What made you make the jump to self employed

[PEG]

I worked out,that i needed to be not just steering the boat...i needed to be picking,crewing and captaining it,too.

I never accepted being given an order,as acceptance of that order's validity.

Also,i was fifteen years old,and it was just time...

 

[Marvo]

....You are a business man first, a spark 2 nd....

^^^ Couldn't agree more.

How good a sparky yoiu are will have very little bearing on how much money you earn if you're self employed. My best advice to anyone thinking of taking the plunge is to go do a business course first at nightschool.

 

[Martyn Fletcher]

I kind of agree with Marvo, except that perhaps doing a business course may not preclude your success or indeed any better understanding of wtf is going on sometimes. It certainly won't hurt but I would first suggest that you surround yourself with like minded people. If that means getting out and joining business breafasts and local business clubs, then do so, you won't regret it. I'm not a fan of the over priced and over hyped BNI, but there are other local breakfast clubs similar to BNI such as Bob Club or Effective Business Networking and they work out a lot cheaper (typically £10 -£30 per month) rather than the BNI's ridiculous £774 for the first year and £500 there after. Yes, I did join them with a previous business and no I did not renew.
You could also consider the federation of small businesses and the local Chambers of commerce as they are good and affordable sources of help, advice and contacts.

 

[Sachin109]

Having read all of your guys posts, it's clear that you are all grafters and really want to do well for yourselves. I'm curious to know if your own personal website that showcases your work would be a good idea?
I know a large majority of work comes from recommendations but with more and more customers looking online for plumbers I was thinking for the future it would be really useful. Let me know your thoughts

Sach

 

[Octopus]

Having a website is a double edged sword.

It's good for local people to see who you are

On the downside it can attract the bottom feeders who want something for nothing.

Having said that, you are daft not to have one these days

 

[Pete999]

Having read all of your guys posts, it's clear that you are all grafters and really want to do well for yourselves. I'm curious to know if your own personal website that showcases your work would be a good idea?
I know a large majority of work comes from recommendations but with more and more customers looking online for plumbers I was thinking for the future it would be really useful. Let me know your thoughts

Sach

In my case Sachin I never had much of a choice, work was plentiful, lots of Sub Contract electricians about, and to top it all I had just got Married, buying my first House and after 3 years my Wife was expecting, so the thought of extra pressure of being SE wasn't very appealing, I took the public sector way and never looked back really, still did the odd job on the QT but, not being in a scheme and all the rules and Regs that go along with that way was not for me, maybe not very helpful to you, but that is /was my short story.

 

[Sachin109]

In my case Sachin I never had much of a choice, work was plentiful, lots of Sub Contract electricians about, and to top it all I had just got Married, buying my first House and after 3 years my Wife was expecting, so the thought of extra pressure of being SE wasn't very appealing, I took the public sector way and never looked back really, still did the odd job on the QT but, not being in a scheme and all the rules and Regs that go along with that way was not for me, maybe not very helpful to you, but that is /was my short story.

No no makes sense! It's good to know what others think about the whole idea of it, so thank you for your story pal!

 

[Darkwood]

@Sachin109

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[JK-Electrical]

I took voluntary redundancy in 1982 and quit my job with the city council because I was bored out of skull traipsing round council estates in the east end of Glasgow all day doing mundane, mind-numbing, soul-destroying jobs such as changing broken lampholders, sockets and switches and replacing elements in storage heaters. I would surely have stagnated as an electrician had I not quit my job when I did.

