Advice on SOA

cycloneuk

JohnD76 wrote: »

Cyclone,

You are in a fortunate position since you have no morgtage and are moving to a cheaper house so will not need to take a mortgage out when you move.

However, you really need to come to terms with the fact that the business is not making any more presently. So you need to either:

1. Listen to the advice this good people, who are in a far worse state you than, are giving you freely and ride the current financial storm, praying that your customers will return and you takings will increase significantly.

or

2. increase your income with another part time/full time job.

Either way, do everyone a favour a earn sufficent money to stop claiming benefits please.

I just want to point out that i have only ever claimed jobseekers for 2 weeks in my life and only last year started to claim working tax and child tax credits, they are there to top up a families income when they work part time or are on a low income.

I work full time at this job, due to anxiety issues i would only be comfortable doing factory work or something, i couldn't work in a supermarket dealing with customers face to face. I am quite confident doing this over the phone when dealing with customers/suppliers.

Even though the business is not paying me what i would like, it is still profitable at the end of the day. I was unfortunate to have started right before the recession hit, perfume is one of those items people have cut back on.

mandyl

cycloneuk wrote: »

I wouldn't want to risk my house by doing that.

She will be looking for part time work once her SMP ends, again not a lot about for her so could take a good few months.

- i can make some changes to help like reducing Sky package to £20, buying monthly bus tickets, looking at the clothes budget and trying to save on gas/electric.

sorry ive not read full thread yet but i just had to pick up on this.I don't exacly have a lavish lifestyle iamana1ias ,er yeah you do.

iamana1ias

cycloneuk wrote: »

Even though the business is not paying me what i would like, it is still profitable at the end of the day. I was unfortunate to have started right before the recession hit, perfume is one of those items people have cut back on.

It's not though - you've had to pump prime it with personal loans!

cycloneuk

iamana1ias wrote: »

Trips to town a few times a week but no time for a part time job? Pull the other one OP.

I already work full time, i'm quite happy to work full time for a part time wage at present.

Some of the suggestions in this thread are redicious, basically i'm expected to live on value brand food, wash once a week, never go to town and stay stuck in a small village with nothing to do.

Life is for living not just existing, shame on these people that never take their kids out in order to save pennies, what kind of life is that for them? i'm also expected to buy clothes from charity shops and buy food nearing the sell by date and freeze it.

I'm all for saving some pennies but seriously, the way some people seem to live is very sad. You may be debt free quicker but it can't be nice when your kids get asked what they did at the weekend and they say sat in a tent in the garden when everyone else went out and did something.

There are actually some good suggestions, so thanks to everyone for those.

cycloneuk

iamana1ias wrote: »

It's not though - you've had to pump prime it with personal loans!

Not for the last 16 months, it wasn't profitable at that time.

JohnD76

cycloneuk wrote: »

Not for the last 16 months, it wasn't profitable at that time.

Cyclone,

How long are you willing to wait to see if the company starts making you sufficient money to pay off your debts and live a comfortable lifestyle? All the while you may be acrueing more debt.

If you pay yourself 371 a month and do a normal 40 hour week, you are earning £2.13 a hour from your business.

cycloneuk

MyLastFiver wrote: »

Nice one - the penny's dropped I think! :beer:

Time to think again about raising your income now. Look - don't take this the wrong way and I sympathise with your illness because I have suffered from depression and anxiety my whole life - it comes on in waves then goes again - but because I have my family to think about, work would be the last thing to suffer. I just have to go in and get on with it. I'm a bit old-fashioned like that. It's the "getting on with it" and keeping busy that helps me through the black periods by taking me out of myself. Not just getting on with work but getting on with cycling, getting on with taking my son out, and other things I enjoy. I think if I was sitting round the house all day twiddling round on the computer, waiting for orders to come through, I would go downhill fast

Now I have no idea how ill you are, but purposeful activity works for me every time. It seems like you are stuck in a rut and you have created this life in which, day to day, you don't have to do very much. I know I know - you are "running your own business" but it's not bringing home the bacon, is it? No wonder your wife isn't happy. You could make her happy, and do your self-esteem the world of good by considering being more productive.

I used to "run my own e-business" too. I got home from my day job, put the baby to bed then checked and picked the orders in the evening. No Sky TV for me, and no time to be bored!

Life's what you make it, etc etc.

Anxiety is something i have struggled with for the last 6 years or so, i was quite bad early on at one point but have made a lot of progress towards recovery and it's mainly confidence i'm lacking now. I was agrophobic for 6 months when it first hit.

That is why i like and go out and do things, even if it's just a trip to town or to see the family. I don't want to end up staying in all the time and slipping backwards.

Triggles

I work full time at this job, due to anxiety issues i would only be comfortable doing factory work or something, i couldn't work in a supermarket dealing with customers face to face. I am quite confident doing this over the phone when dealing with customers/suppliers.

If you're confident over the phone, there are TONS of jobs out there for phone work dealing with customer service. Some even part time if you're still insistent on beating your head against a brick wall with this self-employed thing.

If you could read my previous post #75 from today and answer the few queries, it would be helpful for those of us trying to tailor advice to your specific information.

I think at the end of the day you need to realise that something has to give here.

My DH & I would love to be able to say "well, we're doing this and that's that..." and disregard the money saving we need to do, but facts are facts. We need to budget, we need to save. I would love to be able to go into town and browse around and relax over a coffee. But I keep my trips into town to one per week, where I meet friends for a cheap cup of tea or coffee and a treat (a whole £1.80 total) at a supermarket coffee shop so we don't have to pay for parking, and then I can do my shopping while I'm there. Otherwise, I either walk or on occasion have borrowed my adult DD's monthly bus pass for a trip into town on a day when she's not using it. We have a car, so I could easily putter about wherever I would like, but I don't, as petrol is expensive and so is parking. We swap off visiting MIL and SIL. We have free calls on the weekend, so we time our calls accordingly, calling our adult son who lives further away on the weekends to see how he and DIL & DGS are doing. We use basics in our groceries all the time - actually have no problems with that though. Why pay for branded products when we're just as happy with basics? Certainly there are more ways we could cut down, and we are always looking at ways to do so, even if it means we have to make some sacrifices or compromise a bit.

iamana1ias

cycloneuk wrote: »

Not for the last 16 months, it wasn't profitable at that time.

Oh right. Has the business paid the loans off yet?

No? Then you're fooling yourself.

iamana1ias

cycloneuk wrote: »

That is why i like and go out and do things, even if it's just a trip to town or to see the family. I don't want to end up staying in all the time and slipping backwards.

What do you do in town though?