Should I give up my creative business for a sensible stable job?

[Doodahday123]

Trying to decide what to do. Currently run a creative business that I love. It’s such a dream job and I enjoy working in it so much and I’m good at it. However, it doesn’t make me very much money (enough to pay the bills) and is ALOT of hard work and is obviously less financially stable. I’m helped out by family but this can’t go on forever and I don’t think I could cope by myself and I can’t afford to pay for any more help as staffing costs are so high. Also I have to work weekends which my husband hates.

So I’m trying to decide if I should close/sell my business and go get a sensible full time 9-5 job that would pay me better and give me more time at home with my family. I’m early 30s and know that I would be more employable now than I will be 10+ years down the line but I have pretty great flexibility at the moment and get to spend quite a bit of time with my daughter and I don’t know if I want to give that up. Plus I’m worried if I make the decision to close I can never go back, it would be impossible. 😩

So what would you do? Help me!

AIBU- go get a better job
AIBNU- keep the business

It's not really a financially viable business now if you're relying on unpaid help. By the sounds of it, you'd be losing money if you had to run a proper P&L with actual employee costs.

And you might get a lot of time with your DD, but at the cost of family time, which is really important. Does your DH hate weekend working because he wants that, or just because he wants to be free to play whatever sport he plays? If it's the former, I have sympathy. Latter not so much.

I’m confused - do you actually make enough to cover costs and pay your bills, or else why do you also say you need to rely on family for financial help?

I am a big advocate of spending your life doing what you enjoy - as long as you’re not getting into debt (or relying on another person) to stay afloat. I started in such a career and the first years were not easy, I was covering living expenses but didn’t save absolutely anything, and no chance of house deposits, cars etc. Luckily I was happy renting. After a lot of hard work, almost a decade down the line it all turned into a an actual employed position that changed things a bit.

I wouldn’t give up what I loved doing, however the least I would expect of myself is to break even at the end of each month.

It makes enough to pay the bills and me (around 30k) and a full time staff member. It’s mainly a mixture of family help instead of help with childcare so I get time at home and don’t have to pay huge nursery bills. But there is obviously a huge amount of after work ‘work’ that I end up doing as with any business m so whilst I feel I’m only working part time if I added up the hours it would be a lot.

And it’s the lack of family time my DH hates as we only get 1 day off together and it’s always eaten up by general life rubbish!

Is there a compromise?

Could you work part time as an employee and part time in the business?

Or would the business fold?

What kind of field is the business? Cake making, pottery, jewellery making etc?

When do your children start school? Maybe things would work better then?

Do not give up. Lots of people work weekends to pay bills in something they hate, never mind love. The hours work for you. They work for your situation.
DH is a farmer, I rarely see him, that's life. But if the bills are paid you just keep doing what makes you happy

I have to agree with @hjlm as in, a lot of people work 6 days a week and have very limited family time due to the nature of their jobs.

Mine usually gives me Monday or Tuesday morning off - and that’s when I’m not travelling. I long lost the notion of weekends and is something that I make clear when starting a new relationship. It’s not something that I will ever change my mind about, and in a future partnership it’s something the other person will have to be OK with - it’s my job and my passion, so I’m not ever compromising.

The one thing I would say is that the job market is pretty fierce out there. Unless you are vocationally trained or have a niche skill, £30k + salary roles aren't that easy to find, particularly if your heart isn't in it.

I'd say a business paying you £30k per annum and paying for a member of staff is doing pretty well. If it's the weekends that are the main problem can you do anything about that ?

Perhaps you need to restructure your business model. I would not give up but look at ways to free time, automate parts, increase income.

If the business is something you love it is worth fixing the problem

You'd have to earn a fair bit to compensate for not being your own boss. 20 years ago I remember a piece valuing that at £10k a year. Better to seek support in making your business more profitable.

Ah I thought you’d all say go and get a more sensible 9-5 job!
Maybe I need to reevaluate some things/ work out ways to make more money. I’ve never actually had a ‘proper’ job I’ve always been self employed so what it actually entails is alien to me but I would like to have the pressure ease off a bit.
I didn’t feel like this until I had my daughter, it’s just hard juggling it all. But maybe a 9-5 wouldn’t be any easier.
Difficult decisions but thanks for the input!

Ok if it’s childcare costs that you’re getting help with, that’s a bit different! Loads of people working 9-5 jobs have that as well!

What does the growth potential look like? Is it something you can employ people to help with? ie scalable?

Yes it’s scalable, just needs money spending to offer more services and have more space but currently I’m just trying to increase the clients/profit we have currently. The issue is my customers are arts/theatre and they all have not much money. I think covid has made me nervous as I just don’t trust the stability of the industry.

Hiring more people is an option but the costs are crazy with everything all added up!

I'm going through a similar thought process, I've been self-employed for the last 15 years, but finding work seems to be harder and it's very bitty, and even when I've get work it gets moved around, and the organisations I work with often too busy to do what I need them to do so it's frustrating. The work itself I really like but it just takes over the rest of my life either feast or famine and I think I've had enough. I've got a job interview this week, and I just feel a huge amount of relief at the prospect of work not taking over my life, and having a bit more routine so that I am able to plan in other things. Though I am also anxious about being tied to an organisation. I'm going to go to the interview and see, obviously they may not offer me the job anyway but from the interview I may have a clear idea about whether this is something that I do want to do.

I decided at the beginning of the year to give myself until June to make a decision about this, if self-employment wasn't feeling any better than I would look at a job. The job that's come up I think is perfect in terms of what I'm looking for, that's the other issue that actually they're haven't been that many jobs come up that I would want to do, it has to be the right one.

