I feel trapped and have very few options

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

How can a web development business, presumably running from home, not be turning a profit? What are the overheads?

heartbreak_star

ScorpiondeRooftrouser wrote: »

How can a web development business, presumably running from home, not be turning a profit? What are the overheads?

Established competition, one would think. It's a hard market to break into.

HBS x

Sncjw

Post on debt free wannabe about your debts they will find ways to help

bugslet

So from the top, your options are either to

1. Find jobs that fit with the hours that you don't have the kids and keep your business going as a side hustle.

2. Concentrate on your self employed career and hope it takes off.

3. Jack it all in and live on benefits.


1 you can't do because of your mental health, so that leaves

2 web developement I don't know much about tbh, but as a business woman, the only thing I know is that you have to work very very hard to get a business up and running and if you unable to do that because of the mental health problems, then it will only ever be a side hustle and not a main career. You need to look and see if it really is a viable business, or even if from a purely financial sense it makes more sense to

3. Go on the dole. I understand that you don't want to, which I applaud you for, but on a purely logical basis, it may make more sense to do so.

Now I want you to understand what I'm about to say, I'm doing so from a wishing to be helpful stance, rather than knocking you.

I feel - perhaps wrongly - that there is an element of you living your life around what you want things to be, rather than what they are. Digital Media....I promise you, if I was going to do a degree because I needed a degree to better my financial position, I wouldn't have done the course to find out it was, to wuote your words, 'less than useless'. It might be the kind of course that would lead you to the kind of job you wish to have, but the reality is and was, it's a fairly flaky subject. You need to be real about what can help you to be earn more money.

As for your mental health, if you ahve the same problems now as you did in 2012, then whatever you are doing is not enough or not right. Again, I can see you are being proactive and taking steps to change things for yourself, but you need to look and see what is really helping and what is a waste of your time and money.

None of that is meant to be unhelpful, rude or offensive, but it's my take on things which may or may not be useful to you.

msallen

You say you worked in recruitment for ten years - can't you go back to doing that?

AngelPie78

sangie595 wrote: »

What are you expecting the Job Centre to do? You "have" to earn £18k at least, you "must" be able to work around your children, and you don't have an marketable skills but expect to get a job in "your sector" - despite, as you confirm yourself, having neither the skills nor the experience to do so. And you'd "probably be better off on the dole" but they would unreasonably expect you to apply for jobs!


The barriers to employment are being set by yourself here. You are not the only single parent in the country, and the only way to move forward is to get down to removing those barriers and making your expectations more realistic. And part of that includes the fact that there are two parents here, and the other is not that far away - they must pull their weight in terms of arrangements for the children.


The only way this will work out is if you get a full-time job, and manage your finances better. You clearly do have income - you aren't claiming JSA yet, you don't qualify for ESA, and you can't be living on thin air. I assume there are working tax credits, maintenance payments, housing benefit etc? It might be nice to have £18k income, but if that is not realistic then you must cut your cloth accordingly. You must learn to manage within your means, and if that means going without things that you want, then that must be what you do.


I am not saying this out of any lack of sympathy for your situation. But there is only one way of getting out of this situation, and that is down to you. People do manage on much less, because they must. And right now, so must you. Bankruptcy might "solve" some of your debts for now, but you will simply be back in the same place unless you do something about it now. You need to take a job - any job - and get experience and work your way up. And you have obviously got some "grit" about you to have got this far, so apply that to working and be prepared to do what it takes. If you do that, it will take time, but you can dig yourself out and look for things to improve in the future.

Hi thanks for your reply and I am more than happy to work at ANY job - sorry if that did not come across in my post.

Currently I get £188 per week in TC and WTC and £82 every four weeks in CB. HB is around £70 p/w so I am required to pay £70 p/w in rent. I get £2 a week Council Tax Benefit so need to pay £35 p/w in CT. I don't get any maintenance from my ex as he has the children half the time and he gets CB for one of our sons (despite me appealing this many times)

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

Rent - £4000
Council tax - £1500
Water - £800
Gas/Electric - £1300
Business loan - £1560
BAYV/fridge & oven - £1144

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

If you can suggest a job which I can get that will bring in more money than that then I am more than willing to take it. That's why I'm here because every option I've looked at leads me back to the fact that there is no other option.

My ex takes care of childcare for his days and I take care of it for mine. He works full time and so the children end up at his parents' house during the holidays but I don't have the same option - I'd have to pay for childcare at around £50 per day during the holidays. There is also no way for my eldest to get home from school apart from walking 3 miles which I don't think I'd like him to do. I'd have to pay childcare after school for three days for my youngest son at £10/£15 per day. Then additional costs for transport to and from work.

