Career change at 40!

Jude57

rachaelwaa said:

Hi All - this is a long one!

I’m 40 this year, have the opportunity of redundancy from a role I’ve been in for 10 years. I have a 16 month old baby and I’ve recently become a single mother! I have lots of great support and am very fortunate to have lots of savings behind me in addition to a few low value rental properties.

I have 10 GCSEs all A*’s, A-Levels BCC, I have an undergraduate degree and a masters (both in construction related disciplines).

I’ve not enjoyed my current job or industry for many years so I’m quite tempted to take redundancy however I’m very aware of the economy, market and the sheer number of companies making redundancies at the moment which is quite frankly frightening. I have a large mortgage but the property is currently on the market (currently living with parents).

My passion has always been beauty but I’ve been used to a high salary for years (currently £65k 😬) and I don’t feel as if I would make the salary that would support the lifestyle I’ve become accustomed to!? I would be interested in the aesthetics route, however, I’d need to have a medical background for this (given upcoming regulations) and I only had a “C” in A-Level Biology which I believe means I’d need to redo this in order to progress to a medical related degree.

I had also thought to open a play cafe locally as there are none in the area but I would struggle to earn even minimum wage whilst working 7 days a week from initial calculations. I have signed up for a barista course in case this does happen. I have also signed up for many free business courses.

After having baby I’m wanting flexibility. However, baby’s father has taken me to family court so currently has baby every other weekend so I have free weekend time which I’d like to make use of to work as a distraction from not having my son. I’ve always imagined working for myself. In terms of my skills, I’m incredibly organised, thorough, a bit of a perfectionist.

Does anyone have any ideas? I feel as if this is my last opportunity to pivot to a day job that I will actually enjoy for the next 20 years!

Thankyou if you got this far!

I can comment on two aspects of your ideas. My late partner's daughter in law started a play cafe here in the North East of England and it was a great success, so much so that her second cafe opened last year and is also doing well. However, she had the benefit of having childcare and early education qualifications for pre-school aged children. I don't think it crossed her mind to become a barista and in fact the coffee machine company she hired from gave her and her original one staff member a half day training session which covered everything they needed. She attended a local college to get Food Safety and Food Hygiene certificates and paid for her staff member, too, as she has done for each subsequent employee who didn't already have them. The key to her success seems to be that she has childcare qualified staff on site to provide and supervise safe activities for the children while the parents have their coffee and cake. In the spring and summer months, some of these activities take place outdoors in a local woodland or at the nearby beach and the cafe provides picnic lunches for the adults and snacks for the children at a price but the parents can of course bring their own for the outdoor events.

Needless to say, insurance cover is required for every aspect of the play cafe, both on site and outdoors and extra care was taken in choosing permanent play installations inside the cafes with input from health and safety in play consultants. I don't know all the costs involved but I do know they were considerable and used up all her savings while her husband was fortunately able to support the family from his salary as a tech expert for an international company. My late partner was able to source materials, equipment and labour for fitting out the space at 'mates rates' which saved tens of thousands of pounds. These are just some of the things to consider.

My late partner was self employed for much of his life, in a very highly specialised and much sought after field. He had virtually no flexibility because the brutal truth is that if you don't work, you don't get paid. In addition, having premises to pay for, staff to pay and supervise and a clientele who will be very quick to move on means you can't just close the doors randomly for the afternoon because, however good your reason, those clients will see you as unreliable and go elsewhere. My partner had, over 40 years, built a national reputation and was earning well into six figures by the end and he still worked 18 hour days, six and often seven days a week to meet his clients requirements. He'd laugh when people said he was lucky to have the flexibility that they thought he had, being his own boss. He'd point out that it in fact meant there was no flexibility, every decision was his and so was the responsibility for every error. He retired, finally, due to ill health, in June 2022. He died in August 2022.

If being self-employed is the way you want to go, do your research, write your business plan, factoring in all the costs, not forgetting rents and business rates for the premises. If seeking a business loan, the lender will want a detailed business plan with financial projections and costings. The lender may have a specialist team of small business advisers so ask about that. It's possible you might need to obtain Change of Use permission from the local Planning authority for the cafe premises. It's also possible that your local Council has support available for people wanting to start a small business so look into that. The Council may have premises available for rent and, as a new business, they may offer reduced rents for an initial period. Business rates also sometimes can be temporarily reduced so, again, look into that aspect when researching your idea. 

