Do you run your own business?

You want to run away from stressful office politics and you end up having to deal with stressful bureocracy. I had a limited company and got a letter saying that I need to provide annually certain information for their record. For the first 5-6 times when I attempted to do it Iended having meltdown. There were serious discrepancies between the letter and the actual working of the page. When I tried to ring their support for help to finish that stupid thing I ended being laughed at. 

The clients will notice you are different and they will try to use you thinking you are dumb. If you suffer from the lack of order, having to deal with the laws, rules and regulations can make you want to go back to office politics.

Thanks for sharing your experiences. I share some of your concerns around networking, lead generation and sales. This is something I struggle with which is why I think property development/management would be better suited for me.

Essentially the agents would do that bit for me.

It's sad that tou have had to seek employment for the stability, but I hope it works out well and offers you more security.

I really would like to get into property developent and lettings. The capital required is holding me back at the moment but I am assessing a few options.

It's good that you can both support each other and work together well.

Do you think you will run your own business again?

This sounds great. What type of restaurant would you like to run?

Hello. I have been self-employed for 6 years and now I'm looking to return to employment as self-employment also has many downsides.

Why I went self employed:

I'm talented at what I do (leadership training) but relentless pressure of unrealistic deadlines and corporate politics meant long unfulfilling hours. Salary was good but it crushed my spirit and rush hour commute and open plan offices just don't suit me.  I'm still awaiting a formal diagnosis, I didn't realise at the time I was Aspie but looking back I can see why my working environment was not a good fit for me.

What I love about self-employed:

Good mix of working from home and working on client site so I can have manage sensory overload issues much better, less commuting time, more in control of when and how I do work. Higher day rate offsets need to work every day - but I've done at least as many hours at work self-employed than employed because it takes me AGES to do the stuff I'm crap at, like generating sales and admin, when you're a solo-preneur you have to do ALL the jobs. I've never got to the point where I had enough work to hire people to do the stuff I struggle with (I tried a few virtual admins on day rate but none did a good job so I ended up doing it myself again)

What I hate

Networking events to try and win work and get your name out there, writing blogs and articles, being on social media, I even wrote a book and hired a PR agency to help me raise my profile. However in SIX YEARS I have never created a single inbound customer despite significant and sustained effort and a ***-load of social anxiety putting myself outside my comfort zone.  All of my work has been via referral (as I do good work!) but good ole Brexit has meant that leadership development is not a priority for many organisations and my pipeline is now virtually empty. I live alone and only way to pay bills is to return to employment. It is also fiercely lonely working alone from home if you don't have a partner or regular contact with people. Like most Aspies I have a small circle of friends who I see 1:1 but they are busy people with careers and it's not enough to sustain the amount of social contact that's preferable for me. Clients don't count somehow as it's a different type of interaction. I have had to develop ninja skills at maintaining my own mental health whilst self-employed so be prepared for the huge ambiguity and financial uncertainty that comes with it.

Why I'm considering return to employment

Financial security, ability to make a bigger difference by working with the same cohort of people over time, make some new friends and possibly find a romantic partner, hopeful that the workplace has moved on in the last 6 years and IF I EVER GET TO THE TOP OF THE LIST TO GET FORMALLY ASSESSED FOR ASD then an understanding employer that will be okay with me making some adjustments to my ways of working to get the best out of me!

hope that helps, good luck whatever you decide

Daisy

[spam post deleted by moderator]

What are you looking to do? i work for a company and run my own business doing electronic design and selling electrical equipment from a online shop. I ofton wonder why i bothered as particularly on the design side I feel like I've gone nowhere but it's also my hobby and passion so I do it as that when it's not working as a business but I have a job.

My husband is undiagnosed but we are both pretty sure he is on the spectrum. He ran his own Mortgage Broking business for a few years & was v successful. He is very money orientated which suited this role & working alone was better for him as he doesn’t work well with other people. The only thing he struggled with was admin, he is not very good at organising paperwork, but I was able to help him a little with this. 

I completely agree.  In previous roles, I have had more colleagues to delegate these sorts of tasks to, but in my current role, my team is me and one other, which means we have large workloads constantly and I no longer can delegate the things I struggle with as it is not fair on the other person who already has a stack of work to do.  This is the one thing I miss, having a team to support me whilst I focus on more technical and strategic projects.

When I became a team leader it took a while to realise it was possible to make the job work for me, I was able to task member's of the team to take the more 'people interactive' projects while I could work on technical projects and not have to deal with people I don't know so much. I won't pretend being a senior leader isn't stressful but in different way which I find slightly easier to manage. Unfortunately when you rely on a decent wage there aren't many options!

