Self employment and dyspraxia.

Discussions relating to jobs and working, including finding work, interviews, the work place etc.

Moderator: Moderator Team

Post Reply
Martyn89
New member - welcome them!
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat Aug 10, 2013 12:06 pm

Self employment and dyspraxia.

Post by Martyn89 »

Just out of interest.

Graduating from university in 2010 after studying my BA hons in 3D contemporary crafts, I have been trying to get around to starting my own recycled and reclaimed furniture business MADweld creative... but im changing that to possibly Waste "NOT" creative, or Morphosys recycled furniture and sculpture, but im open to any interesting names.

Please have a look at my online portfolios www.madweldcreative.moonfruit.com and https://en-gb.facebook.com/pages/Madwel ... 2146096611

Just out of curiosity.. is there any dyspraxic self employed people out there, or is anyone currently planning on becoming self employed?
AlleyCat
Power poster
Posts: 293
Joined: Thu Jul 28, 2011 6:07 pm

Re: Self employment and dyspraxia.

Post by AlleyCat »

I had a go at private music teaching (mainly violin) but that turned out not to be a viable way of earning a living because I couldn't get enough pupils, and too many of the ones I had took the piddle! In hindsight I should have had a set of agreed terms and conditions from the outset, which I should have got all my pupils (or in a lot of cases pupils' parents) to sign saying that they would agree to pay for at least a certain number of lessons a term, and that they would pay for any lessons they cancelled at short notice. Because I didn't have this, too many people cancelled too many lessons, often on the day for quite rubbish reasons such as they hadn't got themselves organised. As far as your furniture business is concerned, you will need to have some way of preventing clients taking the mick- probably the best way to do this is to take a reasonable deposit for an item. If you do not do this, a client could turn round once you've made the item and say they can't afford it after all!
Martyn89
New member - welcome them!
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat Aug 10, 2013 12:06 pm

Re: Self employment and dyspraxia.

Post by Martyn89 »

Ouch that sounds a right nightmare.. how much would you be charging for lessons?
I exactly know what you mean there as it would depends on how much im selling the furniture for, how much time iv spent on it.. cost and labour.. and all that jazz.
I have a friend who I studied with during my BA that went off and started up his own chainsaw carving business and to be fair hes done well for himself.
AlleyCat
Power poster
Posts: 293
Joined: Thu Jul 28, 2011 6:07 pm

Re: Self employment and dyspraxia.

Post by AlleyCat »

I was charging £26 an hour, although most people had half hour lessons. That might seem a lot, but it's not uncommon for some teachers (particularly those in the London area) to be charging £50 an hour plus! You might have looked into this already, but it might be a source of funding to help you get started:

http://www.princes-trust.org.uk/about_t ... ramme.aspx
Martyn89
New member - welcome them!
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat Aug 10, 2013 12:06 pm

Re: Self employment and dyspraxia.

Post by Martyn89 »

Oh yeah iv been considering looking more into the princes trust, but I think ill do that once i have built up a reputation and im getting quite a bit of interest just to be safe than sorry.
Iv come up with a bit of an idea but not sure what everyone would think of this... what about some furniture or sculpture on behalf of a dyspraxia foundataion/forum like this one? would love to hear some ideas.
Rebecca_chelt
New member - welcome them!
Posts: 9
Joined: Fri Aug 02, 2013 10:12 pm
Location: Cheltenham

Re: Self employment and dyspraxia.

Post by Rebecca_chelt »

Awesome work, I really love the idea of furniture out of scaffolding, or anything old and industrial looking. I saw this amazing collection of furniture that was reclaimed from an old Michelin factory, set for the scrap until someone gave it a bit of a brush and made a small fortune with it. Really like the handle bar candle stick too! x
AlleyCat
Power poster
Posts: 293
Joined: Thu Jul 28, 2011 6:07 pm

Re: Self employment and dyspraxia.

Post by AlleyCat »

Iv come up with a bit of an idea but not sure what everyone would think of this... what about some furniture or sculpture on behalf of a dyspraxia foundataion/forum like this one? would love to hear some ideas.
I'm assuming that if you were creating pieces on behalf of a charity such as the Dyspraxia Foundation, that you would be donating a certain percentage of the sale of an item to the charity? Whilst that's commendable, you need to make sure that you can meet your own costs first. Donating a certain percentage from each sale to a charity could encourage people to buy from you, but you need to be careful about when you decide to do this.
Post Reply