[jaykay]

Ok, let me explain first. My cousin and I were talking about being self-employed and we agreed that it would be a good idea to 1. Think about what he knew about and 2. Find out what problems people had, because he could coincide 1 with 2, people would want what he was offering.

So, we agreed we'd ask everyone we could - What are the top three problems you have (aside from needing to win the lottery  )?

Could be smallholdery, but might not be. Might be things like losing weight, managing someone at work, finding a widget that does x, good, concise info on y, getting help with z - you get the idea.

Thank you 

[YorkshireLass]

Good plan, but tricky for me to answer...!

1/ Knowing who to trust, as in I want to support local traders, but being new to the area it's trial and error to learn which farmshop is Mr Bloggs selling his fresh carrots, and which is a muddy version of Waitrose. But how would I know which recommendations to trust....? 

2/ In terms of smallholding, a machinery ring would be invaluable but I don't know about the practicalities.

3/ Animal friendly vehicle hire! 

[tizaala]

The hardest part is letting go of your safety net , the regular wage from employment, when you're sitting by the phone waiting for your first customer and wondering what will pay the bills if it doesn't ring..
I went through all the angst about twenty five years ago and within a month was working 80/ 90 hours a week for myself. Get your business plan sorted and try not to borrow expensive money or you end up broke and in debt and nothing to show for your efforts.
Good luck with it.

[bazzais]

If your going to go self employed - make you you do something you like for starters - no point in starting something just because its in demand. There is no easy buck to be made or nothing that anyone will tell you about cos thed be doing it before you.

Baz

[jaykay]

He doesn't seem to know quite what he wants to do, very early stages yet I think. Yes, I said he needed to do something he enjoyed. Baz, I wasn't expecting anyone to come up with a foolproof business venture, just the sort of things people want, for him to think about.

[Sandy]

!A major problem I have being self employed is not being able to get any one to step in when needed....sounds simple but not, others may loose you money or cost you money so, no guests no money, loads of guests no time. We have an accountant and he is wonderful, love him as he gives us tips but I cannot work as well as it eats into my personal allowance, my idea was to work to back up any lack of trade....

.TO me there are a lot of positives but we/ i am not going to get rich and most people who are self employed have to know when and how to expand as there is a 2 phyiscal limit to what you can do.

3 Cash flow and getting loans is also diffulcult, well we have not tried as we dare not borrow..there are few secrutities in jobs anyway now so, why not give it ago??


AND..I have far too many computor and coffee breaks so become a fatty piggy!!

[Mammyshaz]

OH was told on a Wednesday that the company was in receivership and from the Friday would not exist. 
To cut a long story short. Lack of money and gas engineer jobs pushed us into starting up on our own ( with my job as back up ). The first 3  to 5 years was very tight. Now we are well known and pass on some less beneficial work. We have been going for 12 years now 
It's a tight call with lack of holidays ( customers rely on him and trust him) and phone calls day & night but he loves it. There is flexibility to the working day too when you need it.
Choosing something you really enjoy and turning it into a project that brings in the money is the key in my opinion, that way you really want it to work even when things aren't so rosy.
Good luck whatever you choose.

[bazzais]

Does he have any particular skillsets he would like to utilise?

Thats one of the joys of self employment - the world is your oyster you can do anything you want really.  Even artists sometimes earn some money 

Thinking of the tasks I have had in the last week where I would have liked to have had somebody else to do the job:- 

Gardening, cleaning, painting, transporting goods, a mechanic that would do home visits, website content writing, webpage designer, ebay listing and email management, taking orders for campsite, answering phone, washing/laundry for rentals and changeover, farm hand, farm - 'baby'sitting, treefelling, woodcutting.

The best one I think is get into felling and selling wood - Its quite a saturated market and there is a bit more to managing trees than just cutting them down - but there is always going to be a cll for wood to burn and with the price of fuel, the amount of people now using wood is increasing.  Depending on where you live it would also be easy to target new customers by looking at their chimneys

Some people also have limited space for wood storage so you could have a monthly delivery service?  Dunno - my brother has just started selling wood as a sideline to his tree surgery and it seems to be going well as he get alot of the wood as a byproduct of his service.  Target campsites or the like during the summer where people still have evening fires even if the weather is warm or just get on with stockpiling and seasoning your winter wood supplies.  All you need is space to store wood and a supply thats cheaper thn your retail value.

Dunno really just an idea off the top of my head.

Baz

[Sandy]

There must be a shortage of chimney sweeps, we waited a while to get ours done...we also have loads of wood at the moment.,..I should have a fire tonigh but cannot be bothered

[jaykay]

Some good ideas there, thank you. He's currently working in healthcare with mentally handicapped adults. He's my youngest cousin, what do I know he's good at.....he's great with people, a whizz cornet player  I don't know how he is with computers..... But I think he's quite practical too, certainly his Dad was. I'll pass all this on