To quit my stable job to go self-employed?

[sgtz]

I’m horribly indecisive and get tunnel vision with certain ideas, so looking for some outsider perspective before I make a huge decision…

I’m a single mum to a toddler working for the NHS as a qualified healthcare professional. Band 5 with potential for promotion to band 6, but not sure I want the extra responsibility. Currently work 3 days a week. I also have a small business that I’ve run since DC was born, that makes me some decent extra income. I’m struggling with inflexibility with my employer when it comes to DC/childcare, and generally feeling like I have no work/life balance despite only working 3 days a week.

I’ve started doing some locum work remotely, which is very flexible and pays very well. There’s plenty of this work, albeit I am aware that it isn’t guaranteed. My AIBU is, am I being completely idiotic to give up such a stable and secure job with the NHS to go fully self-employed, relying on my locum work and small business? I’ve done the sums and on paper it should work out similar financially, especially as my tax return will be smaller when the self-employed income is my only income, rather than it being additional income on top of my wage.

I’m terrified to hand my notice in! On one hand, I’m thinking life is far too short to be miserable at work and barely have a life (I’m under no illusion that being self-employed will be bloody hard work too, but I hate working for other people!). On the other hand, the thought of giving up a reliable wage every month, decent pension, holiday pay etc, is making me question it. My role is fairly niche, but in high demand, so I have no doubt that I could get another job if I needed to…

Sorry, totally convoluted thoughts coming out but happy to hear opinions or if there’s anything I haven’t considered. I have a fairly long notice period so ideally will decide sooner rather than later…

Could you test the waters somehow - take unpaid parental leave for 6 months and run your life as if you'd quit?

I'm incredibly risk averse when it comes to employment, especially without a financial buffer or a partner's wage as back-up.

Are you able to take unpaid leave for say 6 months or a year to trial your plan?

Given you already run the business and do Locum work it's not as risky as starting a new business from scratch. Can you afford to have anyone assist in the business in the aspects you find more challenging?

I misunderstood as your title says replace your stable job with self employment. As others have said, if locum dries up because let's face it, slot of NHS staff are looking to do the same as you and I'm fairly certain there's going to be a big recruitment drive as the NHS cannot keep spending on locum staff, what's your back up plan? And "go back to work" may not be an option at that point if places have been filled.

@DelilahBucket sorry, I should have made that clearer. Although I work directly for the NHS at the moment, my sector has lots of work available privately so it’s highly unlikely to completely dry up.

Have you considered a career break? Look at your employer’s work life balance policy. Some NHS trusts, with written permission from your line manager, allow locum or temporary work whilst on a career break.

I’ll look up the trust’s policy re: career breaks. I doubt it would be approved though as even flexible working requests are denied without any consideration. That’s the other thing, I will need school hours or some form of variation to my hours in a couple of years and it’s flatly refuses to anyone who requests it despite the service being able to support it.

Do it!

How will you replace your NHS pension? That's a big benefit you'll be losing.

It's hard for strangers online to offer advice

My neighbour is self employed. Great flexibility and work life balance, but no guarantee of work. She earns well, but income is highly irregular. I think you need a good savings buffer. It took around 3 years for her to build up to a viable business

Is this something like you're a nurse, but you also do aesthetics? I know a few people who do this successfully and they do bank shifts to top up their income and keep their registration active, and it seems to work quite well.

Plus you've already established a self employed business so not going into this from scratch, so that's all good too. As long as you cover your pension and a buffer for sick pay etc out of your earnings, I'd say go for it. You can always go back to the NHS later on if it doesn't work out or you just decide you want to.

A massive percentage of well known business owners have ADHD, as do I. And often part of the difficulties that present with it is decision paralysis. Not saying that op has ADHD but indecision is only one tiny part of her profile.

Op set yourself a target, get your ducks in a row then make the jump. Ultimately if it doesn’t work, you still have your NHS experience to fall back on. I’m a single parent too and for our family it’s by far the best decision I ever made.

You absolutely can have both, it depends on the self-employment much like PAYE jobs can be incredibly flexible or completely inflexible.

Be careful if you are employed through an agency as a locum, as our local trust has stopped using agency staff and will only use Bank people. My friend says this has been decided very recently and she is glad she stuck with being Bank, even though the pay isn’t quite as good.

@isthewashingdryyet its not that sort of locum work, but thank you for the advice. :)

The issue with being self employed is, you can't always control when you work. you have to leap at contracts when they come in. so the issue with childcare could be problematic for you. Could you sort out childcare if 14 days of locum work came in after a dry period, so you had to take them?

My advice would be to keep in a fixed position until your child is school age, and in a school with a good after school club. Use those 2 spare work days a week to develop your sideline and build up strong connections with the locum work providers so you can transition into that work more regularly when your child has guaranteed care during the working day.

I'd say you don't need to "earn the same", you need to earn at least 50% more so that you can pay private pension contributions, pay for private healthcare, pay for sickness insurance protection scheme, and cover loss of pay for holidays, short term sickness days off, etc. You need to do that to give you the same kind of protection that your current generous NHS "benefits" package gives you. It's far more than comparing "like for like" take home pay. You need plenty of protection for loss of income etc especially if you're the main bread winner and have only one income. Either that, or you need a savings buffer of at least six months (preferably a year) to cover loss of earnings if you can't work due to ill health, sickness, (you or your family!). Statutory sick pay (well it's not called SSP it's a benefit you have to claim) for self employed is very low and doesn't cover short periods. You need private healthcare cover so you'll be treated quicker (to get back to earning money) rather than hanging around unable to work on long NHS waiting lists (remember you'll be "earning" nothing if you can't work self employed whereas you'll continue to be paid for many months if NHS employee). Just to make up reduction in NHS gold plated pension, you'd probably have to be paying a couple of hundred a month into a private pension scheme.

Not in your industry but I’ve been self- employed since before kids and have found it massively flexible throughout the primary school years Wouldn't have changed that, though am vaguely considering getting a job in the future for more certainty.

All in - how many hours a week do you work?

Try it and see. So long as you keep your registrations / membership to professional bodies, then you can always go back into the NHS if things don't work out.