So with several thousands of ratepayers cash stashed in the bank, I headed south to Blackpool in search of ̶w̶i̶l̶d̶ ̶n̶i̶g̶h̶t̶s̶ ̶o̶u̶t̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶la̶r̶g̶e̶-̶b̶r̶e̶a̶s̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶n̶y̶m̶p̶h̶o̶m̶a̶n̶i̶a̶c̶ ̶r̶o̶c̶k̶ ̶c̶h̶i̶c̶k̶s̶ ̶o̶f̶f̶e̶r̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶r̶e̶g̶u̶l̶a̶r̶ ̶c̶a̶s̶u̶a̶l̶ ̶s̶e̶x̶ work. Rather than look for a proper full-time job I began placing cards in shop windows and putting leaflets through doors and was pleasantly surprised to discover that I was able to generate 2-3 days of work each week doing small domestic jobs. I then began placing advertisments in the local evening newspaper which generated even more work. Within a year I was running a thriving small electrical contracting business employing myself and an electrician's mate. We were doing house rewires more than anything else. I did my first rewire aged 23 and felt an immense feeling of achievement and job satisfaction. I relished the freedom that I had to do things my own way. I stumbled into self-employment rather than having made any prior plans to this end.

Thirty-six years later, I'm still self-employed having returned to my native city and started a new business up here. If I could live my life over again, would I still make the same choice? You bet!!!

 

[alamski]

Sick and tired of working your balls off for companies only to be told by incompetent managers that its not good enough.

 

[Red Tony]

The flexibility of it as I have been on the books with companies and often felt I was in a 'rut'......
Going to the same places.... Doing the same jobs and working with the same ppl (some you might not get on with)!
As a cis contractor I'm able to apply for jobs whenever I want and often you get overtime or 10 hr days as they want men for a big push or at the end of a job.
The downside is it's sometimes hard making sure you have that next job lined up after current contract ends but touch wood I've worked for some decent gaffers who've gave me a heads up and had several weeks to contact agencies for graft.

 

[Welchyboy1]

for me I just don’t like being told what to do lol! I also got fed up waking up at 5am to drive to London, be stuck in traffic 5 hours a day, can’t park, get tickets, clamped, tools stolen and work on a shitty cold building site for peanuts Or having to work in a finished building with office staff but still have to wear hard hat goggles etc, and get home at 7:30pm if I’m lucky

I now never work further than about 10 miles from home and my alarm goes off at 7am, I’m back indoors by no later than 3-4 pm

And I would say that eventually your job security once fully established as self employed is much greater than that of somebody employed by a company.(I mean proper self employed not working for one or two companies through Cis)

if they get laid off, company goes bust, fall out with their boss, their unemployed.

I work for hundreds of different clients and businesses and if one or two goes bust or we fall out or they don’t pay, I have plenty of others still bringing work and money in

The risk is spread a lot thinner and the profits are better, you work for who you want and if you turn up on time, do a good job and generally get on with people then you should always have plenty of work!

as long as you have your health and can physically work, so look after yourself!

 

[HappyHippyDad]

As others have said, I like being in control of my life, or rather having more control than when you are employed. You work harder when you are self employed, but absolutely every single thing you do is for your own business, it directly benefits you. I take far more pride in my work now and have so much more satisfaction in my work and that is after 7 or 8 years of being self employed, so it's not just a fleeting feeling.

Of course it may not suit everyone, but the only way you'll find out is to give it a go for a few years.

 

[baldelectrician]

I was forced in to self employment -
I was working for a contractor PAYE and he turned around one day and told all of us he was paying too much tax and NI and we were all going self employed

After going SE with him I quickly realised that I would make more on my own.
I was wiring heating systems for him and getting £60 per install (in 2003), making about £600 per week before tax

I put an ad in the local paper (cost £70) and realised that there was work out there and went (within 3 weeks) from doing 10 jobs a week for him to nil.

He had the cheek to ask me to come back 2 a month later and I told him thanks but no thanks.

I now have my son (who is 21) and about to finish his apprenticeship and like working for myself

I don't make big bucks but the work suits my family work life

 

[Mike Johnson]

Best advice I can give is dedicate at least one day per month for marketing, invoicing and billing, sometimes you can be too busy working to find work and another day per month to play Golf, my first project after going self employed came to me on the golf course.