It is easier now, though there are still some long and tiring days, soon to begin again. 

I have been looking into gardening myself, but I wasn't sure whether it was better to go down the apprentice route or get some qualifications myself before looking for a job.  I hadn't though about nosy neighbours and onlookers - that could be a problem.  When I working on a task I like to be left alone and not constantly interrupted.

Sounds like you have found a nice compromise.  I would like to start focusing on my creative hobbies more such as making music and art.  I have a degree in art and feel it is being wasted as I don't really use it unless I need to be creative in my work or sketch up designs.  This is the sort of work balance I am looking for.

Hi, I meant I'd like to invest in property. I don't know enough to confidently train anyone else. I can see why you'd think I meant the videos because of my last post. I didn't explain myself very well. I meant that I watched his videos and decided property was something I wanted to get into

I do wonder how much we could achieve as a community if we didn't have to navigate and juggle the daily BS and politics.  It seems to be a common theme for us all.  Your idea sounds very interesting.  I would definitely watch that!  Were you thinking of creating videos and going down the Patreon route and including YouTube ads on your videos?

Sounds like a nice departure to go into, especially if you have had experience of this in your current role.  I know there is money to be made in events as I work in Marketing and organise exhibitions as part of my role.  The sectors I work in are less lucrative on the events front though, but it sounds like you have found a good niche to explore.  Teaching has its advantages in that you can diversify quite easily.  Hope it all works out well for you.

Hi, I don't currently run my own business, but i'm working on it. I was very much in the same frame of mind as yourself, I can't deal with corporate bull... it stresses me out. I started looking online for ways to make money without working for someone else, I came across a youtube channel by someone called Samuel Leeds. I watched a lot of the videos and decided that is what I wanted to do. It is a channel that shows people how they can be financially free in property, I appreciate you may not want to do that, I just thought it may give you ideas and show you what is possible!

Hope everything works out for you and you find something that refuces your stress levels

I've taken the first step as I've told my employer I'm going self-employed after my maternity leave finished. The reasons for seeking self-employment are the same as yours. Plus, I also thrive from making a difference to those who are struggling and what I can achieve in employment is limited due to politics.

I ran national events as part of my previous role (I teach) and these were often over-subscribed. Many institutions will pay £150 for one person to attend one of these events for a day, which means if I can get 30 attendees (I used to regularly achieve 50 participants so this is do-able) that's generating £30,000. If I run a few events each year, after costs I can make enough to live a lifestyle I'm happy with. Plus, I hope to be awarded grant funding on the side to develop on-line resources for those who are unable to attend the events or want supplementary support. 

I feel comfortable going it alone and doing this as its what I've practised for a few years with the safety net of a salary. 

I have spent a lot of time going through my different options, weighing up the pro's and con's, considering what's best in regards to my needs as an autistic etc. I have also sat down and worked out what my ideal salary would be and then have been very realistic about what would achieve this. For example, I would have liked to focus on government-funded mentoring, which is around £50ph and can be delivered via Skype, so very minimal overheads. Unfortunately, mentees often want short-ish term support, don't want to access this every week, plus there's the need for constant marketing to generate new mentees. As such, I believe running the events will be better in terms of the income they generate, compared to the effort I have to put in.

Yes I do. I had wanted to be self employed for many years whilst still in the UK, never felt there was quite demand enough for the various things I was trying to do to cobble enough to clear rent and bills every month. Then there was a second recession in the early 90's that put paid to all of that. Then I took a TESOL course. I have been self employed abroad since 2000 now.

For a lot of these I was never really own boss, but a subcontracted for a revolving door of language schools. You are dropped at once if someone decides your face doesn't fit, I used to fall foul of dress codes especially, which I found really petty.  Overall, it could be thankless and did I say thankless, low paid, high taxes and early starts which meant chronic sleep deprivation. 

Now, more students come to me and I work more often with children. So it does feel a lot more line being my own boss. Another thing with schools is all the dogmatism over teaching methods and do on. 

Oibam trying to find more room and investment for my creative activities as an artist now, there it can be hard to get the marvellous Name, especially if first degree is not in Art. But now there are no bullying client advisors to worry about, there is a day job, there is a little more money from an inheritance, so there is more ability to bargain. Algorithms on print on demand websites can be hard to crack though.

For me, the main thing was to be absolutely sure there was enough of a demand for at least one service on offer. That would be my best suggestion.