I feel trapped and have very few options

AngelPie78

LannieDuck wrote: »

"was a very successful consultant and manager for a large weight loss organisation"

How much were you earning per year before all this kicked off?

The most I've earned in my life lol Probably near £30k gross. *sigh* good times. No chance to go back to it though. Can't work for them if you have mental health issues , I'd need to lose a ton of weight AND find the franchise fee. Great job though.

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

bugslet wrote: »

Bowen is touch therapy like osteopathy is. I have an injured muscle in my back that constantly causes some degree of discomfort, sometimes very painful. I do exercises from the physio and that helps a lot, but sometimes it hurts a great deal and Bowen helps more than osteo and chiro, both of which I have tried.

Yes I am aware of what homeopathy is, I tried it, thought it was rubbish, but at least I've come from a point of personal experience and I wasn't brassic, so my money to waste.

As we are more or less on the same page Scorpion, I'm not sure what your point is.

I am just pointing out what homeopathy actually is, because it can't be said often enough. There's a massive industry out there selling vulnerable people water as a panacea cure, and if anyone ever mentions it I am going to say what it is in case somebody who doesn't know reads it. That's all really.

skintandfat

The call recording only works with Android phones


What I meant about stopping paying was to pay £1 token payments to your debts.


As you are in rented you are pretty much bulletproof


A creditor is unlikely to take you to court as you have no assets and rely (partly) on benefits.


I had a Barclaycard and I paid them £1 per month for 2 years prior to bankruptcy.


If you cannot afford to pay the debt then don't.


If they pass it to debt collectors you can refuse to talk to them


If you have been taken to court and have a CCJ they can enforce it- what happened to reclaiming money from the car fiasco?


Baliffs have a right of entry to an open door- talk to them through a window or your phone. Keep your door locked at all times.


If they are not high court baliffs then you can tell them to jog on.


Stopping paying the debts lets you have spare money to make the BR fee.


Have you tried charities - some can help with the BR fee.

LannieDuck

AngelPie78 wrote: »

The most I've earned in my life lol Probably near £30k gross. *sigh* good times. No chance to go back to it though. Can't work for them if you have mental health issues , I'd need to lose a ton of weight AND find the franchise fee. Great job though.

You might not be able to work for that particular company again, but that type of experience is hugely transferable.

I would have thought your best bet is to re-write your CV to highlight your consultant/management experience, and apply to jobs in a similar field one step down from where you were before - possibly deputy management? You might even consider applying for similar jobs in tech companies where your tech-knowledge would be a bonus. Taking time out to earn a degree and gain experience running your own company is a great reason for leaving your previous position.

Financially, I think it would make most sense to go full-time, and pay after-school childcare fees for half the week.

AngelPie78

LannieDuck wrote: »

You might not be able to work for that particular company again, but that type of experience is hugely transferable.

I would have thought your best bet is to re-write your CV to highlight your consultant/management experience, and apply to jobs in a similar field one step down from where you were before - possibly deputy management? You might even consider applying for similar jobs in tech companies where your tech-knowledge would be a bonus. Taking time out to earn a degree and gain experience running your own company is a great reason for leaving your previous position.

Financially, I think it would make most sense to go full-time, and pay after-school childcare fees for half the week.

That's a really good idea - thank you. I guess I have been focussing on the tech side of things when I could be using my other skills. Working as a franchisee/consultant and team maneger for 2 years is a lot of experience.

I'll give that some thought and make up a separate CV for this type of role.

Chappers27

If you're building bog standard marketing static websites then yeah £500 a pop is about right. You should think about charging a MONTHLY fee to develop and manage websites rather than doing them as a one off. Charge for hosting, editing, social media, SEO and anything else you can chuck in there. Get them on a contract where they pay you monthly, then your income smooths out and you have your clients locked in.

lush_walrus

Sounds like you have a fair few issues to solve.

Back and ankle; what happened is it an injury or and I don't mean this unkindly but are those weight related issues? If you are overweight try to solve that and it may unwrap these issues. Also, even if an injury have you considered Yoga and Pilates. Pilates will strengthen your core over time and potentially improve your back issue. Yoga, will also strengthen depending on which type you opt for but predominantly it will increase flexibility again helpin with some back conditions and most certainly can help mental health. Trying something else may just unlock your physical issues and open up opportunities for you.

Mental health; a massive topic, you don't specify which mental health issue you have but perhaps improving your health and your wealth may help release some mental health issues. Certainly yoga can help some, again it depends what your issue is. Neither will cure Psychopathy but they both may help depression.

Work; setting up businesses is hard and certainly turning from a dream to profit is very hard. I have set up and run businesses and am now reaping the rewards of light touch managing my managers and driving the businesses on. Early days was a massive dedication and push to grow it. I worked incredibly long hours but I didn't work at a loss or break even. I always was in profit. The profit ebbed and flowed as the business grew and we purchased more buildings took on more staff moved into new directions.

