Self Employed Ideas - Need to escape the rat race!

soolin

ricardinho88 wrote: »

I've been looking at Utility Warehouse. For £100 you become one of their 'distributors' and it can apparently be a decent earner on the side.

That's the thing with going self employed - it's so so risky. You can end up ruining your life or making a really good living. I'm the bread winner at home, and we've got one kid and another on the way, so I'd need to make sure the positives of going SE would outweigh the risks.

You do realise that involves cold calling ?

http://pinkpiggy.biz/utility-warehouse-distributor-earnings

ricardinho88

soolin wrote: »

You do realise that involves cold calling ?

http://pinkpiggy.biz/utility-warehouse-distributor-earnings

Just read through the entire article, and there was no mention of cold calling?

Do you mean by phone or calling at houses by the way? I have no problem doing it by phone because I used to do it for a living (again, hated it but good at it). Randomly knocking on people's doors is a different story though.

Flyonthewall

ricardinho88 wrote: »

Just read through the entire article, and there was no mention of cold calling?

Do you mean by phone or calling at houses by the way? I have no problem doing it by phone because I used to do it for a living (again, hated it but good at it). Randomly knocking on people's doors is a different story though.

Course they don't, it puts people off. They use terms like gather customers. In other words, you going out and trying to get customers by cold calling.

It's going to be all down to you to find people so it'll be whatever you can do to get the customers.

Pauluss

Read

The Millionaire Fastlane: Crack the Code to Wealth and Live Rich for a Lifetime! by M. J. DeMarco

Whilst you are still in you're job - the best book i've read on business and how to succeed. Corny american title but content is awesome

Has helped me no end in my own business and ive been self employed over 10+ years now

Towser

What about teaching and using your persuasive selling skills that way making a difference to childrens' lives?

There ain't no way of making easy money.

dktreesea

OP, what kind of thing do you sell at the moment? Would it be possible to buy in the same thing or something similar and sell it on your own account? Nothing wrong with quitting your job and going into competition with your former employer.

ricardinho88

dktreesea wrote: »

OP, what kind of thing do you sell at the moment? Would it be possible to buy in the same thing or something similar and sell it on your own account? Nothing wrong with quitting your job and going into competition with your former employer.

I work at a huge car finance company, so it's my job to sell our car finance packages. This company is going to be massive in a few years so I'd be reluctant to go into competition with it!

dktreesea

ricardinho88 wrote: »

I work in the new business department at a huge car finance company, so it's my job to sell our car finance packages. This company is going to be massive in a few years so I'd be reluctant to go into competition with it!

The thing is with a product like that, it may be a relatively easy sell, because there's always a huge demand for car finance.


I know you're bored, but it might be a job worth putting up with and appreciating a bit more. While the pressure is on to sell, the commission on each sale is probably quite reasonable, and you don't have to spend time looking for new products to add to the range.


I've been self employed for a good many years. What sells sells and over time you get a feel for what is going to sell, but finding good supply lines and new products to add to the range as the older ones wane in popularity or are overtaken by developments in the market is a never ending task.


Say you can make a couple of hundred pounds if you sell a finance package worth, say, £20k. And say that takes you a few hours from start to finish. The good thing about those kinds of products is that while the percentage commission might not be good the amount is. As one dealer recently said to me, he'd rather have 10% of £3k than 400% of £1 profits.


What I've found is the products that make even £20 or £30 profit tend to be few on the ground and getting sufficient supply of them can be hard. Hard on cash flow - they could cost £30 each to buy, and hard to get a decent supply for when you want them. A bit like Cabbage patch dolls when they first came out.


The ones which make a pound or two profit at a time are much easier to source, but then you have 100 transactions to process before you see your £200.


One of the hardest businesses ever had was selling car boot items at a market. Not because the stuff didn't sell but because it was so time consuming, by the time you packed the car, got to the site in good time so you could get a decent spot, finished several hours later, came home or to a charity shop and unloaded what didn't sell.


Maybe it is worth trying that, just one day at a car boot selling stuff you have lying around that you think might sell. Just to test how much effort it takes to get whatever you manage to get rid of on the day. At least it will give you a taste of what being self employed could be like.

Dan-Dan

ricardinho88 wrote: »

Well here's the story - I'm bored. I work in a sales job and I'm sick and tired of it. It's really well paid, but the pressure of monthly sales targets and the monotony of doing exactly the same thing all day every day is really getting me down. The problem is, sales and customer service are all I've got on my CV and I don't currently drive, so it's really hard to change my career path.

So I've come to the conclusion that setting up a little business doing what I actually want to do would be a good option to take, but I'm really struggling for idea's. I'm not interested in going down the self employed courier/delivery driver route that a lot of people take nowadays because the market is too saturated with them so it'd be too hard to make a good living.

So far I've come up with an errand service (I live in a town full of old folk, so I could pick up prescriptions etc), a CV writing service and a Social Media Consultant. For the latter, I'd approach local business and offer to get their businesses online via social networks to increase interest.

Apart from those, I'm pretty stuck. Anyone have any good idea's? And do mine sound ok?

Wanting to start your own business and not enjoying the bit i have bolded , dont go hand in hand

ricardinho88

Dan-Dan wrote: »

Wanting to start your own business and not enjoying the bit i have bolded , dont go hand in hand

If my own business has nothing to do with sales, I'm pretty sure I won't have monthly sales targets.