Major customer offers a permanent job shock
Discussion
Well, I've got a permanent job – I do graphics, magazines, adverts, websites etc. Only I work for myself. Been doing it 12 years.
Thing is: customer who supplies about two thirds of my work/turnover has just offered me a permanant position doing the same thing – but for them. They're a magazine publishers.
If I don't go on the payroll with them, the work I get will slowly disappear over the next year or so. Can I be bothered to go out and find more myself? I've been doing this for 12 years as I say and over that time there's been lots of occasions when clients have come and gone and they've always been replaced. But it's not as simple as that. When I started out I was single, no kids etc, and the idea now (at 40, married, two kids) of hawking my work round the offices etc to get work doesn't appeal. – I'd rather put the time into being with them and chillin' a bit. Teh lifestylee in my office is good – 100% car chat along with This Morning or the cricket on the TV – shuffle down to the village shop at lunchtime etc. I can sit on the village green and watch the world go by.
Plus the offer is OK – decent wage, health care, pension scheme (remember I'm with Equitable Life at the mo
) and only two miles from home. Sometimes I'm here working until 2am so that'll be a thing of the past as well.
Mind you, whatever happens, the Chim is staying so no fears there.
But who, given the choice, gives up working for themselves to go back and work for someone else? Am I taking the soft and easy option – ten years ago I'd have told them no way. Now, I just don't know. Help required. Lots of you work for yourselves (not you Victor Meldrew
), so what would you do at my age and given the responsibilities I've got?
Thing is: customer who supplies about two thirds of my work/turnover has just offered me a permanant position doing the same thing – but for them. They're a magazine publishers.
If I don't go on the payroll with them, the work I get will slowly disappear over the next year or so. Can I be bothered to go out and find more myself? I've been doing this for 12 years as I say and over that time there's been lots of occasions when clients have come and gone and they've always been replaced. But it's not as simple as that. When I started out I was single, no kids etc, and the idea now (at 40, married, two kids) of hawking my work round the offices etc to get work doesn't appeal. – I'd rather put the time into being with them and chillin' a bit. Teh lifestylee in my office is good – 100% car chat along with This Morning or the cricket on the TV – shuffle down to the village shop at lunchtime etc. I can sit on the village green and watch the world go by.
Plus the offer is OK – decent wage, health care, pension scheme (remember I'm with Equitable Life at the mo
) and only two miles from home. Sometimes I'm here working until 2am so that'll be a thing of the past as well. Mind you, whatever happens, the Chim is staying so no fears there.
But who, given the choice, gives up working for themselves to go back and work for someone else? Am I taking the soft and easy option – ten years ago I'd have told them no way. Now, I just don't know. Help required. Lots of you work for yourselves (not you Victor Meldrew
), so what would you do at my age and given the responsibilities I've got? Mikey, I hate that term career (at least in German, it reminds me on bootlickers); but which chances are better:
*you employ some people that work for you
or
*you work in the company and get the responability for some people (without the taking the entire risk)
edited for bad English!
>> Edited by Bodo on Tuesday 24th September 17:55
*you employ some people that work for you
or
*you work in the company and get the responability for some people (without the taking the entire risk)
edited for bad English!
>> Edited by Bodo on Tuesday 24th September 17:55
It takes a lot of guts to give up your business. You will be going from being your own boss, do your own thing, run things how you like them to being an employee.
You will have a boss watching over you, targets to meet, having to conform to company policy, having to fill in time sheets, will you have to clock in/out, those five minutes you were late in the morning means a bollocking now.
It has its advantages, a regular and consistant pay, chances to move up the ladder and having a content feeling when you skive off knowing your still being paid.
My wife sold her independant business to a national and became the manager of a branch on the same money but with a nice payout in the bank. Thats how I can afford a TVR now so I'm pleased but she's under so much more stress now she wants to leave and take a £10k pay drop.
At the end of the day, how would you like to work for someone that might be a w4nker.
Follow your heart - oh that sounds so corny.
You will have a boss watching over you, targets to meet, having to conform to company policy, having to fill in time sheets, will you have to clock in/out, those five minutes you were late in the morning means a bollocking now.
It has its advantages, a regular and consistant pay, chances to move up the ladder and having a content feeling when you skive off knowing your still being paid.
