Run my own business. It's a success but I hate it!

Run my own business. It's a success but I hate it!

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BGARK

5,493 posts

245 months

Wednesday 27th May 2015
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ecain63 said:
SpeckledJim said:
If your customers think you are the best, and you are too busy, then you are too cheap.

Whack your prices up, some of the work will evaporate, and what is left will make more money.

The major reason to be self employed is to be able to determine your own work-load, and price will let you do that overnight.
You speak great sense! I'll look into this i think.
This is good advice.

9mm

3,128 posts

209 months

Wednesday 27th May 2015
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OP - I can identify with your situation. You seem to have accurately diagnosed that your present situation isn't working for you. Have you also looked ahead and seen that, despite some financial relief, left unchanged things are only going to get worse? You need to break out of the pattern but as you've found, that's easier said than done!

I'll throw in what worked for me - it may not work for you. Firstly, realise that money is nothing without time. The ideal is maximum money for not many hours, so you need to think about tbe best way to do that. I charge top money - I'm very happy to be perceived as expensive - and use that in self-marketing. It's only a disadvantage if you aren't as good as you claim or in a deep recession.

So jack your prices up, stop dealing with anyone who penny pinches or messes you about in any way. BUT if you find yourself earning (say) 20% more, make sure you are working a four day week, not five. You'll feel more valued and have more time. Should you feel unable to raise prices for existing customers, do it for new ones. If the business costs are going to reduce dramatically in a couple of years I can't see the point in baling now.

Secondly, unless you are able to downsize or find some other way to free up capital/ reduce outgoings, your dreams are likely to be more of a source of frustration than a useful goal. I'd suggest having a brutal look at exactly what you would have if you went liquid (or downsized). Then look at what you could do with that money/in that position. This will do two things; it'll force you to be realistic about what's possible and it may also motivate you to take the hard steps necessary to bring about a change. You'll only make the changes when you can see that an alternative life is within your grasp and that it beats the life you have now.

Thirdly, have a think about friends and family - which ones are good to have around and those that are holding you back or dragging you down. Get rid of or at least minimise contact with the latter and increase contact with the former. You appear to be locked in a vicious circle and this will help you to break out.

My qualifications for offering advice are that I ceased full time employment at 40 and fifteen years on have rarely worked more than ten days in a month since. I did it by making big changes to my life and that's at the root of it. Tinkering is unlikely to get you to where you want to be.

I understand the car thing but I don't think you can make money unless you are playing with relatively high stakes. You can however, empty your head, learn new skills and experience lots of different cars for not much expenditure.

Lastly, where is your OH with your concerns/dreams? I only had myself to worry about but you have a life partner with a say in your plans. You're going to have some time on your hands during your treatment - use it for thinking and planning. You're on the south coast so if a liquid lunch with a neutral would be useful just say. My sincere best wishes for a speedy recovery.


oldbanger

4,316 posts

237 months

Thursday 28th May 2015
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0a said:
Just a thought, but something I have experienced (so please ignore as nonsense).

You have clearly been through a lot of stressful and changing situations. Cancer, a young child and running your own business can all be considered life changing on their own.

Could you be depressed (or stressed), with your focus on a dislike for your job being too narrow an assessment of what is wrong? I've been there myself and with hindsight it wasn't really all about the job at all.
I'd add to this. If PTSD is a genuine possibility, I would consider EMDR therapy or another trauma focused treatment. You may feel like you don't have time, and there aren't any magic bullets, but EMDR in particular can have fairly quick results for some.

LouD86

3,278 posts

152 months

Thursday 28th May 2015
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ecain63 said:
I can still do some commission stuff, which i enjoy on the whole as many do come via email and location would be unimportant. I'll look into this some more smile
Having read this thread, and your thread on your work, I'm glad to see this sentence. I am hoping to use yourself as a Local gent, and a PH'er in the upcoming months for a few commissions. Don't run off yet!

Grumfutock

5,274 posts

164 months

Thursday 28th May 2015
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ecain63 said:
Grumfutock said:
ecain63 said:
Grumfutock said:
Your not in Bournemouth are you? I nearly went for a gold based thing there in 2008 and recall chatting to somebody from PH about it and i am sure they were an ex Marine.
Yup! All me smile
In that case I am glad I didn't bloody well listen then! You told me it was great.

