Self Employed Work?

briggzy01

Ironing and cleaning seem to be cheap to start up, i think thewas summed it up quit well.

save-a-lot

My brother in law, did man with a van thing for a while and he managed to deliver for Comet for a while, delivering washing machines, dryers etc.. but that might not be suitable. He got so much interest that his services were in constant demand, usually small house moves.

A friend of mine, she has gone down the cleaning route, however, she does some herself, she then has a team of cleaners and offers the service out at an hourly rate.. and profiting on the cut of many, making a good living from it too.

schneckster

Hi,

A quick intro... for 2 years I was a self employed courier. I did OK, too. I had a small van (Citroen Berlingo), but more importantly, I had the right attitude and mentality. As a business it made me as much after tax, that my current job (electronics engineer) does. But it is not for the faint hearted!!! I only got out of it because I didn't fancy 14+ hour days with a newborn daughter at home :j

First things first. Decide what type of courier you want to be. Same Day or multidrop?

Multidrops are like another poster... work for the likes of DHL getting paid to do 30 to 100 deliveries/collections a day. You need a larger van for this, but be aware that this type of work kills your van far quicker than same day stuff.

Same Day are more light haulage than couriers. This is more what I did, though I did do occassional multidrops. Usually it was one or two deliveries, but anywhere in the country, and occassionally Europe. Far bigger profits in this work, but also more likely to have down time.

Both need the right insurance and you can face criminal charges if you don't. Courier insurance for my van, with my 12 years 75% car no claims being regarded as only 2 years 0% for a van, cost around £1500. Add in goods in transit insurance (not legally required but you'd be stupid not to have it) for another £400 and £150 for public liability, it quickly gets expensive.

If you want to use your car, then you can as long as you have the right insurances. But you limit yourself to the catalogues and mobile phones, which aren't easy to get. With a van, you open up allsorts of other possibilites.

The cowboys don't usually bother with insurance and as a result undercut your proper rate by a mile. Of course, they're not in business for long, but when you see a cheap rate being offered, bear it mind!

As a same day courier, I worked on the basis of driving 400 miles a day and that would start when the mobile rang. I typically put a full tank of fuel in every day, so you need cash around just to start up. At 400 miles a day, you can easily work out how many miles you'll do a year. Figure on getting paid for half of those miles (same dayers are only paid while loaded, not to return). Now divide all your other costs by this mileage, and then divide how much you'd like to earn by this mileage, too. This gives you your rate. A few years ago, that put my Berlingo on a min of 65p per loaded mile for courier companies, 80p for end users. I would think it's more, now.

Same day or multidrop, the best way to get work is to ring courier companies. I rang local courier companies in the Yellow Pages that I hadn't heard of and asked them if they used freelancers. Ask them about their rates, requirements, etc., and try and build a relationship if you actually are about to start working.

Same Day drivers live on their mobile phone, and it can ring at allsorts of times. But if you turn out for a 10 mile job at 11 at night, that bloke will think of you first for that 400 mile job he gets a few days later. Flexibility and the willingness to take the crap jobs will get you the really good jobs. I once had a 2am collection from Coventry airport that had to be in Birmingham at 5am (no idea why it was that urgent, but hey!). Only got me £20 and it meant little sleep that night before a reasonably good (busy) day the next day. But that controller rang me first a few days later when he had a non-rush job to Rome worth £800 plus expenses :cool:

That same controller gave me my start and when I first spoke to him he said "If you can possibly help it, never ever turn a job down, no matter how crap."

Follow that advice and, with the right vehicle and insurances, plus a large dollop of luck, you could do OK. You won't be a millionaire, and you'll have no social life, but you'll do OK.

At the moment, though, it's not a business I'd go back to. With the recession and the threat of further recession, belts are getting tightened, so companies are looking for ways of getting things delivered for far less. And with costs going up, transport is not really a good business to start out in.

But if you go for it, I wish you the very best of luck.

Schneckster

jo70mo

Dog walking/ pet sitting my nephew is just starting doing this and though he will be on foot/ bike he could cover a larger area with transport and a dog crate or 2 in the back: mobile fruit and veg sales (no idea how viable it is) one goes up my friends street once a fortnight and she always buys from it.

debbie_debt

I'm a young woman in the process of setting up a new business. I had an idea that I wanted to explore and (I assume like you-correct me if I'm wrong!) had very little business knowledge or start-up capital to invest. The best bit of advice I can say is get in touch with Business Link. The website is a bit of a minefield and I think there's a bit too much info thrown at you when you go on, but do a postcode search at:

http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/home?domain=www.businesslink.gov.uk&target=http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/

and fill out a form for someone in your local area to give you a call. It was the best thing I ever did. They're really friendly and I didn't feel too stupid asking the questions that I thought everyone would expect me to know the answers to. I've now got a mentor for 1:1 support and am in the process of applying for 3 grants to help me out with capital to get going.

Good luck!!

clio2008

Hello everyone and thanks ever so much for you advice

I have looked into it further and just like Schneckster said about companies looking for drivers charging cheap for deliveries it would be quite difficult to make a living from this with the 2nd impending recession..I have spoken to some owner drivers as well and they have similar opinions about the industry...I would be quite silly if I didnt pay any heed to those wise words lol Especially with such a huge outlay before I start it might not be worth it..(didnt know the insurance was so high!) and I cant take the chance to gamble that amount of money on a business that might not take off or one that takes a long time to take off...my pocket would suffer in the mean time.

I have started looking at other avenues. Even if it means to retrain in another area of work..fast track/home learning that is, my chances of getting work after it would be better..

I dont think I shall be buying that van after all lol Thanks again for ALL your advice guys :beer: