Rank: New forum user 
|
Hello, any advice would be helpful, I am considering setting up my own fire safety consultancy business, primarily to carry out fire risk assessments and fire training ie extinguisher usage.
I have relevant experience in this area having worked for the past 6 years for a local authority fire service in fire engineering and an operational firefighter.
I have the nebosh cert and a host of fire service qualifications whilst I'm studying for the nebosh fire safety & risk management.
What level of indemnity insurance would I need ?
Do I need any company training accreditation ?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rank: Forum user
|
Mance23
Sounds like your pretty well equipped. Have you considered any "train the trainer" type courses? These always look good to prospective customers. A good understanding of the relevant British Standards if your installing extinguishers/alarms etc
PI – Can’t help here sorry, but I know Id be looking at a very comprehensive cover.
Best of luck
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rank: Super forum user
|
mance, good luck with your business. Setting up a website will be good for attracting local small businesses who need fire risk assessments, and you can offer to monitor their annual fire drills etc. If you know something about COSHH and hazardous chemicals then you can offer advice on those issues too.
Regarding PI insurance, if you contact the providers they will want to set up a profile on you which describes the type of work you plan to do, how big your customers will be, what your income might be etc and they will then advise you on the appropriate cover. I'm a sole trader H&S consultant and I do FRAs for small customers, my cover is £250k
John
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rank: Forum user
|
Hi Mance23, First of all let me wish you well with your new venture :0) However, before you commit your time (and your money) to the business you need to ask yourself a few questions - and be brutally honest with your answers. 1. What will you offer that will set you apart from other fire consultancies/ fire training companies (and bear in mind that many fire consultancies are run by ex-fire fighters)? In other words, why should the client buy from you and not from Companies X, Y or Z? 2. How will you find clients? A website is a shop window and won't - in itself - attract business. There are many sales and marketing companies out there (some good, some bad). They'll charge for their services (naturally) but they won't give guaranteed results because they'll argue that they don't have full control over the product - if the public don't like what you're offering it's not their fault. 3. Basic fire safety training is a very competitive market, and a lot of companies prefer to buy e-learning courses rather than face-to-face training because it's a lot cheaper. So how will you price your training courses, achieving that tricky balance between generating sales without running at a loss? There's a lot more to consultancy/ training than just knowing your subject. If you'd like to have a more in-depth chat about things then feel free to contact me on info@indaxcon.org. Andy
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rank: Super forum user
|
Remember also that as a self-employed person you will not have the support of an organisation behind you. I have seen many individuals with excellent technical skills fail simply because they had not the experience or training in the other aspects of a business, e.g. administration, finance management, etc. So they have got behind on their admin, and now HMRC VAT inspector is knocking on their door.
I had a neighbour in non-destructive testing who set up on his own. He obtained a large contract from a major manufacturer, which involved him taking on two technicians and providing them with the appropriate equipment, car, etc. Despite appearing to make a large profit he went out of business, simply due to the fact that the client delayed payment and he could not meet the bills an salaries, etc. When, with my wife, we started on our own we had a rule that no more than 15% of our turnover would be with any one client. Thus if they went under or failed to pay this would not take us down also.
Chris
|
|
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum.
You cannot reply to topics in this forum.
You cannot delete your posts in this forum.
You cannot edit your posts in this forum.
You cannot create polls in this forum.
You cannot vote in polls in this forum.