And you lot call us hats stupid?
Ha! I vaguely remember this. It is great if that's what you want. But, time has shown me that it's really not for me. Not in the current environment anyway. I'm quite drawn to the idea of upping my prices a little and scaling down the work to cover my best shops. I can still do some commission stuff, which i enjoy on the whole as many do come via email and location would be unimportant. I'll look into this some more smile
Swap you! You hate yours, mine bore's me to tears, maybe a swap will work. No idea how to craft gold though but I am guessing you know nowt about making race fuel.

130R

6,807 posts

205 months

Thursday 28th May 2015
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ecain63 said:
I can't find new staff to train up and share the load as youngsters don't want to spend time learning a dull trade. I've had 2 apprentices who both left after 12 months due to the stress of the constant concentration. I've had 2 older guys who've been in the trade forever and only one has been worth his wages.
Keep looking would be my advice. Sounds pretty clear to me that you need more staff to take some of the workload off. Get someone in to do the aspects of the job you don't like doing leaving you to do the bits you do like. You don't need to be there from open to close if you have competent staff you can delegate to.

Roo

11,503 posts

206 months

Thursday 28th May 2015
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OP, if you don't like dealing with the public do not get involved with the motor trade.

I've just been made redundant after twenty years in the trade. My last day will be this Saturday. I've had lots of conversations with the wife about what to do. I'd become jaded with dealing with the public and always working weekends doing five and a half to six days a week. I'm tired from it and looking forward to a few months of doing nothing.

I had a phone call last night offering me a job at a franchised sports car dealership that would pay me more than double what I'd been earning recently. But, it's the same hours I've been doing.

I turned it down straight away. I could've gone straight from one job into another. Instead I'm going to be unemployed for a while.

The motor trade can be boring. It's long hours, you'll never have weekends with your family unless you've booked the time off as holiday. And you have to deal with some of the worst members of public you can ever imagine.

daqinggegg

1,394 posts

128 months

Thursday 28th May 2015
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In my opinion you have had some good suggestions, but always say “I’ll think about it” you seem in a general malaise. OP as with any change the first step is the hardest, but once you have made it, you have something to aim for. I have no new ideas, just what others have said, some of which would be easy to implement.

B2B, don’t like public, don’t work with them
Ramp up prices, some work will disappear, the less work more money, you can fine tweak it
Workshop, if you can build a workshop at home you like, you enjoy being in, do it
Over time tweak the work/life balance
Have a cold hard look at the business arrangements with the in-laws, be brutal, do what is best for your own family.

You may not hate the work as much as you think, just the structure of it now. Now remember the first step is the hardest.


andburg

7,214 posts

168 months

Thursday 28th May 2015
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Seen the inside of a Smiths workshop a few time and can sort of grasp your pain.

Friend's family runs a successful jewelers doing your standard over the counter stuff with a bespoke service. The father is the goldsmith who works in the back and rarely sees a customer. He is wanting to retire fairly soon but he cannot find anyone who is either willing or capable as a replacement. They finally found someone with the desire and ability but she has fallen pregnant and seems does not want to return to work.

Its tedious, monotonous work where the value is in the quality of the work and finish not the number of pieces you can complete. Very few people want to take on this kind of work, sitting in a room full of metal dust and smelling.

As someone has mentioned, look into raising your prices, become more niche and choose your clients.

If you want to get rid of dealing with customers then you could look to bring someone in front of house rather than in the workshop to deal with day to day running of the business and managing clients.

You could also look to change the environment, make it a nicer place to be all day.

ecain63

Original Poster:

10,588 posts

174 months

Thursday 28th May 2015
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Ok, update.

Today i went in hospital to discuss my next couple of months on the chemo. I start 2nd week of June and will have 8 or 9 weeks of some pretty heavy drugs before another ct scan to see if the little blighter has fooked off! If it has I'll have 8 more weeks of treatment just to be sure! Then i'll be done and dusted! So, that puts me under some reasonable pressure for a good 4 or 5 months from here in, so long as it goes as planned.

