Prepping for future unemployment. and future work.

[DustyDog]

Ok, for the first time in many years i face possible unemployment, the hotel i work for is up for sale and so i could be losing my job. So thanks to my ongoing food preps, i'm not going to go hungry etc and with prepping the house will continue to run etc, being a chef, i have done my share of working split shifts, starting at 7.45 in the morning and finally going home at 10 at night with a few hours in the afternoon, heading towards being 50 years old, i think i'm getting a bit to old for that, it's a young mans job.

So, bearing in mind that i live in a small rural town, where you are 20 miles from the nearest 'bigger' town, what would you do???, me and Mrs DD started thinking of what we could do as self employed people in our small town and have come up with sod all there are plenty of pubs, cafes, take aways, off licences, the usual shops, so can my fellow preppers give ideas of what me and Mrs or just me (Mrs DD still in safe-ish job) could do to earn a living, i'm not greedy, so not looking at being a £100.000 a year tycoon, jus any ideas that maybe we have not thought of. A bit of a daft question to ask really as i know there are so many variables, what skills i have etc, but you never know, there could be a "why didnt i think of that" moment.. Just a thought.

[Arzosah]

Sorry to hear of the uncertain times, DD ... you mention all the eateries locally - I presume you don't want to try for cheffing jobs in them?

A couple of things spring to mind ... if you have an online shop, it doesn't matter where you are. What about an online shop selling cooking equipment, with specialised commentary thanks to your years of experience? Food delivery - the sort that Marks and Spencer do, where they deliver canapes etc for parties? If you want to break away from food, I'm forever hearing (in the south of England, anyway) about ambulance services opening their doors to new applicants - the private firms sound really tough to work for, the NHS much better. Back to food, what about a small scale supplier of high-end ingredients? Its an income stream, I suppose, not a full time job - but two lads I've seen at eco technology shows have made a career of mushrooms, fed by ground coffee leavings they sell kits, which you could do too check out their website http://espressomushroom.co.uk/

HTH

[Hillbilly]

Back yard plant nursery (this is my dream)?
Cookery school? Online (like on youtube) if you don't have a big kitchen or offline is you have the space.

[diamond lil]

My friend started a new career by running a B&B and selling cakes on a market stall, then found a whole new set of customers when she branched into gluten free baking. I hope something comes up soon for you, and you get back into work soon.

[jansman]

Wow! Tough call. I was in your situation 2 years ago. Long term job, then gone! I knew it was coming and prepared for it. It still hit hard though. You say the hotel is for sale. You may well be TUPE'd over to new employers. You should get redundancy money if not. Citizens Advice will help ( perhaps you are in a Union?, and they are the best for advice).

Currently Lady Jansman is on notice for redundancy. Not good.

So what do you do? Well the first thing is if it happens,SIGN ON! Do not hesitate. You may be unable to claim immediately, but you will get NI contribution credits. My old firm went insolvent, so to qualify for my notice payments I had to claim benefits, as it was deducted automatically from the total.
Keep fit and keep busy. This is important. A fit body is a fit mind. And the mind needs a purpose. Get up at a regular time, search for jobs in the morning. Indeed this becomes your job. Have lunch, and go and do something constructive. If your wife is working, you take more control of household chores. Yes , yes it sounds sexist. Most women run their own houses.I do not run mine!

Draw up a budget. Do this now. And I mean now. Get your CV sorted. Now. Get signed up to job websites now. Start getting e mail alerts from them. Now. Get a feel for what is out there. Do you have contacts in your line of work? If you do, start talking to them. Networking is the best for getting jobs. You need to get the mindset.

Regarding business opportunity. Look at your skills. What are your hobbies? Can you turn it into cash.

My own situation is such that I now work part to 3/4 time in my chosen trade, and have a bicycle repair business as a back up. Bikes have always been my passion. So has fishing. I now build rods too. These were both hobbies.

