Mental Health, Startups and Universal Credit making me feel bad for wanting to make my business work!.

[Lawrie192]

Hi, can anyone point me in the right direction regarding business whilst being on universal credit, and trust me I have tried to deal with them, but they make my situation worse and make my mental health so bad that ive had a lot of negative thoughts, also I have been recently diagnosed with PTSD. Honestly they (UC) makes me feel worse for actually wanting to be in business, I currently have one main business and a few startups that need time, im only good at what im doing, eventually it will become a lot more profitable, I found an article online and they said most startups take around 3 years to fully get there, yet UC only allow 1 year, during the last year I very nearly died due to serious life changing medical issues, im dealing withg that and also putting in approx 12 hours a day on my multiple startups.

The pandemic was hard, I have had no financial support.. Im just wandering if i have any options for funding, grants and how the heck you get UC off your back.. Im trying.. its just going to take me some time.

Any advice would be appreciated, thanks. x

 

[Mark T Jones]

Hopefully someone will he along who can offer support on the mental health side of things - and who has insight to UC


From a business perspective, 2 things jump out for me

1. Why are you spreading yourself amongst several start ups rather than giving 1 100% of your time?

2. Don't believe what you read. Many start ups make money from day 1, others may take 10 years. Without context the idea that it 'should' take 3 years is meaningless

Your health- mental and physical is of primary importance- I wish you luck with this

 

[NickGrogan]

If you've got a main business and multiple start ups and you're working 12 hours per day, why are you on Universal Credit?

Might be better to focus on making your business profitable first.

Most startups fail completely. Don't know where you've seen the three year thing, but it's probably talking bout those with VC funding who are not really focused on making a profit.

 

[Karimbo]

You just need to make the minimum income floor to get them off your back.

£1300 a month ish. Which us what a person earning minimum wage, full time earns.

You should make that after 1 year, if not then you need to speed up your growth.

If you don't think you can grow, maybe pick up a side gig doing delivery work to supplement your income.

At the end of the day, you need to make money to provide for yourself. Many countries don't have the safety net of jniversal credit. If you cant make enough profit to make a basic living, you usually starve