Moving from corporate job to a trade (electrician) in my early 40's

[t6_tom]

Thanks everyone for the responses, far more than I was expecting and really great advice.

Having read them and had a think some things jump out for me

• I have a young family and my number one priority is being around for them. I had a job where I was working too many hours and my family life suffered, have no plans to go back to that.
• I think I was being a bit naive in the reality of running a business without experience in that specific area
• I hadn't thought about combining my background with hand on sparky skills.
• The option of getting a part time job with someone local to build experience appeals

 

[Murdoch]

Your biggest hurdle , other than lack of electrical experience is your lack of business experience …. Which isn’t to be under estimated

I am currently running my electrical business down in preparation for early retirement. I’m now doing 3.5 days per week plus a little admin at the weekend rather than 5 full days plus 2 hours per week day and 1/2 day at the weekend with visits, estimates and all the admin required.


it took me about 3 years to get a reasonable income…..


and don’t forget that being SE means no holiday pay, no sick pay, no pensions …….

 

[Stay Frosty]

Not that they were great times but working as a 715 subby spark in the late 80s/early 90s was probably about as good as it got as a foot soldier with a bouyant economy and fairly little loyalty given or expected by the larger main electrical contractors.
As subbys we were hired guns and apart from the hassle of providing your own transport, hand tools and sorting out your own tax/NI plus liability insurance would go where the money was or if you stayed local still get paid 20% more by the same firm who you had been working PAYE for previously. The "joy" of working in construction in those days meant you were no worse off subbing as there was no fantastic pension scheme provided by the employer to those on the books and whenever a recession hit subbys and those on the books were bumped just the same only for a subby it was easier to get a start.

 

[t6blo]

This is a great thread with lots of helpful advice from those in the know.

Many times throughout my adult life I have thought how nice it would be to work for myself, be my own boss, do something with my hands etc etc etc.

But, as mentioned, running your own business is a 247/365 affair, is hard work and in many cases uncertain, worry inducing and not that much ‘fun’.

I think how ‘lucky’ I am to have a job behind a desk/working from home, with sick and holiday pay, with regular monthly consistent income, that’s not affected by the weather and that doesn’t rely on me being physically fit.

I don’t think you can put a price on being able to finish work for the day and switch off.

 

[Stay Frosty]

A lot of the being your own boss dream can be just that with the reality as shown so far being a proper mixed bag and a bit of an emotional and financial roller coaster.
Not that moving house can be considered an industry but many people have actually accrued more wealth simply by moving house, up sizing, down sizing, relocating and spreading the difference by buying additional property.

 

[DXX]

Don’t forget about the people who don’t pay up. A friend of mine with a electrical installation business is currently chasing non-payments in excess of 100K.

 

[Salty Spuds]

Don’t forget about the people who don’t pay up. A friend of mine with an electrical installation business is currently chasing non-payments in excess of 100K.

I agree, I was taken for around £27k by one customer. It was a big hit for a micro business. All that apart, after being self employed for so long, I could never contemplate going back on the books, I considered myself unemployable in the 9-5 /5 day week sense. I loved the excitement, challenge & variety of what I was doing, and the fact that all my efforts were for me & my family, rather than lining the pockets of someone else.

 

[shropschris]

I agree, I was taken for around £27k by one customer. It was a big hit for a micro business. All that apart, after being self employed for so long, I could never contemplate going back on the books, I considered myself unemployable in the 9-5 /5 day week sense. I loved the excitement, challenge & variety of what I was doing, and the fact that all my efforts were for me & my family, rather than lining the pockets of someone else.

I have been running my own business for 25 years, I spend way too much time chasing payments , its utterly soul destroying .

 

[Mick]

I agree, I was taken for around £27k by one customer. It was a big hit for a micro business. All that apart, after being self employed for so long, I could never contemplate going back on the books, I considered myself unemployable in the 9-5 /5 day week sense. I loved the excitement, challenge & variety of what I was doing, and the fact that all my efforts were for me & my family, rather than lining the pockets of someone else.

I learned in my 1st 12 months of being independent how customers would decide to not pay or get a discount because of affected ‘dissatisfaction'

I fitted a £40k office telephone system in Leicester for a guy who had a bit of a sweatshop on the go and a call centre. I had a solid contract. I sent him the bill he refused to pay excuse after excuse over 2 months then eventually paid only 1/2. He refused to speak to me. Big mistake. So from my office I turned it all off over the internet! His business with Pakistan stopped overnight! He’d paid up within 2 days in cash! HMRC loved that when I told them!

