Anybody in the same situation?

Up_down_debt_ranking

Hello. I was wondering how many people are in a similar situation to me. My real problem is that I have an irregular income with high costs.
Here is the situation:

The most I owed was about £40,000, which was last summer. This is now down to about £28,000 as I have been putting as much in as I can into the debt because my business has been doing OK, and this is the crunch.

I run a small business. It is up and down. Sometimes I am very busy and make good money, and sometimes I struggle. This is the cause of the debt. Unfortunately when I am doing well I am normally playing catch up from when things were not going well. This past year has seen an increase in business so I have paid off quite a lot, however I have a large mortgage on a house, my wife is on maternity leave and business is quiet. Not dead, but quiet.
I am on the phone trying to get more business but I am scared.

I know the principles, I was a credit card tart until it got more difficult to get the new cards at 0%, so now I have £13,000 on a low rate credit card which stays the same until it is paid off. I have about £6000 on a 0% for 9 months.
I have a car loan at about £6000 at 5.5%. And my overdraft moves up and down between £3000 and £6000.

I know that I have to either increase my income or cut my spending, but I really don't have the option of cutting my spending by much because of the mortgage. Realistically I have to increase my income, which means getting more clients, which means getting on the phone to arrange appointments, which is what I should be doing now, not typing away on a forum.

Anyway, i just wanted to share that, and see if it rang any bells with anybody.

I really need to get back to the phone, so I will leave it at that, but I will be back to see what anybody says.

Cheers.
UDDR

skintchick

Hi and welcome.

i have just gone self employed so am in the same boat, although thankfully I have little debt and what I have is manageable.

I know you say you can't cut your outgoings any more, but we are miracle workers on here, and if you post your SOA we can suggest where you can cut back. You'd be amazed!

When I first came on here I thought I had cut mine back as far as I could but I have axed even more off it since then.

Can your wife help with making calls for you? Or can she get some work from home that would help boost your income?

Do you have stuff you can sell on eBay?

Can you get a lodger?

If you post your SOa we can come up with ideas to help you.

BlondeHeadOn

Hi Up down debt ranking, this rings bells with me big time!

I too run my own business and have a very up-and-down income, and in the down times I run up loads of cc debt just surviving, and then during the good times I can pay it all back off again (hopefully). I keep hoping to be able to build up a 'cushion' of savings to help me though the quiet times..... but it's never enough, so it's back to the cc's.

I'm lucky in that I have a low cost business, so it's relatively easy to cut my spending when the work dries up, but it's still a struggle.

The main killer is the self-doubt - Does anyone self-employed ever get over this feeling that you will never ever get any work again (ever) as soon as business goes quiet? I haven't, and I've been self-employed for 7 years now! And if I average out my income over those 7 years I am actually earning a good whack, but the credit-cards-and-loans-cycle kind of cancels it all out.

Grrr. wish I could help but can only say (for what it's worth): you are not alone...

:grouphug:

BlondeHeadOn

I forgot in my last post to say that my business usually goes quiet at this time of year too, and then picks up again with the new tax year in April, when potential clients have new budgets to spend etc. Don't know what you do, but this could be a factor if business is dead at the moment.

Hope it increases for you again soon...

dottyanne

Up_down_debt_ranking wrote:

Hello. I was wondering how many people are in a similar situation to me. My real problem is that I have an irregular income with high costs.
Here is the situation:

The most I owed was about £40,000, which was last summer. This is now down to about £28,000 as I have been putting as much in as I can into the debt because my business has been doing OK, and this is the crunch.

I run a small business. It is up and down. Sometimes I am very busy and make good money, and sometimes I struggle. This is the cause of the debt. Unfortunately when I am doing well I am normally playing catch up from when things were not going well. This past year has seen an increase in business so I have paid off quite a lot, however I have a large mortgage on a house, my wife is on maternity leave and business is quiet. Not dead, but quiet.
I am on the phone trying to get more business but I am scared.

I know the principles, I was a credit card tart until it got more difficult to get the new cards at 0%, so now I have £13,000 on a low rate credit card which stays the same until it is paid off. I have about £6000 on a 0% for 9 months.
I have a car loan at about £6000 at 5.5%. And my overdraft moves up and down between £3000 and £6000.

I know that I have to either increase my income or cut my spending, but I really don't have the option of cutting my spending by much because of the mortgage. Realistically I have to increase my income, which means getting more clients, which means getting on the phone to arrange appointments, which is what I should be doing now, not typing away on a forum.

Anyway, i just wanted to share that, and see if it rang any bells with anybody.

I really need to get back to the phone, so I will leave it at that, but I will be back to see what anybody says.

Cheers.
UDDR

Hi - i am in EXACTLY the same boat - i have so many personal debts that my business has to compensate leaving me short in that are all too often.

I am in the process of trying to maximise my income, myself and hubby work in the same self-employed business so hes on a low wage (paid by me) and sometimes im on a non-existent wage, however when business is good i find myself trying to catch up with things that have been left to slip.

Im fed up now and wish i could just get in front and stay in front!!

Good luck and keep in touch - im sure we can have a good moan about this as we seen to have similar circumstances.

ms_london

As skintchick says, whilst your wife is on maternity leave, could she help you out? Even if it's little things it will free up your time to get some more money in (obviously I dont know what your business is, so it might not be that easy!) It affects here too at the end of the day.

Well done on paying off a humoungous debt so far, thats great!!! Long term do you think your business is viable? Do you have any ideas of how to improve your business/get more customers? Is there anything else you could do as a source of income?

Also, is your wife going back to work after maternity leave? How will you manage then?

Being nosy, but you need to take all of this into account.

Best of luck, I am sure you can do it.

xx

Up_down_debt_ranking

Hi Everyone, Thanks for your replies. It seems I am not alone.
My wife can't really help me as she has her own stuff to do as well as looking after our son.

I don't know what an SOA is, but i guess if I look at the site i will see.

Blonde head On I know exactly what you mean about about never getting any work ever again, and so does a friend of mine who runs his own business. We have to keep talking to our regulars and pitching to new customers without losing confidence. Self-doubt is the killer.

I run a marketing company mainly offering copywriting, design and webwork, and my work is good. I work for some large multi-nationals and a few medium sized companies. They are all happy with my work, although I sometimes think I miss out on big jobs because they think I am too small. This can be frustrating when you see the low quality work that some clients pay huge amounts for to larger agencies.

I find the best thing is to get some sleep and not drink too much in the evenings, because tiredness combined with a hangover can knock your confidence to the floor.

Thanks for your input everyone.
UDDR

Bestthingsinlifearefree

Hi Updowndebtranking,

In reagrd to your question what is a SOA.It Is a Statement Of Affairs.

If you could post all your ingoings (salary,benefits etc)

Outgoings (e.g mortgage, electric,car,food,telephone)

Debts. Amount,interest, term of debt.

With as much detail as possible, then people can give you the best advice possible relating to your specific situation.

Good luck.