To ask if you work self employed what do you do?

[DaniFar]

Hi all,

It's becoming quite clear that due to my son's disability and the unpredictability of his symptoms and appointments I might not be able to work in the traditional sense for at least a few years and I need some flexibility.

I'd like to work in some capacity so I was wondering if anyone would mind sharing what they do and how they got into it.

I don't have any education past GCSES. I was meant to be starting a nursing degree next year but it's unlikely so thought I'd see what else could be possibly.

Thank you

It isn't my main role but I have a sideline in charities and education governance. It's a great, very flexible way of adding a bit of income.

If you look for openings for school clerks you would be wfh. It's mostly remote these days and you would be keeping a record of what's said and agreed in a governing body meeting so that the school can show it is well managed and governed. There is also a lot of work across schools - for example in school appeals where they need to find people who are not connected to the area.

You write well, which is the main criteria and there are chance to develop in governance.

Driving Instructor £40 to £50 for 1 hour. Pick your own hours if you don’t need to maximise your earnings.

Remote admin? I’ve done that but it didn’t work out as the person I was working for wanted to have me on call all the time. Selling online?
what have done previously, what are your strengths? You can search job sites for home workers, that might give you some ideas.

To be honest I've not done a whole lot. I've worked in a supermarket and from then offices so I'm not sure what my strengths would be.

I don't really want a remote position as that's still employed and unless the employer can be super flexible, it won't work unless I look for overnight positions. That could work. Thanks for the idea.

A friend of mine in a similar situation has set up offering social media services to local companies - she's got the custom by approaching firms she can see are perhaps good in person, but not attracting any/enough new business via social media, often companies that are a tad old-fashioned with just a website and no SM. She offers contracts with so many posts per week or per month and ties them in for a min 6 months contract - she does this as she knows what her bottom line minimum income is and can up the number of customers accordingly. She produces an agreed plan of the topics/products the company wants covered, then beavers away once her 3 kids are in bed producing and scheduling in the postings for later in the week. Then she produces reports of how the posts have performed and recommendations for following months. She does really know her stuff, especially IG which people seem afraid of - and is aimed at the younger market that the more old-fashioned firms just don't have the custom of yet, which helps immensely of course. She reckons she's earning about £40k for 15-20 hours work a week - typically 8-11pm and the odd bit here and there. When the youngest starts school in September she'll be able to do a lot more and can obviously pre-plan postings in advance for when the kids are off school/holidays. She currently is at capacity really as she doesn't want to do more hours.

Could that sort of thing be flexible enough for your needs @DaniFar ?

I don't want to bring you down but being self employed isn't always very flexible. You often need to take the work when it's available or to suit clients whether that's customers like a nail tec for example or providing another service to buisness.

I do various freelance work and it's flexible to am extent. Like last might I did 3 hrs at home on the sofa as I'm having an afternoon off due to family visiting. I work as a projet manager, facilitator artist and creative producer freelance.

How much notice do you get with the demands on your time from your son? As if you needed to just drop everything one morning that would be difficult I think for lots of self employment.

I run my own gardening business.

I have a disabled child I'm a marketing consultant but I did this as a career before having my son.

Could you do virtual assistant type stuff?

Self employed doesn't necessarily mean more flexible - it sounds like you would need to to potentially look after your son at short notice when he is unwell etc so a job like nail technician wouldn't work because you would have customers booked in

Anything where you are providing direct customer service therefore would not really work.

Do you have a partner who can cover child care at weekends and evenings?

There aren't that many unskilled jobs thay are fully flexible - the classics like coding, accountancy, book keeping all require training and then professional experience in an office before you are skilled and in demand enough to be flexible.

Agree with PPs self employed unfortunately doesn't always mean flexible. I'm sure it depends what it is you do but in my experience it's a hell of a lot more work than being employed. My husband owns a business and I joined as a partner not long after. He is skilled in what he does though and did it before starting up himself but I did office work like you before this OP and now do all admin / accounts type stuff for the business. I know that doesn't really help because I was very fortunate that DH had the skills to set something up himself that I could be a part of but we have found it's a hell of a lot of work and really not as flexible as I'd have liked! We do have employees though and premises etc.. so perhaps a bit of a larger scale than you'd be thinking.

OP I can’t help with job ideas, but I got my first degree with the open university. You can fit the work around your other commitments and depending where you live there are often funding opportunities you can apply for, particularly these days when people are being encouraged back into the workforce. You could study something practical which would help you find a much more flexible job in the future.

Good luck.

I have a trade. It allows flexibility in that I choose when I book clients in (term time & school hours only for me), but once they're booked it can be logistically difficult to move the dates and looks unprofessional. As an example, the recent teacher strike days really messed me up, because I had to take the time off which put me back 2 days, but I had another job booked in straight after with materials being delivered to site (that I needed to be there for to receive and store) and other trades booked to come in straight after me. If I was a bigger company it could have been managed by sending someone else on to take delivery/make a start and be 'present' in the next site whilst I finished the first job, but I as a sole trader I can't split myself in two. I have only just caught back up on the physical work from those 2 days off, but that's at the expense of the admin side, which has now mounted up. Thankfully the two clients it affected have been very understanding.

Being a virtual assistant doesn't require any specific experience, a lot of skills are transferrable! You can work that around the hours you need, and its very easy and cheap to setup. It can be a hustle looking for clients though.

I'm self-employed and currently working 60-70hr weeks because I have so much work on, so not terribly flexible. What you do depends on how much time/money you have to invest in growing your business. Its very difficult to start something where you're immediately earning money, unless you're employed in some capacity. Your best bet is to do a lot of research on how your strengths can translate into earning money and how other people are making it happen for them. There is so much excellent info online about every aspect of running a small business, including tax implications etc. Good luck.

I do a mix of the following, it started with becoming a Virtual Assistant in 2004. Doing admin from home for local companies directors (like PA work) and lots of Tradies.

became more online over time and now clients are all online.

I became an Online Business Manager a few years ago. More like an online office manager.

I offer strategy and operational consultancy to service based businesses as well.

started another business providing similar style consultancy to charities and community groups.

I also make digital resources (templates), courses and workshops/training for both sides of my business.

VA rate is £45ph. I specialise in tech aspect now. My VA who does admin etc charges £30ph.

My OBM work is £75 ph.

Consultancy rate starts at £150

my courses and bits and bobs range from £9 - 150.

I don’t work more than 20 hours a week due to my own health. I don’t start before 10am as I’m not a morning person. I have strong boundaries on how I work.

there is a website that’s all about ultra flexible job roles but I can’t recall what it is. I will have a look. There’s also a fb group about legitimate work from home opportunities. I will try and find it.