This page is little more than a dump of the contents of my brain regarding working for myself. I've tried working for myself once and really enjoyed it and I think it's about time that I did it again. The problem I am having though is deciding exactly what it is I should do. I say I but if possible I would like to include my partner Fraggle in any venture as I think she would really enjoy it in the long run. I've been searching the business selling sites trying to get ideas for businesses. Ideally I would like to set up a business from scratch but I am not adverse to buying a going concern. The problem with a going concern is that I don't want any of the businesses I can afford - well, none of the ones that I have found.

I'm also, thankfully, not averse to working very hard to make my / our business a success. I learnt when I ran my furst business that hard work is a must but it can also be fun if you are doing something you enjoy. Unfortunatly with that first business I was doing something that I only partially enjoyed and that wasn't terribly profitable. Many of the businesses for sale are talking about 30%+ profit margins where as the business I was running was lucky to get 10% on average (there were a few big wins but not many).

I really enjoy working with my hands and I am pretty good with wood. I'm the best woodworker that I know but I also know that in the scheme of things I am only ok. The down side of working with your hands is that you don't earn much unless you are extremely good and, while I can dream, I think I have left it to late to be extremely good. I'm a pretty good software developer especially in the web space but I don't really want to be a desk jockey any more. I've had my fill of sitting staring at computer screens all day. There must be something more to life than that. I've got a good chemistry qualification that is getting a bit out of date now but there isn't that much scope for setting up chemical businesses.

As you can probably see I'm a bit stuck for ideas. Everytime I come up with an idea I come up with about 50 ways in which is won't work. From experience I know that a good part of being succesful with a business is just getting on and doing it and I curse myself for dithering but I wan't to get on and do the right thing. By right thing I mean the thing that I am going to enjoy if not for the rest of my working life at least for a good portion of it. Perhaps I am looking for a dream job that doesn't exist but if that is the case than perhaps I am better of sticking to what I am doing now which is paying me enough that I don't ever need to worry about being poor.

I quite fancy the idea of running a hotel or other such holiday accomodation. The gite idea has been done to death and by all accounts it is nearly impossible to make money at it any more but I think there might be some money in hotels still. The problem with this idea though is that I don't have the faintest idea how to run a hotel and I wouldn't want to do it in the UK anyway. France would be nice but we would go down like a lead balloon there. I quite enjoy teaching and I have the skill to teach many aspects of software development but again that means being in the software development world and I'm not keen on that.

One of the businesses for sale I found was a sign maker. The idea caught in my imagination and is certainly something I could do but I'm concerned that I don't fully understand what is involved and there isn't much money in it. Many signs are also rather easy to make on an automated router which means that they can be produced for next to nothing. Bulk production is not really where I want to be if I am working with wood.

I've toyed with the idea of cabinet making but that requires a substantial workshop and I would need to aprentice with a cabinet maker first to get good enough. I think I'm getting a little old to be taking on an apprenticeship now however much I would like the resultant work.

As you can see I am full of ideas but none of them seem to work. I've been wracking my brains for months now and I don't seem to have moved forward at all. If anyone has got any ideas as to what I could do I would be very interested to hear them.