Should husband go self employed doing gas/plumbing?

[eeeeeeeeh]

Hi, so we have a baby and another on the way. Husband is a gas engineer/plumber and the main earner. He is wondering whether to take the plunge and quit his job currently working for a company to work for himself.
Everyone I know says all the gas/plumbers they know are always busy, doing very well. However my husband will be setting up on his own, not handed down a family company that has been established for years so I know it could take a long time to become established and busy.
Anyone with any experience of this? Would it be better to wait another year or so so I'm back in work bringing in some back up money and maybe things have improved with the pandemic?

Can he keep his job and do some homers until he builds up a reputation? Word of mouth recommendation is priceless. DN is a painter and decorator and did this.

Do you rent/own/have a mortgage? Typically you need 2 years self employed history for a mortgage so if he already has a job then I would tie the change so that he goes self employed just after a mortgage or new product has started that way by the time your fixed period is up you shouldn't have an issue remortgaging and will be able to look at whole of the market vs small pool of lenders

I would absolutely go independent, but slowly. Start off doing weekend / evening work to build a customer base then take the plunge. Can he get in with any letting agents to be their go-to guy?

If he does go for it, make sure he has a plan in place for admin (quotes, invoicing, accounting etc) from the very start. That's where self-employed trades come unstuck.

And if you're going to be the one doing the admin, make it formal & get paid for it.

As well as what everyone else will say

Different trade, but...

The big thing about being self employed isn’t actually whether you can be busy or make enough to live off of. It’s that it usually means longer hours, working weekends, no holidays and things like no sick pay.