From being a savior for clients in emergency, to the amusing banters of your colleagues keeping your spirit up in difficult times – sometimes there’s nothing more fulfilling than being a competent tradesmen in the UK.

Here is little stuff – both sweet and sour – a qualified tradesman in the UK can easily relate to:

Near and dear ones asking for favors  

All the tradesmen who are around for a while can relate to it.

Their motto being “why to take a chance with problems – real or imagined – if we have one of our own to take care of it for free.”

Pranks

Remember the “Cement Strongman” prank your superiors played on you: prompting you to lift a cement bag to test your strength and then emptying it all over you by pricking a hole in it. OR how much fun you had when you locked your new apprentice in the dreaded portaloo. Maybe you have a friend who is used to mess contact list of any phone he finds unattended.

These are the moments that stick with you for life, lifting your spirit up when it’s down and as a proof of what an amazing life you led.

 Guzzling beers in the pub on the weekends

You have earned it. There is nothing to feel guilty about it.

Having spent the week working your tail off the least you deserve is some fun time to recharge your batteries for the week ahead. 

 Fixing botched DIY jobs

You know the script: you get a call for some quick job only to get shocked later seeing the extent of the mess a wannabe builder has created for you to clean.

To quote you some facts, close to £300 million is spent every year in the UK to undo DIY (Do-It-Yourself) blunders. Optimist in you might see it as another earning opportunity but for the most of us it’s like being tortured for a crime we haven’t committed.

The pain in the neck that HMRC is

Though dealing with a government agency is not something any certified tradesman look forward to – what with long drawn out procedures and unhelpful staffs – but HMRC just takes it to a whole new level.

A plumber I know was fined £1m – despite a bill of just £9,000 – by HMRC last year. And it’s not a one-off blunder where HMRC is concerned and I am sure most builders will agree with that.

That January scramble to sort your self-assessment

Self-employed tradesmen would especially know how taxing the process of paying tax is in the UK.

There are so many things they have to worry about – from collecting all the business receipts to renewing your CSCS Cards and public liability insurance – and with clock ticking against you it’s simply not easy.

Realizing what a fascinating job you have

The satisfaction of creating something new, power of fixing people’s emergency needs, fun of working with your mates, and the pride of being your own boss are not something you’d ever swap for doing a boring 9-5 job. I, for one, would not. And I am sure most of the certified tradesmen in the UK would do the same.