Plan B

[Mich the Tester]

If you wait until you're nearly out of money before starting plan B, you'll almost certainly not get it done in time and will still rely on getting work. Plus you'll be nervous to spend money on it which might make it suck.

Good points too; I'll need to make some investments in equipment and advertising, and right now I have the money to do that.

[darmstadt]

Good point; I did a couple of jobs for customers last year but then passed them onto a friend when I got a big juicy IT contract. I love it, am qualified, and I've realised I'm pretty good at motivating people to get fit and lose a few pounds; the customers I had were directors of medium sized businesses who wanted to get rid of the extra pounds and they were very positive. I have one big advantage in that I've performed at a good standard in different sports and look pretty fit, so they take me seriously. It's just a bloody big step to do it full time and I know it won;t pay as well as a good IT contract, but it's better than sitting on the bench!

You'd also need to get a new name, i.e. Lycra Mitch (he he)

[Mich the Tester]

You'd also need to get a new name, i.e. Lycra Mitch (he he)

I'm chunkier than 'im. He's a little weed

[alreadypacked]

Good points too; I'll need to make some investments in equipment and advertising, and right now I have the money to do that.

I had an uncle who was a golf teacher in NL, his invoices said business English lessons.

[Mich the Tester]

I had an uncle who was a golf teacher in NL, his invoices said business English lessons.

That's silly; he could have got all his golf kit VAT and income tax free if he'd billed for golf lessons.

[VirtualMonkey]

What does everyone have as their plan B then?
I've always wanted to open an indoor climbing wall but as many have said already, it's a full time job with enormous startup costs and not one I can dump plan A for yet

[Lockhouse]

I've got a plan B, C, D etc. Some of them are more likely than others. The important thing is to have a goal. My goal is simply doing what I want to do instead of what I have to do.

[Mich the Tester]

What does everyone have as their plan B then?
I've always wanted to open an indoor climbing wall but as many have said already, it's a full time job with enormous startup costs and not one I can dump plan A for yet

I'm qualified as a personal fitness trainer. I've done a few jobs for private customers and enjoy it, but it's not something where you can earn the money of a good IT contract. Can be very good fun though; the best markets are rich fat people or sportspeople with state/lottery funding. The first group you find through your business network, the second can only really be reached if you have quite high level experience and lots of contacts in a particular sport.

Startup costs for kit are not too high; you need some basic equipment but not a great deal, but you do need to put time into making training plans for people; I'm looking into getting software for making standard plans for each kind of customer that can then be customised. But then you have the costs of marketing too, and you need regular updates to your own qualifications. You also have to make time to keep yourself fit as nobody wants to take lessons from some fat stinking burger-chomper.

[Old Hack]

I think it's been mentioned here, but soft play is a gold mine, with large start up costs. The amount of rain in the West Country means kids have to have an outlet, and there are not that many. Very tempted to kick one off this year, but it's 7 days a week, and hard yakka (have you been to one?).

The real money though, is with the food and coffee sales you make incidently.

Wife is building a business plan at the moment.

[Mich the Tester]

I think it's been mentioned here, but soft play is a gold mine, with large start up costs. The amount of rain in the West Country means kids have to have an outlet, and there are not that many. Very tempted to kick one off this year, but it's 7 days a week, and hard yakka (have you been to one?).

The real money though, is with the food and coffee sales you make incidently.

Wife is building a business plan at the moment.

It's not necessarily about making loads of dosh; I think the financial side of contracting has gone downhill in NL, and with the big purchasing oligopoly with a few big agents on preferred supplier lists I can't see it going upwards. So for me it's more about earning a respectable living doing something I'm enthousiastic about. I'm actually very enthousiastic about testing, but frankly the bureaucratic cack and top down 'best practice' process control of many corporates just gets in the way of doing it properly, so the fun is lost, and if the finances don't compensate for that then I have to ask whether I want to continue. Agile projects in e-commerce environments can be great fun, but the uptake of Agile here in NL among the big clientcos is still very disappointing, and the smaller clientcos don't seem to want to pay much.