My wife sold her independant business to a national and became the manager of a branch on the same money but with a nice payout in the bank. Thats how I can afford a TVR now so I'm pleased but she's under so much more stress now she wants to leave and take a £10k pay drop.
At the end of the day, how would you like to work for someone that might be a w4nker.
Follow your heart - oh that sounds so corny.
I have to say I wouldn't consider going permanent with another employer..in the long term. The change in lifestyle would be too awful. Remember you can only make the family happy if *you* are....
I take it they are threatening to take the work in-house and you can either be in-house or someone else will be?
If that's the case go permanent *temporarily* and get out a.s.a.p.
I know from experience that when a major client gives you enough work that you don't have to look for it elsewhere that its easy to become used to an easy life.
One day that work can dissappear (did for me!) and you have to do something about it. Just do it. You'll be happier than having a job...
I take it they are threatening to take the work in-house and you can either be in-house or someone else will be?
If that's the case go permanent *temporarily* and get out a.s.a.p.
I know from experience that when a major client gives you enough work that you don't have to look for it elsewhere that its easy to become used to an easy life.
One day that work can dissappear (did for me!) and you have to do something about it. Just do it. You'll be happier than having a job...
Hmmm...
There seems to be a lot of 'grass is greener syndrome' going on at the mo in PH land.
Simple reality is, there's no easy answer and there are few certainties in the economy these days for almost anyone.
Looking back, if I could have 75% of my standard of living (not quality of life, mind), I'd certainly consider trading entrepeneurialism for salaric slavedom.
I would then benefit from whole rafts of legislation which mean my quality of life - time with the kids, as you say, etc - would undoubtedly shoot up. Indeed, I might even have time with which to embroil myself heartily in some of PHers superb sounding social ents!
But, if you are your own man AND you have some quality of life I might be tempted to stay put. So much depends on the dreaded 'cost-benefit' analysis in terms of potential domestic sacrifices v. current income stream(s). Sounds like a toughie but unless you can get some cast iron guarantess from your prospective employer AND you're confident in THEIR viability as a business (remember - you've done it - who's to say you won't develop your own enterprise later on to a degree where it's fat city?), why should you?
I remember doing a stint chez Gecko in the stock market, post-uni and working quite insane hours for sod all wonga but I thought it had a future. Circumstances pointed me elswhere and I spent quite a few years earning zilch and working similarly stupid hours for yours truly but some inner madness kept me going...
Now, I still earn about 3p/hour but I do have a reasonable standard of living. But my quality of life is non-existant; I personally have too many responsibilities to bail out but a committment to motorized hooliganism every so often keeps me marginally coherent.
I think Ted said all quite well on a similar thread; money certainly isn't everything: if you're a PHer AND you've can get a TVR AND maintain a certain standard of living c/o relatively 'secure' employment then your quality of life will generally be better, IMHO.
For me, running any business in UK2002 is akin to
and most of the people I deal with at managerial/directorial level for medium/large organizations that employ them really don't know what mega stress is.
Like I said, hmmm...
Anyway, good luck whatever and for God's sake - don't ever ditch the Blackpool Rocker.
Chin, chin.
There seems to be a lot of 'grass is greener syndrome' going on at the mo in PH land.
Simple reality is, there's no easy answer and there are few certainties in the economy these days for almost anyone.
Looking back, if I could have 75% of my standard of living (not quality of life, mind), I'd certainly consider trading entrepeneurialism for salaric slavedom.
I would then benefit from whole rafts of legislation which mean my quality of life - time with the kids, as you say, etc - would undoubtedly shoot up. Indeed, I might even have time with which to embroil myself heartily in some of PHers superb sounding social ents!
But, if you are your own man AND you have some quality of life I might be tempted to stay put. So much depends on the dreaded 'cost-benefit' analysis in terms of potential domestic sacrifices v. current income stream(s). Sounds like a toughie but unless you can get some cast iron guarantess from your prospective employer AND you're confident in THEIR viability as a business (remember - you've done it - who's to say you won't develop your own enterprise later on to a degree where it's fat city?), why should you?
I remember doing a stint chez Gecko in the stock market, post-uni and working quite insane hours for sod all wonga but I thought it had a future. Circumstances pointed me elswhere and I spent quite a few years earning zilch and working similarly stupid hours for yours truly but some inner madness kept me going...
