Broaden your expertise.

Today's post will be about your own personal expertise and how we shy away from jobs that don't fall under that umbrella.

With the spring upon us the public are out in there masses looking for ways to improve and get that garden they've had there eye on, things are a lot simpler in terms of how we do things (please don't take this as comment that your jobs are easy) my point being is that some landscapers won't touch a decking job and want to stick to hard landscaping, some roofing companies will sub contract another "specialist" company to fit a GRP roof.

It's informing you that your hard earned cash from the jobs you do is being thrown away because of misconceptions that it's not something that can be completed by yourself, a couple of times I've come across this with contractors.

A builder came in asking if i knew of anybody who could do GRP roofing and i looked at him and said "yeah....I'm looking at him" he said that he had never done it before and he couldn't do it and that a company he asked to quote for the job said £4000 but he wanted to see if it could be done cheaper by anybody else, I showed him a video from my suppliers that was 9 minutes long on how to install and the materials he would need for the job.

He installed it himself with a labourer within two days and the roof cost £1600, the perfect example of a misconception that could have cost this particular builder £2400 in pure profit, he could have had it all done in a day if it hadn't been for the weather.

Addition, someone uploaded the video onto youtube if your thinking about taking on a GRP roofing job:-

I had a similar situation with a landscaper again asking if i knew anybody who could install a decking area, he was capable of installing a standard deck if the base was straight forward along with the top deck running in the opposite direction but his customer had spotted the Chevron effect on the Internet and wanted the same, the landscaper didn't know where to start, I explained that it really wasn't difficult as long as his measurements were spot on along with his angle's but he would need a chop saw to make things easier, I worked out what he would need and the system which would give him the least amount of wastage, he reluctantly had a go and it ended up being a nice piece of work.

The point of this post is don't shy away from something because you think it's difficult, suppliers are always looking for quicker and easier ways for you to use there products and the quicker and easier it is to use, the more likely you are to buy it.

A word of warning, make sure you do your research first before having a pop yourself there are still things that need a specialist and it could end up you being even more out of pocket if you try and then realise it's still out reach of your capabilities.