Im considering giving up my car and my wife and I sharing hers, on a temporary basis, maybe a year or so. Business has nosedived and now half my income is going on just running the car, so its hardly worth it.
I wonder, is it as hard to give up having your OWN car as it seems - Im finding it quite a wrench to arrive at a point where I can let mine go.
Im not I might add, considering selling the Daewoo - its hardly a depreciating asset and its going pretty well for an old banger, so id just stuff it in the garage rather than sell it.
As far as I can tell, the savings funnily dont seem that high though. I will save £36 a month insurance, about £18 on road tax, the differential between the Daewoo and Daihatsu on economy would make for about a £20 saving overall for me but then it will need two services a year with our combined mileage and as I will have to take her to work, it doubles her mileage to work ( 10 mile round trip ) which would add about £25 to the fuel bill for her. Im not sure if its worth it or am I missing something?
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Have you a view as to why business is slow Stu ? New competitors, people watching what they spend or something else?
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>> Im considering giving up my car and my wife
And me.
Seriously, on thiose numbers it makes no sense to mothball the car. Whens the tax and MOT due?
Then is the time to reconsider.
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Business is just a lack of phone ringing, even existing customers have in some cases fallen away after 5-7 years, presumably on account of money issues, I dont ask.
Ive lost a few to divorce, I lost 75% of the business at a surveyors as they ditched alot of junior staff and contractors so now its just bits every other week rather than a steady amount of work every week - Im hanging in there because if business picks up for them, new staff mean new opportunities and Im established as their car cleaner, so its worth keeping my foot in the door for the longer term - at its peak they were worth £200-250 a month on their own.
A couple of customers have actually increased their spend with me due to their personal successes, between them they account for nearly £200 a month on their own, but last month I didnt crack £500, scary for many people I imagine, but my wife is earning well and we own our house so its not drastic yet, although I dont want it to dip much lower.
I dont know that its the old eastern european excuse that most people jump to - I think people just arent spending and thats how it is, the economy isnt great right now although with any luck, it will get better in time. I need the middle class to get wealthy again effectively :-)
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Diversification opportunities ? That big caravan park down at Billing for eg ? Canal boats maybe ?
Last edited by: Humph D'bout on Fri 1 Oct 10 at 17:49
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>> >> Im considering giving up my car and my wife
>>
>> And me.
>>
Thank you Mr Nought I've just had a keyboard/tea moment.
As my retirement creeps closer I hope we will become a car and motorbike couple rather than 2 cars and a motorbike. Mrs H not keen on driving the MPV if we are to continue towing a caravan.
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Don't you dare. We would lose out on the "I just bought a car" threads.
I was wondering when the Daewoo would come on the market.
Whatever happens, don't put the car in the garage, it's absolutely a depreciating asset; why would you keep it? Old cars hate standing still, they seize and die. It will be worth scrap only within 3 months.
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Haha, im still not selling it, I like the old girl.
Its has an MOT till July 2011, tax is due end of Jan, so I may keep it on the road atleast until July, then see how things are, I presume that would get the best value out of the car.
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Its the nature of being self employed. I've had a decent month myself but my parents dire situation keeps sucking me in but I have worked out that almost a third of my profits are going on my car.
I am certainly in transport poverty at the moment but I am also thinking about getting a proper job.; Maybe its something you need to think about too, a regular solid income but then nothing is secure any more.
The only blessing is my dads Fiesta toch wood has been very reliable and trouble free this year so at leasts that not sucked me in.
We thought about sharing cars but it wouldn't work for many reasons.
Last edited by: RattleandSmoke on Fri 1 Oct 10 at 17:50
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I think Stu's underlying problem is he doesn't need to work.
We've heard a few times about the house that's paid for, wealthy parents, wife on a good income, etc.
He's basically just playing at the car cleaning game because there's no pressure to do anything else.
I'm not being critical, were I in a similar position, I might do the same.
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Well I do need to work, just not alot - maybe £250 a month to put something towards bills, food and pay the child maintainance for my son.
