When to take the plunge?

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When to take the plunge?
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Downsizer Forum Index -> Small Business Questions, Ideas and Advice

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hedgewitch

Joined: 26 Nov 2005
Posts: 5834
Location: Daft wench GHQ

Posted: Tue Mar 27, 07 8:30 am Post subject:
I don't regret it. It's been a lot of fun so far, but also downright terrifying at times. And I would say that it won't be for everyone. But for me, the benefits are so much greater than the job I was doing. And I'm odd in that the scary moments are actually quite enjoyable to me in a weird kind of a way.

woodsprite

Joined: 20 Mar 2006
Posts: 2943
Location: North Herefordshire

Posted: Tue Mar 27, 07 8:35 am Post subject:
Having very recently gone completely freelance in much the same line as you Sally, I'd say its a bit too soon to tell whether the decision was a sound one financially. However, in every other way its FANTASTIC!!!! and at the moment I have more work than I can handle. I'd say go for it. Woody

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45674
Location: Essex

Posted: Tue Mar 27, 07 9:48 am Post subject:
There you go Sal, go for it. I'm sure Jules can give you plenty of advice on how it happened for her. We're all here for you

sally_in_wales
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 06 Mar 2005
Posts: 20809
Location: sunny wales

Posted: Tue Mar 27, 07 10:13 am Post subject:

I think what the plan currently is will be to sort out the van (engine needs a bit of work) pay off a loan which is almost clear, and then I should be safe to hand in my notice. I've been really good this morning and have got balances on all our financial stuff, closed down an old inactive bank account, double checked what we pay on all the routine bills, so I'm starting to get a very accurate idea of how much money we need to make to squeeze by on.

Stacey

Joined: 18 Jul 2005
Posts: 8380
Location: Kernow

Posted: Tue Mar 27, 07 10:56 am Post subject:
If anyone can make a go of it sally you can. You're organised as well as talented so you have all the traits needed. You just need the breaks (and if you're anything like me, the confidence )

hedgewitch

Joined: 26 Nov 2005
Posts: 5834
Location: Daft wench GHQ

Posted: Tue Mar 27, 07 11:13 am Post subject:

sally_in_wales wrote:

double checked what we pay on all the routine bills, so I'm starting to get a very accurate idea of how much money we need to make to squeeze by on.

This was probably my pre-business, useless household management, but I found out and changed the following when we went on to a tighter budget -

Gas and Electricity can be payed off in arrears, split over the next quarter at no additional cost. Downside is you have to go in person and pay, but it can be done at any post office and many shops too. Think you can pay in advance on a direct debit too, but I preferred the arrears option.

Water bill can be paid in monthly direct debits and you get a fiver off each six month bill for setting up this way.

I had been paying these in full when we got the bills, which was a daft and careless way for me to manage the household budget no matter how great or small it is

sally_in_wales
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 06 Mar 2005
Posts: 20809
Location: sunny wales

Posted: Tue Mar 27, 07 11:24 am Post subject:

hedgewitch wrote:

Think you can pay in advance on a direct debit too, but I preferred the arrears option.

We've got almost everything on direct debit, I'm going to try to slightly up a few of them to get us just a little bit in credit on the variable ones like the phone, just as a safety margin. Its amazing really that once the loan is finished it will take a quarter out of the household bills. Gareths regular 2 days a week job is enough to pay the mortgage, so I'm looking at making sure I can make enough to cover everything else.

I'm a bit torn about whether to cancel things like the HSA health insurance, on a day to day basis it gets underused but if someone needs lots of dentistry doing or something it is really handy. Likewise we have a boiler and heating cover agreement that adds up to just over �200 a year. So far we've only needed the annual service, so are not making anything on that, but as the system starts to age its possible we could find it more useful. In the short term though those two bills add up to a month and a half mortgage a year. Knowing what its sensible to cut back on seems to be half the battle here

Nick

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 34535
Location: Hereford

Posted: Tue Mar 27, 07 11:26 am Post subject:
I think British Gas are now doing a fixed price repair thingie even for non-contract customers now. Might be worth re-looking at that. You'd at least know the cost if it did go tits up. As for dentistry, keep it. Nothing's worse than toothache that you can't afford to deal with.

sean
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42219
Location: North Devon

Posted: Tue Mar 27, 07 11:27 am Post subject:
If you can afford to pay in to the HSA and boiler servicing stuff why not stick the payments into a deposit account or a cash ISA or summat until you've got a decent cushion of cash in there?

sally_in_wales
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 06 Mar 2005
Posts: 20809
Location: sunny wales

Posted: Tue Mar 27, 07 11:28 am Post subject:
Thats a good idea

hedgewitch

Joined: 26 Nov 2005
Posts: 5834
Location: Daft wench GHQ

Posted: Tue Mar 27, 07 11:39 am Post subject:

On the phone - have a look at Skype as they have various offers on where you get free or cheap calls to UK landlines. I used an offer where you pay ten quid into a Skype account then get free UK phone calls for 6 months. You need a headset with microphone to use it (we paid about a tenner for that).

I used that to make sales calls and was able to hit a much bigger sample as it stretched the budget a lot

https://www.skype.com

sally_in_wales
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 06 Mar 2005
Posts: 20809
Location: sunny wales

Posted: Tue Mar 27, 07 12:01 pm Post subject:
With our phone its mostly the line rental, we both make very very few phone calls, usually we keep in touch with people by email or face to face, though I would imagine it would go up a bit with me at home doing businessy things, though becasue we plan on being out at trading events a couple of times a month I'd want to keep as much as the business communications by email as possible

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