I think your issue sounds two fold, a busy market and high high outgoings for your return. Network events are profitable for one group only, the o facilitators. You may be picking up clients, you may be keeping yourself busy but you do not sound like you are moving in a clear direction to gain independence from these expensive time heavy ways to find work. I don't understand what you do, we have our own web / IT staff so I wouldn't know where to begin with outsourcing what you are discussing. But I am assuming it is some sort of SEO development if you are not doing th website design itself. If so, who is your market. I assume small start ups similar to yourself? If so, where do you find those people? Have you joined all of your local Facebook pages for businesses. I don't want to locate me but we have very specific groups that are set up to encourage local businesses to advertise and interact. Could that be an aim? Or coudl you theme the work you have done, for example if it is specific to beauty join beauty groups chat and discuss your work see if you can pick work up. Is it something shops would use? Drive around get talking to people. What about your children's school an you parents might need your service, get social and known by them. It goes on and on the number of free ways of getting people talking to you so you can discuss what you do. You can not afford your outgoings at present you need to try to be creative with where you get work.

That's my advice to you. Personally I would be working all day everyday to get myself up and running, if the business is going somewhere 3 or 4 years of very hard graft and you may be able to start employing and letting others take the strain a bit.

LannieDuck

Are you in LinkedIn? You can search for people who are working at the company you were at previously. Then you can see where else those people have worked, and what sort of other companies might value you experience.

warby68

Coming back as something has been nagging away - its OP's repeated comment that she can't pay the essentials. This was her calculation:

"My income is literally £188x52 + 82x13 = £10,842.

Rent - £4000 - its actually £3640 based on £70 a week
Council tax - £1500
Water - £800
Gas/Electric - £1300
Business loan - £1560 - not an essential bill
BAYV/fridge & oven - £1144 - not an essential bill

Leaves me £10 p/w for food, petrol, mobile phone, internet, clothes, car expenses and everything else.

What I want to say is you shouldn't prioritise debt over food. Also you keep blurring business and personal expenses. When you give a breakdown of your business income you do say it covers costs which include internet, phone and transport yet you count them in personal bills as well. Also the business loan should be there too.

You REALLY need a debt remedy. If you make token payments on your debt and after correcting your rent you have £3600 left for food and other essentials = £300 pm which is a lot higher than the £10 a week you mention and should cover food for 1 adult and 1 child ( 2 x 1/2) plus some left over.

This isn't a pretty picture but its more realistic than what you are putting forward. You really need to stop paying debt for a time and get the business at least covering its (preferably much lower) costs EVERY month then you might buy a little time to see if you can make a go of it while effectively standing still with your bills/debt. This would also give you some much needed stability and reduction in stress from robbing Peter to pay Paul all the time.

Your benefits assume you have an income from your self employment but you don't - you have it from your mum instead right now. That's the core issue and not sustainable for any length of time.

Good luck once more - I'm still uncertain of the true impact of your health issues. As you say, the 'professionals' believe you should be able to work. You do not. I really cannot see how self-employment will be less stressful than a 'regular' job, especially a part time, lower skilled one topped up with tax credits. However, I am going with face value and putting forward the only way I see you being able to at least try what you prefer.

By your own admission, you've never managed money well so I'd also urge you once more to try the Debt Free Wannabe board. Very supportive and not very judgemental but you have to be truthful to get the benefit, as in being open about exactly what you spend.

AngelPie78

Ah well my finances ARE complicated lol. I don't manage my money well at all and am always very open about this. I came on here a few years back, asking for help, and was absolutely slated so I've stayed away until I was desperate and started this thread!

The only debt I pay is towards the fridge/oven as there is a box connected to the TV which will disable the TV if the debt doesn't get paid - not really an option for me as it's really the only entertainment me and the boys have. Also, I've been paying this amount every week for two and a half years - I'm really proud of the fact that I'm actually paying something back. I guess I could call them and ask if I could reduce the payments for the remaining amount.

The loan is in my daughter's name which she got for me and so I HAVE to pay that as she has no way of paying this herself and it is my responsibility. It's a fairly new loan so no way to reduce those payments. I used half of the money to get on top of bills and half of the money went into the business so half of it should be paid by the business. My money does get a bit confused, I agree, so I've set up an online bank account and will implement those changes right away Gives me an extra £15 per week at least.

I have another £50k+ debt which I don't pay back at all. I only choose to pay these two because I can't see any other way around it. I call the debtors every time they write to me and explain the situation. Most of them are understanding and I don't have any way to pay so they can't do anything. I don't really see the point in trying to pay off debt at the moment - what's the point when I can't even cover my daily and business expenses?

Also, I take out money for the business for travel, internet and I have a separate business phone so these are all valid expenses. I still need to pay personal expenses towards petrol/travel, the internet and my personal mobile. I don't think they are mixed up at all. I use an accounting system (QuickBooks) and have an accountant to manage the business finances (as well as my business partner).

Also, I've heard from tax credits and I am getting an extra £20 per week from two weeks time - probably will have that reduced off my HB and end up no better off but hey-ho!

I'm going to look at the business costs again because they are nowhere near as high as I made out yesterday - I think I was just getting confused. I wasn't really prepared to answer questions like that and didn't expect everything to be taken so literally lol.

Also - my new laptop charger has arrived and I'm being sent a free replacement for the one which broke - so I'll have a backup now