I hope this gives you some ideas. Remember though, you are now in Survival Mode.

[DustyDog]

Thanks to all your replies, i'm guessing how long it could be before i'm out, 3 months, 3 years, no one knows, i do know that i do not want to be cheffing anymore, i'm sick of the split shifts, no social life, never see the Mrs etc, so i'm looking to get away from that, i will sign on straight away, but my post was to just to see what ideas or what other members of the forum had maybe thought of or had done during their own periods of unemployment. It may be that I have to stay in catering for a while after, as I have said I don't want to but...

My one thing that could be turned into work is a no go, I love logging, chainsaw wood an splitting it, but there are to man doing it in the area and they have the heavy equipment that I don't. As said, it could be several years or weeks away.

Thanks for all your support and ideas.

[valderee]

Its good that youre aware of the future job loss, so aware to plan. You say you don't want to carry on with the cheffing anymore but once its not there you may miss it. So if you are thinking of becoming self employed, maybe your experience in food would be something to think of to do. You can work your own hours, and if you've a van, what about food delivery, incuding eg, special dietary packed lunches and sandwiches, buns, etc, you can get the tubs to do salads in etc, I know you would probably need a van, but you might be able to get help with the cost of it going self employed. Its something you could look into, go around business places to see if theres a market for that sort of thing, a lot of people sometimes just haven't time to make a packed lunch themselves and end up with just coffee and a chocolate bar so might welcome someone selling packed lunches. Hours would be early start but you could be finished for late afternoon time. Just a thought for you.

[DustyDog]

Lots to think about, part of my problem is where i live, it is very rural, but i have got time and a quick look today showed plenty of basic kitchen jobs (not chef) so there is always that as a stop gap. Again thanks for all your comments. cc

[nickdutch]

Get a series of cooking shows done on youtube anyway even though that wont be a major earner. Write a cook book and get that on lulu.com. Advertise it through your youtube channel. It can be a kindle, ebook, paperback etc.

Use a live advice system like liveperson.com/experts and give advice on foods maybe, live to young people who are just getting thewir head around real food for a change.

create a space in secondlife.com if you can afford it, and see if you can get your head around the programming to make an entertainment space (food based) with saleable information.

maybe even a freelancer website such as elance (or a similar one for the catering trade) will have some way of using your talents.

These things wont replace your previous good income, but might go some way to help out giving you some cash in the meantime while you sort out the bigger option. Or maybe it will become the real thing?

I mention live advice because I make my living as an online and telephone tarot reader. Its a small income, but i dont have to commute anywhere to do it.

[grenfell]

I can't offer much in the way of advice about future work other than to look at what you're good at and enjoy doing and try to expand that into a career.
I was made redundant four years ago and am now self employed. I was in the building trade , restoration to be exact , and have now morphed into a simple handyman. I had always had one eye on a possible downturn and so had made provisions throughout my working life so the actual impact , whilst a shock , wasn't as bad as it may have been. One aspect of the redundancy , however , did leave a nasty taste and left me somewhat cynical . The firm I was employed by became insolvent and we went to work as normal in the morning , went out to the job , told to pack our tools and go back to the yard a little under two hours later , given a form to fill in and sent home. I rolled in at home around twelve o'clock. Because of the insolvency the government paid our redundancy albeit capped at £400 for each week. That was paid quickly but what wasn't explained was the severance pay. Due to length of service I was entitled to twelve weeks paid at the end of that period . That too was capped at £400 per week. However , what was not made clear at the time was that any dole money I claimed ended up being taken out of the severance pay and worse still because I had started a new job within the twelve weeks I lost £400 for each week I worked , so in effect I worked for virtually nothing ( for about six weeks in my case) . I would have been just as well to sit on my arse for those six weeks.
After a second redundancy six months later I then started with the new enterprise scheme which involves putting a business plan together which if accepted results in a payment of £66 per week for three months followed by a further three months at £33 per week to allow you to "ease " into self employment.