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how long’s a piece of string
ok boys and girls, as you may or may not know, I’ve been signmaking part time
since april this year and I’m getting closer to ditching my full time job in favour
of sign making full time.I have the following quetions on my mind:
i) with winter drawing closer is it wiser to delay until next spring?
ii) is winter generally a lean time for work, if so what type of work disappears
and which is generally still available?any other thoughts or considerations welcome.
Thanks, Pete
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12 Replies
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when we open the shop, we timed it to co-inside with the adverts in the yellow pages.
in winter we see a down turn in business.
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over many years i have found the 2 weeks after christmas the worst then it goes mad but also found that if i have not got my account customers paid by christmas eve i wont get it untill end of feb so have learnt to save a bit before.
i hate christmas but best of luck cos no time is a good time just do it
chris
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Is there a “sign season” , I dont think so , but if it was me , I would wait till end jan/feb as in our part of the world , things stop around 15 dec and only really resume mid jan. December and xmas is a VERY expensive time with presnets and parties etc. Everyone seems to be in a festive mood and no real work gets done.
Unless you are making REAL money , I wouldnt give up the day job untill you really can’t cope.
You need at LEAST 3-4 months of “cushion” (IE no income) before you can consider giving up IMHO. -
Not sure i as i opened up fully in april, going by what i am told xmas time can be slow….
but in answer to the topic message the length of a piece of sting is…
from the centre to the end x2 🙂
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It took me about 4 months full time from scratch to build up what I consider a full time workload. Seeing as you have been doing it part time already you probably have a certain amount of presence locally. Of course, sometimes things are just quiet. I’ve been doing odds n ends for the last couple of weeks and then yesterday I got orders for 3 vehicles, a shop front, and enquiries for 3 other jobs. I see new shops opening up all year round and they all need signs. I imagine it takes a bold step to leave a job to pursue your own business, but you will not regret it, I’m sure. I certainly wish I’d been braver and done it ten years ago. The main thing I’ve learned over the last year is this: don’t panic when it’s not busy, it soon will be.
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Just before and just after Christmas is definitely slower for me, it enables me to catch up and then start the year gently this may not be ideal for you though. Unless you have to take the ‘leap of faith’ I would delay until after the festivities.
alan -
we dont really get a slow period but christmas time is never full pelt…
its harder to get paid… so bills can pile up.. holiday pay to fork out, prezzies to buy… everthing goes backside up for those few weeks…ide advise feb too mate…
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Hi
I usually shut from 20th Dec to 1st week in Jan but find I am busy in the weeks leading up to it… but as others have said most are account customers and they don’t like paying untill feb time.. -
Pete,
Will you be renting or moving to new premises,Do you currently work from home? i know when I started out it feels like a big step to give up regular money..but I found that buy being part time and working from home i could only do so much, by moving to a unit you generate work from other companies around you and depending on where you are atract passing trade.I always go on the assumtion that the best time to do things is NOW!
You may find it difficult at first (more hours, no money) but its good to be your own boss.
If you’re planning on going full time why wait! The sooner you start finding new customers, the sooner you get more work.carpe diem!
Cheers
Johnny
P.S Buy your christmas prezzies now! H 😀 a! Ha!
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I agree with Johnny, If your going to do something why wait?? No time like the present…. especially in business circumstances. We are moving to larger premises next week, so rent & rates, bills etc go up and we were worrying about the additional expense especially with winter coming up in case it does go a bit quiet, but we do not have room to swing an ant let alone a cat where we are now and Im a strong believer in taking the bull by the horns or is it by its bol**cks????
Anyway, as Johnny said it could also be a good idea to get on and do it now, drum up new business and get your name out there now ….. the way you could also look at it is; what if you wait another six months to open up as a full sign shop and then someone else comes along in the mean time and takes what could have been yours?? Bit of a difficult one though for you Pete … do you? dont you? The choice is yours?? 😉
Carrie 😛 … (who to be honest is still stressing over moving)!!
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I started part time in Jan 2003 & went full time in May 2003. It took about 3/4 months to build up a full time workload.As in any new business, It probably took 12 months to get to the stage of being sure of getting a full weeks wages Every Week.!
I was completly unprepared for Christmas, The work load dropped off a bit ,but payment more or less stopped from Nov till Feb, leaving me with probably the quietest Christmas ever. 🙁 -
Hi all, thanks for the feedback and apologies for taking so long in replying; I got
waylayed on a demolition job at home 😮 .Obviously I have lots to consider at the mo and the final decision will rest on
wether the space I’m using is still going to be available to me long term, should
hear back on that one soon. As Johnny says there comes a point when you can only
so much or handle so much when working full time too.
That said the consensus seems to be 4 months slowly building up to a fulltime
workload and 12 months to establish a regular income.
Plenty to mull over and budgeting to plan, thanks everyone.Cheers Pete
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