Tedc
re your post no 11
Going self employed which we did. You really have to be determined to make a go of it, no half hearted effort.
As for being in the South East I and my family moved up to the West Midlands, a completely unknown area and unknown job. Yes we had our own dogs but running a huge boarding kennels and cattery is something else. (119 dogs and 42 cat licence). The mortgage had to be paid each month let alone living costs etc
The kennels was a mess as was the cattery, not only that but only had 350 clients on the books. Daft and balmy definately but I knew we could turn it around. Took 8 years in all to get it up to a reasonable standard,and nearly went bust several times.We even had to borrow money from family members, it was that close to going under.
The risk factor of giving up a secure job with BT into the unknown is something was really looking back on it plainly stupid. Absolutely a mad thing to do.
However being fed up with idiots out of university telling a trained engineer how to do my job was the breaking point.
So the time came to break free and do things the way they should be done. Hence buying a run down boarding establishment which is all we could afford.
This is what some have to do first before thinking about how great it is having ones own business. Oh and I was already 48 years old when we bought the kennels
Long hours loads of paperwork and waiting for clients to pay, just one of the worries, but the stress is what one puts on ones self, not what some moron thinks that you can do more than 8 hours work in a day.
So going self employed starting out and getting established is enough to put most people off. Once committed to doing it one can’t turn back if you want to make a success.
Me I am one of the most stubborn people and hate giving up without trying everything, and this is how you have to be.
Ok now the plus side
Every thing you earn goes into your pocket not some elses You can control how the business is run without some numpty telling you how to do it.
Doing it right straight from the start and determination and you can pull through.
In our case as I said we only took over the boarding establishment with only 350 clients on the books. When we sold roughly 4+ years ago we had 5500 clients on the books from as far away as Cornwall and even some from Southern Ireland
Needless to say all that hard work paid of big time, or should i say enough to retire comfortably on with investments etc.
Getting the “breaks” as you say is not down to luck, it is down to doing something if you really want to get on in life. it is putting your heart and soul into it
Sitting back in the same old job pays the bills but that is all, no chance of earning a few bob for yourself.
So was all this effort really worth it? every time and would do it again, but you have to have the right mind set at the beginning or you will fail.
one of our kennel blocks I refurbished with new kennel fronts- runs -lighting and floor tiles I did myself. Photo taken half way into the block. Bbefore just rough croncrete on the floor and only half the kennels had power for heat lamps
Another example is our grooming parlour
when we took over the place this has 3 ft of straw and goats mess in it and a concrete floor. Again I completely refurbished including a step in shower unit for the dogs at the back. not to even mention the tiling lighting and power upgrade
This may give some idea of what was needed and this is only about 20% of the work I carried out at the premises
The cattery was only half this length we added the nearest end. No grass just broken concrete and a rickity home made pen for 6 cats, all ripped out for this. New roof - new floor-new electrics - new lighting -new cat kitchen and alarmed. I even laid the turf. The pens were professionally built and installed to match exisiting ones
Not to mention new security systems and security lighting everywhere even a new front wall
