Sort of newbie....
Discussion
Evening All,
Looking for a bit of general advice, rather than specific.
Find myself in a new position – exciting but slightly scary!
Around this time of year, in 2014, I quit my job as a Quantity Surveyor/Estimator for a large national construction company. I had my reasons as anyone would, but generally felt there were plenty of opportunities out there for me to set up on my own. Whilst working my notice I put the feelers out and seemed to get a good level of interest. Part of that interest was via an agency who wanted me a couple of days a week at a similar firm to that whom I worked for. Needless to say, to fill a gap, I took the role which soon became a 5 day a week ‘comfy rut’ freelance role, with a few bits and pieces as well as. The job soon became hard work, not the work itself, but the commute was a pig and the work, albeit ok, wasn’t really my bag. So around 12 months later I jumped ship to a smaller firm but on a similar basis. Again on a fixed term contract. I hacked this one out longer still, and worked on various contracts for said firm until jumping ship again last April to a firm that would allow me to work a 3-4 day week so that I could concentrate on building my own work back up and look to actually run my own business rather than sit in these comfy ruts of 5 day a week freelance assignments. Needless to say, that never really happened – it did for perhaps the first 4 months or so but the last 12 months or so I’ve been on a 60 hour week plus trying to manage my own work out of work hours, as well as being a Dad to 3 under 12s and a foster parent to 2 little girls. Work life balance hasn’t really existed. I’ve just worked and when I’ve not been working, I’ve been worrying about work. It’s been really crap to be fair.
So, early July I was chatting to a colleague whom I’ve worked with on and off for over 10 years. Real nice guy. I was telling him that I really wanted out of this crap situation and he advised me that he’d had a chat with my Hiring Manager who planned to get shut of me by the end of August. I was both shocked and slightly happy. He even commented that he’d not seen me that happy for a while. As it happened, he never got shut of me, but I got shut of them. Finished up there yesterday. End of an era of being in a comfy rut working 95% of my time for one firm and the other 5 for a number of smaller firms.
September onwards, I’m on my own. I’ve got a few bits lined up but nothing cast in stone. I’ve tried to estimate how much potential clients might want me. Late July, I’d done loads of ringing round and signs were good – was guestimating, probably naively, at 21 days. Great – that’s the mortgage paid and everything else too. But looking ahead, I literally have nowhere to be on 2nd September when I get back from my holidays. I do have a guy who’s really keen to work with me – in fact we’ve done a few half-days over the last month or so – but he openly advised that he’s very little in the bank at the moment until some big invoices are paid.
Worries me slightly but I’m sure stuff will land. I’ve got a number of folk wanting to meet me but given work situation until yesterday and holiday commencing tomorrow, I’ve had to put them off until September.
Feel I’m in quite a decent position. I’ve got a fair few months wages in the company account – and my own company car’s lease is up in a months time. So it automatically goes onto a rolling 30 day lease, so if needs must, it can go back with 7 days notice. Also, have purchased the IT hard and software that I need over the past few years, so no huge investment required in that respect. Kitchen table will be office for next few months until I can see enough to commit to a £250 a month office round the corner.
Generally excited by it all but any words of wisdom from the PH masses to keep me focussed and heading in the right direction?
Looking for a bit of general advice, rather than specific.
Find myself in a new position – exciting but slightly scary!
Around this time of year, in 2014, I quit my job as a Quantity Surveyor/Estimator for a large national construction company. I had my reasons as anyone would, but generally felt there were plenty of opportunities out there for me to set up on my own. Whilst working my notice I put the feelers out and seemed to get a good level of interest. Part of that interest was via an agency who wanted me a couple of days a week at a similar firm to that whom I worked for. Needless to say, to fill a gap, I took the role which soon became a 5 day a week ‘comfy rut’ freelance role, with a few bits and pieces as well as. The job soon became hard work, not the work itself, but the commute was a pig and the work, albeit ok, wasn’t really my bag. So around 12 months later I jumped ship to a smaller firm but on a similar basis. Again on a fixed term contract. I hacked this one out longer still, and worked on various contracts for said firm until jumping ship again last April to a firm that would allow me to work a 3-4 day week so that I could concentrate on building my own work back up and look to actually run my own business rather than sit in these comfy ruts of 5 day a week freelance assignments. Needless to say, that never really happened – it did for perhaps the first 4 months or so but the last 12 months or so I’ve been on a 60 hour week plus trying to manage my own work out of work hours, as well as being a Dad to 3 under 12s and a foster parent to 2 little girls. Work life balance hasn’t really existed. I’ve just worked and when I’ve not been working, I’ve been worrying about work. It’s been really crap to be fair.
So, early July I was chatting to a colleague whom I’ve worked with on and off for over 10 years. Real nice guy. I was telling him that I really wanted out of this crap situation and he advised me that he’d had a chat with my Hiring Manager who planned to get shut of me by the end of August. I was both shocked and slightly happy. He even commented that he’d not seen me that happy for a while. As it happened, he never got shut of me, but I got shut of them. Finished up there yesterday. End of an era of being in a comfy rut working 95% of my time for one firm and the other 5 for a number of smaller firms.
September onwards, I’m on my own. I’ve got a few bits lined up but nothing cast in stone. I’ve tried to estimate how much potential clients might want me. Late July, I’d done loads of ringing round and signs were good – was guestimating, probably naively, at 21 days. Great – that’s the mortgage paid and everything else too. But looking ahead, I literally have nowhere to be on 2nd September when I get back from my holidays. I do have a guy who’s really keen to work with me – in fact we’ve done a few half-days over the last month or so – but he openly advised that he’s very little in the bank at the moment until some big invoices are paid.
