How to Start a Kitchen Fitting Business as a Sole Trader

Kitchen fitting rarely stays inside one trade. Most of the early lessons in this business are about coordination and sequencing, not the carpentry itself.

Record appliance details before you build a single cabinet

Whether appliances are customer-supplied or ones you're sourcing, get exact model numbers and dimensions in writing before cutting any cabinets around them. A cut-out built for the wrong oven size becomes your problem the moment the customer's actual appliance arrives, regardless of who chose it.

Treat worktop templating as its own visit, not a footnote

Templating typically happens after units are fitted and before the worktop is cut. It is a genuine second visit with its own travel time. New fitters often fold this silently into a flat quote, then find the two-visit reality of most kitchen jobs quietly eating their margin.

Decide early how you coordinate other trades

A kitchen refit needs a plumber for sink and dishwasher connections and an electrician for sockets and lighting, both timed around first fix and second fix. Some fitters coordinate this directly and build a small bench of trades they trust. Others leave it to the customer. Either works, but decide your model before your first job instead of improvising it.

Price disposal as real labour, not a courtesy

Removing an old kitchen costs van space, time, and often a tip or skip fee. New fitters commonly absorb this into the fitting price to look competitive, then resent it on every job afterward. Quote it as its own line from day one and avoid that pattern entirely.

Build supplier relationships before you need them

Unit and worktop suppliers vary hugely in delivery reliability, and a late delivery becomes your problem the moment a customer is expecting a finished kitchen on a fixed date. A trade account with a supplier you've actually worked with, instead of whoever's cheapest that week, protects your schedule far more than it costs you in margin.

Photograph every job, from the start

Kitchen fitting is one of the most visual trades a customer can research before hiring. Before-and-after photos, with permission, are some of the strongest marketing available to a new fitter, and far more persuasive than a written description of the work.

Put a policy in writing for mid-project changes

Customers change their minds partway through a project more often in kitchens than in almost any other room: a different handle style, a reconsidered layout, an upgraded worktop. Once units or a worktop have already been ordered to a spec, a change can mean a genuine restocking cost or delay, not just a quick adjustment. State in writing, before work starts, that changes requested after ordering may carry an additional cost and a schedule impact. Customers rarely object to this in principle. What causes disputes is discovering it after the fact, when a "small change" they assumed was free turns out to have pushed the completion date back a week and added cost neither side had discussed.