 

[t6blo]

…… rather than lining the pockets of someone else.

After working at a company for 17 years just to pay for the owners ferraris and foreign villas, it did leave a sour taste in my mouth - I left and have worked for a local charity for 3.5 years - much more satisfying.

 

[Sparky_]

Hi, been ages since I have posted here but I know there is a good community with lots of people in trades here.

In short I have worked my whole life in a corporate job, a technical one, analytics so lots of computer programming, along with some maths and business strategy. I have for a long time had a feeling I don't want to work behind a desk, instead do something much more practical and I would like to be my own boss. The more DIY I have done around my house the stronger this feeling gets. From both mechanical and DIY work I have done, and the feedback I have been given is that it's as good as paying an average "professional" in the field to do the same task. I am acutely aware there is a huge difference between working for yourself at your own pace and having to actually make money from what you are doing.

My end goal is retraining as an electrician and setting up my own small company and spending the rest of my working days doing that. Potentially with the option of keeping a part time or contracting type role going on the corporate side as a backup until I am settled.

I have been doing a fair bit of online reading and phoning companies and the picture is positive (I realise they are trying to sell me a course) I'm in a position to self fund getting an electricians gold card (NVQ level 3) so was hoping to skip some the apprenticeship route and get qualified and earning more quickly.

Some questions

• Is doing this without an apprenticeship a mistake, can I learn enough in term of real experience from the courses to set up on my own?
• Is NVQ level 3 enough
• Would it be better to get qualified and work for a company for a few years to gain experience
• I have no experience running a business, i'm realistic that mistakes will be made and i'm going to learn painful lessons but am I starting too late in life to make this work?

I deliberately haven't mentioned money, i have a good but not amazing salary at the moment and I realise that I probably wont get back to this money, however my understanding around the surrey area is that if i'm self employed I should be able to get close enough to make it work.

Many thanks for any advice in advance.

Hi t6_tom, just registered to be able to be a part of this conversation. I am in a similar position and wondered what you ended up doing?

 

[Pauly]

Looks like @t6_tom hasnt logged in for a few months so not sure he’s still around ?
I’ve tagged him so hopefully he will get a notification and come back and let us all know how his sparky career is going !

 

[Sparky_]

I was

Looks like @t6_tom hasnt logged in for a few months so not sure he’s still around ?
I’ve tagged him so hopefully he will get a notification and come back and let us all know how his sparky career is going !

I was looking around for options myself and was a bit confused. A lot out there, so just wanted to see what he got up to and if he had any advise

 

[t6_tom]

I was

I was looking around for options myself and was a bit confused. A lot out there, so just wanted to see what he got up to and if he had any advise

I still get the emails, don't have a T6 anymore so don't login much here.

So what I ended up doing - turns out I stayed at my corporate role, they gave me something that genuinely interested me so I am happy with what I am doing.

However that wasn't the main reason I didn't pursue being in a trade. With the feedback from this forum and other background work I did, I realised there were two core problems to switching. I wasn't going to be able to replace my current salary easily, and I would needed to put far more time into it than I do my current job. Neither of these things worked with a young family to look after. I currently get a huge amount of flexibility in my current role, ironically probably more than I would get if I was self employed.

If I could turn back time and look at this decision when I was 30 and not 40 then I think I would have made the jump, if I hadn't had young children I may have also made a different choice. There just felt like too much stacked against what was and still is a comfortable situation.

HTH

 

[Sparky_]

I still get the emails, don't have a T6 anymore so don't login much here.

So what I ended up doing - turns out I stayed at my corporate role, they gave me something that genuinely interested me so I am happy with what I am doing.

However that wasn't the main reason I didn't pursue being in a trade. With the feedback from this forum and other background work I did, I realised there were two core problems to switching. I wasn't going to be able to replace my current salary easily, and I would needed to put far more time into it than I do my current job. Neither of these things worked with a young family to look after. I currently get a huge amount of flexibility in my current role, ironically probably more than I would get if I was self employed.

If I could turn back time and look at this decision when I was 30 and not 40 then I think I would have made the jump, if I hadn't had young children I may have also made a different choice. There just felt like too much stacked against what was and still is a comfortable situation.

