Self-employment ideas

moksha76

I would like to work for myself (ideally from home), but don't know what to do. I have an MA in English literature and psychoanalysis, but not much work experience. I cannot bear offices (tried it – it's just not for me). I'm an introvert, and need a lot of alone time. Wealth isn't my motivation. I just want to preserve my mental health.  Anyway, I have a few ideas:
1) Retrain in some kind of trade (plumber, locksmith, etc)
2) Do an online, CPD course and then work from home as a mortgage adviser
3) Do a CPD course in travel and set up an online business as a travel agent
4) Do a CPD course and set up from home as a recruitment consultant
5) Become a freelance writer
6) Do a course in proofreading and copywriting and become a home-based, freelance writer/proofreader
7) Become a private tutor (maybe combine it with freelance writing)
8) Do a course in sports and injury massage and work for myself as a remedial injury therapist
These are just a few vague ideas atm. Am I being realistic? Or just fantasising? I'm sure you can earn money doing such things, but can you earn enough to live on? 

Lomast

1 makes sense the  others are a bit pie in the sky

yksi

1) are any of these things you're actually interested in - do you even like being grubby and working with your hands in cold/draughty/dirty environments? Just because it's reasonably secure work doesn't mean it's right for you
2) people feel more comfortable face-to-face with massive amounts of money on the line, are you going to be ok with this?
3) this industry is dying a death, why would you
4) this will be near-on impossible unless you're very confident in networking with other humans face-to-face. Companies are moving to high-volume recruitment and even management-level roles are now often filled in busy call centres. Doing it in a bespoke industry might work, but would probably need intimate knowledge of the industry you're recruiting for.
5) writing what? Unemployment/underemployment in this industry is probably 95%
6) see above, I don't know how many "professional writers" I know whose main desperate grab for income is in proofing absolutely garbage self-published fiction for £9 an hour
7) this actually has good potential if you live in an area where parents are keen social climbers; be aware that beyond primary school level, parents expect you to have a degree in the subject you are tutoring
8) if this interests you, this could be a very good idea

AskAsk

i assume you are a man?

gaining experience in a trade is your best option, but it will depend on what sort of things you like to do and what you think you will be good at.  do you like DIY for a start?

[Deleted User]

AskAsk said:

i assume you are a man?

gaining experience in a trade is your best option, but it will depend on what sort of things you like to do and what you think you will be good at.  do you like DIY for a start?

Why couldn't they do this as a woman?

AskAsk

amazonian17 said:

AskAsk said:

i assume you are a man?

gaining experience in a trade is your best option, but it will depend on what sort of things you like to do and what you think you will be good at.  do you like DIY for a start?

Why couldn't they do this as a woman?

i assumed the OP is male as he asks about training to be a plumber / locksmith.  women don't tend to think of entering these trades.  yes, a woman can be a plumber, but it is a dirty job and often can involve heavy lifting and crawling under things in dirty condition, which is not something that women like to do in general.

locksmith would be suitable to women more than plumbing i think, but that is also dirty and can require someone strong as a locksmith may have to adjust a door, which requires him to lift it.

i am female and i really like DIY.  i don't actually mind the dirt but i find i can't lift most things that men can as i am small framed.  i rarely see women plumbers and locksmiths, if i were a man, i think i would train into a trade and i think i would enjoy working in a trade.

Sandtree

To be honest there is probably more opportunity for a females to enter those sorts of trades because of the scarcity and that some lone female customers state they'd be more comfortable with a woman coming to do the job than some unknown bloke being let into their home so a potentially lucrative market to tap

To the OP - what is it that you dislike about being in an office? Excluding item 1, 7 and 8 the others are generally run in an office like environment.  Small consultancy type business on recruitment and travel etc can work but you must have a very clear niche and understand that niche inside out as you'll have to sell on expert knowledge not the lowest price.  I know one or two people that have set up such niche travel companies and its their full time income but they ultimately spent vast sums in their own travel costs and time to gain the knowledge that mean people contact them for their holiday arrangements rather than someone else.

Comms69

AskAsk said:

amazonian17 said:

AskAsk said:

i assume you are a man?

gaining experience in a trade is your best option, but it will depend on what sort of things you like to do and what you think you will be good at.  do you like DIY for a start?

