Mooloo’s Managing it in 2018

beanielou · 19 March 2018 at 8:10PM

Sounds like a good plan.
Take care of you.
REmember we only want the best for you & your DGD.

mrmechanic · 19 March 2018 at 8:23PM

I have suggested it before and still repeat what I said.
Do not pay anyone else a wage before you are earning a decent wage yourself.You have not reached a stage in your business where you should be employing anyone until you get a decent wage yourself.

Do not spend any money on stock that you do not need immediately.
Any spend on stock that isn't getting used on work you have in that week could be your wage that week.

There is no point being a busy fool, you need to make money or you are wasting your time. Charge what is needed for each job, do not undersell yourself.It doesn't matter if you loose some work with putting your prices up, you will be hopefully making the same money for less work with your increased pricing.

You need to priorritise your work depending on the financial gain to you. This will mean making time and doing the best paying jobs first and once these are done move onto the other stuff.If teaching is taking up to much of your time and you would make more money doing repairs, then the teaching will need to be at the end of the line once everything else is done.There is no point doing work that isn't giving you a good return for your time when good paying stuff is sitting till later.

You are tied into your 18 month lease now and the financial penalties of exiting early will be very costly unless you have a mutual termination clause included which is highly unlikely for a commercial lease.

Start giving out a business card/bill heading etc with every job from now with a mobile number on it where your customers can reach you after you give up the shop. This will hopefully let your customers still contact you with any work when you are working from home. I wouldn't even consider thinking about a cabin etc for home when you give up the shop.
Set it up in a spare room where you will already have a warm dry place with everything you need. A building outside will need heating etc, any time you needed the toilet or wanted to make a cup of tea/take in a parcel delivery etc you would need to go back in doors.Easier managed from your house than people banging on your house door when you cannot hear them as you are in the back garden.

I wish you well, hopefully you will make the right decisions that will work for you alone and forget about employing anyone else. Do it yourself and start pricing jobs in order for you to make a living on your own.

LKRDN_Morgan · 19 March 2018 at 8:50PM

Mooloo just for future reference but I bought a summer house from EBay. Brand new and fully insulated. Pretty much half the price of anything else I found on google. Even paying someone to build it I’ve still saved £££s.
Rather than getting it connect to the mains I’ve also had solar panels installed. Cost £150 for those. It’s by no means huge but it suits for my little business on the side. In total I’ve spent approx £1200.
Might be worth looking into if you do decide to go down the work from home route.

Savvy_sewing · 19 March 2018 at 9:15PM

LKRDN_Morgan wrote: »

Mooloo just for future reference but I bought a summer house from EBay. Brand new and fully insulated. Pretty much half the price of anything else I found on google. Even paying someone to build it I’ve still saved £££s.
Rather than getting it connect to the mains I’ve also had solar panels installed. Cost £150 for those. It’s by no means huge but it suits for my little business on the side. In total I’ve spent approx £1200.
Might be worth looking into if you do decide to go down the work from home route.

I like that idea!

Savvy_sewing · 19 March 2018 at 9:26PM

mrmechanic wrote: »

I have suggested it before and still repeat what I said.
Do not pay anyone else a wage before you are earning a decent wage yourself.You have not reached a stage in your business where you should be employing anyone until you get a decent wage yourself.

Do not spend any money on stock that you do not need immediately.
Any spend on stock that isn't getting used on work you have in that week could be your wage that week.

There is no point being a busy fool, you need to make money or you are wasting your time. Charge what is needed for each job, do not undersell yourself.It doesn't matter if you loose some work with putting your prices up, you will be hopefully making the same money for less work with your increased pricing.

You need to priorritise your work depending on the financial gain to you. This will mean making time and doing the best paying jobs first and once these are done move onto the other stuff.If teaching is taking up to much of your time and you would make more money doing repairs, then the teaching will need to be at the end of the line once everything else is done.There is no point doing work that isn't giving you a good return for your time when good paying stuff is sitting till later.

You are tied into your 18 month lease now and the financial penalties of exiting early will be very costly unless you have a mutual termination clause included which is highly unlikely for a commercial lease.