Now, I still earn about 3p/hour but I do have a reasonable standard of living. But my quality of life is non-existant; I personally have too many responsibilities to bail out but a committment to motorized hooliganism every so often keeps me marginally coherent.
I think Ted said all quite well on a similar thread; money certainly isn't everything: if you're a PHer AND you've can get a TVR AND maintain a certain standard of living c/o relatively 'secure' employment then your quality of life will generally be better, IMHO.
For me, running any business in UK2002 is akin to
and most of the people I deal with at managerial/directorial level for medium/large organizations that employ them really don't know what mega stress is. Like I said, hmmm...
Anyway, good luck whatever and for God's sake - don't ever ditch the Blackpool Rocker.
Chin, chin.
Imagine...
You get paid when you're sick
You get paid when you're on holiday
You get pension contributions for free
You get other perks (depending on the job)
You have backup when you're too busy
You don't have to worry about turning business away
You never have to haggle about fees
You never have to chase another invoice
...sounds pretty damned good to me as far as quality of life goes, but you are not your own boss. If that's OK, then go for it.
You get paid when you're sick
You get paid when you're on holiday
You get pension contributions for free
You get other perks (depending on the job)
You have backup when you're too busy
You don't have to worry about turning business away
You never have to haggle about fees
You never have to chase another invoice
...sounds pretty damned good to me as far as quality of life goes, but you are not your own boss. If that's OK, then go for it.
One thing to bare in mind is that there are likely to be numerous new additions to the self employed brigade. Alot companies that I know are laying off technical staff, and from bitter experience I know there are not many jobs out there, so there is a strong temptation to use your skills and the technology most people have at home now and try and earn a crust for yourself, so the available work is likely to be spread thinner and prices drop.
My suggestion would be to take the job and see how it works out. Try not to burn your bridges with the other existing clients if possible, and you can always go back to working for yourself when things pick up.
Cheers Dan
My suggestion would be to take the job and see how it works out. Try not to burn your bridges with the other existing clients if possible, and you can always go back to working for yourself when things pick up.
Cheers Dan
Well Mikey,
Never expected to see this! However I'm not surprised as this seems to be fairly common practice in our industry - it has happened to me a couple of times during the early stages of trading, which I have to say although were attractive offers at the time, I never relly enterrtained them as I felt perserverence with self-employment would ultimately surpass the benefit of steady employment.
However I guess circumstances were vastly different as I don't hav the commitments that you have and therefore it was an easier decision. If I were in your position no doubt I would be thinkin differently.
The main problem seems to me that the offer was made by your main source of income and that should you remain in self-employment you would find yourself in a position of having to generate new business to compensate, which is a bugger - hardest part of the job in my, albeit limited, experience.
Only advice I can offer is to consider three main points for each option 1. Financial security 2. Job satisfaction and 3. How it would affect life at home. Give each one marks out of ten and see which one fares best.
Another option I suppose as mentioned previously, would be to accept the job and keep on some of your other clients on a freelance basis, although this could defeat the object and end up more time consuming and stressful.
It's a difficult one Mike, let us know how it pans out.
Cheers
Dan
P.S. If they can offer a Cerb as a company car, take the job
Never expected to see this! However I'm not surprised as this seems to be fairly common practice in our industry - it has happened to me a couple of times during the early stages of trading, which I have to say although were attractive offers at the time, I never relly enterrtained them as I felt perserverence with self-employment would ultimately surpass the benefit of steady employment.
However I guess circumstances were vastly different as I don't hav the commitments that you have and therefore it was an easier decision. If I were in your position no doubt I would be thinkin differently.
The main problem seems to me that the offer was made by your main source of income and that should you remain in self-employment you would find yourself in a position of having to generate new business to compensate, which is a bugger - hardest part of the job in my, albeit limited, experience.
Only advice I can offer is to consider three main points for each option 1. Financial security 2. Job satisfaction and 3. How it would affect life at home. Give each one marks out of ten and see which one fares best.
Another option I suppose as mentioned previously, would be to accept the job and keep on some of your other clients on a freelance basis, although this could defeat the object and end up more time consuming and stressful.
It's a difficult one Mike, let us know how it pans out.
Cheers
Dan
P.S. If they can offer a Cerb as a company car, take the job
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