I had a chat with the missus and she has decided to put my son into nursery 2 days a week instead of the current 1 as it'll help me out with the public side of the job having her in for an extra day. Also, the treatment means that every 2nd friday will be lost to chemotherapy being administered so potentially, so long as i'm not dying from the side effects i'll have to find the time to make up the lost hours on the bench. Sounding rosey!!!

We are going to look at possibly downsizing / upping prices and also look at moving the workshop to the house and doing mainly trade work at a higher rate with lower overheads. We could still advertise for bespoke stuff, offering a personal service and i'd be happy to have my current good customers come to me at home if they need stuff doing. This should free up time and keep income at a suitable level. As an upside I think i'd be able to offer a better service to those shops that stay with me as i'd be able to dedicate more time to them rather than just squeezing them in, thus justifying the price hike.

One major issue I have with changing jobs at the moment is my health issues. Who will employ somebody on chemo? I bet nobody! Not in a decent job anyway. I had fancied the police or the medical services but they will not employ anyone in my situation i'm sure! As for doing anything drastic, maybe this minute is not the time to do it. Maybe i should see how the reshuffle / downsize goes, wait til the chemo is over and then see where we are with it.

The idea that somebody had about employing enough people for me to not be on the bench sounds ideal and it is the business model that i had always intended. The problem with anything that requires such anal quality control is that i'd be hard pressed to find somebody(s) who i could trust to achieve the same level of finish that is expected by my customers. It goes out wrong then it's me that carries the can. If it's a trade shop that got repeated sub standard or below the usual standard work then i'd have my work cut out convincing them that i'm worth the premium over the couple of other (routinely crap), cheaper workshops in the area. Some of my shops give me £30k+ per year and i can't risk losing them for anything other than a calculated change to proceedings. If the right people came to me for work then i'd hire without question. There just aren't that many of them looking for work in the area because it's not one of those jobs that people train for in the UK any more.

Eddie

slow_poke

1,855 posts

233 months

Thursday 28th May 2015
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ecain63 said:
There just aren't that many of them looking for work in the area because it's not one of those jobs that people train for in the UK any more.
Can't find quality, trained, qualified staff locally? Have you tried recruiting nationally?

or, just import a foreign national goldsmith. Bound to be suitably skilled goldsmiths in India or Thailand.

ecain63

Original Poster:

10,588 posts

174 months

Thursday 28th May 2015
quotequote all
slow_poke said:
ecain63 said:
There just aren't that many of them looking for work in the area because it's not one of those jobs that people train for in the UK any more.
Can't find quality, trained, qualified staff locally? Have you tried recruiting nationally?

or, just import a foreign national goldsmith. Bound to be suitably skilled goldsmiths in India or Thailand.
Ha! Actually only a few weeks ago had a Lithuanian lad about 40 years old who said he could 'do it all'. He brought photos and a glowing cv. He also brought his mum oddly enough. He started on the Wednesday and he did great with the easy stone setting jobs. I thought my luck was in! Thursday was great and then we had a long weekend. All positive and full of energy I offered him a one month probation when he came in on the Tuesday. I explained that the work he did last week was the easy bread and butter stuff and he needed to get into the trickier jobs that involved stones that needed special protection and treatment. He said he was fine with that and i let him loose on 2 mid level items. In a short version of events, he couldn't do it and cost me money. I gave him the benefit of the doubt over 3 days and after a few hundred quid wasted on materials and more on time i asked if he was just blagging it. He agreed that he had not done anything more than the basics and i let him go.

His mum came in the following week and apologised for her son not doing so well. And then she told me why: He was drinking all night after work and also drinking in the morning before work. She wanted him to get the job just to give him something to do, rather than just piss it up all the time. Tragic case but i'm glad i found out when i did.

Magog

2,652 posts

188 months

Thursday 28th May 2015
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Have you considered train driving, or working on the railway in some form. The ability to concentrate for long periods of time, which you clearly have, is one of the core competencies of train driving, and I believe applicants who are ex-military are still looked on fairly kindly.

