Assembling
furniture can be extremely rewarding. It may sound crass but you get a
great feeling when you see your customers smile and they are pleased
with the work you have done for them. Most customers have been looking
forward to receiving their furniture for a while and will be delighted
once they can actually use it, you are the final piece in them
realising their dream or their needs. You rarely get such instant
positive feedback in work these days.
You get
to meet a wide variety of people from different backgrounds. The sort
of people that pay to have furniture assembled range from
-
young
professionals to the wealthy
-
the
physically challenged (by age, physique or disability) to those that
know you will do it better than they could
-
those
that make a hash of all things DIY to those that simply cannot be
bothered!
You can
earn a reasonable income once you have become established. This
activity can also help people who want to develop a portfolio career
packed with variety. You may have taken early retirement or require
flexible working hours that you have more control over.
By its
very nature this sort of work is demand led and so you will have peaks
and troughs. If you are self employed you have to cope with these peaks
and troughs yourself. So do not quit a job if you rely on the income to
do this full time, as it takes a while to get established. The
important points to note are:
-
The demand for this
service is growing all the time
-
Prices have been fixed to
provide a fair return for the work you do and to cover your overheads.
-
You are unlikely to earn
a living that will support you during your first year, after that it
will vary dependent on where you are and how far you will travel.
- You will need to have or establish alternative
forms of promoting yorself as the Flat Pack Amigos website will not
support you full time.
-
In your second year,
referrals and repeat business will boost your income.
-
This work is seasonal
with September – December being the busiest time of year where over 50%
of the trade is done. How will you support yourself the rest of the
year?
-
80% of business through
this website is in London and the South East.
-
This site gets between
50-150 hits per day and has over 50 regular assemblers
-
Average job is 4-5 hours
- i.e. 85-135
-
London & South East
5-20 jobs per month.
-
Job volume 1-10 per month
elsewhere.
Our standard
rates are 35 for the first hour and 25 for subsequent hours,
but you may vary these.
-
First Hour Premium (10)
-
The Inland Revenue allows you to claim back
the cost of travelling at a rate of 40p per mile. With this in mind the
10 addition on the first hour will fund your round trip of up to 25
miles in total.
-
It should not take you too long to travel this
distance therefore it is not unreasonable to limit the time you will
travel to a job to 30 minutes.
-
Hourly Rate (25)
-
Personality
- We want bright
enthusiastic and confident individuals, who will set a customer at ease
and strike a rapport with them.
-
Ability - Good spatial awareness,
good general physical fitness, manual dexterity with attention to detail
-
Experience - a
combination of the following: Working in people's homes, customer
facing roles, manual labouring experience.
-
Standards -
You are going into
someone's home
-
Good personal hygiene, and
a clean appearance
-
Manners ("Please" and "Thank you" are so
important) and
consideration for others
-
Honesty and integrity
You can
apply Offline:
Post the completed form to us with your registration fee
(150). If your application is rejected the fee will be returned to you.
You can
apply Online:
Registration/Annual Fee: 150 per anum
-
Your application form
will be assessed within seven days.
-
We will contact you for a
telephone interview to assess your communication skills and personality.
-
We will then contact your
references.
Once you have passed the telephone
interview, dependent on the outcome you can have your details added to
our website and start promoting your service.
A trial job may be arranged with one of us to observe your
interaction with customers and your assembly skills.
-
You may at this point opt
to buy an enhanced page for a further 50.
-
You will also receive an
introductory pack which will comprehensively cover the way we work and
what you can expect from FPA.
-
You will be required to
return within one month a copy of your public liability insurance. If
you do not have cover we can assist you with a policy.
The
quality of work will be monitored by way of customer feedback and we
may also mystery shop.
Customers
can leave their own feedback either by using this website or contacting
our office by telephone or letter. Whilst we understand this is more
likely to be those who are not happy with your service, we have worked
in this area and understand what customers are like.
However
if we find there are consistent problems with your service then we may
terminate your registration and you may forfeit any fees paid.
Complaints
Complaints
are inevitable at some point or other, as you cannot please all the
people all the time. You are expected to manage and handle these
yourself. Handling a complaint properly and well, can secure a customer
for life, because you really get judged on how well you handle things
that go wrong.
Any
complaints brought to our attention will be managed via our complaints
process, and will affect your assessment level if you have not acted in
a reasonable and proper manner.
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