Long story short – I’m £20ish plus thousand in debt, have a medium sized mortgage (touching negative equity) and I’m down to my last £3k in savings. Oh, and the wife is unemployed and finding it really hard to get another job. She’s foreign and can’t get benefits either.

So, I have a job, it’s a job I’ve been doing about three months and which I now absolutely loathe and detest. It was a bit of a career change job, and it’s not working for me. But it pays okay.

My old industry is on its knees, and there’s not really anyway back until the economy rights itself. And even then, who knows.

Now, I’m not feeling the fear in the way I think I should be and I am thinking about jacking the job. I have spotted what I think is a gap in the market half way between what I used to do and what I’m doing now. I want to strike out on my own and start my own business. I have previously been a dutiful salary man.

Am I mad? Do I need to MTFU and tough it out, or grow bigger balls and go down fighting?

Any thoughts or wisdom to impart?

It’s hard to say without fully understanding your situation, but ask yourself this.

What would you regret more, staying in the current job and making do, or trying a new business on your own and failing?

There’s a lot to be said for people having the balls and taking the initiative to start something new, and go in a new direction. Often though the comfort of a guaranteed salary is too comforting though. It’s your life, your decisions, but the ONLY way to decide what to do is sit down and write a Pro’s and Con’s list for both situations. Give a +1 for every pro, and a -1 for every con, then see which scenario scores highest and go with it regardless of any doubts… That’s the only real wisdom I can impart, and it has worked well for me in making important decisions in my life before at least.

MTFU and send the wife out to work

FFS being “foreign” is hardly a barrier to meaningful employment these days, legal or illegal!

Thanks mboy – pro’s and cons list is a good plan.

Eldridge – wife has been knocking her pan in to find work, but she has a very specialised background and has previously owner her own business, which employers seem to hate!

Still, looks like the soul eating job will be cast aside – four sheets to the wind and all that.

OP, I was you I’d get to work reducing the 20’ish thousand debt first. Going it alone takes resources and backup if something goes wrong. If you have a dip in income being a self-employed person you stand a real risk of losing your house (everything). I’m all for balls to the wind, however I also beleive in damaged limitation.

Get your wife to temp, do anything. My GF worked in a hospital reception arranging appointments etc for 3months before she got back into her specialist line of work.

Knuckle-down, even take on a second job- reduce the debt then plan your own business

IMO.

I’m no expert but don’t you need £££ to set up in business?

How will you get a loan with £20K debt and negative equity?

As hora said – you wife can surely get a job of some sort. Get rid of that debt before you start a business as well.

Can I ask a few questions, which may come across as rude?

How did you get yourself into £20K debt? Are you currently living beyond your means if you are eating into your savings?

Obviously I don’t know the full ins and outs, but do you feel you have the financial discipline to run your own business? Will you be able to fully budget for all costs, including potential unseen costs? Have you fully researched the market, and will you have work from day one, or will you have to work for a month or two without a wage before the clients appear?

I would have thought you may want to sell a lot of things and clear down that debt as much as possible before starting your own business. You would be starting a new business in what could well be an ongoing downturn. How do you feel the economy will develop and is this really the right time?

I am not starting my own business, but I am taking a year out, and fully funding myself. But it has taken me some time to save and save and be very disciplined in terms of not buying myself stuff, just the essentials. Maybe you need to be disciplined, work hard on recitfying you current precarious financial situation, and then when you are ready, go into self employment?

Good luck with whatever you decide. Really hope it works out in the long run.

Good luck with whatever you decide. Really hope it works out in the long run.

I echo this and agree with the others above. All the best, prudence is the catch-word for 2009 Imo 🙂

#it may seem harsh, but what hora + TJ said. There’s a few things you need to sort out first- reign some of that debt in, and try to secure yourself an income stream (wife working or part time job) before giving it up.

There’s a lot to be said for people having the balls and taking the initiative to start something new, and go in a new direction. Often though the comfort of a guaranteed salary is too comforting though.

Yep, but not when you’ve got debts and responsibilities. New businesses normally require capital though- not least to enable you to draw a salary in the startup period.

Good luck though 🙂

I’m self-employed and have been for 31 years. Sometimes it is scarey…..but with £20,000 debt,it’s going to be very tough. I’d reduce that before planning anything.

I agree, the debt will be your killer and doing whatever you have to to clear it is your first priority. I thinking entering into a new business venture with a debt will be a bad idea.

the title of the thread worries me, if you think you’re going down you’re stuffed.

Cold level analysis is needed if you are setting up on your own, not blue sky or ‘devil may care’. Decide what you can risk and when you need to give the whole thing up, even if it is ‘on the point of making it big time’. Can you go beyond £20K debt? do you want to? if the answer to either is no, find a way to start that is covered by part-time work, partner’s income or whatever and start it slow.

Having ‘been there’, the temptation to keep expanding your borrowing is immense. Resist.

You can think of this two ways – one way is that you are in debt, so you have nothing to lose. The second way is that you maybe need to have a buffer to get you going.
Do not underestimate the stress of being self employed. Add into that the fact you’ll probably not pay yourself very much to begin with and you’ll need at least _some_ capital to start up (company registration, insurance, marketing, website, who knows….) then where will that come from. So say amazingly you get some work on day 1. 6 weeks later yuo expec the invoice to be paid, it isn;t. Your company setup in their FMIS system is wrong so they take another 4-6 weeks. How do you live in that time ? Do you borrow more ?
Call me riosk averse but I’d want to be at least in the black before i started a business (again).