His work

grastgirl

I think you're perhaps going to find it hard to be happy with someone who is self employed, regardless of how well he manages his workload. They do have to have flexible schedules, there will always be times when there isn't work (even if he's trying to get it) and others when he could be working 7 days a week and still turning down work. As a couple you may never get to the point where you can happily book in a holiday; there's regularly no time or no money, or you've booked something months in advance and then he gets the big contract he can't afford to turn down. Even when he's working regularly there will be evenings spent visiting clients to do quotes, or the books/paperwork. He may find that he gets work from recommendations once he's been going a while, which should help with the flow of work, but he does need to get out there now. I don't feel at this point that he should be letting down his main employer/contact just because of unsociable hours/lack of notice at this point, which means making himself available. You need to accept the situation may get better, but will never be a 9-5 job that can be switched on and off the way most office jobs are. Three days of 13 hours is still 39 hours don't forget, and I don't know a self-employed person who doesn't do more when you include running the business and quoting for future jobs and things.

I hope this is helpful in letting you know what you might be letting yourself in for, even if he's successful getting more work in.

Gavin83

Pee wrote: »

Is there anything he could do in his days off, such as start up a business doing something with wood? This was an idea we had when my boyfriend's work was at it's most sporadic.

Thats a great suggestion. He could build and sell furniture. There's always a market for hand made furniture and presuming he's as talented as your saying he is, he could earn a fair bit.

clairehi

[QUOTE=nm123;25885991
We did discuss whether being employed would "suit" him better, but he really wants his own business and doesn't want to always be working for someone else.[/QUOTE]

I wonder why he wants his own business and whether his expectations of what this involves are realistic? "Not wanting to work for someone else" is a reason for not wanting to be employed - its not a positive reason to want to work for yourself.

As someone else said, self-employment is not just about being good at "your" job but also about being organised, doing finance and admin, selling yourself, and juggling your time to manage all three. Does he really understand how much effort is involved in this and does he have the other skills needed? He doesnt sound very self-motivated - in fact he sounds like he needs a boot up the backside to get him going.

there are some great posts on this thread about the downside of self employment.