If I get a job in the evening, then you need to apply childcare costs and transport OR only work on the three evenings a week that I don't have the children.

Again if you can think of a job that I can get which would enable me to bring home more than £10 per week and give us a better quality of life then I'm more than happy to take it.

That isn't meant to sound glib or passive aggressive - I just don't see a solution.


[STRIKE][/STRIKE]

AngelPie78

heartbreak_star wrote: »

Established competition, one would think. It's a hard market to break into.

HBS x

Yep this! Everyone and his mother thinks they can build a website. I should be charging around £50 an hour for the work I do, but I'm lucky if I can get £20 an hour!!

No regulation, no associations or ways to get validated so businesses go with the cheapest and us qualified and experienced web developers get undercut ALL the time. I should be charging £1000 minimum for a website but I often have to go cheap at £500 to even get the job. I have a business coach and we're working on building my business but this takes time. The plan was always to get a Web Dev job straight out of uni (as we were told we would do all the way through our degree) or I would have reconsidered the whole thing!

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

heartbreak_star wrote: »

Established competition, one would think. It's a hard market to break into.

HBS x

What you are saying would be a reason for her not getting any work - not for getting work but not turning a profit. She is working 40+ hours a week, according to her, but making no profit. A business like this running from home should be mainly clear income - there shouldn't be any significant costs; and if she is working 40+ hours a week and losing money, there's something wrong.

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

AngelPie78 wrote: »

Yep this! Everyone and his mother thinks they can build a website. I should be charging around £50 an hour for the work I do, but I'm lucky if I can get £20 an hour!!

No regulation, no associations or ways to get validated so businesses go with the cheapest and us qualified and experienced web developers get undercut ALL the time. I should be charging £1000 minimum for a website but I often have to go cheap at £500 to even get the job. I have a business coach and we're working on building my business but this takes time. The plan was always to get a Web Dev job straight out of uni (as we were told we would do all the way through our degree) or I would have reconsidered the whole thing!

I still don't see how you are failing to make a profit. What are your costs?

AngelPie78

bugslet wrote: »

So from the top, your options are either to

1. Find jobs that fit with the hours that you don't have the kids and keep your business going as a side hustle.

2. Concentrate on your self employed career and hope it takes off.

3. Jack it all in and live on benefits.


1 you can't do because of your mental health, so that leaves

2 web developement I don't know much about tbh, but as a business woman, the only thing I know is that you have to work very very hard to get a business up and running and if you unable to do that because of the mental health problems, then it will only ever be a side hustle and not a main career. You need to look and see if it really is a viable business, or even if from a purely financial sense it makes more sense to

3. Go on the dole. I understand that you don't want to, which I applaud you for, but on a purely logical basis, it may make more sense to do so.

Now I want you to understand what I'm about to say, I'm doing so from a wishing to be helpful stance, rather than knocking you.

I feel - perhaps wrongly - that there is an element of you living your life around what you want things to be, rather than what they are. Digital Media....I promise you, if I was going to do a degree because I needed a degree to better my financial position, I wouldn't have done the course to find out it was, to wuote your words, 'less than useless'. It might be the kind of course that would lead you to the kind of job you wish to have, but the reality is and was, it's a fairly flaky subject. You need to be real about what can help you to be earn more money.

As for your mental health, if you ahve the same problems now as you did in 2012, then whatever you are doing is not enough or not right. Again, I can see you are being proactive and taking steps to change things for yourself, but you need to look and see what is really helping and what is a waste of your time and money.

None of that is meant to be unhelpful, rude or offensive, but it's my take on things which may or may not be useful to you.

Hello and thank you for your reply - I'm not the least bit offended. You've only said what I know to be true and shown that I am truly stuck 😟

The degree choice was the wrong one but I didn't realise that until halfway through the second year and it was too late to change by then. The uni were awful and the course was diabolical- no way to get around it. I kept seeking career advice while at uni and was told that it would be fine and getting a First would enable to me 'walk into a job' - ha!!! How naive was I?? But how was I to know any different??

My mental health is SO much better than in 2012 but it's a long road to recovery (if I ever get fully better) and yes, I do need to do things differently but it all takes time/and or money. I would love to go back to having kinesiology and clinical hypnotherapy but it's expensive so not an option.

I swing from side to side with moving forward with the business every day but I've continued so far because I don't think I have any other option. I have a business coach, a new collaborator and another side project on the go so I really am trying but everything takes time and isn't helping me at the moment. Potentially, I could be making a LOT of money in 6,9,12 months or it could never happen or take years!! Who knows?!

Hence this thread and feeling stuck.