Sinking Fast And Dont Know What To Do

blackclouds

Sarahsaver wrote: »

If your income is below a certain level you can get working tax credit.
My hubby is in recruitment, what area of the country are you in and do you have any science qualifications!!! PM me if you want. good luck.

Hiya I am in West of Scotland, but frankly for the right job I would move anywhere in UK, subject to selling / losing the house.

My background is in Business to Business Sales / Account Management / Business Development but I have done all sorts over the last few years self employed - taxi driver, car valeter, complaint handler amongst others. No qualifications post school years - 6 Scottish Highers which equates to just over 3.5 A levels

benbenandme

I know it probably doesn't seem to matter much in the scheme of things but your life insurance seems quite high? Also,is your mortgage repayment?Could you change it to interest only for a while? I know these things won't solve your problems but any little steps along the way can help Have you signed up for all the survey sites, quidco and mystery shopping sites? Again, only pennies but they all help, and most mystery shopping sites are keen to take on males At least by having access to the internet and this site you have the power to access tonnes of information that may help or encourage you on your journey, good luck

blackclouds

Tosh1 wrote: »

Blackclouds,

Can I be nosy and ask what self-employed business you're in and how long you've been doing it?

You can private message me if you want.

But what I'm really getting at is, credit crunch or not, if you put in the effort and market yourself the best way you can, funds allowing, it's just a game of numbers and you will succeed.

Why has your business failed?

Snowball effect

I was a taxi driver up until a 14 months ago when I was attacked and had to give up as I couldnt do it anymore, whenever someone sat behind me I panicked and just knew that this would not change.

Decided to plough what I had into my most recent business, and the one that is going to cost me everything was set up a year ago. Failure due to a number of factors but primarily the cumulative effect of the following :

1. Spent too much making sure it was set up 100% and ready to go putting immediate pressure on cash flow
2. Got caught out by dodgy web developer and cost me a further month of income
3. Turned to family member for help and a month later after me ploughing what I had left into it found out this person was about to be an ex family member and lost further time and money as they walked away taking some of the stock etc
4. Lack of funds stifled any advertising so had to work on word of mouth putting further pressure on cash flow
5. Complete uninsured stock loss at storage facility
6. Tried to diversify and ended up chasing money and spending what I didnt have and finally ran out of cash - if I got a booking now I couldnt afford to get there

Wish I had never tried now, could have just kept the money from selling off assets a year ago and survived on a low income and no debt.

If what doesn't kill you makes you stronger watch out for me winning a Weightlifting Gold at London 2012

blackclouds

benbenandme wrote: »

I know it probably doesn't seem to matter much in the scheme of things but your life insurance seems quite high? Also,is your mortgage repayment?Could you change it to interest only for a while? I know these things won't solve your problems but any little steps along the way can help Have you signed up for all the survey sites, quidco and mystery shopping sites? Again, only pennies but they all help, and most mystery shopping sites are keen to take on males At least by having access to the internet and this site you have the power to access tonnes of information that may help or encourage you on your journey, good luck

Self Cert mortgage so high interest rate, and high life insurance due to smoking (yes I know this doesnt help with money / health and so on)

Signed up with TNS a while ago, maybe need to start seeing if they have mystery shops and so on.

I am listing everything I own that isnt nailed down and hasnt been used for more than two months on eBay to try and squeeze by.

So frustrating that all the debt is through trying to make something of my life and not on holidays, clothing, luxuries - I havent been on holiday since 2002 and all my clothes are either years old or hand me downs.

1 thing though credit cards etc Never Ever Again :mad:

Bismarck

sorry if you're doing this already but listing on amazon marketplace can be worthwhile if you've got some good "different" books...less hassle than ebay once you're started.

Sue-UU

Hi again blackclouds. Thanks for putting your SOA on, though as you possibly guessed there isn't a lot we can help you with, sadly. A shame you have such a high mobile contract and for so long, but very little that can be done I'd presume. Though some people have said they've given their company's a call to explain their situations and have been helped ....may be worth a try! Nothing ventured nothing gained and can only say yeah or nae ...they can't shoot you!!!! :eek: Put a nice, pleading voice on! :rolleyes:

Just in case you're interested in quitting the weed??? Don't worry, I know it has to be done when you WISH to take the plunge, but IF you're interested then you can go to your GP for help and we also have a great thread going on here which has spurred so many people on to quitting and saving them POUNDS as well as giving them back good health!!! It's here if you're tempted to try sometime and you'll never be bullied!

Grown men never become too big to cry, aside from that it does us all a power of good when we need to, it's also a great release both mentally and physically. Keep in touch with us all and do please let us know how it's going for you. You're also welcome to PM anytime if you wish. Love to that little one, you too, and have plenty of fun with him/her on Sunday, you both deserve it.

Sue

blackclouds

Thank you for your kindness Sue

Know what you are saying re the ciggies and hopefully I can overcome that one when my head is nearer to being in the right place. My one remaining vice and I am on the rollies now ...........

Have applied for a couple of jobs again tonight and sent emails to some old business contacts looking for any inside word of anything, amazing how much easier it is to swallow your pride when you are peering into the abyss.

Also had a look for local debt charity and found a council run community one next to the Job Centre where I am spending my birthday so I am going to go in there after the interview and see if I can start talking options through. I feel I am at the point where I need to decide whether I think the house will sell within 2 months as I probably have ways and means of family support for that period if the house was able to get sold - may look to drop price for a quick sale and deal with unsecured debts after that.

Final act of the day was to start sorting out all my things for eBay, boxes everywhere :rotfl:

Ah well may as well settle on the sofa and hope sleep comes as I have tried going to bed and got back up twice :rolleyes:

Sue-UU

You're so welcome. You sound a different man tonight, so positive and trying SO hard. Good luck with ebay, it'll be great if you can get rid of some things and replace them with ....cash!!!

If nothing else ...you're going to be very busy with appointments for now, you deserve now to have something come from them. Good luck and try to get some decent sleep. Think of the worst that can happen and get things into perspective, once you've done that you see things in a different light. Worrying never achieved anything so start counting sheep ....or blue clouds that'll surely follow the black ones! Some day you'll look back on this and found you learned so much from it, my hubby & I have!

Take care and Happy Birthday for Thursday! :T

Sue

maryotuam

I just want to wish you good luck and also bithday greetings for Thursday.:beer: One asset you havn't mentioned is yourself. You are obviously a decent, hardworking and caring guy. Once you get to the interview stage in jobhunting, I'm sure this will shine through. Your child will realise when they grow up what a wonderful Dad they have!

The only financial input I can give is to speak to your mortgage lender, explaining your financial circumstances and asking for a period where you only pay the interest on the mortgage. Some lenders do this in circumstances like yours.

Bismarck

maryotuam wrote: »

I just want to wish you good luck and also bithday greetings for Thursday.:beer: One asset you havn't mentioned is yourself. You are obviously a decent, hardworking and caring guy. Once you get to the interview stage in jobhunting, I'm sure this will shine through. Your child will realise when they grow up what a wonderful Dad they have!

completely agree....as someone said earlier, it's a numbers game and soon enough, the job will come - you certainly deserve it.