Help me with a career change.....
Discussion
Hi All,
I’m not posting under my regular PH account as I wasn’t sure if wanted to be this ‘frank’ under my own name….So, apologies in advance for that.
I think I’m having a bit of a mid life crisis around what to do next for work! I'm very early forties.
I’ve had a varied working career. I finished university in 1996 and after a year or so found myself as a computer programmer. I went out as a consultant fairly soon but always struggled in business environments. I’ve always been a fairly anxious kind of guy and would hate situations where I was under stress.
My wife was always fairly bored with office work too and, despite having a degree, was working in some mundane office roles for not much money. We then had the opportunity to relocate abroad and did so back in 2002! We quit our jobs, sold our house and moved to Spain. Their were loads of opportunities when we moved their and it didn’t take long before we were working together for ourselves. Yes, it was hard work but we managed to bring in a decent income. We sold our business and moved back to the UK in 2008 when our first son was born as we didn’t want to bring him up in a touristy environment.
We took a year or so out and then started a business in the UK that did really, really well. A good helping of luck meant that we were both working full time at it and soon we had 15 staff and a pretty decent turnover. The market became saturated over time and we sold out in 2014.
Since then my wife has got a job at a company that she enjoys and seem to treat her pretty well.
I’ve had a couple of jobs since but seem to be struggling! Even though I’ve been fairly successful I always seem to feel like a ‘little lost boy’ when it comes to working for companies. I’m not used to playing the games that other people seem too and the politics drives me crazy. It’s not the companies fault either - it’s me. I’m just not cut out to work for other people and I find the whole decision making processes at work tedious and incredibly slow. I’m also still quite anxious and don’t like talking in front of large crowds of people, etc. I’m quite a loaner and tend to prefer getting on with stuff that I know will make a difference. I’ve tried real hard but don’t think permie life is for me.
So I’m in a massive quandary about what to do next? I’d love to do something smaller scale, working for myself again, but can’t seem to find any ideas. I think my ideal would be offering a service - e.g. get a van, arrange appointments, provide a service / do something, etc, etc. Does anyone have any ideas of what I could do? For the first time in my life I genuinely don’t know what to do for a living. I’m quite a hands on kind of guy, and can turn my hand to most things. I don’t want to earn a fortune - I’m on about £30k a year at the moment in my office job….
Genuinely interested to hear any ideas!
Cheers, Simon
I’m not posting under my regular PH account as I wasn’t sure if wanted to be this ‘frank’ under my own name….So, apologies in advance for that.
I think I’m having a bit of a mid life crisis around what to do next for work! I'm very early forties.
I’ve had a varied working career. I finished university in 1996 and after a year or so found myself as a computer programmer. I went out as a consultant fairly soon but always struggled in business environments. I’ve always been a fairly anxious kind of guy and would hate situations where I was under stress.
My wife was always fairly bored with office work too and, despite having a degree, was working in some mundane office roles for not much money. We then had the opportunity to relocate abroad and did so back in 2002! We quit our jobs, sold our house and moved to Spain. Their were loads of opportunities when we moved their and it didn’t take long before we were working together for ourselves. Yes, it was hard work but we managed to bring in a decent income. We sold our business and moved back to the UK in 2008 when our first son was born as we didn’t want to bring him up in a touristy environment.
We took a year or so out and then started a business in the UK that did really, really well. A good helping of luck meant that we were both working full time at it and soon we had 15 staff and a pretty decent turnover. The market became saturated over time and we sold out in 2014.
Since then my wife has got a job at a company that she enjoys and seem to treat her pretty well.
I’ve had a couple of jobs since but seem to be struggling! Even though I’ve been fairly successful I always seem to feel like a ‘little lost boy’ when it comes to working for companies. I’m not used to playing the games that other people seem too and the politics drives me crazy. It’s not the companies fault either - it’s me. I’m just not cut out to work for other people and I find the whole decision making processes at work tedious and incredibly slow. I’m also still quite anxious and don’t like talking in front of large crowds of people, etc. I’m quite a loaner and tend to prefer getting on with stuff that I know will make a difference. I’ve tried real hard but don’t think permie life is for me.
So I’m in a massive quandary about what to do next? I’d love to do something smaller scale, working for myself again, but can’t seem to find any ideas. I think my ideal would be offering a service - e.g. get a van, arrange appointments, provide a service / do something, etc, etc. Does anyone have any ideas of what I could do? For the first time in my life I genuinely don’t know what to do for a living. I’m quite a hands on kind of guy, and can turn my hand to most things. I don’t want to earn a fortune - I’m on about £30k a year at the moment in my office job….
