Career change Engineer to Trade

dairbhre

Hi folks,

I need advice
I currently work as a Service engineer in a High-tech company and have worked in the Manufacturing industry for 18 years or so. At this stage I'm sick of depending on these companies for employment and would love to take control of my income.
I feel I have invested a lot of time in this career but I would love to change career and do something completely different, rewarding and something I can control myself.

I have a half plan to go and get training as a tiler at a training centre in the UK for a couple of weeks and come back and gradually start up my own tiling business and eventually work on my own.
My big problem is that I am afraid to take the jump as I am not sure if the market is there for another tiler. I am not afraid to put in the time, but cannot afford to give up my current career and discover I can’t make a living on the next.

Any comments?
Can anyone offer any advice on this?
Has anyone done anything similar?
Am I a bit mad to consider this option?
Has anyone done one of these courses? Was it worthwhile?

Any and all comments and advice greatly appreciated.

Dairbhre

knighted_1

ask urself this -u are currently depending on these companies for employment and salary if u changed to being self employed could u depend on urself to bring in an income -what most people dont realise about self employment is that u now work double the hours -at present someone in ur company takes care of all ur admin tax affairs expenses work cover holidays pensions -the list goes on-now u will have to cover these urself -plus no sick pay no holiday pay if u dont work u dont get paid -

a self employed person turning over say 100k a year -after expenses taxes pension admin etc the real take home is about 35k to 40k-

so although the grass looks greener on the other side its sometimes isnt -

plus being self employed doesnt gaurantee u quality of life as u never know where ur next job or contract is coming from or when its going to end suddenly or if ur going to get paid at all -

and yes i am self employed -about 10 years now -good years have been great but bad years have been soul destroying- all in all it evens out but there are times that i wish i had a steady job like yours that i can leave behind me when i clock off in the evening

if u are going to change careers just remember that when we have a downturn in the econimy it will be self employed trades men that will be first to feel the pinch

i know this reply sounds negative but it is to inform u of the other side of things that most people never tell u

finallly if u do take the plunge the best piece of advice i can give u is from the start get a good accountant even before u start trading as this will be ur biggest head ache dealing with the tax and vat man -let the accountant do this for u


good luck if u do take the plunge

Bulmers

definitely agree on the costs thing, I would do a financial plan etc 1st so you know what you're getting into and what you need to do.

Mate of mine went on his own in telecoms business, installing etc, had 7 guys working for him in the end but speaking to him over wend, he is jacking it in, he's only 28, works all hrs every wend, lost the girlfriend etc so it can be hard doing it on ur own in a saturated market, plus he had to come up with 38k/month to keep afloat so alot of pressure and he was only paying himself a salary of 30k, split profits at end of year.

I thought it would be something handy to do too but seeing it from that perspective, it is very hard work.

dairbhre

Thanks for the replies guys, some very valid points made by you both, definately food for thought.
I am going ahead with a training course in the next few weeks, I have a few personal tiling jobs which I will tackle after that and then see if anyone else has use for me and my 'talents'.
If it works out after that 'Great', if not then nothing lost. At the very least I hope I can use it to get by between jobs in the future. This industry I am currently in is not very dependable in the long run.

Thanks again,

Dairbhre

TempestSabre

Try getting some work at the weekends and in the evenings. See how that works out. Personally I think closing one source of revenue before you've established a replacement is a bad idea.