HTH

Thanks for the response Tom. Really appreciate it.

It looks like I will be made redundant from my current IT position. Being 38 with 1 kid and bills to pay is not ideal. I will get a redundancy package which I hope will allow me to survive whilst I retrain myself.

There is a lot information with different companies suggesting different things, hence why I am looking at forums to get some feedback. There is an electrical training centre nearby Learn Trade Skills | C & G Electrical Courses and Training that I am considering.

They are pushing me toward what they consider as the industry preferred route in getting a Level 2 and 3 2365 and then a Level 3 NVQ. So I think I will go with this package Gold Card Electrical Course Package - Learn Trade Skills

I have always had an interest from uncle since a young age. I wish I had done it earlier but hey ho. Maybe now is the time

 

[ginkster]

Thanks for the response Tom. Really appreciate it.

It looks like I will be made redundant from my current IT position. Being 38 with 1 kid and bills to pay is not ideal. I will get a redundancy package which I hope will allow me to survive whilst I retrain myself.

There is a lot information with different companies suggesting different things, hence why I am looking at forums to get some feedback. There is an electrical training centre nearby Learn Trade Skills | C & G Electrical Courses and Training that I am considering.

They are pushing me toward what they consider as the industry preferred route in getting a Level 2 and 3 2365 and then a Level 3 NVQ. So I think I will go with this package Gold Card Electrical Course Package - Learn Trade Skills

I have always had an interest from uncle since a young age. I wish I had done it earlier but hey ho. Maybe now is the time

Can’t help you with the electrical stuff but I have numerous friends who have retrained and gone the self employed route or changed careers. I’ve also done some out of career level 3 training myself but didn’t take it any further (just hobby use). I’d be careful that any course you consider is actually properly recognised. There are a lot of cowboy providers and meaningless courses out there. I’m sure you are all over it, but if you are wanting to be self-employed I’d also make sure you do some business management, finance and project management training unless you already have that. Many trades people are great at the actual job but struggle or fail with the finance and/or scheduling side of the business. Good luck with the future ventures. Exciting times.

 

[Sparky_]

Yes you are so right. I think it will be difficult being self-employed immediately with the lack of experience I have. But in the long run I think that is the best route to earn money in this trade.

They said if I can't reserve full time that I can do part time courses and be a domestic installer to register to a competent persons scheme as one with this package Professional Electricians Course Package but the industry preferred route is to get an NVQ.

That's why I am going to the full qualified route and get my NVQ. They award City and Guild certificates which I researched and is recognised

I am excited and will definitely feedback with how it is going. Thank you so much!

 

[ginkster]

That sounds great @Sparky_ All the best with the training and setting up the business. Definitely keep us posted.

 

[Bav]

Good luck @Sparky_

Being made redundant is never great but, in my experience, the not knowing is scarier than the reality. I was in IT and made redundant when in my fifties. It didn't come as a surprise, but it was a shock to the system!!

After a few weeks of fretting about who'd employ someone in their fifties, an opportunity arose for a very lucrative contracting position - a role that, ultimately, enabled me to retire much earlier than I'd been planning to. My point is that I would never have risked a salaried position to take up a contracting role, but redundancy opened that door for me,

 

[t6_tom]

Thanks for the response Tom. Really appreciate it.

It looks like I will be made redundant from my current IT position. Being 38 with 1 kid and bills to pay is not ideal. I will get a redundancy package which I hope will allow me to survive whilst I retrain myself.

There is a lot information with different companies suggesting different things, hence why I am looking at forums to get some feedback. There is an electrical training centre nearby Learn Trade Skills | C & G Electrical Courses and Training that I am considering.

They are pushing me toward what they consider as the industry preferred route in getting a Level 2 and 3 2365 and then a Level 3 NVQ. So I think I will go with this package Gold Card Electrical Course Package - Learn Trade Skills

I have always had an interest from uncle since a young age. I wish I had done it earlier but hey ho. Maybe now is the time

Although it might seem scary redundancy happens to almost everyone once, its already happened to me and will probably happen again before I retire.

Feels like a good time to make the jump!

One thing that I gathered from others when I was looking, and think it mentioned higher in this thread is how important it is to work with someone experienced rather than just training. Worth factoring into your thinking if possible.

Good luck!