What do you think?

[gnaldrett]

Hi folks,

Having kicked around this forum for a little while now I have realised that there is a wealth of experience and knowledge available, I am now looking for some of that advice!

I have finally picked up the courage to apply for premature voluntary release from the RAF, and as such am now in my 12 month 'notice' period. I will be honest, I am job hunting (I have a mortgage and a family so no choice but to cover all options!), but as some of you will have seen I have some experience of running my own company/business.

With the world as my oyster I am now looking more seriously at self employment options, however they will have to be high earners to match my RAF wage. This leads me to a Service or Consultant based business but I have too many options, and too many things I want to give a try!

Below is a list of possible options that I am considering, I would appreciate any feedback on whether they are viable or profitable in your opinion. Bearing in mind my RAF wage is slightly over 30k I need to keep my income in that bracket or higher. I am not afraid of hard work, so grafting is not a problem!

• Web based ecommerce business (already in development)
• Plastering/Tiling/Kitchen Fitting etc
• Mobile Vehicle Valeting
• Project Management Service

I am at a total cross roads here, any help or alternative ideas will be greatly appreciated...

Regards,

Gordon

 

[Stephen Berry]

What would you enjoy the most?
Which option would have you leaping out of bed with enthusiasm every morning?

 

[gnaldrett]

Which option would have you leaping out of bed with enthusiasm every morning?

That's the problem, any of them! Anything is better than what I do just now (Avionics Engineer), and I strongly beleive that no matter what I end up doing if self employed I will always be enthusiastic!!

I have resettlement grants and leave that I can use for training in any of these (or any other) field - it helps but also gives too many options...

Regards,

Gordon

 

Do a lot of market research, as this might help whittle down your options and help you make a decision (it will help you determine what would be feasible or otherwise). Run ideas past people to help determine what is viable but since you will be the one funding, operating and managing the business - ultimately the decision must be yours.

Best of luck!

 

[dagr]

Gordon, it would be helpful if you gave us more info on your aspirations, not just the "I don't want to do this any more", and going beyond what your short term basic needs are. In other words, do you have a vision of where you'd like to be in say 5 years time, in terms of financial situation, social status, geographical situation, etc. Note, I'm not talking about lazy dreaming where most folk give their unreachable wishlist (international footballer, jet-setter, etc.).

Cheers.

PS: There are no wrong or right answers, and saying "I don't know" is OK too.

 

[Cornish Steve]

Anything is better than what I do just now (Avionics Engineer), and I strongly beleive that no matter what I end up doing if self employed I will always be enthusiastic!!

Take an hour or two to read Pat Lencioni's book The Three Signs of a Miserable Job. It's written in the form of a parable, but it might help you to diagnose why you don't jump out of bed with excitement for your current job.

Whether that would help you or not as you choose between these other options, I don't know. The point is that, if you analyse the situation, your lack of enthusiasm may have little to do with the industry you're in.

 

[kjhblue]

Hi,

In my experience nothing happens until a sale is made. You can be the best tiler/plasterer or whatever in the world if you don't have customers your success may suffer. In my experience very few businesses fail due to a lack of technical skills they fail due to a lack of customers.

I would suggest that during your 'notice year' ( I was a soldier for 26 years and I don't think we had such a thing) you learn everything you can about marketing your business. There are scores of books on the subject. You can get an idea of what you need on Amazon.co.uk A good starter is "Be a Sales Superstar" by Brian Tracy at about £7.00 to the Full Jay Abraham Marketing course which I attended at £3,700. If you think I can help contact me. I wish you the greatest of success in what you do. By virtue of your service experience you will start streets ahead of others wanting to go along the same route.

 

[Qualitee]

Hi Gordon,

How long have you been in the RAF? My husband was in straight from school and left after 11 years and Civvy Street came as a big shock to him as it does to many others.

I am not very good at explaining myself on these forums, but have been thinking what are the 'grants' and training you can now take up to get you started. As you have so many avenues you could and want to go down I was thinking along the lines of which one is going to take the longest to train in, which one do you need the most training in? For example, your web business you could do at home on a part time basis if you go into the mobile valet business, you could be building that up at the same time as you obviously are doing at the moment.

Thinking along the lines of how much money would you have for start up, which one could you easily drop if you find it is really not what you want, your web business is then a back up.

Maybe work out which is going to be the most costly, and allow the RAF to pay for the training (if that is what they actually do now).

I think you need to bear in mind that it can take some guys a long long time to settle into Civvy Street, especially self employment after so long of taking orders. 18 years later and I still have to boss my husband about, just to make him feel comfortable you understand

All the best to you and your family.

