Opinions Wanted

[Mrs Jotto]

Need to get general opinions from anyone on here that's self employed and/or runs a small business.

I'm self employed, currently doing office admin and parcel delivering. The office I work in will be relocating soon and as it's another 20 miles round the M25 I have declined to go with them.

I now need to get some more office admin type work but don't really want to be an employee again. I was thinking of sending out letters to small local businesses to see if they could use my services on an ad hoc basis, rather than them having to take on a full time or part time employee or doing it themselves.

If you received a letter like this in the post would you just ignore it or would you be pleased to have someone else take care of office admin for you?

Any thoughts or input, positive or negative, gratefully received.

Thanks

Jenny

[sledge]

all i can say is what have you got to lose, they can only say sorry no.

but i must admit being self empolyed is alot better than being employed as you can kind of choose when, where you want to work. but there are down sides as in no holiday or sick pay.

[joker??]

you may have to spend some cash on advertising ,local papers ,even yellow pages etc but to be honest its being at the right place at the right time
or even have some flyers printed all the best in your ventures

[Purpledoris]

Go for it and good luck - its something I have considered over the years - you could try approaching local builders etc and the colleges ( for thesis and dissertation typing) or just put ads in the paper!
Let us know how you get on

Lou

[AuldNick]

I used mailshot and it works, I get better results with local flyers but they might not work for you, deffo best value for money at the mo is the new style phone book it's a 3rd of the price of the yellow pages yet get 2-3 times more calls.

[da SLUG man]

companies might think you're an agency.

better off trying agency work on a self employed basis... (like wot i do)
then when you get a few contacts... you start poaching work off them!!...
you can pick and choose your work and as long as you're not a numbskull then they give you plenty of work (i'm different in real life!!).



forum matt = numbskull, nonsense talking, noggin

real matt = top of the class, hard working and a bit boring really

[DaveD]

Bit of both of the above.....try Sensible Matts suggestion for bread and butter work and the flyers to small businesses for a bit of jam. When I had the building business somebody like you would have been a godsend at VAT time and end of the year. Good Luck with it

[Mrs Jotto]

Thanks for the replies so far.

I started composing a letter last night but probably won't do anything with it until after Christmas as I also need to trawl through phone books and local papers for addresses etc.

Matt - Thanks for the suggestion but agencies for office supply staff don't use self-employed bods, they get a cut of whatever hourly rate they charge.

I thought that by just offering my office skills on an 'as you need it' basis it would help for year end and other vital returns such as VAT, as Dave said.

I will still be delivering parcels, the bread and butter, and hopefully something bigger will come out of this.

Will keep you posted.

Thanks again.

Jenny

[pops]

no disrespect to your old man (jotto) but maybe there are lots of small self employed guys and gals out there who would love someone of your talent Jen
but you will need to ADD Makes the Tea on the List of duties you do good luck