Finally, speak to the owners of existing play cafes to pick their brains and learn from their mistakes. I'm sure if you're not going to be in competition with them, at least some will spare you an hour for a Zoom call.

lincroft1710

Jude57 said:

rachaelwaa said:

Hi All - this is a long one!

I’m 40 this year, have the opportunity of redundancy from a role I’ve been in for 10 years. I have a 16 month old baby and I’ve recently become a single mother! I have lots of great support and am very fortunate to have lots of savings behind me in addition to a few low value rental properties.

I have 10 GCSEs all A*’s, A-Levels BCC, I have an undergraduate degree and a masters (both in construction related disciplines).

I’ve not enjoyed my current job or industry for many years so I’m quite tempted to take redundancy however I’m very aware of the economy, market and the sheer number of companies making redundancies at the moment which is quite frankly frightening. I have a large mortgage but the property is currently on the market (currently living with parents).

My passion has always been beauty but I’ve been used to a high salary for years (currently £65k 😬) and I don’t feel as if I would make the salary that would support the lifestyle I’ve become accustomed to!? I would be interested in the aesthetics route, however, I’d need to have a medical background for this (given upcoming regulations) and I only had a “C” in A-Level Biology which I believe means I’d need to redo this in order to progress to a medical related degree.

I had also thought to open a play cafe locally as there are none in the area but I would struggle to earn even minimum wage whilst working 7 days a week from initial calculations. I have signed up for a barista course in case this does happen. I have also signed up for many free business courses.

After having baby I’m wanting flexibility. However, baby’s father has taken me to family court so currently has baby every other weekend so I have free weekend time which I’d like to make use of to work as a distraction from not having my son. I’ve always imagined working for myself. In terms of my skills, I’m incredibly organised, thorough, a bit of a perfectionist.

Does anyone have any ideas? I feel as if this is my last opportunity to pivot to a day job that I will actually enjoy for the next 20 years!

Thankyou if you got this far!

 He retired, finally, due to ill health, in June 2022. He died in August 2022.

You have my deepest sympathies

Jude57

lincroft1710 said:

Jude57 said:

rachaelwaa said:

Hi All - this is a long one!

I’m 40 this year, have the opportunity of redundancy from a role I’ve been in for 10 years. I have a 16 month old baby and I’ve recently become a single mother! I have lots of great support and am very fortunate to have lots of savings behind me in addition to a few low value rental properties.

I have 10 GCSEs all A*’s, A-Levels BCC, I have an undergraduate degree and a masters (both in construction related disciplines).

I’ve not enjoyed my current job or industry for many years so I’m quite tempted to take redundancy however I’m very aware of the economy, market and the sheer number of companies making redundancies at the moment which is quite frankly frightening. I have a large mortgage but the property is currently on the market (currently living with parents).

My passion has always been beauty but I’ve been used to a high salary for years (currently £65k 😬) and I don’t feel as if I would make the salary that would support the lifestyle I’ve become accustomed to!? I would be interested in the aesthetics route, however, I’d need to have a medical background for this (given upcoming regulations) and I only had a “C” in A-Level Biology which I believe means I’d need to redo this in order to progress to a medical related degree.

I had also thought to open a play cafe locally as there are none in the area but I would struggle to earn even minimum wage whilst working 7 days a week from initial calculations. I have signed up for a barista course in case this does happen. I have also signed up for many free business courses.

After having baby I’m wanting flexibility. However, baby’s father has taken me to family court so currently has baby every other weekend so I have free weekend time which I’d like to make use of to work as a distraction from not having my son. I’ve always imagined working for myself. In terms of my skills, I’m incredibly organised, thorough, a bit of a perfectionist.

Does anyone have any ideas? I feel as if this is my last opportunity to pivot to a day job that I will actually enjoy for the next 20 years!

Thankyou if you got this far!

 He retired, finally, due to ill health, in June 2022. He died in August 2022.

You have my deepest sympathies

Thank you @lincroft1710 . I appreciate that more than you can know.