Why couldn't they do this as a woman?

i assumed the OP is male as he asks about training to be a plumber / locksmith.  women don't tend to think of entering these trades.  yes, a woman can be a plumber, but it is a dirty job and often can involve heavy lifting and crawling under things in dirty condition, which is not something that women like to do in general.

locksmith would be suitable to women more than plumbing i think, but that is also dirty and can require someone strong as a locksmith may have to adjust a door, which requires him to lift it.

i am female and i really like DIY.  i don't actually mind the dirt but i find i can't lift most things that men can as i am small framed.  i rarely see women plumbers and locksmiths, if i were a man, i think i would train into a trade and i think i would enjoy working in a trade.

There's not a proper locksmith in the country that would fit a door. That's joinery work and frankly the time vs cost on that would be ridiculous. 

A proper locksmith is £200 an hour. 

AskAsk

Comms69 said:

AskAsk said:

amazonian17 said:

AskAsk said:

i assume you are a man?

gaining experience in a trade is your best option, but it will depend on what sort of things you like to do and what you think you will be good at.  do you like DIY for a start?

Why couldn't they do this as a woman?

i assumed the OP is male as he asks about training to be a plumber / locksmith.  women don't tend to think of entering these trades.  yes, a woman can be a plumber, but it is a dirty job and often can involve heavy lifting and crawling under things in dirty condition, which is not something that women like to do in general.

locksmith would be suitable to women more than plumbing i think, but that is also dirty and can require someone strong as a locksmith may have to adjust a door, which requires him to lift it.

i am female and i really like DIY.  i don't actually mind the dirt but i find i can't lift most things that men can as i am small framed.  i rarely see women plumbers and locksmiths, if i were a man, i think i would train into a trade and i think i would enjoy working in a trade.

There's not a proper locksmith in the country that would fit a door. That's joinery work and frankly the time vs cost on that would be ridiculous. 

A proper locksmith is £200 an hour. 

i have seen videos on how to adjust a double glazed door from locksmiths and in the video the guy lifts the door to re-align it.  i wouldn't be able to lift a door and hold it like he does if it needed to be re-aligned.  but out of all the trades, i would think locksmith is the most suitable to women as it requires very little strength and is the least dirty of the trades.

AskAsk

Sandtree said:

To be honest there is probably more opportunity for a females to enter those sorts of trades because of the scarcity and that some lone female customers state they'd be more comfortable with a woman coming to do the job than some unknown bloke being let into their home so a potentially lucrative market to tap

To the OP - what is it that you dislike about being in an office? Excluding item 1, 7 and 8 the others are generally run in an office like environment.  Small consultancy type business on recruitment and travel etc can work but you must have a very clear niche and understand that niche inside out as you'll have to sell on expert knowledge not the lowest price.  I know one or two people that have set up such niche travel companies and its their full time income but they ultimately spent vast sums in their own travel costs and time to gain the knowledge that mean people contact them for their holiday arrangements rather than someone else.

i have never felt worried about a man coming into my home to fix anything, and i am not sure that people would choose a woman trades person over a male one if there was a choice.  i wouldn't mind either way.

Sandtree

AskAsk said:

Sandtree said:

To be honest there is probably more opportunity for a females to enter those sorts of trades because of the scarcity and that some lone female customers state they'd be more comfortable with a woman coming to do the job than some unknown bloke being let into their home so a potentially lucrative market to tap

To the OP - what is it that you dislike about being in an office? Excluding item 1, 7 and 8 the others are generally run in an office like environment.  Small consultancy type business on recruitment and travel etc can work but you must have a very clear niche and understand that niche inside out as you'll have to sell on expert knowledge not the lowest price.  I know one or two people that have set up such niche travel companies and its their full time income but they ultimately spent vast sums in their own travel costs and time to gain the knowledge that mean people contact them for their holiday arrangements rather than someone else.

i have never felt worried about a man coming into my home to fix anything, and i am not sure that people would choose a woman trades person over a male one if there was a choice.  i wouldn't mind either way.

I am sure for the majority they are also agnostic so the question is really if there are more women that want a strange male coming into their house (maybe because they'll think they'll do a better job or get lucky) or more women that may be worried about a strange male coming in and so would appreciate a woman (or maybe hope to get lucky with her).

My reference was to a newspaper article several years ago about a female trades person who said she worked for a "normal" plumbing company for a few years and got a lot of positive reaction from female customers when she turned up. She then setup her own business employing/subcontracting only female plumbers and will do any job, obviously, but have a high proportion of female customers with some multi million pound valuation having been put on her company... not sure what the price tag was for the naked cleaners company that was also in the paper but think they had a different appeal.