Smudger
Established Member
Mike Wingate":xjss4997 said:
Blimey. Altrincham's a bit different from Wandsworth, then...
(Don't forget that you have access to unlimited quantities of hard toilet paper, chalk and red ink.)
Career change - advice/suggestions/recommendations etc....
- Thread starter Neil Dyball
- Start date
Help Support UKworkshop.co.uk:
Blimey. Altrincham's a bit different from Wandsworth, then...
(Don't forget that you have access to unlimited quantities of hard toilet paper, chalk and red ink.)
pren
Established Member
BradNaylor":3v8x3646 said:
Yeah, I didn't want to divert the thread but :roll:
devonwoody
Established Member
The quickest way to a nervous breakdown, I should think.
The little horrors can make you cry.
The little horrors can make you cry.
woodbloke
Established Member
devonwoody":2d024o0l said:
Affirmative - Rob
pren
Established Member
Hi, sorry to hear about your situation. 
I'm out of a job next month and have been keeping an eye on a website called MyBuilder.com for any local 'odd-job' work. Looks like there are quite a few small jobs around your way although it looks like there's a bit of competition. Assembling some flat-pack wardrobes and hanging a door are a couple that are on there near you.
I guess the key is to get your name into people's heads before they need the job doing. One suggestion that was offered to me was to make up some basic flyers to get round your local area. Include a couple of pics of anything you've made to give people an idea of what you're capable of. A link to a website about you and your capabilities might be a good idea as well.
I'd say your age would be a bonus here if you've the time to introduce yourself to the locals. Being the mature, honest, village woodworker/IT specialist has a certain cache about it.
Good luck to you!
I'm out of a job next month and have been keeping an eye on a website called MyBuilder.com for any local 'odd-job' work. Looks like there are quite a few small jobs around your way although it looks like there's a bit of competition. Assembling some flat-pack wardrobes and hanging a door are a couple that are on there near you.
I guess the key is to get your name into people's heads before they need the job doing. One suggestion that was offered to me was to make up some basic flyers to get round your local area. Include a couple of pics of anything you've made to give people an idea of what you're capable of. A link to a website about you and your capabilities might be a good idea as well.
I'd say your age would be a bonus here if you've the time to introduce yourself to the locals. Being the mature, honest, village woodworker/IT specialist has a certain cache about it.
Good luck to you!
petermillard
Established Member
There's been some sound advice already given so I'll just add my two-penneth.
I was in a similar position to the OP about 10 years ago, albeit with a couple of slight differences; I've always been self-employed so the career change was largely self-inflicted, and I did have some background in woodworking having started as an apprentice joiner after leaving school in the seventies; I was also 'only' forty at the time. That said, I think you (the OP) needs to decide what type of woodworking you want to do; are you 'chasing a dream' of fine furniture making, or do you need to make a living because the mortgage has to be paid and the kids need shoes?
If you're chasing a dream, then I can't help you (sounds like more the sort of thing you should have done as a hobby when you had a job, frankly) but if you have to start earning a crust then I'll agree wholeheartedly with BradNaylor about getting yourself out there now as a self-employed carpenter/handyman and grow a business from nothing - it's what I did. You sound like a competant DIY-er, so why would you want to earn peanuts as an apprentice? My cleaners grandson (a tenuous anecdotal relationship if ever there was one!) earns a statutory £95 per week (a week!) as an apprentice joiner to a local firm who, frankly, don't have enough work to keep him occupied, let alone learning. Could you live on £400 pcm, gross, for as long as it takes? Neither could I.
As Brad says, there's an almost inexhaustible supply of people who need things doing, whether it's flat-pack assembly, blinds and curtain-track fixing, or just a bloke with a long ladder for half an hour, there's always lots to be done; if you can string a sentence together in English, return a phone-call and turn up on time then it could be you who's doing it. And don't be sniffy about these small jobs - as well as being a quick and easy earner, they're often a very useful way of introducing yourself to a new client; people often like to try you out on something small before entrusting you with something larger.
If this is the route you want to take then I'd be happy to share my experiences and advise accordingly, either publicly here or through a PM; website's in my sig if you want to take a look.
Final thing; there's probably 30-times as many carpentry/handyman outfits offering their services now compared to when I started out, so it might be worth doing a quick Google or Yell.com search just to see who's operating in your area.
Hope this helps.
Cheers, and good luck
Pete
I was in a similar position to the OP about 10 years ago, albeit with a couple of slight differences; I've always been self-employed so the career change was largely self-inflicted, and I did have some background in woodworking having started as an apprentice joiner after leaving school in the seventies; I was also 'only' forty at the time. That said, I think you (the OP) needs to decide what type of woodworking you want to do; are you 'chasing a dream' of fine furniture making, or do you need to make a living because the mortgage has to be paid and the kids need shoes?