Worries me slightly but I’m sure stuff will land. I’ve got a number of folk wanting to meet me but given work situation until yesterday and holiday commencing tomorrow, I’ve had to put them off until September.
Feel I’m in quite a decent position. I’ve got a fair few months wages in the company account – and my own company car’s lease is up in a months time. So it automatically goes onto a rolling 30 day lease, so if needs must, it can go back with 7 days notice. Also, have purchased the IT hard and software that I need over the past few years, so no huge investment required in that respect. Kitchen table will be office for next few months until I can see enough to commit to a £250 a month office round the corner.
Generally excited by it all but any words of wisdom from the PH masses to keep me focussed and heading in the right direction?
There’s a lot to go at there!
I guess it boils down to that tension between the risks (and then hopefully rewards) associated with contracting/self employment versus PAYE.
Take solace that you’re not alone; many reading your post will be in a similar situation.
Ultimately, it’s your decision. Only you can settle which approach works best for your temperament and family circumstances. Have you discussed this with your family? An obvious question, but worth a little nudge if you haven’t or haven’t done so in depth recently. What are their views of the current situation?
Whichever path you choose, good luck and keep us posted!
I guess it boils down to that tension between the risks (and then hopefully rewards) associated with contracting/self employment versus PAYE.
Take solace that you’re not alone; many reading your post will be in a similar situation.
Ultimately, it’s your decision. Only you can settle which approach works best for your temperament and family circumstances. Have you discussed this with your family? An obvious question, but worth a little nudge if you haven’t or haven’t done so in depth recently. What are their views of the current situation?
Whichever path you choose, good luck and keep us posted!
Few thoughts from my experience (albeit some years back, and in a different industry) doing freelance consulting.
Looking back, I did some very cool projects, and it was tremendously satisfying, with a real sense of achievement in earning a living entirely off my own bat. However, it was also much harder than I expected, and ultimately not for me. Some lessons that I learnt the hard way:
Problem 1: Working solo seems always to be either feast or famine. It’s hard to find time to generate new work when you’re busy, so you tend to wait wait until the job ends, and then it takes ages. Hence income can be very up or down (the only exception is when you land a longer, full-time contract, which then feels like a job, and not the range of projects you want).
Solution: Always make time for marketing, even when working. You need to maintain a future pipeline of opportunities regardless how busy you are already. Worst case, refer them to a friend, and take a finders fee.
Problem 2: If you really need work, you end up desperate and take stuff you don’t want to do, which negates the whole point of being solo
Solution: Build up a good war-chest for lean times. In the meantime, get your personal costs as low as you can so as to extend for as long as possible how long you can go without work. Combine the two and you can be choosier about work.
Problem 3: It can be a bit lonely being on your own. You’ve your clients, but you are not part of a team. It all rests on your shoulders, especially finding work.
Solution: Find and join a local network of people either in your industry, or just other freelancers or early stage entrepreneurs. If you can join a network that shares business, even better. Problem shared and all that...
Finally, make sure your other half is clear on what it’ll be like, and up for the challenge, and if need be, set a time limit for ‘if it doesn’t work by x, I’ll get a proper job’. Otherwise, they can’t be supportive of you and you end up having to hide the uncertainty, which is a pressure you can do without.
Hope that’s not too negative. Like I said, I was surprised how hard it was to get and maintain an even keel for a solo consulting venture in my industry. I eventually did ok, but it certainly wasn’t the effortless ‘portfolio lifestyle’ I’d envisioned at the start. Good luck!
Looking back, I did some very cool projects, and it was tremendously satisfying, with a real sense of achievement in earning a living entirely off my own bat. However, it was also much harder than I expected, and ultimately not for me. Some lessons that I learnt the hard way:
Problem 1: Working solo seems always to be either feast or famine. It’s hard to find time to generate new work when you’re busy, so you tend to wait wait until the job ends, and then it takes ages. Hence income can be very up or down (the only exception is when you land a longer, full-time contract, which then feels like a job, and not the range of projects you want).
Solution: Always make time for marketing, even when working. You need to maintain a future pipeline of opportunities regardless how busy you are already. Worst case, refer them to a friend, and take a finders fee.
Problem 2: If you really need work, you end up desperate and take stuff you don’t want to do, which negates the whole point of being solo
Solution: Build up a good war-chest for lean times. In the meantime, get your personal costs as low as you can so as to extend for as long as possible how long you can go without work. Combine the two and you can be choosier about work.
Problem 3: It can be a bit lonely being on your own. You’ve your clients, but you are not part of a team. It all rests on your shoulders, especially finding work.
Solution: Find and join a local network of people either in your industry, or just other freelancers or early stage entrepreneurs. If you can join a network that shares business, even better. Problem shared and all that...
Finally, make sure your other half is clear on what it’ll be like, and up for the challenge, and if need be, set a time limit for ‘if it doesn’t work by x, I’ll get a proper job’. Otherwise, they can’t be supportive of you and you end up having to hide the uncertainty, which is a pressure you can do without.
Hope that’s not too negative. Like I said, I was surprised how hard it was to get and maintain an even keel for a solo consulting venture in my industry. I eventually did ok, but it certainly wasn’t the effortless ‘portfolio lifestyle’ I’d envisioned at the start. Good luck!
Keep away from the guy with no money. I never met a poor QS.
If you are overwhelmed with work put put your rates up use that as a natural way to manage what's coming in. In business I deal with lots of people that are sinking under the weight of work they are trying to cope with but yet not really making much money.
If you are overwhelmed with work put put your rates up use that as a natural way to manage what's coming in. In business I deal with lots of people that are sinking under the weight of work they are trying to cope with but yet not really making much money.
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