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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To ask if you are self employed what you do and how much you earn?

34 replies

dragoncena · 21/04/2021 13:06

I'm a carer for a disabled child and will need an income soon. I will need to be SE as I need to be very flexible. I'm awake a lot at night with ds so something I could do at home would be ideal. The problem is I don't know what I want to do Confused. I don't need it to be very well paid, but I would need minimum wage at least. I'm just looking for ideas at this stage (the wrapping thread was very useful).
So, if you care to respond, what is your SE business and how much does it pay?

OP posts:
VictoriaLudorum · 21/04/2021 16:40

IT Business Analyst or Project Manager can earn you up to 200k+ a year, self-employed.

Larryslockdownlunch · 21/04/2021 16:48

I let my flat out on Airbnb and I make around £20k a year a profit doing this. But that's probably not at all helpful to you unless you have a spare flat and live in an area people want to visit.

Sensateria · 21/04/2021 16:51

My SIL is a beauty therapist working from home specialising in one particular treatment and makes about £50 an hour.

ChocOrange1 · 21/04/2021 16:52

I'm a GCSE tutor and charge £30ph. There is some prep to do but not loads. The main issue is that I don't get any paid holiday or sick pay or anything else. If I don't work, I don't get paid. Similarly if one of my students is on holiday and doesn't have a session, I don't get paid. Luckily for me it's an extra income but if I was relying on it, it wouldn't be enough.

Ladymouse · 21/04/2021 16:56

I use to do dog walking get £20per dog to do a 1hour walk you can only take 6 dogs at a time but can do as many walks as you like. This dried up in lockdown so I turned to being a care assistant which is quite a flexible job. The pay rates not that good I get £13 in the week and £16 at weekends but it pays the bills 😁

andyindurham · 21/04/2021 16:57

Language teaching on a freelance basis can bring in some cash - my wife recently started teaching her native language via a local college. The rate isn't bad - about £15/hour - and they pay one hour's prep for one hour's classroom time. At the moment it's all been online due to COVID, but I think there are plans to reintroduce face-to-face sessions in the new academic year (however, since they can now recruit teachers more widely, and attract students from across the region, they may keep an online option as well). I don't think they offer ESL teaching in that strand, but I know they have English classes for international students arriving to do their courses - a kind of booster to get from the minimum IELTS standard required for a visa to the advanced level of English needed to actually complete a degree. If you have a uni or college near you, it might be worth making contact - most of these courses operate over the summer so new students are ready for the start of the academic year.

The difficulty, though, is that this is not very flexible. Sure, you can prep at 2am if you want, but you have to be available to teach without interruptions at a set time each week. Our problem was that my wife's lesson times and my work deadlines often clashed, meaning Disney had to babysit our 4yo. Not ideal, but we just about made it work.

Also, the work is seasonal - term time only, or set up in anticipation of the academic year. So you can have a profitable few weeks then a long lull before the next round. We're already looking at expanding the business, working on the principle that there won't be thousands of people clamouring for my wife's language, but if we can find half a dozen individual students, we have enough to create a full timetable.

I'm also self employed as a journalist / editor / translator. This was going well until COVID - I was clearing £30k fairly comfortably and effectively working part time (odd hours, specific deadlines, but not all that much time in action and an almost free summer if I wanted). However, I was well established in my niche before going fully freelance (and my niche is an odd one, relying on a fairly obscure language and an interest in a minority sport). There are other ways in to this, or bits of copywriting, but it can be a battle to gain experience without a huge amount of work for little or no money - possible when you're 17, difficult when you have family of your own.

NoIDontWatchLoveIsland · 21/04/2021 17:21

If you have a masters in law are you a qualified solicitor or anything?

I wonder if you could do anything like will writing? You don't actually need to be a lawyer to do basic wills but some legal training is probably going to make you able to it more quickly etc. There might be other document drafting services you could help with.

It could be flexible as you could do brief initial discussions but then draft documents at times that suit you over the next week or so.

Ariela · 21/04/2021 17:31

Agree with LoveIsland

Will writing is very much in demand

Movinghouseatlast · 21/04/2021 19:34

If you have a grasp of law you could be a lay representative for people in court.

You could charge them to.prepare witness statements etc beforehand, get their court bundle together for them etc. All of that could be done at 2 am

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