Running a heating and plumbing business can be time consuming and, for some, a cause of stress. PHPI recently caught up with Heating Engineer Eddie Yates to discover why he recently moved from running his own business to working for British Gas.
Being your own boss and running your own business is the dream of many installers, and small businesses are a major part of the heating and plumbing market. However, the pressures of running a successful heating and plumbing business can be significant. Finding work, being on-call at all hours of the day, chasing payments from customers and sorting out issues with the van are just some of the challenges faced by heating engineers that are also running a business.
After an apprenticeship and working for a plumbing company for a few years Eddie Yates, a 36-year-old Heating Engineer from Manchester, set up his own business in 2012 doing house renovations, bathrooms, UFH, landlord certificates, “a bit of everything really,” he explained.
Following the COVID pandemic – when he shut the business for a year – Eddie worked to re-establish it, spending a lot of time contacting his old customer base and building up his work again. Things were on the up, with Eddie employing a couple of additional people, but, he explained, running the business had become too stressful.
Eddie told us: “Tax costs were getting more expensive, chasing money, chasing payments at the end, people not paying, rising costs of insurances, van insurance, van running costs and people weren’t paying the money for the job that you needed to keep your business running. Fighting for work, basically. It was a constant battle.”
He continued: “I did a lot for builders. They were often unreliable. They’d book you in, but then the jobs weren’t ready and then you lose a day’s pay.”
Van costs
As part of his work Eddie had contracts with two companies which meant he was travelling across the North-west. He noted: “I was covering a massive area… a lot of driving.”
He explained that with his high mileage, his van needed servicing more often and, together with fuel, his vehicle costs were rising. Then his van broke down. “I’d done 90,000 miles at this point and the cam belt was getting loose and then the brakes went on the motorway. That was when I lost a week’s work, because I couldn’t get there. I ended up hiring a van and that cost me more money just to get to work, so my work didn’t fall behind. Then there’s the cost of having it fixed.”
Eddie explained that his love of the job itself hadn’t diminished. He told us: “I love plumbing and heating. It’s my job. I enjoy having a problem and coming up with a solution to fix it.” However, the negative aspects of running a business were taking its toll.
“It’s just the aspects of running a company. They don’t teach these things in school, they don’t teach you the business side or the tax side in the in your apprenticeship and you you’ve got to pick it up yourself.”
Over time, Eddie concluded that moving somewhere else might be preferable. “My wife and I had a conversation, and she was saying I was coming home more and more stressed, and I wasn’t having as much family time as we wanted to have. For example, when we went on holiday my phone was constantly ringing. It would ring up until about 9:00 o’clock at night, and then it started ringing again from 7:00 o’clock in the morning, every day. My wife told me: ‘You are here physically, but you’re not here mentally.’”
Making the transition
Eddie switched to working for British Gas in November 2023 after his wife spotted an advert for a Heating Engineer at the company.
Following the interview process and a 10-day induction course at the company’s academy in Leicester, Eddie worked with a ‘buddy’ Heating Engineer for two months to get into the company’s way of doing things. He has been working on his own since early February 2024, during which time he has been field assessed. Eddie stressed: “He is not assessing you on your boiler knowledge and skills, he is assessing you on the safety side of the British Gas way of doing things.”
Since his move, Eddie has been working mainly on breakdowns and servicing with some heating upgrades.
And what was his initial reaction to the move? “It was a relief that I didn’t have all the stress. A massive relief.” Eddie explained that he no longer has to find work for himself, or price jobs, and he gets paid at the end of each month.
Ongoing support
One aspect which Eddie notes is the support available from colleagues within British Gas. “If you feel like you need help, there is help there. If you feel it is more than a one-man job, there is support there. If you are unsure about a boiler or a regulation you go on the chat and someone is there to help you. There is a massive network of help.”
Eddie is keen on taking more training and has recently attended a refresher course on electrics at the company’s academy in Leicester. He is also looking at taking an LPG course in the future and would like to further his qualifications.
So, looking back on his move from being self-employed to working for British Gas, how does he feel? “I think I’m doing alright at the minute,” Eddie says. “I was a different person last year. Even my mates have commented on it. I’ve got more time for people now.”
