Re: FN-FORUM: The first six months..

date posted 15th August 2004 21:25

On 15 Aug 2004 19:52:53 -0000, "Aaron Brailsford" said:
> nick b wrote:
> >> bringing somewhere between 4 and 6k a month into the company, every=20
> >>
> > If by making a living, you're talking about =A350k+ a year then, err, n=
o=20
> > wonder you're having trouble..
>=20
> Ah but 4k p/m wouldn't end up at 50k after all of the business expenses,=
=20
> accountants fees, corporation tax (etc etc).. I'd settle for enough to=20
> pay the mortgage at the moment, though.
>=20
> At some point, however, I would like to own a house with more than one=20
> bedroom (more than one floor would be good too).. But, I guess unless I=
=20
> happen to marry someone rich, that's not gonna happen working for myself.
>=20
> > self-employment (no dickheads, no bosses, enjoyment of work, flexible=
=20
> > hours, no commuting etc) and console myself that way..
>=20
> Ah but there's all the disadvantages too - no money, no regular income,=
=20
> not knowing where the next =A320 is coming from..
>=20
> Mayhaps I just need to find a permenant job again.

I got extremely low on money back in March, i.e. the whole "how the hell
am I going to pay the rent next month, and I'm being chucked out so how
I do cover the move and deposit" type situation. I managed to land a
healthy contract that I had to travel to, so I could use my credit card
to cover my costs in the meantime. However, I didn't have anything all
ready borrowed on the card.=20

A few years back I would never have gone freelance. I had too much debt
and did not have enough contacts. When I was made redundant I had not a
lot of debt left, very little money (few hundred quid, I got the
'statutory' one week's redundancy), and lots of contacts from joining
local networking groups. That's been my key to gaining new clients, as
well as the lucky break a recruitment company found me. I'm not earning
anything like 4k a month. As long as I earn at least 1k a month I can at
least exist and pay my bills, even if I can't have any fun / save for
tax.=20

Considering I'm also just starting out (went freelance last November)
things are going better than I expected. Then again, I've also been
doing a lot of ground work - networking through things like the local
Ecademy group, Wired Sussex and a local freelancers group. All of these
have lead to work, as have punting my CV out through sites like
Jobsite/Jobserve. Unfortunately, networking can take a while to come
off, so it isn't a short-term solution for you. Also, this can chew up
lots of time - generally I have at least one evening meeting a week, and
at least one week a month I have three networking meetings, on top of
whatever work I'm doing. Although personally I'll take doing networking
over doing cold-calling any time.

If you have money coming and can show the bank you have, they will more
than likely lend you some money in the meantime. But if you haven't got
new work coming, I don't see that helping you too much. If you can't
think of a way of getting more work, then once this chunk is over
perhaps it is time to get another permie job. Once the money comes
through for the work you're doing now it can pay off any loan you got,
and you get back to more normal hours. You can always go freelance again
in the future if you want to, in the meantime you can start building up
contacts.=20


Paul