I have an on going problem with my back that gives me maybe 2-3 hours a day that I can work before Im unable to continue, but the NHS being what it is, ive been effectively told to live with it. I thought that was a little unsporting but there ya go!
Various other personal issues make it rather difficult for me to change career at this stage plus even when I have looked for jobs locally and applied to those I may be able to manage, every letter has suggested that the closing date for applications was the same day the advert goes out - Im sure theres a legal reason jobs are being advertised that dont actually exist, but its blooming annoying.
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...Well I do need to work, just not alot - maybe £250 a month to put something towards bills...
Fair enough, you are being honest about your situation.
That's not a lot to have to bring in, and I would have thought you could find something less physically demanding to do it.
How about buying and selling low value cars?
You can often turn a profit simply by valeting them well.
The weakness with most home trader schemes is the trader needs to make a few hundred quid a week - you don't.
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>>How about buying and selling low value cars?<<
Not a bad idea, but Im not very certain of the market, ive always bought cars for myself rather than to sell on, so id prob loose money rather than gain it!
Its something I was hoping to move to in about ten years time, just playing around with low mileage cheapies, now is a bit early and I dont really have the capital.
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Stu, don't know anything about your area etc but we have a guy that comes to our work every couple of weeks or so, sets up in the staff car park and probably makes a good earning in the time he is there.
Usual set up, one person in the office is the contact, will send out an email to everyone to let them know when etc.
I also see a guy doing the cars out in the street from a local lawyers office (I have mentioned before that one of them has an S Reg Hyundai Accent with a missing wheel trim and rusty wheel arch but still gets it washed and valeted every week!)
If your back is giving you that amount of discomfort, I would suggest try and get as many scenarios as this ie. a concerted 2-3 hours of car after car. Try thinking of what employers in your area would have employees cars in accessible places - supermarkets? Nursing Homes? B&Q? Council offices? etc etc
I take it local car dealerships are already spoken for with who does their forecourt cars?
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Different business have different policies about what set-ups they will allow on their site and because I dont have my own water supply, that rules out alot of companies as they dont have suitable external water supplies available. Supermarkets have been taken over by very organised companies, perhaps where some of the market has drifted those to these days, they are quite prolific.
Dealerships tend to use contract cleaners, eastern europeans in the main accoring to my local dealer ( he will have a frank chat ), I cant afford to work for £3 an hour, better off staying at home! The lucrative work is upper middle class, £500-1000k houses, almost 90% of my private customers fall into this catagory. Its very easy to make alotta money quickly - £20 an hour or more sometimes compared to maybe £5 at a business set-up.
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As for the idea of giving up the car. It sounds like you won't save a huge amount of cash from that and you may well need the car if you start getting a few jobs.
TBH we could probably get shot of the Almera but it's not depreciating and it costs diddly squat to run. So we keep it as the benefits outweigh the costs. That means I get a choice between the Land Rover and the van. If it needs a huge repair etc then it will go.
Bobby's idea of office premesis is a good one. Althoug you won't earn the hourly rate you do with your top earning clients, all your customers would be in the same place. That way you would eliminate the need to travel between customers. That is often one of my bugbears when I do small jobs at people's houses. Little old lady wants you to put a shelf up. I think the quickest I've done that job is in 10 minutes - yet it can take me half an hour to get there, get my tools out etc then another half hour to put everything away and drive home.
As for your back - I used to suffer terribly. I actually went to see a natural healer who works from Tavistock who really helped. He's £35 an hour but well worth it.
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Have you tried schools Stu?
Plenty of overpaid, idle, ne'er-do-wells, so far up their own fundaments they wouldn't dream of washing their own?
Or am I teaching granny to suck eggs?
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>> Ive lost a few to divorce, I lost 75% of the business at a surveyors
>>
>> the longer term - at its peak they were worth £200-250 a month on their own.
>>
So they are now worth about £50 to £60 a month, i.e. about 3 hours a month.