What your gut feeling? I have left jobs for self-employment a few times as well and I find that you just get to the point where the situation you're in just feels intolerable and a decision is kind of made for you.

I'm not sure that these safe 9-5 roles paying £30k+ minimum are so easy to come by, particularly as you have now said you have no previous history as an employee and have always been self employed.

Thing is in this current climate no role is sensible or safe, and most roles expect more than standard 9-5. So don't go into it with that view, if you want to which you clearly don't.

Why not do both?

Take a part-time job to have some regular money coming in and continue to grow your creative business.

Many creatives have portfolio careers, especially artists...

What does your business plan look like? What are your review points? What you need to do is make sure that you’re actively working towards making sure the business is financially and practically growing and have actual goals in place to guide that. I emotionally and financially supported DH through a period where he was working 6 of 7 days a week to build his company. But he had a business plan with time limitations and fixed review points where he would have packed it in if he hadn’t met the income and growth targets and got a 9-5 or consulting role. That’s what kept my support on side. I’d have felt differently if he just had a vague plan to chug along doing what he loved to the detriment of us having any time together for years on end for not a particularly high income - which is what it sounds as though you’re doing and I can understand his frustration with that. Presumably he’s also the one with a steady job which he doesn’t necessarily love which enables you to concentrate on doing something you love? So there needs to be balance.

I would be considering ways I could make my business more financially viable - write out all of the ways this could be possible. For example, if you can't increase your production output or reduce your costs could you do other stuff that might bring related income - e.g. run an online course and charge people to attend, run in person events and workshops, raise your profile / increase your social media following (how?), venturing into more wholesale opportunities, outsource part of the production elsewhere / cheaper, add new product lines that are cheaper and easier to produce, increase charges per item (if feasible), grow your email list by offering free course or free downloads (so important to have an email list!) and so on.

Make a list and see what is viable. Consider making changes and giving yourself a period of time in which to make it work, then review. Obviously this is hard if you have limited funds, but you could try to review in say 3 months.

Making small, daily changes add up - e.g. try to post once social media daily across different platforms, learn how to make reels for Instagram etc etc. Improve the quality of your product little by little. Whatever will make your business work!

If you can't afford to employ someone else, can you farm out time consuming/ tedious tasks on Task Rabbit, Fivers etc, to free up time at weekends? Or get a virtual assistant on a casual basis?

Sorry, meant Fiverr, or Airtasker

@MurielThrockmorton you sound very similar to me! I love being self employed as it gives me flexibility but then that flexibility means it takes over your life as you always feel you have to be earning!

I’ve got an interview this week as well and just going to go and see how I feel. It’s similar money that I make now and only 35 hours a week which sounds lovely 😆 but I know the grass always seems greener on the other side. Everyone I know not self employed is telling me I’m mad!

The summer is always quiet in my business so I thought I’d have a bit of time to think but I’m starting to get bookings for later on this year! Just when I want people to be a little bit less organised they start planning early! 😆 and I don’t want to let anyone down so I’ve got to make a decision one way or the other fairly swiftly.

Good luck at your interview 🤞 I hope it clears some things up for you!

@Sisiwawa and @mopopo thanks 😊 all good ideas! Just need to make a decision one way or the other and if it’s to keep the business get more focused. Having a baby has distracted me and it’s soo much harder to get everything done!

@ComtesseDeSpair thanks for your honesty. I do feel I am being unfair on my DH. The business did cover us for a few years while he decided on his career and changed jobs but I don’t want to eat into family time forever. But he always says he’d rather I stay with the business than be miserable in a job I hate so it’s working out the good balance.
Before Covid I was so focused with my business plan and we were heading in the right direction and hitting our targets. Then Covid and the year and a half of scrambling and then trying to build it back/having a baby has burnt me out a bit. But you are right I can’t keep chugging along with no direct plan!

@Doodahday123 Just wanted to add, don't underestimate the freedom of flexibility when it comes to being a parent. That is an almost invaluable part of working for yourself that makes parenting bearable. If you're in a 9-5 type situation, or even just a part time job things could be vastly different and possibly more difficult - could lead to even more regret on top of leaving your desired and loved self employment. Don't forget to take this into account when considering your situation. As a LP, self employment has been invaluable to me while raising my daughter pretty much single handed. It has not been easy but I imagine an actual employed job would have been harder. Also, I could have earned more money in a job, but I save a lot of money by having a bit more time to myself - time to cook, time to walk places (not need a car), buy second hand, time to source the right things for the right price etc etc. Life would inevitably be more expensive if I had to work the 9-5 grind because you don't get the freedom of time to do these things as much and have to rely on more expensive services such as more childcare, online shopping, ready meals - you no longer have the luxury of flexibilty around time. That is invaluable. Plus of course the time with your daughter.

You earn 30k from a job you love, paying nothing in childcare and getting time with your child!That is the dream of so many people. If you have a 9-5, remember it isn't 9-5. It's drop Dc at breakfast club at 8am then made dash to work, mad dash back from work with boss frowning that you clock watch at 5pm, while after school club frown if you are two minutes past 6pm collecting. For the privilege of this stress, hand over 80% of your salary on childcare.

I'm exaggerating. But do the sums properly first. Account for wraparound child care and holiday club costs, commuting costs, time spent outside of the home so you never get 5 mins to stick a washload on, to prep a quick casserole at lunchtime and stick it in the oven so it's ready by dinnertime, never free to let in a plumber or delivery.

it's easy for you and your DH to compare what you have with some idealised fantasy world in which you are free and full of energy all weekend every weekend. But in real life, having both partners in full time work outside the home while children are small is complicated, tiring and expensive.

I'd try to develop your business model.