Out of desperation I'm contemplating stating as business without funding

Eliza_2

I think you need to clear your mind a bit, it sounds as though you have loads of ideas tumbling round together. Have you worked out a business plan? Doesn't have to be too formal at this stage but it will help get some of those whirling ideas out of your head and onto paper (or a screen) and free up your brain for some more ideas. I found it amazingly useful to do and develop an action plan from it. Lots of lists of things to do but in a productive way rather than random. That way you won't forget that you looked into something once and meant to follow it up as you said. You then have a step by step route to get what you want, with dates, contact details of people to help and so on, so you can really feel you're on a straight road rather than the circle line! Include all the stuff about your benefits etc.

I'm also a big advocate of the flipchart-paper-on-kitchen-wall style of planning too. Lots of BIG sheets pinned to the wall where my random ideas can be scrawled when they come to me, then I organise them under headings to follow up. Trouble is these days my best ideas come to me in the shower so I need to find a waterproof notebook or something now!

Of for a shower. Good luck with it - and take some time to breathe!!!

~Chameleon~

Eliza wrote: »

Trouble is these days my best ideas come to me in the shower so I need to find a waterproof notebook or something now!

Mine too! And my OH was the same. I often enquired why it took him twice as long to shower as me and his reply was "it's my thinking time"

aneres

I'm sure there is something through the Jobcentre where you can go self employed and remain on JSA, you have to declare any profit but they support you through the first months of starting your own business.

I can't really remember much about it but I would ask your Adviser.

~Chameleon~

Has your advisor mentioned the New Enterprise Allowance to you?


Organiser
Jobcentre Plus

Eligibility
You must be aged 18 or over, have a business idea and get one of the following benefits:

Jobseeker’s Allowance
Income Support as a lone parent
Employment and Support Allowance, if you’re in the work-related activity group

A Jobcentre Plus adviser can refer you to the scheme as soon as you get a qualifying benefit.

You don’t qualify if you’re part of the Work Programme, but you can still get help setting up a business elsewhere.


Help you can get

Finance
You could get:

a loan to help with start-up costs
a weekly allowance paid over 26 weeks (up to a total of £1,274)
The loan has to be paid back, the allowance does not.

Any money you get does not affect your Housing Benefit, tax credits, Income Tax, or Access to Work grant.

Support
You could get:

a mentor to help you develop your business idea and write a business plan
ongoing support from a mentor in the early months of trading

Kayalana99

Sir_Pac wrote: »

As mentioned above in my last reply, when I'm honest with myself, the money issue is more a excuse than a reason for not starting. If I was 100% certain that I could claim roughly the same amount in benefits as I do now (until I was earning) then I'd make the jump, but the figures I've been quoted (job centre, better off in work assessment) showed a shortfall of approximately £20 week. I couldn't survive on that, I live with ZERO heating as it is, no TV or home phone, lol, not much left to cut...

:-)

Awesome. So you don't need any capital, and your short fall for starting up is £20 a week but you need time to get your business running.

So what you need is an easy way of supplementing £20 a week that doesn't involve your business at all.

How about a paper round? Usually theirs one local -theirs no working for someone just money through your door (obliviously you have to go outside to deliver them )

I sympathise, I can't say on any level I have ever been in your position, but I was the odd sheep in school so to speak and have been bullied most of my younger school life, lucky I went to a decent school for the last half so I had a couple of friends and people tended to leave me alone.

It can't be easy for you at the minute, not being able to pull out £20 a week spare or cut back in some way must mean your living on the edge.

Depression is a serious thing, but you need to pull yourself out of it, you have nothing to lose by starting up this business considering you can do it for free (bar £20) and everything to gain.

Right now you probably feel worthless shunning the world, unemployable - not needed.

Imagine what you could do if you had the freedom & time that comes with money, to show the people that once had no faith in you that you've managed to follow your dreams as they were to scared to do.

Sir_Pac

Some good ideas, there, and rather than take them apart with individual pull-outs as is my usual way, I thought I'd jump straight in with a quickie.

I was offered the New Enterprise Allowance one week before Xmas, but I was already half-way through a works programme, and it was explained to me that If I went on it I'd have to leave the work programme I was on (Ingues).

I won't go into the details, but it wasn't a good fit for me at the time, Ingues were being SUPER useful (£60+ free postage), and as explained to me, their were very few places left on the NEA and my chances were 50/50 getting it. Remember this was just before Xmas, and I was already 50% through my course with Ingues.