Genuinely interested to hear any ideas!
Cheers, Simon
Doofus said:
Given what you've said you'd like to do, and your financial goals (and I wouldn't usually suggest this, but) have you considered a franchise?
That's a good point and I've had a look (well, looked online) at a few. It's just hard to tell the scam ones from the decent ones if you know what I mean. Any you think might be of interest?I almost wish I'd done a proper trade after uni and become a sparky of plumber....!
There is a British Franchise Organisati9n or something, which will help y9unfind the decent ones.
If you want to provide a service, then there are franchises around property maintenance, estate agency signage, allloy wheel refurbishment, SMART repairs and gawd knows what else.
There are franchise exhibitions around the country fairly regularly, so it might be worth scouting one of those out too.
If you want to provide a service, then there are franchises around property maintenance, estate agency signage, allloy wheel refurbishment, SMART repairs and gawd knows what else.
There are franchise exhibitions around the country fairly regularly, so it might be worth scouting one of those out too.
hundredways said:
I think my ideal would be offering a service - e.g. get a van, arrange appointments, provide a service / do something, etc, etc. Does anyone have any ideas of what I could do? For the first time in my life I genuinely don’t know what to do for a living. I’m quite a hands on kind of guy, and can turn my hand to most things. I don’t want to earn a fortune - I’m on about £30k a year at the moment in my office job….
Genuinely interested to hear any ideas!
Cheers, Simon
National minimum wage is £7.20 p/h; can you live on that? If so, the world (well, England) is your oyster. You could try no end of jobs until you find the one that fits you best.Genuinely interested to hear any ideas!
Cheers, Simon
If you need a little more, say £10 p/h and bringing in around £24k pa, then you'd only need to generate some £80 per day for c300 days pa (you discount other days for sickness/training/equipment maintenance/annual leave etc). This brings in to scope a whole heap of other options like those you have suggested (man and a van; general gardening; general maintenance etc).
Good luck!
Chicken Chaser said:
OP could it be that you're just in the wrong career rather than struggling to be a permie? I'm not great at public speaking either, I just can't get my words out but I am better one to one. I can't help much on the advice but good luck in whatever you try next.
Thanks, yes you could be right about being in the wrong job / career. Everyone in my team are so vocal and basically the person who shouts loudest gets their own way - which doesn't always seem to be the right decision. I tend to sit back often knowing that there is a better way of doing something purely because I can't be bothered with the argument. Which is wrong of me and not best for the company....Maybe I need to find a job that requires me to not be a team player and work on my own lol...!
Thanks for the advice though everyone I'm going to continue looking at options. Feel free to let me know if you think of anything!
My brother-in-law found himself in a similar situation after redundancy. He looked into various franchises and ended up in touch with a guy who did training courses in oven cleaning-not one of the national franchises-bought a small van and off he went. It was slow to start with but now has a regular client base and is as happy as can be. Good luck!
Doofus said:
Given what you've said you'd like to do, and your financial goals (and I wouldn't usually suggest this, but) have you considered a franchise?
I think this is a really good suggestion. Look at the British Franchise Association site as a starter. They run annual franchise trade shows. You'd be surprised how many businesses operate this way. After being made redundant my neighbour went to the show looking for a business. He didn't get one but his wife did! A hat hire business and she did quite well with it though started to get fed up once it grew and she had to take on staff with all the associated hassle. Op you mention that you setup and ran a successful business in both Spain and the U.K. - is there a similar/tangential market that you could set up a new business - I.e. Build on the experience/knowledge you gained in those ventures?
I'm sure you must have acquired some really good transferable skills - it's not easy setting up a successful business And you have done it twice!
I'm sure you must have acquired some really good transferable skills - it's not easy setting up a successful business And you have done it twice!
Babber101 said:
Op you mention that you setup and ran a successful business in both Spain and the U.K. - is there a similar/tangential market that you could set up a new business - I.e. Build on the experience/knowledge you gained in those ventures?
I'm sure you must have acquired some really good transferable skills - it's not easy setting up a successful business And you have done it twice!
Thanks for the kind words. Yes, I keep forgetting that I've been successful before....! I've almost talked myself down into being a non-achiever which isn't the case...I'm sure you must have acquired some really good transferable skills - it's not easy setting up a successful business And you have done it twice!
I just need to keep wracking my brains for the next idea, and ultimately I just want to be happy going to work I guess.
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