http://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=364&page=1#Item_7

Try reading that one. If you want to make lots of money then run the courses not pay to go on them!

Off the wall but loosly linked to this post - I too tried to qualify as a DEA but, I do not drive! The minute this is mentioned I am brusquely told "sorry can't help" and the phone is slammed down!! OK you've got to get about but there are alternative means of transport, and there's more homes inside cities than out, and has anybody noticed what powers most of these motor cars etc??

Obviously it's good to be eco friendly but not to friendly!!!

The only way I could overcome providing EPCs, without incurring a giant carbon footprint, was to only provide them to my local community. Unfortunately this didn't work. As we were all warned when we started the training, market forces dictate how much you can earn; people are not interested in getting an environmentaly friendly job done unless it happens to be the cheapest!!

Err, is there more to come?

I'm going to try again wih this!

Lets get something cleared up. Doing an energy assessment is not difficult. in fact it's achingly easy on most properties. If you've got any kind of buildings experience you'll absolutely walk the course.

Now, the real question is can you cope with being self emplyed or the director of your own company? Its damn hard, but very rewarding. If you've got decent business accumen and determination you'll stand a 10000% better chance of survival.

No word of a lie, out of the 15 candidates on my course, I can with near certainty garuantee that 70% of them aren't doing very well, not because they can't do assessments, but because the assessments only account for 25% of the job. The other 75% is having a basic understanding of accountancy, marketing, sales techniques, management, diary management, administration and IT knowledge.

For example, if you panic and give up just beacuase you're PC goes down then don't go into it. You don't need to be a PC nerd, but you need some basic skills, and have access to someone that can take care of serious issues. Being good (and by that I mean quick and efficient) with a PC will seriously increase your productivty far more than any other single item. Especially with things like lettings agents where each EPC often needs its own invoice.

Same goes for accountancy, you don't need to be a financial whizz, but you do at least need to know how to balance your books, do some basic forecasting etc. Something like an A-level in business studies should be enough, or indeed a few years of relevant work experience.

Biggest factor, above all, bar none, is motivation. You need to be a highly motivated person, if you're even the slightest amount a slacker, give up unless you only need an unreliable so-so income. Self employment is not for the feint hearted (or indeed the physically and mentally weak!!!! Stress is abundant and will knock you for six if you're not careful!).

Still, this sounds like something of a negative post, so I'll cheer you up by saying that me and my lone emplyee (I'm a Ltd company director) are doing at least 20 assessments each per week at around £50 + VAT, not taking into account the other 30% of our income from brochures and floorplans. I'll let you do the math on that, and my merc SLK has just arrived too. And whilst you do need to put in the wrench time, you've got the ability to have flexible working (i.e. taking an hour to get some shopping is never an issue) and ultimately you should be looking to build a business to retire on. So if you can handle the stress, the rewards are there for the taking.

I just copied it from the cache and pasted it back in, but it's still not letting me do new threads

I've been a DEA for over a year now, I switched from being self employed to a Ltd company in August and then in september I took on another DEA full time. We're now about to take on a publisher for our brochure work and in the next year we're starting work on a commercial Eco park.

I cover Ely and Cambridge and my staff member concentrates more on Great Shelford, Cambourne and Huntingdon area. We're looking to branch out either Peterborough way or Bury St Edmunds way depending on the results of my research. Why do you ask?

I don't know, populus of 140,000 for my area, that's a lot of homes! We're doing 20 - 40 assessments each, so up to 80 as a company. The works out there people, just gotta be aggresive and take charge!