Need Help with some decisions.......

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hi everyone!!

i didn't mean to cause an argument! sorry :(

i have read all of the posts and i have made my decision!

i will give furniture making my best shot and if i fail (and lose money!) i will try carpentry/joinery!

does anyone here have a regular job but still makes and sells furniture??

Cheers

Tom
 
Esp":2e0t2m2y said:
The only question I had about your figures John, was the rental cost of the workshop - round where I work (Berkshire), you could be paying as much as 25 quid /sq-ft per annum!

Sorry for carryng on, here, Alf, but I can't send ESP a PM as he hasn't registered for them.
Anyway, what I wnated to tell him is I am currently negotiaitng for a workshop in Berkshire and the asking is £4 per sq ft per annum, thing is, it at the west end of Berks (near Hungerford). There are more available.
 
John, fair enough :D

Tom,
Argument? Nah, that was just friendly yet impassioned debate :wink: I learnt quite a bit from some of the answers you got, so I for one am glad you asked :D Good on yer for giving it a shot; let us know how it goes - if you have time!

Cheers, Alf
 
thomas just go for it, if you dont you will always wonder what if for the rest of your life?. your young and if it doesn't work out at least you tried and can always do something else

just an old fart frank

god i wish i was 15 again.
 
Thomas,

If i were you i would go for it now. I'm 40 (shhhh) and just got made redundant last week. All say ahhhh.

Would love to change direction and give it a go, but theres the mortgage, kids, wife etc etc. Much better to take the plunge now. For me its easy too many commitments to take the risk, or even time left to retrain.

Good luck,


Aidan
 
how do i get started in such a thing?

do i need to go to collage or can i take an apprentaship somewhere and qualify?

im starting to get rather confused about where to begin!


Cheers

Tom

ps. sorry for keeping this going on so long!!!
 
Tom - I think you should get a tedious office job, something fascinating like IT. Specialise as a DBA maybe? "Why?", you ask. Well, if you start woodwork from your age and stick at it, looking back later you'll never appreciate it what a lucky git you are! :twisted:

OK, a proper idea. Get some qualifications and aim yourself at a career that will pay reasonably well. IT's as good as any. DO NOT live at a level to fit your salary. Instead, live as cheaply as you can manage while still having fun. Don't skimp on the fun - it matters! Keep doing the woodwork! Grow yourself a decent toolkit too. By the age of 30, aim to have a house paid for and enough cash in the bank to finance yourself through two years of doing whatever the hell you like. Then do woodwork. Seriously, if you want to do it that badly, make it a second career. Don't lie to yourself with the "some day" kind of cr@p that most of us say (including me). Plan it, pay for it, then do it. Lay it down for later like wine, and savour it...

I guess this may not make much sense at 15. :wink:
 
I wouldn't touch the IT industry with a barge pole...the same thing is happening to this industry as happened to the Steel Industry in the 80's...all the work is being exported offshore.

I can't name you one IT related company that has actively hired a fair number of people in the last 3 years...and they aren't going to in the future either when they can get Indian workers to do the same job for 1/4 of the wages.

I'd advise you to think about one of skilled trades, namely electrican, plumber or joiner. And here's the reason why...

In the the early-mid 70's there was a glut of people wanting to work in these trades, and not enough work to keep them all busy. This resulted in the companies not training any more apprentices. This trend has continued to the present day, and the result is that we now have an entire generation of these skilled workers approaching retirement age with no-one to replace them. The governement has realised this and there are now spending a lot of money trying to correct this situation.

Today, many joiners/plumbers/electricians are pulling down six figure salaries, and that is no exaggeragtion. I didn't believe it at first, but I have a close friend who is the payroll manager in a building company and she has shown me the figures which proove this. There are many guys working regular hours and earning slightly over 100k. The guys who are buting a gut, and doing weekends and loads of overtime are pulling down 160k-plus.

It is normal for any jobs which involve awkward working conditions or any amount of travelling to pay double time for a minimum of 12 hours a day, 7 days a week (regardless of how many hours/days were actually worked). So, that can be between 30 and 40 quid an hour for 12 hours a day 7 days a week.
You do the math!!

Just my view, for what it's worth.

Mark
 
Mark - I'm a manager in IT, and *kind* of disagree with you, but only mildy. IMO, IT's still possible as a career, but all depends on you choosing wisely from the get-go. The jobs that are currently being outsourced are the bits that you might not want to do anyway, like phone support and basic grunt coding. The jobs that are likely to stay in the UK are the really technical stuff, and the "glue" jobs like project management and consulting. So, you need to tread a little more carefully than before. Avoid being a pure software engineer, broaden your skillset - "jack of all trades" type IT people who can *apply* their knowledge are still very hireable. Also, even though this is lame, IT's "indoor work with no heavy lifting". To some people that matters, particularly with a climate like the UK's.

Now, on the *other* hand from the IT folks like me, we have skilled craftsmen. :D Given that, even from the darkest Orient, I've heard of the UK plumber shortage, do you think those 100K guys are going to be getting 100K for very much longer? Maybe they will, but I'm willing to bet that the trade schools are going to churn out plenty of plumbers in the next couple of years. Maybe best not to count those chickens. That's just a warning though - there's still nothing wrong with going down the trade career path. To me the oft frustrating intangibility of IT would be one of the biggest draws.

So, if you really can't be doing with office work, and want a trade as a first career, with furniture making as your final goal, I personally would NOT pick the obvious - joiner. Become a sparks or something. You might not get wealthy, but you probably won't end up hating woodwork. Turning a hobby into a job is sometimes the end of the fun. Be warned...
 
Speaking from retirement probably makes my view a little jaded.Skills are important in a job/career like cabinet making.Not everyone has the ability to hone reasonable skills to a level where people would want to part with large amounts of cash for articles you might make.I have a very poor opinion of teaching establishments as from my experience the are teaching stuff that is years out of date.The little bit of relevant information the impart can be learnt more quickly from a qualified tradesman.Most of the instuctors in trade skills have not worked in a profit based environment for many years and have little encouragement to keep up wit modern practices.I realise that teaching may have changed since I was an apprentice motor mechanic but I was laughed at when I mentioned some of the things I was taught at night school.Basically Thomas, I you want to make furniture as a profession, learn skill with hand tools, machines can be used by almost anybody.What a lot of waffle this turned out to be.
One other thing Thomas,attention to detail is important so brush up on your general schooling, customer won't be impressed if you present them with a mis-spelt estimate with wrong calculations
 
Hi James,

Although we have probably strayed off the topic of woodwork a bit here, I don't think it's unreasonable to have one thread in the forum dedicated to people's views on making a living from wood-working vs the other popular career choices.

What do you think?

Mark.
 
So many guests! C'mon youse guys, register. We're only 20 short of the next milestone :D Or is that you forgetting to log in again, Neil..? :wink:

Cheers, Alf
 

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