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After 18 years in the trade the last two months have probably been the worst yet. This week I’ve had five calls, with nothing booked for tomorrow and one for Thursday. The stark reality of mortgage payments being missed is looming. With a two year old lad as well I think I’ve seriously got to look at my options.
Still need to pay suppliers, advertising to next March and a rather healthy business overdraft make the decision a toughie.
Anyone looking for experienced engineers in the Preston area?
😥TC
Re: Time for a rethink.
Yep. Given it a lot of thought over the last few weeks.
I feel I made a bad decision to drop some of my advertising ( Phonebook and Tomsons) this year as they always did pretty poorly when I monitored calls. I think jettisoning them and with the gloomy economy forecasts it was just bad timing all round.
That and the fact that I don’t really want to be dragging my heels much longer, so at 45 I need to decide on’t future a little.
If it was just me (ah the old days) I’d just sell up , buy a little terrace and ride it out, but we overstretched a little on this house plus with our littlun things will get tight if I don’t act now.
Ah but there’s still a years advertising and old customers to help out at weekends if I do opt out completely 😉 .You never know, your next bus into town could have me driving it helo 😉
TC
Re: Time for a rethink.
Hey Im not doing so well either, althought this weeks picking up i worked the full day today, but last 2 months its like someone pulled the plug on my phone 😯 before that id switch my mobile on at about 8:30 and it wasent long before it started to ring away, are people fixing the machines themselves? i dont have a morgage thank god and iv not bothered with phone books for 2 years now as i took 1 year out through illness, but was looking at a nice new car the other week ready to sign on the dotted line, i think ill hang fire for a while.
Re: Time for a rethink.
You guys are not alone, far from it ! We are an established company, basically just ticking over, no jobs tomorrow, non Friday and nothing Saturday ! Its definately worse for work and with the Kids breaking up and people shooting off on holiday this time of year is normally spasmodic. I also know colleagues who have companies like Heating and Gas Servicing with no work, opticans with few customers, car sales with not a single car being sold for two weeks ! So it does not seem to matter what trade you are in at the moment, my mate has just laid off 200 workers on his construction firm !
We can only hope and pray that it will recover at least to a situation where work picks up.
Re: Time for a rethink.
Not a good situation all round then chaps, but helo was right though cornwell, we are always on the loom out for good men, watch out for that trade test though, its just been re-jigged, and its good fun in places!!
I have heard down in Hants/Dorset way, that Whirlpool guys are only getting 2/3 calls a day, somedays none, and serviceforce have laid off too?
But, as per my previous posts, pessimism is a evil word, so the good news is the doom & gloom economic outlook appears to have been over-reacted too, we are going to be in a hole for a few more months, but wait till Oct/Nov, if certain economic speculators are correct we will be in a upturn by early spring, I prefer that to the next great depression we were supposed to be getting :rolls:
Hopefully we will all be better off 😉
Re: Time for a rethink.
Very slow for me, nothing in the book for tomorrow. Could not do this job if I had kids and a mortgage. Its fast becoming a pocket money job IMO 😥
Graham.Re: Time for a rethink.
would have thought that would send many on here to try to self fix, but quiet on the forums too, all very odd!
Re: Time for a rethink.
Lots of people around here reluctantly going on holidays they booked last year but can ill – afford now. Sunny periods usually coincide with slower workloads down here but just as you’re about to consider a second job as a kissogram, the work comes in.
One blessing of the new cr@p machines though – they go wrong regularly – and if the sheds aren’t selling new then the machines in the homes across the land can’t stay busted for long. Hang in there……… 😉Steve.
Re: Time for a rethink.
It does appear to be pretty quiet in many areas just now but do bear in mind that you’re smack dab in the middle of the high holiday season. After the first couple of weeks in August are gone things will pick up as people realise they have to work again and all the schools start to return.
Sunny weather, BBQ’s, kids off, holidays, covering other people’s holidays… so many things are a distraction at the moment.
K.
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