BGARK

5,493 posts

245 months

Thursday 28th May 2015
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How about taking on an apprentice, the government are throwing money at this at the moment, including helping with the recruitment process.

happychap

530 posts

147 months

Thursday 28th May 2015
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You've been given some good advice. In my simplistic view of your situation, can you take control of the outcome you are seeking, a better work life balance. As has been suggested, increase prices, sacrifice some on the work load, put into place some clear boundaries for yourself, set the hours you work, work only 4 days a week. You are the only one that can enforce these boundaries take back the control of the outcome you want. Good luck.

ecain63

Original Poster:

10,588 posts

174 months

Thursday 28th May 2015
quotequote all
BGARK said:
How about taking on an apprentice, the government are throwing money at this at the moment, including helping with the recruitment process.
We did this twice when my father in law was running the business. We'd take it in turns to teach and supervise the new guy, but they got bored after a year or found they didnt have the aptitude for anything more than the basics. Now it's just me and my one employee i don't have the time to train anyone up from scratch. I'm happy to adjust the skills of an already trained goldsmith but not to get somebody from xbox hero to high end quality goldsmith. Even if i did, the risk of a young thruster being really good and then going off to start his own around the corner is a bit too much to deal with at this point.

Eddie

ecain63

Original Poster:

10,588 posts

174 months

Thursday 28th May 2015
quotequote all
Magog said:
Have you considered train driving, or working on the railway in some form. The ability to concentrate for long periods of time, which you clearly have, is one of the core competencies of train driving, and I believe applicants who are ex-military are still looked on fairly kindly.
Any idea on salaries?

Eddie

CAPP0

19,532 posts

202 months

Thursday 28th May 2015
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Eddie said:
But how do i go from earning an 80% profit vs turnover wage under st conditions to doing something i'll enjoy whilst keeping my quality of life and standard of living where it is? The business is a very stable income.
I'm in a not entirely dissimilar situation at present (not including health issues, thankfully). Before I go any further, I'll apologise for being an annoying MoP and asking far too many questions about a relatively-inexpensive ring, and say thanks again for all the advice! (I was just the messenger boy!).

As I read your OP, my thoughts, which have been echoed elsewhere in the thread, were to stop dealing with the public and focus on the trade work where you don't have to deal with multiple/new/different/difficult people. I work in an entirely different field and it took me a long time to extricate myself from my previous employer. I talked to lots of people about what to do next; I would like to build treehouses, I would like to construct Toylanders to order, I would like to sell vintage bikes, but with no experience and/or minimal turnover & profit, I can't see how to make any of make much more than pocket money for me.

What I have done is accept a role with a small company, for an initial 6 months, at significantly less than I was earning at the start of the year, but with someone I have worked for previously for a very short time and who I know to be honest, inspirational, and supportive. As well as a new challenge per se, albeit in the same industry I have been in for ever, I'm hoping that this will be a breath of fresh air and will show me that I can enjoy and be successful in the area where my skills lie.

I guess the TL:DR of all that is, if you can reshape it, (and it sounds like you have plenty of thoughts on how), it may all come back to you as something you do like doing after all. Whether that will work in practice (for you or for me!) time will tell.

In the meantime, hope the treatment goes as well as it can.


sjabrown

1,910 posts

159 months

Thursday 28th May 2015
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Reading the thread it seems there are aspects of the job you enjoy, and it is profitable. Others have said this already but it is what I did last year and has made a huge difference: if too busy (and good) then increase your rates.

Back of fag packet sums of what I did:
Increased what I charge by 12.5%. Booked work initially dropped but quickly picked back up. After a year I've earned the same, but done 29 days less work. That is a whole month more to do other things.
Next month I'm adding another 10%. This should save me a further 3 weeks whilst earning the same.

Magog

2,652 posts

188 months

Friday 29th May 2015
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ecain63 said:
Magog said:
Have you considered train driving, or working on the railway in some form. The ability to concentrate for long periods of time, which you clearly have, is one of the core competencies of train driving, and I believe applicants who are ex-military are still looked on fairly kindly.
Any idea on salaries?

Eddie
Think it's around 23-27k whilst training, which takes around a year, then 35k+ once qualified, but depends on the area. There have been a few threads on PH about it in the past.