>> I have an on going problem with my back that gives me maybe 2-3 hours
>> a day that I can work
>>
>> A couple of customers have actually increased their spend with me due to their
>> personal successes, between them they account for nearly £200 a month on their own,
>>
>> £500-1000k houses, almost 90% of my private customers fall into this catagory. Its very easy
>> to make alotta money quickly - £20 an hour or more sometimes compared to maybe
>> £5 at a business set-up.
>>
You are saying that you can work 2 or 3 hours a day, but let us assume you average 2 hours a day. Now 90% of your customers make you £20 an hour or more, so let us assume your average is £20 an hour. That is £40 a day.
So for 5 day week = £200 a week.
So in a month that makes it £800 plus.
What are you complaining about man? That is not bad going for 2 hours work a day, 10 hours a week, and £200 of that is from just two customers!
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Your assuming Im working 5 days a week. Im not. Im working maybe two right now. Why you think I have so much time to come on here :-)
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>> Your assuming Im working 5 days a week. Im not. Im working maybe two right
>> now. Why you think I have so much time to come on here :-)
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2 days a week, 3 hours a day = 6x20 = £120 a week = £480 a month.
half of that that is accounted by your two clients who give you £250 a month.
Another £50 from the surveyors, and you are left with £200 to account for.
Doesn't leave room for many of your clients in the "The lucrative work is upper middle class, £500-1000k houses, almost 90% of my private customers fall into this catagory. Its very easy to make alotta money quickly ".
How many clients do you have?
In the past you have said you charge £10 per job, so that means 2 clients an hour to make you £20/hour. That means that to get your remaining £200, you have 20 jobs.
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>> How many clients do you have?
>> In the past you have said you charge £10 per job, so that means 2
>> clients an hour to make you £20/hour. That means that to get your remaining £200,
>> you have 20 jobs.
>>
Come on John, you have forgotten a few very important things...
Costs!
Fuel, tax, insurance, etc..
Im guessing that Stu now basically is just covering those cost's, not leaving any profit margin...
Am I right Stu?
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Im afraid john, your sums have taken what I said out of context.
>>£500-1000k houses, almost 90% of my private customers fall into this catagory. Its very easy to make alotta money quickly - £20 an hour or more sometimes <<
Please note the use of the work 'SOMETIMES'. That does not, in normal use, suggest consistancy.
Your second set of sums are about right though - ive hit £480 or so several times this year.
I charge a set amount for a particular job, based on worst case scenario, ie the car is filthy, but few of mine ever are, so for instance, the other day, I cleaned three cars, wash & hoover jobs that the client pays me £20 a car and I complete the job usually in about 2.5 hours, which takes me above the £20 an hour mark.
However, I do another job which is weekly involving a wash/hoover and a wash plus some little extras, that I charge £25 for the two cars, this job usually takes me 2.5 hours aswell.
I have another customer who gives me £25 to do a wash, hoover and windows on an always clean 4x4, that takes me about 1.5 hours.
As such, there is no set pattern to the hourly rate, just how lucky I am to get clean cars that are easy to do and in two of those three cases, the customer gives me more money than I would otherwise ask for because they are nice people.
I have about 25 clients right now although they dont all apend in the same month, there is a core of 10 who do.
tony, I do actually make a profit, its just enough to pay the household bills etc that I originally mentioned. There was a time when it was unusual for me to have a turnover of less than £1300 but that seems a long time ago! I prob spend about £80 a month on costs, maybe a bit more.
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>> ........... I have worked out that almost a
>> third of my profits are going on my car.
Rattle, doing things like having the car insurance on the drip won't help. You need to get yourself into the position where everything is paid for outright. Paying interest to borrow money is a mug's game.
Last edited by: L'escargot on Sat 2 Oct 10 at 13:32
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There's nothing foolish about managing your cash flow, l'Es. Although I agree that paying excessive rates of interest to do it merely replaces one problem with another.
Back to Stu. I'm a bit to the south of his patch these days, I think, but I think of him every time I contemplate my filthy Volvo, which hasn't seen a bucket, sponge or vacuum since we moved here in June.
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Giving up having your own car - Runfer D'Hills
