r/tradies

Just curious how other people look at this.

Say you're normally $300 a day (or whatever your rate is) and you've got nothing booked Thursday and Friday next week.

Someone rings with a job that'll pretty much fill both days, they're ready to go, but they're trying to get the price down.

Would you take say $250 a day just to get $500 through the door rather than earn fuck all for those two days?

Or is it more a case of once you start dropping your rate you're just devaluing yourself and you'd rather leave the days empty?

Obviously if you're stacked out for the next 6 weeks it's a different question. I'm more thinking about those random gaps where you've got nothing else coming in anyway.

I reckon I'd rather have something coming in, within reason anyway. But I've had this argument before where people are adamant they'd rather earn fuck all than work below their normal rate 😂

Just wondering what people actually do in real life rather than what we're all supposed to say we do.

Doing a bit of looking into how us blokes in the trades and on the land manage fatigue and hydration, because the standard "just drink more water" line clearly has a limit when it's hot or you're flat out all day

Curious what your actual, no-bullshit routine is. Do you prep the night before? Add salt, fruit, or specific mixes? Drop your tips below—genuinely trying to figure out what works for working blokes who don't want to overcomplicate things.

Is this still a good trade to do ? Thinking of getting into it as a mature age I have some experience with fittings on Utes and cutting and soldering but just looking at future scope of it I do live in rural nsw so running a business eventually could work on the side as I have a family business I could also inherit later but want a trade rn before I do that