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Well I decided...

ghosthousecorns

ghosthousecorns

Well-known member
To quit looking for work and just go out on my own again.
I moved to Oregon in 2005 and started my own small landscape maintenance company. I did OK for a while though the winter months got kind of grim there.
I got what I thought was a really cool job in Sept 06 which I would have been happy to stay and work forever at. But it was not to be, and I was let go within 3 weeks of the "1 year probation" after which the job would have been permanent. During the probation however, you could be let go with no reason needed.
An ex co-worker who I now consider a good friend was let go after about 6 months (we both started at about the same time) and then I lasted another 5 or so, but then told I was "not a good fit" (interestingly this is the same excuse they gave my friend) and sent packing.
After this, I made the decision to move to Eugene in part because it's a fun interesting place and also because I thought it wasn't as hard to find work here. But I guess this is my wake up call because I have had nothing but one letter of rejection after another. Whoever says there isn't a recession right now is crazy. After 6 months of looking I am just tired of trying and I still have all my tools and equipment so I am just going to work for myself for now. I still have a couple of applications out there that are jobs good enough to change my mind about this, but for now I am moving ahead with my plan. I purchased a little 4 X 8 trailer I found on craiglist, fixed it up a little, got all my equpment in working repair, made flyers and business cards, and went to the bank to let them know my plans and start a business checking account.
With the kind of luck I have I will probably get a job offer now that I did all of this, LOL!
I don't know why I'm posting this except maybe hoping people will wish me luck and if anybody else is self-employed, advice. Maybe I'll take some pics of my ghetto trailer and lawnmower and stuff and post them later. I am actually going to do my first job on monday, basically cleaning up a pile of broken fence stuff and hauling the debris to the dump. But if that works out the homeowner said she had more stuff she needed done. :)
 
Jen, I sincerely wish you the best of luck and I hope you will do well being self employed. Its not easy (my mom opened up her own hair salon), but I truly believe you can do it!



Best Wishes,
Brian
 
Thanks Brian. I do know it's not easy, this is my second time around. Hopefully some of the lessons I learned the first time I did it will come in handy. But basically you don't run a business, the business runs you! The hardest part for me is doing estimates - I love working outside and horticulture but I really hate dickering with people on prices and trying to make them understand why it's so expensive. (The equipment runs on gas, the truck needs gas, there's always something breaking that costs money to fix.) And, just like breeding cornsnakes there's tons of other people out there doing the same thing to compete with so you have to try to give them reasons to do business with you instead. I am also female- which works both for me and against me. I have had some customers (in the last incarnation of my business) call and ask to speak with my husband and be completely amazed it's just me. Some people will think it's OK to have me plant flowers but think it should be a guy if it's something like fixing a broken sprinkler. Some people actually prefer women, but sometimes for the wrong reason.
I'm just lucky to have most all the stuff already to keep start up costs down. There are nights when I wake up in the middle of the night asking myself what the hell am I doing. There's no benefits unless you can afford your own medical insurance. Dental? Ha. Guess my crooked tooth will just have to stay crooked for a while...
But I am at peace with having come up with a plan and not just sitting around waiting to hear back about jobs. I am probably still going to try and find a part time job for a little extra security. And, I might have to sell a few snakes but I have to think hard about that and see how it goes in the first month or two. I am not broke but I'm getting kinda close and it's scary.
 
I would so hire you to do my yard and drain pipe if I wasnt several hundred miles away. I know that doesn't help...

My advice is to include a nice cover letter with your resume if you haven't been already. You have mad grammar skills so it should be easy to get yourself noticed compared to most other applicants. :spinner:

I hope things pick up for you.
 
:[ I'm very sorry to hear you are struggling financially, but it happens to the best of us. I understand the whole gender thing too, even though its kinda different in my case. I dye peoples hair for some extra money, and sometimes when discussing it with some of my 'clients' and their friends or some other people they will be like 'Oh, I don't trust him with my hair because he is a guy.' Same thing with my makeup artistry. I am a licensed certified MUA and some girls simply don't trust me doing their makeup because I'm a guy (and I do it 232 x better then them *blah*)

eh, I guess I cant really offer anything else but my good wishes.

