I had a somewhat successful first year. I had quite a few bookings, more than I had expected to have, and I made a bit of a profit. I was really chuffed and thought, hey maybe I could make this a success!
Then... everything's gone to hell! Lol.
I rent a 2bed flat, my DD is 8, and I finished uni in June. Whilst studying I received a loan and grants to get by. So when I finished, I went to Job Centre to see if I could sign up to JSA whilst being self employed as tbh I knew I didn't have a lot of work definitely on, so I wanted to have a back up plan, and I was looking for a part time job as well so I could have a second income, and DD is too old for me to get Income Support. Job Centre said it was fine as I wasn't earning enough. Each week I would fill out how much I was earning. After 4 weeks, I received the final payment from a job that I was waiting for which was £150. I was told that I had earned too much to be able to received JSA for that week and the week after. I then received nothing for 4 weeks though still being signed on and having to go in. Very confusing!
But because I was also "getting" JSA, I was deemed as earning too much money by council, even though I didn't receive anything for pretty much a month from JSA, so my housing and council tax benefit have been suspended. I cancelled my JSA as they weren't paying me anything and everything seemed screwed up. I went to the council as they needed to have evidence of my ingoings and outgoings. Since beginning of August, I have only been receiving Child Tax Credit which is about £57 a week, Child Benefit which is £81 a month and £10 maintenance from my ex a week. I have only this to pay my bills and rent, although at the moment, I can't afford to pay my rent, and owe 1.5 months...
DD goes back to school this week so I'm going to go to CAB to ask for help, although I don't know if there's much they can do... But won't know til I try!
It's very frustrating. I have very little money so I can't pay for advertising. The only bit of advertising that I could do without having to pay, which I have been using since I began my business, has now been discovered by 6 other people who are in the same field as me, all of whom are so much more cheaper than I am, by a third! This was the only avenue I had to get work and now I haven't been able to get anything! The referrals or word of mouth I have had has got me nowhere as I raised my prices slightly, but I'm constantly being told I'm too expensive for them, though the rate I am charging is cheaper compared to most. So again it's the, do I charge less just so I have some kind of money coming in? But then I'd probably lose trust in the potential client for suddenly changing my prices just to get work!
I can't quit being self employed as I have work booked for next year. I rang the council and they said that my case hadn't been looked at yet and was just sitting in someone's tray, despite this being almost 4 weeks ago I saw them!! They're supposedly chasing it up, but calling again this week to see what the case is. I have been applying for every job I can, carefully describing my skills and experience for each point they mention in their job description, but in the past 3 months, I've only had one interview! I have spoken to the Prince's Trust though so I'm hoping they can help me through their programme.
I feel really disheartened at the moment, and can't really talk to anyone about this either in RL.