I am working full time but considering leaving to start my own business

joseph9a

PlutoinCapricorn wrote: »

This depends on what sort of stress the OP is experiencing: if it is hot, noisy offices with gossiping colleagues, incompetent managers, pressure to achieve unrealistic targets and never ending interruptions and distractions, then working at home will come as a big relief.

At the moment I work in an office and feel undervalued, I have my own workload and I am there to support other staff. An example of why I am stressed is I will begin to do my daily tasks, then the phone will ring I answer it and deal with the problem, and try to get back to my work but then someone says can you send this fax for me, then the phone rings again, I deal with that now I have my original work I was doing the fax to send and all 3 phones in the office are ringing. I just feel over worked. I wouldn't mind if I was earning a massive salary but I'm on £14,000 a year. I'd rather work for myself and make £200 a week and be happy. The thing that annoys me most is when the phones are ringing there are other people in the office but as I am the clerk they just ignore them and I am expected to juggle all 3 phones aswel as my own workload. I always answe the phone when it rings as soon. As possible usually after 3 rings but the other day when. I phoned in to say I couldn't come in I had to ring 7 times and each time I let the phone ring for 2 mins and no one answered, and I know people are there and it is just really ignorant.

BakerBoy

joseph9a wrote: »

At the moment I work in an office and feel undervalued, I have my own workload and I am there to support other staff. An example of why I am stressed is I will begin to do my daily tasks, then the phone will ring I answer it and deal with the problem, and try to get back to my work but then someone says can you send this fax for me, then the phone rings again, I deal with that now I have my original work I was doing the fax to send and all 3 phones in the office are ringing. I just feel over worked. I wouldn't mind if I was earning a massive salary but I'm on £14,000 a year. I'd rather work for myself and make £200 a week and be happy.

That sounds just like running a business! If you only need to earn £200 per week then I suggest finding a part-time job that pays £200 and try and find paid work doing something for yourself - something you are good at. You can pick up all the other stuff you need to learn like bookkeeping, marketing, compliance as you go and then decide if you can do them yourself or pay someone else to do them for you.

joseph9a

BakerBoy wrote: »

That sounds just like running a business! If you only need to earn £200 per week then I suggest finding a part-time job that pays £200 and try and find paid work doing something for yourself - something you are good at. You can pick up all the other stuff you need to learn like bookkeeping, marketing, compliance as you go and then decide if you can do them yourself or pay someone else to do them for you.

If i was running my own business and I had as many calls i deal with at my current job i would be delighted but that wouldn't happen. I deal with approximately 50-100 calls a day as well as my own daily tasks. Being realistic if I handed out 500 flyers I would probably only be expecting to hear back from about 10 customers while im starting

PlutoinCapricorn

Your job does not sound very enjoyable: I am not surprised that you are thinking of leaving.

If you give more information about what you hope to do, you may get tailored advice. Having a business where you are buying and selling needs a different approach from one where you go out working - tidying gardens for example - and working mainly online is a whole other story.

joseph9a

PlutoinCapricorn wrote: »

Your job does not sound very enjoyable: I am not surprised that you are thinking of leaving.

If you give more information about what you hope to do, you may get tailored advice. Having a business where you are buying and selling needs a different approach from one where you go out working - tidying gardens for example - and working mainly online is a whole other story.

I am thinking of setting up a video editing business, and also doing things like logo design and photo correction making photo slideshows etc. I used to work for someone who did this about 6 or 7 years ago, and i was good at it and enjoyed it i left due to it being an hour trip each way to work as i did not drive at the time. so my 8 hour day was a 10 hour one and i was spending about £10 a day on buses and meals so that was £50 off my salary. The boss there was very good he offered to buy me a bus pass because I was good at the job, but i decided to leave because at the time i was getting £5.20 an hour, and I felt it was time for a change.

When I worked there he was never out of work and he used to have waiting lists around Christmas and i remember thinking I could do this myself if i had the equipment. I don't know how he got the customers in but he did have a lot of business.

I am 100% professional and I don't think of it as transferring a video to a DVD I think of it as transferring someones wedding video to a DVD and it may not have been seen for 20 years. So I tried my best to make the end product as good as possible.

I was thinking as well if I was successful I could do things like hire a camera man to record something like the Christmas play at a school (obviously with the right permission) and pay the camera man for a days work and make DVD's to sell and offering the school a percentage of the profit. Ideas like that

I've spoken to an adviser on the phone who told me about expenses I could claim back and i could manage my own books which all sounds pretty straight forward. The scariest thing is if I take a big leap leave my job and the business doesn't take off. the hardest thing if i did take the leap would be finding money to get the equipment and then finding some customers. I'd have no problem posting flyers, knocking on doors, or putting ads in the local paper, but I've mentioned it to a family member about it but they have said they think i should stay in my job because it is security. But my answer to them was but if i am unhappy why should I stay? i'd rather struggle for a bit without money while it started and hopefully after a few years I could be earning double the salary i'm on now.

I'm sorry to go on but its helpful to get unbiased opinions as my family although there hearts in the right place they can sometimes be a bit negative. If I never try to do something like this I will always wonder.

joseph9a

Is it normal to think this will work then a few hours later have doubts

trailingspouse

Hell yes, totally normal.

Here are my thoughts - and I've been self-employed for several years, having left a job that I found stressful.

1) Work out how cheaply you can live. Pare things down to the bone. What is the the absolute bare minimum you need to live on? You're currently earning £14,000, so I'm guessing you're pretty good at economising. Let's assume you can live on £12,000 a year, or £1000 a month.

2) Write a business plan, to see how much work you would have to do in order to make £12,000 per year profit. Profit, not turnover. Be brutal. Be realistic. Take advice (most accountants will give you half an hour of their time for nothing, so visit several and ask different questions at each one. Also talk to your bank's business adviser).

3) While you're doing all of this, learn to say no at work. Really, if no-one else cares, why should you?

I don't know if your idea will work, and neither do you at this stage - but you can do the legwork and then make an informed decision.

PlutoinCapricorn

I know nothing about this line of work, but perhaps people who do will come along.

It does sound suitable for running alongside a part time job, as opposed to giving up PAYE work completely in the hope that things will work out.

Could you make yourself available for helping others in the business, your old boss for example, with their waiting lists?

How long do you think the demand will be there? Could you ask your old boss whether he is still getting the same level of business?

Working Tax Credits exist to boost low incomes, and might be useful while building the business, but you do need to have a real business not a hobby.

FatVonD

joseph9a wrote: »

I was thinking as well if I was successful I could do things like hire a camera man to record something like the Christmas play at a school (obviously with the right permission) and pay the camera man for a days work and make DVD's to sell and offering the school a percentage of the profit. Ideas like that

Why not video it yourself (if it is at all possible which it may not be but someone else will know the answer to that) rather than pay someone else to do it?

I agree that you should start this as a sideline (either alongside your current job or find a part time one) and see how it goes and only give up your job when the level of work is such that you don't have time to work as well as run your business.

BakerBoy

joseph9a wrote: »

If i was running my own business and I had as many calls i deal with at my current job i would be delighted but that wouldn't happen.

My point was that working for yourself comes with 100% responsibility. i do every job in my business. I clean the toilet, negotiate with suppliers, sell to customers, unpack stock, order stationery. It is no less stressful than working for someone else, but a great deal more fulfilling (though not necessarily financially!!!). Like you I'm always juggling stuff. Firefighting if you like, but it's just a case of constantly prioritising.