Pauline

 

[Chris Kaday]

The anything is better than what I do now is a dangerous thought. That means you are escaping away from something unpleasant rather than moving towards your most attractive goal.

Anyway how decide what to do. There is a simple way. Write down all your options - go for as many as you can. Then head up columns for all the various considerations around these jobs. For example:
Your skills in this
Your interest in this
How boring over a period of time
Inside or outside - does it matter
Manual or mental - does it matter
People you know in this business who could help you or work with you
What you could add to such a business
Time to get started
Cost of getting started
Ease of getting business
Earnings per hour

These are only a few decision making criterion I can think of this morning there are many others and I am sure as a bright chap you can think more up for yourself. The more columns the better.

Now score each column for each job from 1 to 10. The higher the score the more attractive. So if this is easy to get started score high if difficult low and so on. Then add up across the page or spreadsheet and you will see how the jobs compare mathematically. Now prioritise them according to their scores. This processes forces you to consider the aspects in a more logical manner. When you say you don't mind what you do I think after this you will see that this is not the case. There is clearly a huge difference between washing cars in all weathers and sitting at a desk with a cup of tea developing sites.

There is another way of doing this process which is to start with your skills, the experiences you like and so on and match possible jobs against these .

I have a lot of processes like this in my book grow your own carrot - motivate yourself to success and I will happily send you one if you pm your address.

Chris Kaday

 

If you're considering an ecommerce business then you also need to think closely about what products it is you're going to run with, as they need to be in demand, of a reasonable value or at least fast turnover to even get close to bringing you £30k in the first year that you can draw off in salary, which realistically means the company needs to be doing more like double that in order to cover all of it's costs as well.

Also whilst businesses do, do well on line they generally take 2-3 years to get fully established, well ranking and enough of a turnover to allow a significant salary to be taken out and are best established when there is an initial income to support them and are not the sole income provider.

Online trading takes a lot of hard work to be successful, the old boom days are gone, and it's not the case that running an online business (or indeed any business) is going to bring you an instant fortune there has to be a demand for the service and there has to be the skills, knowledge, understanding and desire for what you are doing to make it succeed - and customers who want to place orders.

 

[awebapart.com]

Hi Gordon

Starting any new business is a risk and most people severely overestimate how successful they will be in terms of speed of uptake of initial sales and overall sales income. You therefore need to think of it as a slow long term process, which means that anything you can do to bring in other income will be very useful. The reason I say this is that an RAF service pension would be a very nice supplemental income for any business startup to have. If you apply for premature voluntary release from the RAF are you jeopardising this pension?

 

[gnaldrett]

How long have you been in the RAF? My husband was in straight from school and left after 11 years and Civvy Street came as a big shock to him as it does to many others.

Fully prepared for this one, unlike many I worked prior to joining up. I spent three years in a business sales role before I signed on the dotted line! I will have done 12 years when I finally get out.

I know a few guys that have struggled when they got out and I fully understand why, maybe its because they don't have someone like yourself that is willing to keep the discipline up!

Most of my friends that have either PVRd or got out on redundancy recently are now working offshore, a fairly common route for an engineer such as myself. This too is a fall back option, it would not be too difficult to get into that line of work and match my current wage.

Thanks for your advice...

Regards,

Gordon

 

[gnaldrett]

Anyway how decide what to do. There is a simple way. Write down all your options - go for as many as you can. Then head up columns for all the various considerations around these jobs.

I like that! Will definately give it a go. I am a fairly logical person by nature and that technique fits right in with me!!

Many thanks for the suggestion...

Regards,

Gordon

 

[gnaldrett]

The reason I say this is that an RAF service pension would be a very nice supplemental income for any business startup to have. If you apply for premature voluntary release from the RAF are you jeopardising this pension?

You are only entitled to an immediate pension after serving 22 years, I have only served 11 (12 by the time I am out). After the 12 year point you receive a gratuity payment, followed by a part pension at age 60 and a full pension at 64.

So in answer to your question, sort of! I will still receive my pension but not anywhere near as early as I could. However I am not going to stay in for a further 10 years just to receive an early pension.

I strongly believe that you should take satisfaction and enjoyment from a job, and if you do the job gets done better. That is not going to happen in the disaster zone that is the RAF engineering world just now.

Regards,

Gordon

 

[Gillie]

This thread is 5 months old now ... think you will find things have moved on!

Unless of course you are just getting your post count up!