If you're chasing a dream, then I can't help you (sounds like more the sort of thing you should have done as a hobby when you had a job, frankly) but if you have to start earning a crust then I'll agree wholeheartedly with BradNaylor about getting yourself out there now as a self-employed carpenter/handyman and grow a business from nothing - it's what I did. You sound like a competant DIY-er, so why would you want to earn peanuts as an apprentice? My cleaners grandson (a tenuous anecdotal relationship if ever there was one!) earns a statutory £95 per week (a week!) as an apprentice joiner to a local firm who, frankly, don't have enough work to keep him occupied, let alone learning. Could you live on £400 pcm, gross, for as long as it takes? Neither could I.
As Brad says, there's an almost inexhaustible supply of people who need things doing, whether it's flat-pack assembly, blinds and curtain-track fixing, or just a bloke with a long ladder for half an hour, there's always lots to be done; if you can string a sentence together in English, return a phone-call and turn up on time then it could be you who's doing it. And don't be sniffy about these small jobs - as well as being a quick and easy earner, they're often a very useful way of introducing yourself to a new client; people often like to try you out on something small before entrusting you with something larger.
If this is the route you want to take then I'd be happy to share my experiences and advise accordingly, either publicly here or through a PM; website's in my sig if you want to take a look.
Final thing; there's probably 30-times as many carpentry/handyman outfits offering their services now compared to when I started out, so it might be worth doing a quick Google or Yell.com search just to see who's operating in your area.
Hope this helps.
Cheers, and good luck
Pete
BradNaylor
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I just had a look at Pete's website, and it looks like a sound business model to me.
That is exactly the kind of thing I had in mind when I made my suggestions to Neil. Not only can that kind of business be profitable - £275 a day is not to be sneezed at! :shock: - but it makes for a very interesting life.
I prefer my workshop though...
:lol:
Brad
www.thecabinetmakers.com
That is exactly the kind of thing I had in mind when I made my suggestions to Neil. Not only can that kind of business be profitable - £275 a day is not to be sneezed at! :shock: - but it makes for a very interesting life.
I prefer my workshop though...
:lol:
Brad
www.thecabinetmakers.com
petermillard
Established Member
lol Brad! Market forces at work here, of course - must update the website though, it's a touch more than that these days :shock: :shock:
I prefer to be in my workshop as well, though, sigh...
Pete
Edit - sorry, meant to say I also took a look at your sight and you have some very nice work on there - very much the kind of thing I'm doing more of these days. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMDF = splinter-free woodworking
I prefer to be in my workshop as well, though, sigh...
Pete
Edit - sorry, meant to say I also took a look at your sight and you have some very nice work on there - very much the kind of thing I'm doing more of these days. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMDF = splinter-free woodworking
wizer
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Peter, I also checked out you website. I do like the simplicity of it. One big comment. All your links open in new windows (or tabs). This will be very frustrating for your customers. You need to remove this:
target="_parent"
from the img link overlay.
target="_parent"
from the img link overlay.
petermillard
Established Member
wizer":le4i8eez said:
Hi and thanks for taking a look. That's very strange - it doesn't happen here, or on any other system I've checked the site out on. The first link clicked will open in a new tab (so you can just use the tab to return to the homepage) but all others (what, when, where etc...) thereafter open in the same window.
The picture galleries will open in their own tabs - this was intentional; I carry out different types of work and wanted to use an off-the-shelf image viewer (simpleviewer) to generate discrete galleries for each area; having them open in separate tabs meant that I didn't need to muck about with the code putting in links for folks to navigate back to the gallery page.
I'd assumed that people who were interested in, say, alcove units would click on that gallery; if their fancy took them to check out my bathrooms, they'd close the Alcove gallery before opening Bathrooms. Is that a frustration? Genuine question, as nobody's mentioned it before.
And just to drag ourselves back on-topic for the OP, if you decide to go the self-employed route, don't underestimate the impact of a well-designed website
Cheers, Pete
NickWelford
So many tools, so little to show
As a matter of general interest - insurance for a handyman/joiner - any recommendations or likely cost advice?
petermillard
Established Member
I use www.insuredrisks.co.uk for Public Liability insurance - pay about £90 a year for £2 mil of cover. They also do tool cover, though they don't advertise the fact. Plenty of other companies do combined PLI and tools cover, but I found the tool cover on these combination deals to be pretty stingy - some companies I looked at refused to cover more than £2k of tools, which doesn't go far.
HTH, Pete.
HTH, Pete.