Maybe, tomorrow I can re-apply for NEA, but something in the back of my head is reminding me the JC advisor mentioned wworking for my benefits (stacking shelves no dealt, a noble job, but really no future).

THE DEPRESSION
It isn't an issue, only the memory problems (and the procrastination remain, damn you memory).

DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT
I half remember a quote from somewhere, it referred to doing something different if you want to break the cycle of nothing changing.

MY BIG CHANGE
I put the heating on :rotfl:

Seriously, I've put on all my heating. For one day (for the first day in a very long time) I'm sitting in the cosiest of flats, no double layer clothing here, no gloves for typing (seriously)...

I'm a perfectionist (I know, its not good), but today I'm going to strive for distance, and not the perfect stride. I'm going to make as much headway today as I can, without worrying about how it looks etc.

:T Todays is the first day to the rest of my life, let's work a little differently today, and if it all goes tits up , hey, its only a day

Sir_Pac

Huge strides indeed in the last two days, multiple online stores either opened (or more accurately, re-opened), tied in all my social media sites, finishing touches to my community magazine started this morning...

willwba

Sir Pac I'd say go right for it thats what I did.... After working with different companies and being taken for granted i just had enough and wanted to start something for myself.
Lucky the business I started was on the same lines as the job I was in at that time so I did alot of research and spoke to many people to get a jist on what my plan of action would be.
I wrote to the local Goverment Funding asking for help starting up and was granted only after meetings and business plans were seen may I add.
Although I only actually received £1500 to help start me it brought me my first Recycling Bin,old Transit van off ebay & some new work uniform with my new company logo.
Now I'm 3 years down the line and really glad I took that first step (massive step with morgage to think about) My company supplies recycling,general & confidential bins, we have over 150 general waste customers and have a big contract with the NHS to dispose of their confidential waste. we also work alongside some major companies in recycling platics,cardboard & textiles. only just last month did I take on another person because the work load was just getting too much being up at 3am and not getting back until 4-5pm.
The only thing that kept me getting up in the morning was seeing amount of potential customers that I could approach to beat the likes of SITA,BIFFA,The local council in saving people, shops and school and hospitals alot of money. This is due to the fact I only had myself to think about, i didnt have to pay 5-6 men to drive a bin truck, i didnt have to pay hundreds of £'s to fill the bin truck up i had no overheads.
Now I sit in my yard look out the window and i see 1 brand new van and 1 brand new tipper and I'm so proud to say I achieved that all by myself no loans or credit cards just pure graft of long days.

Good Luck on your journey you will never regret it honestly!!!

Willwba

Sir_Pac

willwba wrote: »

Sir Pac I'd say go right for it thats what I did.... After working with different companies and being taken for granted i just had enough and wanted to start something for myself.
Lucky the business I started was on the same lines as the job I was in at that time so I did alot of research and spoke to many people to get a jist on what my plan of action would be.
I wrote to the local Goverment Funding asking for help starting up and was granted only after meetings and business plans were seen may I add.
Although I only actually received £1500 to help start me it brought me my first Recycling Bin,old Transit van off ebay & some new work uniform with my new company logo.
Now I'm 3 years down the line and really glad I took that first step (massive step with morgage to think about) My company supplies recycling,general & confidential bins, we have over 150 general waste customers and have a big contract with the NHS to dispose of their confidential waste. we also work alongside some major companies in recycling platics,cardboard & textiles. only just last month did I take on another person because the work load was just getting too much being up at 3am and not getting back until 4-5pm.
The only thing that kept me getting up in the morning was seeing amount of potential customers that I could approach to beat the likes of SITA,BIFFA,The local council in saving people, shops and school and hospitals alot of money. This is due to the fact I only had myself to think about, i didnt have to pay 5-6 men to drive a bin truck, i didnt have to pay hundreds of £'s to fill the bin truck up i had no overheads.
Now I sit in my yard look out the window and i see 1 brand new van and 1 brand new tipper and I'm so proud to say I achieved that all by myself no loans or credit cards just pure graft of long days.

Good Luck on your journey you will never regret it honestly!!!

Willwba

Thank you willwba, a lot of inspiration in those 3 paragraphe, I will use it to fuel my day :-)

Kayalana99

Maybe you could turn this thread into a diary to keep you inspired Sir Pac. Would love for things to turn themselves around for you.