Anyone regret becoming Self Employed?

[Evans Electric]

I haven't met anyone who regrets becoming SE  just wondering if theres anyone on here who does .

Speaking for myself , I should have done it sooner instead of earning other people's fortunes.     Pushed into it by redundancy 23 yrs ago  to be honest.   You can't just get another job as supervisor/estimator  and if you are a certain age , no one wants you on the tools either .

Big mistake was NOT approaching some of our client base I'd been working with  to offer my services .  Police , City Council, NHS , one of the big 5 banks at the time. 

Oh well..C'est La Vie as we say in Burmingum. 

 

[ProDave]

No regrets at going SE 13 years ago when I took redundancy.

Yes you give up some things like you have virtually signed your right to unemployment benefit away. But the flexibility of being SE is so much better than having a fixed hours job and a boss telling you what to do.

My only regret though is I can't afford to retire yet. Although SE work is better than employed work, what would be even better is not needing to work at all.
 

 

[binky]

sometimes I think a 40 hour week would be nice, without all the hassle of running a business, but not as an electrician. I don't think I could stand being employed as an electrician, supervisor maybe? The thing I miss most is my former engineering work, I liked the technology and being involved in things that really did affect the world we live in.

The upside is the flexibility, being able to deal with customers in my own way, and being my own boss. Plus, I get to work different places every day. When you are stuck in a factory with the same view every day it does get tedious.

 

[kerching]

I used to employ between 6 and 10 sparks 

forced into SE 7 years ago for reasons that some on here are aware of

i now have the equivalent of a zero hours contract for a variable wage

if I get out of bed I earn

if I stay in bed I dont

i have 5 granddaughters

I am loving every second of it

only,one regret....should have done it years ago

 

[New Venture!]

Like quite a few of you guys on here, being made redundant at a more "advanced" age meant going self employed. Don't regret it for a minute. I don't have any pressures from accountants (or finance managers as they called themselves in my last company) that were only interested in saving money, and being able to move jobs around to have long weekend breaks is great. 

 

[Murdoch]

Yes you give up some things like you have virtually signed your right to unemployment benefit away.

If you have a partner that works any JSA amounts to peanuts so its hardly worth signing on - the last time it happened to me I only signed on to get the mortgage insurance cover to payout.

In the UK you either work or you don't - the benefits system isn't set up to encourage people to work - so thats why many people simply don't bother!

 

[binky]

the large cuts to benefits will probably change a few things. It always was a non-sense that you could be about the same financially on benefits as working. Personally I always thought it would be a better system if everyone got paid the bare minimum, and any work earnings you kept in full, so even if you only worked 1 hour a week, you kept the money, if you worked 40 hours, you kept the money. That way you would really see a reason to go to work.

When I was young and unemployed several decades ago, there where plenty of part time jobs, and temporary jobs. I think there still is, but risking your benefits could mean losing your rent money and being evicted, so if the job avaialble wasn't full-time and relatively secure, there was no point in taking it.

 

[Sharpend]

I quite agree binky, if we had a system whereby we kept all our earnings and paid tax on what we bought or used then it would be much fairer and give people an incentive to work. 

Ok so roads would all be toll roads at a few pence per mile then at least all are contributing to maintanence etc. 

I went over the dartford crossing the other week cost £6 for a return journey, now do I believe with the volume of traffic that goes over it the costs only go to maintaining the crossing, no I'd say the majority goes toward the owners pockets (French I think?), but if all roads were publicly owned and paid for at a rate to cover maintanence then the individual cost would come down, all roads would be much better kept. 

Lets face it the government borrows money as though it grows on trees and for whom are the borrowing it for? and seeing as we are borrowing close to 100%gdp it doesn't take a mathematician to tell you that we will soon be in the realms of Greece and the others in financial difficulty. Something major has too change, however before a major change can happen small changes have to start. 

 

[rapparee]

and seeing as we are borrowing close to 100%gdp 

I thought the whole point of austerity was to drive this down. I know that in the republic they've got it down from 125% to 100% and they're staying the course to drive it down further.

Edit. Ive just looked it up. It was 121% at the end of 2014 and will be 99% at the end of this year.

 

[binky]

or is it just Tory dogma at work???? Personally I think the economy would have done better left alone, and taxes had raised to actually pay for the servies we want  - as someone put it on the radio the other day, we want Swedish services at USA tax rates, just not possible.

Bear in  mind that you are only talking about the annual balance of payments, and not the actual debt racked up to support greedy bankers

 

[Kurt]

I have had a great run being SE, there were significant tax benefits for taking all the risk of not getting benefits and sicky pay etc, but I have a worry the gov is looking at SE people for extra tax. The introduction of the dividend tax this year was the first sign , will be watching the budget like a hawk....... As a country we are broke so the pain is coming....

 

[binky]

I quite agree binky, if we had a system whereby we kept all our earnings and paid tax on what we bought or used then it would be much fairer and give people an incentive to work. 

 Not quite what I meant. Oddly enough I think it is easier to tax earnings, and only earnings, taxing booze, insurance, anything and everything else just strikes me as very inefficient and totally lacking clarity. The only joy of these secondary taxes is that the wealthy pay them when squandering their fortunes. I would actually like to see taxes rise, and services improve, but I am a socialist. I think we should be arguing about efficient spending of money rather than just not paying tax. In reality the tax rate is more like 44% if you add in all the back door taxation.

What I was trying to say is that everyone should get a basic, just survive, level of money from say 18 years old. That way if you go to work you just earn on top of that (and pay tax accordingly). This would remove the need for a lot of benefits admin, it would make labour more flexible, ie you could take a job for 2 weeks knowing you won't lose benefits which would make that work worth about 50p an hour, but more inportantly, it would hopefuly break the benefits trap that makes working almost pointless at the bottom end of the labour market. This would then hopefully remove the need to import low skilled labour.

I have had a great run being SE, there were significant tax benefits for taking all the risk of not getting benefits and sicky pay etc, but I have a worry the gov is looking at SE people for extra tax. The introduction of the dividend tax this year was the first sign , will be watching the budget like a hawk....... As a country we are broke so the pain is coming....

the pain has already arrived, just watch the local news about failing services for the elderly, mentally ill, youth etc etc - local government has just lost 30% of their budgets, and that means staff....

 

[Sidewinder]

The NHS is being unfer funded deliberately, so that people get fed up with the poor provision so, when privatisation is suggested, people think that they will get a better service.

Which they won't & we will end up paying more,

Everyone wants first class public services, however there are few who are willing to pay for them via taxation, which apart from privatisation, is, THE only way that they can be paid for.

 

[binky]

Totally agree Sidey. People in the Nordic countries who pay higher taxes are happier than us according to various reports. Can't just be a coincidence?