything about each person you work with, but this soon becomes impossible as the business grows.
Once you have more than ten customers, you should consider purchasing a software like ServiceBox, which can help you keep track of your customers' details. Our program can safely store information and keep a record of each customer's service history. That way, you can easily find the information whenever you need it, and you won't make any mistakes while serving your returning customers.
4. Offer Subscription Services
When they first set up their business, many electricians offer one-off services such as setting up or repairing an electrical system. But subscriptions and ongoing maintenance contracts are some of the most lucrative business opportunities. If you're not yet offering them, you should consider setting up a system.
Subscription services are offered at a slightly cheaper rate, but you are guaranteed the income because your customers sign up with you for a year or more at a time. This can not only increase your total income, but also stabilize it. When you know how much will be coming in each month, you can plan and budget much more easily.
5. Keep Your Skills Up to Date
Electrical systems and appliances change every year, which is why it's important that electricians remain up to date. If you don't, you might not be able to provide your customers with the best service possible, in which case they're likely to choose someone else for their future maintenance needs. To find the best courses in your area, you should contact your local organizations or other, more advanced electricians.
You can also find many good training courses online through organizations such as the National Electrical Contractors Association or the Independent Electrical Contractors. Belonging to such professional bodies that regulate your industry can be a great way of showing potential customers that you are serious about your career.
6. Always Keep Track of Your Numbers
Just because you're an expert electrician doesn't mean you're also skilled at keeping track of the business side of your company. Many excellent electricians aren't capable of running a successful firm because they don't understand how to optimize their company's resources and keep a record of their earnings and expenses.
Before you set out on your own, make sure you understand how to run a successful firm. If you're not a business expert, you could benefit from hiring a specialist, such as an accountant or a consultant, who can show you how to do your taxes and keep your expenses low. That way, you can maximize the business revenue and avoid wasting money.
7. Hire Others to Work for You
Finally, you can significantly increase your income when you hire other people to work for your business. Once they are fully trained, your employees will serve your customers on their own, so you can earn money even when you're not on the job. This is a great way for more seasoned and experienced electricians to pass on their knowledge and supercharge their income during the second half of their career.
However, it's not easy to build up a business that is large enough to support multiple employees. To do so, you'll have to follow all the steps above and implement various online and in-person marketing strategies. You'll also have to take care to remain organized, since coordinating your services will become harder the more people are involved. At this stage of the business, purchasing home service software is crucial.
Electricians are in high demand, and they can therefore earn a lot of money in many areas of the US. Some of the best strategies for increasing your electrician salary are setting up your own business, taking classes to keep your knowledge up to date, and providing customers with the best service possible. Call or message us at ServiceBox to find out how we can help you improve your bottom line and take your company further.
