Whirlpool contract work

been out of vat for a while now and don’t want to go back

current registration limit is £85000 which equates to £1634 per week. so they either must expect you to turn over more than that or there is a tax advantage to them
not ever worked for any contract supplier so have little knowledge but there are lots of members on here who do and who know the best ones to contact as alternatives

from my experience the customer only wants to know the bottom line and does not care about the vat. If you do any private work then you will either have to put your prices up to cover the vat or lose money by absorbing it. if you currently do a repair for £50 then after vat you either charge them £60 or still charge £50 and have to pay the vat £8.30 out of it

Dave

I would never pay someone to give me work which is essentially what you are doing by buying £3k of stock. Plus once you have “invested” you have to keep working for them to try and recoup your initial outlay and in the end you will be left with £3k of stock which will be worth next to nothing. I escaped from whirlpool a very long time ago and have not looked back. Also escaped VAT which was the best move I ever made.

Steve

Let me kick off with…

They need you more than you need them. If a company like that needs to contract out work, they need you to fill a gap. Keep this in mind.

Taking on work and doing it for or next to nothing will not make your life any easier or better, just more stressed.

One of my favourite counterpoint when providers used to come up with the “We’ll give you volume” or however they phrase it was, “Yeah but if I lose money on each then surely more volume is just losing more and more money”.

Generally, none had an answer to that, waffled a lot but no actual answer.

I fall back to one of the Australian guy’s things (paraphrasing), if you can make as much sat on the beach looking at the sea as doing this, why do it?

Next up, what’s the contract term? What’s the termination? Who can terminate, why? What is the guaranteed level of volume, is there one? What’s the payment terms? What’s the recall deal? What’s the term on spares purchases? What’s the returns deal, procedure? What sort of work is it and this is vital to setting a rate?

I can give you the questions to pose but it’s not pretty and neither party is likely to be comfortable with them but they are the questions if you don’t want to get screwed, that you should be asking.

There are good contracts to get. There are bad ones. There are in-between ones. Then there are those that are in effect little more than using you as slave labour.

Trick is, figuring out what one it is. Then pricing accordingly, not just accepting what is offered.

K.

Hey Darren Just walk away from it… The men in suits make it sound that they be all for working with you This just reminds me of Candy in the seventies Trust me been there done got the teeshirt as Ken says They need you rather tthan you need them……

Promote yourself online. Use lots of free advertising online e.g. Freeindex and target the private customer ( plenty of them ).
When you discribe your business online make sure you mention items like Fridge, washing machine etc three times in your description list lots of manufacturers names you repair and areas you cover all this helps search engines find you online.
Aim for customers searching your areas covered e.g. Washing machine repairs Bolton .
Every few. Days update or view your own presence online this keeps you relevant online.
Before I retired if someone searched the areas I covered I always was first or second on the search list for the areas I covered.
You will find you do half the work of contract work for the same reward.
The more good reviews you get also lifts your profile.
Before I retired on Freeindex it had me listed as the number one repairer in the country for fridge repairs due to the reviews and all reviews are checked to be genuine by Freeindex.
The only downside is when you retire it takes a long time to disappear online with the searches .
Best of luck
Bob

I made some enquires last year to do some contract work for them on their refrigeration products. They were offering £30 a call and did not want to pay any frg sundries either. I walked away as it wasn’t worth it for me.
Bare in mind you will be working on multi brands as they own Hotpoint/Indesit and also, do some work for Domestic and General. Majority of their products are likely to be integrated too.

Yeah, Lawrence and I were yapping the other day about doing a thing (again!) about contract rates and so on as some people probably haven’t heard us explain that, how to figure it out etc.

K.