Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Reducing work hours to start a business, aibu?

10 replies

Lunni · 03/12/2021 18:17

Hi all. I need a sanity check on my plans, I'm 28 and work 50 hrs/week in a min wage job (have had higher roles-lost job during covid). I have started little businesses all my life which have never earned more than 1k a month and then to be honest I usually get bored and lose interest because I am working full time and I'm not able to dedicate all my time to it.

I have 6/7 months expenses in savings (incl. mortgage). I am considering asking to reduce my hours at work to part time to focus on starting a new business. Things will be incredibly tight with a part time wage but I can make it work. I guess I am concerned that I will reduce my hours and then just...do nothing, spend savings, fail and come out feeling like I wasted my time.

aibu?

OP posts:
ComtesseDeSpair · 03/12/2021 18:22

A quarter of small businesses fail in the first year, and of those that don’t, the average length of time for it to become profit making is eighteen months, so I think you’re taking a big risk with only six months’ worth of bill money behind you (which presumably doesn’t include unexpected costs?)

However, if you have a good business plan, have done market research which indicates you’re not just setting up an expensive hobby, and could relatively easily go back to full time hours if the business doesn’t work out, it’s not the worst idea to give it a go for a set length of time you decide with yourself at the start.

Viviennemary · 03/12/2021 18:23

No I wouldn't in these uncertain times. Work on your business at weekends and in evenings before you even think about reducing your steady income. But I am a cautious person. You have savings so use them on a cleàner to free up your time. If you reduce your hours there is probably no guarantee of getting them back.

Oblomov21 · 03/12/2021 18:26

Agree with Vivienne, don't do it, just start things in your spare time and see how it goes. Once it's up and running and profitable, then you could drop to say 4 days, to give it more focus and make real money.

RedCarsGoFaster · 03/12/2021 18:33

What's the business? What's your model to make this one work? Why is it different from other failed previous attempts?

ComtesseDeSpair · 03/12/2021 18:37

When you say you’ve started several businesses earning £1,000 a month in the past, is that pure profit? Most people would consider a businesses which turned £1,000 a month of profit right from its early months and which they were doing in their spare time alongside their day job, to be a pretty worthwhile business to persevere with. It would suggest you know how to replicate success. But you decided to stop - so presumably either it wasn’t profit, or you realised the success was unlikely to be sustainable? As RedCars says, what is it about this new business idea you think is going to be different?

irishfarmer · 03/12/2021 18:38

Really depends on what you planning on doing. What's the worst that can happen though, it doesn't work out and you have to ask for full time hours again? Are you likely to be given FT again?

Invasionofthegutsnatchers · 03/12/2021 18:42

Don't start a mlm pretend business, for the love of God.

Original poster
Lunni · 03/12/2021 19:00

@ComtesseDeSpair

When you say you’ve started several businesses earning £1,000 a month in the past, is that pure profit? Most people would consider a businesses which turned £1,000 a month of profit right from its early months and which they were doing in their spare time alongside their day job, to be a pretty worthwhile business to persevere with. It would suggest you know how to replicate success. But you decided to stop - so presumably either it wasn’t profit, or you realised the success was unlikely to be sustainable? As RedCars says, what is it about this new business idea you think is going to be different?
It was 1k a month profit (turnover was higher) but then I lost my day job and I was scrabbling around trying to find another day job when the pandemic kicked off, and then all the uncertainty that followed last year, plus moving made me stop working on it at all. That main thing that would be different is that I would that I would have a steady PT income from a not-too-demanding job that would cover bills and more free time to work on it
OP posts:
ComtesseDeSpair · 03/12/2021 19:09

Okay. Then if you’ve already in the relatively recent past set up a business which was that profitable, the market conditions haven’t significantly changed, and you’re confident of sustaining and developing the success then I think that’s a more positive slant. You aren’t starting from scratch, and presumably already have clients / a space in the market / a sales mechanism / whatever the business requires you to have? Is yours the sort of workplace where you could negotiate part time hours with the view to this being a temporary period of flexible working. At the end of that period, you then ask to return to full-time, or you have a successful enough business that you don’t need to.

teaandcake22 · 03/12/2021 22:00

I think go for it! There probably is never a great time, but of course depends what it is. Just make sure you are 100% motivated and can be disciplined to work on it day and night, when you are not working. As others have said about business plan etc make sure that is already to go, you have a plan of what you need to do? Go for it!! Good luck.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread