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That's cool as f**k, fair play to you.
Whatever happens I can't really afford to drop down much unless I'm 100% certain it'll get better, as I'm already on lower than average wage and have a mortgage and wedding and future children to pay for.
But I've never known what I want to do because i don't know what other jobs there are and what they involve. A bit like if I said I'm a Property Management surveyor, what would that sound like I did to you? I bet it doesn't conjure up spreadsheets and writing shitty updates on dodgy Dave not paying his rent on time, or arguing with an internatiomal pension investor about whether they should pay £500 to cover a sky light with a hole in it to stop a leak. The job title bears no significance to what you actually do day to day so I'm just trying to learn what others do
soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
The Vehicle specialists have a fairly unique business adapting and fitting out vans for mobile catering ; most of them are trendy hipsterish old Citroen H vans .
They have lots of customers who do things like "Mexican SourDough Firebread " , " Oysters " and Lobster Burgers , Vegan Foods , Dhosas and Dahl , Hoppers, Empanadas and Tacos, Porchetta Rolls ,etc etc .....some are just Espresso Coffee and Croissant .
It seems they pitch at Events , Train stations , Concerts ,Markets ,Weddings and outside busy Venues etc etc . I see the vans come in for repairs and adaptions .
I know Events are a non-starter at the moment but some of these are quite high quality Gastronomy .I talk to the owners sometimes and it's staggering how much money they take.......really quite amazing .
Some of them are very trendy / hipsterish and I know the ones doing Sushi and Lobster Rolls / Oysters etc are usually fully booked for Weddings and promo events .
I'm a production manager/sound engineer/backline tech, and own a small production/audio hire company. Have also worked as a professional bassist and guitarist over the years, ran function bands, all that stuff, but moved away from that to focus more fully on production a few years ago.
Obviously this year has knackered most of that. I'm doing various other bits - building furniture, launching a business with the missus selling homemade gifts and art prints, a bit of web design, did some freelance technical writing, shifting in to production for video and streamed events. Did some delivery driving for a bit.
Main thing is the ability to sell yourself as someone people want to work with, and to always be hustling! You need to network, be adaptable, get yourself out there. You'll hear people talk about having a portfolio income, where you do various things and aren't completely dependent on one. I was doing that by working across multiple roles and specialisms in live events, but never envisaged the whole thing tumbling like this year so I've had to put my thinking cap on!
soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
Win a Cort G250 SE Guitar in our Guitar Bomb Free UK Giveaway
soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
Win a Cort G250 SE Guitar in our Guitar Bomb Free UK Giveaway
- over the years various events largely beyond my control have led to the development side disappearing and the business now majors on the support side, which for me is the least interesting bit, and equal parts satisfying and soul-destroying, but it provides an income for three of us, and I absolutely cannot think of anything else I can do that would be sustainable and that I could develop up to change to. Annoyingly. So instead I do my best to develop a positive attitude to what I'm doing now, and will ride it out for as long as it lasts
What always makes my eyes glaze over in awe is how much stuff you actually have to sell to make a wage, it's quite eye watering. I suppose I need to either find or knock up a spreadsheet that kind of adds stuff up for various things to include whatever taxes one is required to pay etc.
But as an example, the artisan bread shop co-op near me where I did all my bread courses, charges £2.20 for a large white loaf. So even if the bread was free to make and no rent etc, that would be about 730 loaves of bread per month to bring the same salary in (c. £1600 per month). But of course they don't cost £0 to make haha so say you make a quid per loaf that's even easier maths - 1600 loaves per month, 400 per week. That is a lot of bread just to get the same, not to mention I would need premises and baking ovens and all that jazz. Absolutely eye watering amounts just to get the same as I do now bluffing my way through the world of industrial estates
EDIT and that's net of Taxes and NI etc, so would need to be even more wouldn't it! Crikey.
soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
There are generally 2 ways you can go when it comes to selling or providing a service. Either niche or big numbers. Having done both I much prefer niche. When you rely on quantity to make your money everything else goes up in terms of materials cost, shipping, space cost, fuel bills. You can become what some people in business refer to as a busy fool.
Working in niche suits me a lot better. I can sell my products for what I what because I don't bother making anything that has a direct equivalent on the market already. In the IT world I don't repair any simple faults as there are people who can do that in the shops already. I work from home and get the repairs they can't do themselves which means I can charge more and don't have to deal with end users
Music wise my biggest earn is guitar and keys in a Kate Bush tribute, not an Oasis or AC DC tribute. Again less competition, more niche.
I don't know anything about baking bread but there's a post office a few miles away that has a sideline making award winning pasty's at £5 a pop. Great example of a niche product
But food for thought nonetheless. Hopefully find something I can do alongside my current job though to get up to speed at least partially, so I don't go bankrupt in the process haha
soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
Knowing what you want is half the battle I think. I was fortunate and delusional enough to know that I wanted to do something in music when I was 15, and stubbornly chased it. I was a total social recluse at that age (for reasons I've gone into before) and I failed college 3 times. I don't have a single GCSE above a C - and only got C's for English - maths was an F. Which is funny considering I'm spending my days doing a lot of maths in code! I was a late bloomer basically.
My point being, don't get too hung up on thoughts about grey matter. It's not as important as you think, and not everyone has to be an uber genius (I'm certainly not!) to be successful.
Just figure out what it is you want.
I really enjoyed it but to get to industrial volumes to make real money you need a big big mixer and a big oven. Regular home kit won't do unless you're doing something like wedding cakes where the actual baking bit is a relatively smaller part. I was making close to 1,000 items (brownies, cookies, muffins etc) on a busy day. Obviously bread is different but definitely doable from a production perspective.
What you could absolutely do is start small with some artisan stuff at e.g. farmer's markets then invest once you're sure you have a product and customer base to warrant it. I'd also suggest instagram is probably fairly essential these days as anything pretty looking (and well photographed, hashtagged and shared) will inevitably get more attention.
I love cooking and photography and would very much like to make it more of a thing one day, but it's not easy