Busy is not the same as booked with the right jobs
How to get more electrical work is rarely a question of working harder. Most electricians who ask it are already busy. What they want is more of a certain kind of job: fewer one-socket call-outs across town, more rewires, consumer units, landlord portfolios, EV chargers or commercial contracts with steady payment.
Those jobs come from different places. A homeowner with a tripping RCD searches on a phone and rings whoever looks local and trusted. A lettings agent with forty flats wants a firm that sends EICRs on time. A school or a council posts a contract on a public list. A family with a new electric car asks the dealer, then Google.
This guide goes through eight steps in the order that usually pays back fastest, with the rules and lists that apply in England in October 2026. It works whether you are a sole trader looking for your first steady clients or a firm of twenty that wants more commercial electrical work.
Where electrical jobs come from, and how fast each channel pays
Before you spend money or evenings, decide which work you want more of. Each channel brings a different kind of job.
| Channel | Typical work it brings | Time to the first job | What it costs you |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Business Profile | Call-outs, faults, small domestic jobs nearby | Weeks, once the profile is complete | Your time, photos and reviews |
| Reviews | Higher trust on every other channel | Starts with the next job you finish | A minute per customer to ask |
| Scheme directories (NICEIC, NAPIT) | Homeowners checking you are registered | As soon as your listing is live | Part of your scheme registration |
| Landlords and lettings agents | EICRs and remedial work, repeated every five years | One or two months of contact | Reliable reports and follow-up |
| Public contracts and main contractors | Commercial and maintenance work | Months; tenders have deadlines | Time to write bids, insurance, paperwork |
| Your own website | Larger domestic jobs, rewires, EV chargers | Months, as pages get found | A build and keeping it up to date |
| Word of mouth | The best jobs, from people who already trust you | Unpredictable | Doing the job well and staying in touch |
The first three steps cost little and work for a sole trader. The later ones take longer but bring work that repeats. A wider look at local search for any trade is in our local SEO tips.
1. A Google profile built for the jobs you want
For most domestic work, the first impression is the map. A complete Google Business Profile is the cheapest way to get more electrical jobs from your own area.
Most electricians visit customers rather than serve them at a workshop. Google calls that a service-area business: you remove the address from the profile and enter the towns or postcodes you cover instead. You can set up to 20 service areas, by city, postcode or another area, not as a radius around your house, and Google suggests keeping it within about two hours' drive. List the places you actually want to work, not every town in the county.
Pick the primary category that matches your main work; the choice matters more than most people think, see Google Business Profile categories. Add your services one by one, with the jobs you want more of first: EICRs, consumer unit upgrades, rewires, EV charger installation. Post photos of real jobs: a neat board, a finished kitchen, a charger on a driveway, with the town in the caption. A profile with photos from last month looks like a firm that is working. If someone else in the firm should help manage it, add a manager instead of sharing your login.
2. Reviews that name the job and the town
Customers cannot judge your wiring, so they read what other customers wrote. A review that says "Lucy replaced our fuse board in Ilkley, tidy and on time" helps you more than ten that say "great service", because the next person in Ilkley who needs a fuse board finds themselves in it.
Ask at the moment the job is done and the customer is pleased, with a link that opens the review form directly. Make one with the Google review link generator and put it in the text or email that goes with your invoice. Ask every customer, not only the happy ones you pick, and never offer anything in return: Google removes reviews that break its rules, and fake reviews are banned under UK consumer law. The full routine, with messages you can copy, is in how to get more Google reviews.
Answer every review, including the critical ones, in a calm sentence. A reply that explains what you did about a problem often wins more trust than the problem cost you.
3. Scheme registration customers can check
Under Approved Document P (the 2013 edition is still current), notifiable electrical work in a home goes either through a competent person scheme or through building control. Registered installers can self-certify their work instead of applying for building regulations approval for each job. The government lists the authorised schemes; for electrical work in dwellings they include Certsure, which trades as NICEIC, and NAPIT.
That registration is also a source of work. Both run a public search where homeowners look for a registered electrician by postcode: NICEIC's "Find a trusted tradesperson" and NAPIT's "Find a tradesperson". Check that your listing is there, with the right trading name, area and services, and that it matches your Google profile and website.
On your own site and quotes, say which scheme you are registered with and which certificate the customer gets at the end, and only name a scheme you are actually registered with. Keep your knowledge current too: BS 7671:2018+A4:2026 is the current edition of the wiring regulations, and the transition period for Amendment 2 ended on 15 October 2026. Landlords and commercial clients ask about it.
