Self Employed advice

I'm becoming more and more frustrated at working for someone else and am considering going out on my own.

I know I'll be sacrificing holiday pay etc but the thought of being my own boss, not being at someone's back and call is very appealing.

I haven't got any amazing Dragons Den ideas or a particular trade but was considering the whole self employed courier driver bit. I could then top up with a bit of handy man and gardening work.

Any tips or is anyone a white van man?

Cheers.

 

My tip would be DON’T DO IT!!!

 

Watch 'Sorry we missed you', then re-consider the self-employed courier option.

 

Know a lot of people who do courier work, a lot of hours to earn a decent wage, lots of pressure and deadlines to meet to earn it too.
Like a lot of jobs a lot of money in it of you can get contracts and then have subbies working for you.

 

you will also be at the back and call of someone else doing courier work,ie your customers, you cant be poorly,you cant throw a sicky etc etc, the buck stops with you,i've been self employed for 23 years and just got to the point where i've had enough, so i've done my Class 1 hgv and walked straight into a job , i'm now sleepng better and its heaven having sumbody else do the worrying..

i've still got my business but it will be up for sale in the new year and this cannot come soon enough

edit.. self emplored courier work is just some courier company getting away with employing you, your working rights are none existent when you are self employed pal.....so think long and hard

 

Considered that myself but dont like the idea of sleeping in the cab.

 

plenty of work about bud that doesnt involve tramping (nights out)..i'm a day driver doing shipping containers

 

There's a lot of work on agency's etc that are working days without sleeping in the can but it's also worth remembering that those cabs are like five star hotels these days

 

When I first read the headline of this - my first reaction was to advice taking some contacts with you from your current job.
And then I read that you have no saleable skills.
So my advice would be this.
If you have no kids or a mortgage or any outstanding bills to pay then yes - you could potter abart sweeping leaves up for an owd lass somewhere etc etc.
But if you have these commitments - then tha needs to get thi ar@se in gear and get some fooking proper work done to put a wage packet on the dining room table!!!

 

my advice would be sit tight and see how the GE pans out, how the new year evolves and what happens with the economy. There may be a glut of redundancies and unemployment and courier handy man jobs may well become saturated meaning less work and cheaper rates. Alternatively, the economy may feel a slight short term bounce and depending on demographics in your area, you may see a net reduction in low skilled workers, giving more scope.

But being self employed is tougher and puts way more onus on you. So think it through, consider all the avenues, pros and cons, and weigh it up.

But I’d very much suggest you hang fire for now, at least til there is less uncertainty.

 

I'm 59 years of age and up to 2015 I was self employed, unfortunately i had to leave work to care for my wife who suffers from Frontotemporal dementia, now having gone as far as I could she is now in a home getting the proper care, I have just put my self back to work and let me tell you I've tried the courier thing and its soul destroying, long hours, the outlay is crippling, you can make money but at a cost in terms of down time the work life balance is massively in favour of the former.
I then went to work as a delivery driver for Iceland, at £9.50 per hour, my word what eye opener that was, erratic shift patterns, management styles that are Dickensian I gave that 3 months and told them politely to shove it where the sun don't shine.
Advice....Well, stay away from franchises, definitely stay away from the courier life if you want a life, my way of thinking now is the high street is due a renaissance and small boutique shops will play a massive part in this resurgence, finding the quirky, offbeat, retro stock is the key so research is vastly important.
Good luck my friend, but sometimes the adage 'Better the devil you know' rings true.

 

I'm a self employed tradesman. I haven't been directly employed since 1992.

When I first started doing my own work, I was good at my job, but not very business minded, but the former was enough to get my foot in the door - the latter comes with experience.

I wouldn't advise going self employed in a job that you're not on top of your game, and learning as you go. The odds are stacked against you from the start as it's not a natural career path, like it would be if you were already doing it and had poached a load of your current employers contacts.

Self employment can be tough, and not getting holiday pay is the least of your worries. You will need to have a different mindset to the employed bloke.

 

Please think this through carefully, being successfully self employed is about knowing your business well enough to leverage a better than employed income.

it’s not about being a wage slave for a huge corporation who control all your income and outgoings. Courier driving on that type of contract is all about Amazon etc passing on risk to ‘employees’.

 

A friend of mine packed his job in with Royal Mail to be a self employed courier/parcel delivery driver...he lost over £20k in a fairly short time before he packed it in, some of the drops involved him driving several miles for around 50p.....fortunately he got back on at RM.

 

I've been a SE courier for 7 years. Take home 43k a year after expenses and it gives my family a good life. However my life suffers for it.... 6 days a week, days can be as long as 16 hours (this time of year), then made to do 7 days a week over the Christmas period.

Courier work often gets called a driving job, it's not. Driving makes up about 10% of your day. Loading up in a morning can take 2 hours, lots of scanning in and heavy lifting. Then ridiculous times to stick to IE 45 seconds per house and 1 hour time slots. Not to mention fraudulent customers, abuse, the pure stress of it etc etc

Today for example, my smart watch says I walked 31 miles, drove for 115 miles, climbed 1000+ stairways. I had 311 drops with 347 parcels and 19 collections. I was out delivering at half 8 and I strolled in the house at 9pm. Granted, it's crazy season but believe me, the rest of the year isn't no disco. Its ******* hard and tiring work.

For someone like me who left school with no GCSE's at all, other than some coaching badges that BFC put me thru, it's ideal. Its a chance for me to have the finer things in life and make sure my little lad can have a brilliant life, the rest doesn't matter to me. I'd stay clear, but best of luck to you if you decide to go down the courier route.

 

Been a self employed courier for 10 years, grown my business into a very high earning company (yes with franchises) if you want any advice drop me a message I’ll give you all the pros and cons, who to work for and who to avoid, it’s certainly not for everyone but others thrive and love it.

 

Fair play to you. But **** me. you're going to drop dead soon pal.

 

I've worked for the family business for the last 22 years, I'm not self employed as such but basically were a 7 day a week company, so I have to be on call for the duration of that time, sometimes I'm not sure what day it is. If I had my time again I would work for someone else.
dekparker has the right idea, get your HGV class 1, you are working on your own so less hassle from work colleagues, (knobheads). circa £15 an hour, work Monday-Friday, park it up, go to pub. Happy days.

 

wouldn't call getting back to RM fortunate as they will end up similar to other couriers over the coming years if they have their way

 

Solid advice, if I ever heard it. Being self employed is OK if you have lots of diversified clients, something I've always tried to have. It is hard work & sometimes expensive finding them, but you are not a slave to one or two companies. If you are they will take the ****...