Start giving out a business card/bill heading etc with every job from now with a mobile number on it where your customers can reach you after you give up the shop. This will hopefully let your customers still contact you with any work when you are working from home. I wouldn't even consider thinking about a cabin etc for home when you give up the shop.
Set it up in a spare room where you will already have a warm dry place with everything you need. A building outside will need heating etc, any time you needed the toilet or wanted to make a cup of tea/take in a parcel delivery etc you would need to go back in doors.Easier managed from your house than people banging on your house door when you cannot hear them as you are in the back garden.

I wish you well, hopefully you will make the right decisions that will work for you alone and forget about employing anyone else. Do it yourself and start pricing jobs in order for you to make a living on your own.

My spare room is small, very small as is my house. That's one of the reasons I stopped working from home and moved to the shop.
I don't want people in my home. It might have been different if I had had a dining room but I don't.

I understand what you are saying, which is quite a lot of what I just said I was going to do.
I will keep the lady I have on, as our skills complement each other. I cannot do it on my own, even if I wanted too. There is approximately £33,000 worth of jobs to do. I would have to work 20/24 hours a day.
I did that in the 90's. Got burn out and had a nervous breakdown. Never again.

The amount of money I will save from the rent will cover an outside space in just 3-6 months depending on the cost of the original building. If someone has an appointment with me they will be able to ring the bell at the side of the house and use the side gate. I can always put a sign on the door.
As I use up the stock, ( sell or use), I have already said that I would only buy consumables in future.
I have also said that I will be reviewing the prices at the weekend. So between us all I think I now have a plan and don't feel as if I am floundering around in the dark anymore.

thorsoak · 19 March 2018 at 10:26PM

Don't allow yourself to become down-hearted Mooloo - just don't forget how far you have travelled in the past nine years! You may not have a good income at the moment, but you are making some. It isn't all that you want - or need - but keep your eyes on your goal - you are becoming independant of state benefits which in itself is a good achievement. In fact, if it weren't for the fact that you are still supporting your children, your financial situation would be far more favourable.

BrassicWoman · 19 March 2018 at 10:33PM

Mooloo, I admire your positivity and flexibility. You will get there

Savvy_sewing · 20 March 2018 at 7:54AM

BrassicWoman wrote: »

Mooloo, I admire your positivity and flexibility. You will get there

Thankyou.
I started out believing that if I stopped I was going to be a failure, but Biggest said to me yesterday, that it's not failing to stop and assess things, and to rethink the next steps. I would be more a failure if I didn't act.
I still have a dream to have a place in Portugal but I may have to settle for renting for the holidays instead. But who knows what will happen in my retirement. I still have 10 years until state pension age.
I received a letter from the housing telling me that their policy is now to have the rent in advance and not in arrears as it has been for 8 years. To do this they are going to take an extra £10 a month. Then I looked at the direct debit they plan and it is actually an extra £19.89 a month.
I am already paying them £34 a month more than my rent to catch up with the housing benefits mess up last year. I really could have done without that extra increase this time. Especially as I am still struggling to pay the full amount after stopping the benefits.
The whole reason why I am in overdraft these days is trying to meet the full rent and council tax while paying myself half of that that I get when we are busy in the summer.
But I will have to find a way I suppose.
Strange because last week I had a letter telling me the rent is going down by 85p a week.
Such is life!

So today is the start of the count down to relocating the business and the start to restructuring the Shop dynamics

jackieblack · 20 March 2018 at 8:31AM

Mooloo wrote: »

I think I now have a plan and don't feel as if I am floundering around in the dark anymore.

:T
I think this is key

Mooloo wrote: »

I started out believing that if I stopped I was going to be a failure, but Biggest said to me yesterday, that it's not failing to stop and assess things, and to rethink the next steps. I would be more a failure if I didn't act.

Biggest has a wise head on her shoulders... (She must get that from her Mum

)
I think that you've just been too overwhelmed with all the individual issues you have going on to be able to see the bigger picture, which is completely understandable.

But now you have a new plan it's onwards and upwards for Mooloo.
Your new plan sounds like it will give you a much better quality of life in terms of work/life balance

ivyleaf · 20 March 2018 at 9:20AM

Mooloo, if the Council have told you they are going to take an extra £10 per month but are actually going to take almost twice that amount, you really should query it. ((HUGS))

Mooloo’s Managing it in 2018

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