4. Landlord EICR work, a repeat customer by law
If you want steady domestic work, landlords are the most reliable source, because the law brings them back. In England these rules apply to privately rented homes, and since 2025 to the social rented sector as well:
| Rule for the landlord | Deadline | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Inspect and test the installation | At least every 5 years | A booked EICR for every property, on a cycle |
| Give the report to the tenant | Within 28 days of the inspection | A report the landlord can forward the same day |
| Do the remedial work the report requires | Within 28 days, or less if the report says so | A second job, booked straight after the first |
| Confirm the work to the tenant and the council | Within 28 days of finishing | Written confirmation from you |
| Penalty for a landlord who fails | Up to 40,000 GBP | A strong reason to stay with a reliable firm |
The firm that wins this work is not the cheapest; it is the one that makes the landlord's deadlines easy. Contact lettings agents and block managers in your area, offer to keep the dates for all their properties, and send each report with a plain list of what needs fixing and when. A reminder a month before the next inspection falls due is often all it takes to keep the portfolio. Software that tracks those dates for you is part of software for electrical contractors.
5. Commercial electrical work: tenders and main contractors
Asked how to get more commercial electrical work, most firms think of big construction sites. There are two more practical routes for a small or medium firm.
Public contracts. Schools, councils, housing associations and NHS sites buy electrical work, from testing and maintenance to fit-outs. In England, government contracts over 12,000 GBP including VAT are published on Contracts Finder, and high-value contracts, usually above 139,688 GBP including VAT, on Find a Tender. Both are free to search, and you can set alerts for your trade and region. Many contracts are let as frameworks, where a few firms are approved for several years and get work as it comes; getting onto one takes a bid, but it brings work you did not have to chase each time.
Main contractors and facilities firms. Builders, shopfitters and facilities managers subcontract electrical packages. They look for a firm that turns up, sends paperwork on time and carries the right insurance. Ask local builders what they need, and send your scheme registration, insurance and two references before they ask.
For both routes, a tidy record of past jobs, certificates and test results wins bids. Commercial clients also check your website, so give commercial work its own page. Our guide to writing a page that ranks locally shows how.
6. EV chargers: a line of work with its own rules
- The grant changed on 1 April 2026Grants now cover flat owners and renters, residential landlords and the Workplace Charging Scheme, up to 500 GBP per socket until 31 March 2027. Only OZEV-authorised installers can claim; how to get there is in how to become an OZEV approved installer.
- Smart chargers onlyChargepoints sold in Great Britain must be smart under the 2021 regulations: off-peak by default, a randomised delay and security built in. Explain it in a sentence on your page; customers ask.
- Landlords and flats as the new marketBecause the grant now targets flats and rented homes, the landlords from step 4 are also your EV customers. Firms that make this their main line of work have their own page: software for EV charger installers.
7. A website that turns searches into booked jobs
Google keeps adding AI answers to search, as its announcement of 19 May 2026 shows, but a customer who is about to let someone into the house still wants to see the firm before they ring. Your website is where the bigger domestic jobs are won: a rewire or an EV charger is a decision people research for a few evenings.
Give each job you want more of its own page, with the questions customers ask before they book, and a page for each town you really cover, written from work you did there. Put your phone number on every screen and use a form that asks for what you need to price the job: the postcode, the age of the house, a photo of the board or the driveway. What such a site looks like is on website design for electricians; for prices in pounds and what moves them, see website cost in the UK.
Search takes months, not weeks; how long SEO takes sets honest expectations. If you need jobs faster while the pages grow, paid search can bridge the gap: start with how to set up Google Ads and a small budget limited to your area.
8. Answer first, quote the same evening
The last step is the one most firms skip. All the channels above produce enquiries; the firm that answers first and quotes clearly usually gets the job. A customer who sends three requests on Sunday night books the electrician who replies on Monday morning with a time slot, not the one who calls back on Thursday.
That is a question of systems, not effort. Enquiries from the website, Google and email should land in one list with the address and photos attached. Quotes should come from a template with your own prices. The planning board should show who is free on Wednesday. And the job sheet on the electrician's phone should feed straight into the invoice, so the paperwork does not eat the evening.
We build exactly that for electrical firms: see software for electrical contractors for the job app, planning and landlord tracking, and AI for electricians for quotes drafted from a photo that a person checks before they go out.
More electrical jobs: the questions behind the question
How do I get more work as an electrician when I am just starting out?
Start with the free steps: a complete Google Business Profile with your service areas, a review from every customer, and your listing on the scheme you registered with. Then ask local builders and lettings agents whether they need a reliable firm for small jobs and EICRs. Steady clients matter more than many one-off jobs.
How do I get more electrical jobs without paying for leads?
Most of the steps in this guide cost time rather than money: your profile, reviews, scheme listing, landlords and tenders. If you do try a lead site, ask how many other firms receive the same enquiry and what a lead costs before you sign up.
How do I get more commercial electrical work as a small firm?
Set alerts on Contracts Finder for your region, ask local builders and facilities firms about subcontract packages, and keep your insurance, scheme registration and references ready to send. Smaller maintenance and testing contracts are the usual way in before bigger fit-outs.
Which step pays back fastest?
For domestic work, usually the Google profile and reviews, because they work in weeks. For steady income, landlord EICR work, because it repeats every five years per property.