I hope everything falls though for you. <3
 
LOL would you believe I think guys are better at doing hair? Cooking, too. Of course that's a gender stereotype which is wrong to have either way, but I'm just going by people I have met in my life. I'm old enough to remember the kindergarten books I learned to read on were like "boys can be doctors, girls can be nurses" and have spent my life rebelling against stuff like that. Nothing wrong with stay at home moms with mainicures who have a big strong guy do the heavy lifting, it's just so not me.
Checkerbelly, thanks for the compliment on my grammar. I do write cover letters, just maybe need to spend more time composing them. I am very good at fixing drainpipes! Last time I had the business going when it got too cold to do yards I bought a ladder and cleaned gutters on people's roofs. :)
 
Hey, I was just out collecting slugs and I had an idea. Do they do pressure washing up there? That would go along with your business well, I would think. Plus it's fun!
 
Jen, you I wish you luck. Nanci's idea of power washing is great. We had a truck going around last week asking people out doing yard work if they wanted power wash. I know we have a yard service in our park and they do well, they went to management left a card and talked to them, pretty soon all but one of the people who use yard service switched to them. Just ideas, me
 
I wish a pressure washing truck would pull up to our house!Althoug with a 51 year old house it may just downright eliminate parts of the house:flames:

I wish you the very best...
Huge kudos for taking charge and going for it...let us know how it's going...

for what it is worth, I took on our severely neglected lawn when we moved in about 3 years ago...we had more weeds than lawn, a piles of cement etc under our pine tree, decomposing fencing etc etc etc.
We had 3 'small time' people bid the work but none of them ever showed up! Frustrated I took it on...I was literally in tears and would have gladly handed over the checkbook to any competent person who would have taken the burden off my hands (not easy doing when 3 kids are in need of attention as well)...

If you are fair and follow through you are going to be ahead of the rest...even if you charge 10% more.
The guy we used to use for house repairs (retired now) I couldn't tackle...electricity etc...started charging a travel fee...
for example, his rate was $45/hour, each day he added on $45/travel fee.
BUT he ALWAYS made sure to have a full days work and would pro-rate if it was a half day etc. I never even questioned the fee, or looked elsewhere. He ALWAYS showed up, did his best, and was kind.

GO Jen!!!:dancer:
 
Thanks for all the good wishes ! I am psyched because I already have another estimate to go do and have checked the flyers I put up and a lot of people have taken the number.
Spent all day at the flea market today trying to sell some stuff and come up with some cash for this. I'd much rather sell "stuff" than my snake collection. I was looking around the booths to see if anybody had any tools, but by the time I made any money the good stuff was gone. Kind of like a herp show lol :)
 
shed'n my skin said:
LOL would you believe I think guys are better at doing hair? Cooking, too. Of course that's a gender stereotype which is wrong to have either way, but I'm just going by people I have met in my life. I'm old enough to remember the kindergarten books I learned to read on were like "boys can be doctors, girls can be nurses" and have spent my life rebelling against stuff like that. Nothing wrong with stay at home moms with mainicures who have a big strong guy do the heavy lifting, it's just so not me.
Checkerbelly, thanks for the compliment on my grammar. I do write cover letters, just maybe need to spend more time composing them. I am very good at fixing drainpipes! Last time I had the business going when it got too cold to do yards I bought a ladder and cleaned gutters on people's roofs. :)
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Me too, Jen. Best haircuts I've ever had were given by guys :) With the last one, I thought I had died and go to heaven he was so fantastic... then I found out that I was literally his last customer ever! After 25 years, he was retiring and opening a restaurant with a friend! Just my luck...sigh....


Plenty of well wishes going out here, Jen! I'm not going to send good luck, because I know you are going to get out there and show them just how good you are, woman!
 
JEN!. I been laid off work since November and my old boss e-mail saying he can't financially hire me back. I'm a carpenter with out a truck. So thats puts a spin on it to. I do get some by the hour work but haven't but in a full day yet. I been rejected by interviewers too. We're a dime a dozen now,the unemployed. Just doing estimates on a small job now. I'm going in low 'cause I hope to get more work from it. But it's scary. So I know where you been and where your at. I'll keep you in my prayers.
 
You gotta get a truck! Or at least something you can put lumber in.
My truck has probably paid for itself several times over. It looks so much nicer and newer than it really is. It needs brakes done kinda badly, alignment, probably tune up and timing chain. But if I didn't have Ol' Reliable I'd be in a world of trouble right now.
Scary as hell! But at the same time somehow I have more motivation to do jobs for myself than someone else getting the profit and me getting an hourly wage, if you know what I mean.
Yep, a dime a dozen. Oregon unemployment rate it pretty bad. The weird funny thing is suddenly this state matters in the democratic primaries- Hillary and Obama have both come to this town in the past couple of weeks. I guess right now no matter where you are the economy is the pits though. You just gotta do what you gotta do when there are no jobs.
 
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