A customer has a list. Six of the eight items are straightforward. One is moving a socket behind a new cooker and one is refitting a gas hob that was disconnected during a kitchen refit.
He asks whether you can just do the lot while you are there. The answer to that question is the difference between a trade worth recommending and an insurance claim.
The category that is never negotiable
Gas. Work on gas appliances and pipework requires a registered engineer, and there is no size of job, no favour and no customer relationship that changes that.
The category that depends on where you are
Electrical work is split in most jurisdictions between minor work that a competent person may carry out and notifiable work requiring registration and certification.
How to handle the electrical split
Know your local rules precisely, write down which side of the line each common job sits on, and apply it the same way every time.
The category people forget: structural
Removing or notching anything that carries load, altering openings and anything involving beams. Customers describe these as taking a wall out.
The category with paperwork attached
Work needing a building control notification or a certificate. Where a homeowner will later need that document for a sale, doing it without one creates a problem years away.
The category that is about insurance rather than law
Work at height, asbestos containing materials and anything your policy excludes. Legal to do and uninsured to do, which is a worse position than either.
Where water sits
Most plumbing is open, and certain items such as unvented systems require specific qualification. Knowing which is which is part of the job.
Fix one: publish your line
A short list on the website of what needs a specialist and why. It is the most trust building page a general trade can have.
Fix two: explain rather than refuse
A customer told that something needs a certificate for their own protection accepts it immediately. One told simply that you do not do that assumes you cannot.
Fix three: build a referral network
Two or three registered trades you can name. Handing over a name rather than a problem is what keeps the rest of the list yours.
Fix four: quote the rest anyway
Never lose eight jobs because of two. Quote the six, name the specialists for the other two and offer to coordinate.
Fix five: charge for the coordination if it is real
Meeting another trade, providing access and making good afterwards is work, and it is entirely reasonable to price it.
Fix six: do the making good
Chasing, filling, decorating and tidying after a specialist is genuinely yours and it is frequently the larger part of the visible job.
Fix seven: hold the line under pressure
Customers occasionally push, particularly on small electrical items. A consistent position is easier to hold than a case by case one.
Fix eight: keep the scope conversation joined up
This is the other half of the question covered in what jobs are too small or too big questions.
Fix nine: qualify quickly, not exhaustively
Most of the list needs no assessment at all, which is the balance in small job enquiries that handymen can quote quickly.
Fix ten: sort the list automatically at enquiry
An assistant that takes the whole list, flags the items needing a registered trade, explains why and takes a visit request for the rest means a customer never has to ask the awkward question. That is the argument in the best AI chatbot for trades businesses, and the same routing logic appears in businesses asking which marketing channel they need.
What a clear line produces
A reputation for knowing what you are doing, which sells more work than a willingness to try anything. See pricing, run the numbers on the chatbot ROI calculator, and the sector view sits under home services.