Backup home-based work plan

[Triple_sod]

After dropping out of uni I was 'on mi arse', ended up getting set on at a supermarket stacking shelves 10PM-6AM (£8.53 an hour.....) I din't want to make a career of it though, figured I'd do it for a year or two then go back to college or even uni, 'get a propper job'. With how things are looking though I don't think thats the way for me to go. I reckon I'd be better stacking shelves or something 2 nights a week, then having a few things going on the side.

The going rate for mowing a lawn around here is about £20, then there are all the other little gardening jobs that come with it. I know a bloke who makes a living doing that all summer.

Also thought about selling seedlings on the market, especially heirloom chillies and tomatoes, the ones in places like wilkinsons are about £1.40, always generic varieties and the plants often look more dead than alive.

Been looking into taxidermy too, not to everones taste but from the prices they're asking for pieces online, they're must be money in it.

[the-gnole]

It has been interesting reading through this thread, the original question involved two parts

Do you have a backup plan in case your job goes (if it hasn't already!)

or an idea of how you could earn money if/when the economy goes 'POP'?

Most of the answers seem to be around part one, but few around part two, which in a fair few cases are likely to lead to part one.

When people start loosing their jobs because of part two they are unlikely to have any money to spend on anything apart from the basics.

If people are losing their jobs then those around them start to tighten the reigns just in case they are the next to be out of work, as such they will be cutting back on the stuff they used to pay others to do, they will mow their own lawns, they will dig their own gardens, they will do their own laundry, are they really going to be wanting a hand drawn picture of the family nicely framed.

It is going to be a case of folks really cutting back on the amount places they spend that "spare" cash they used to have.

With the public sector having only had 6% off the cuts planned it is going to be a pretty rocky ride for those people and the knock on effect for that is also enormous.

Cuts are hitting people and communities everywhere in almost every aspect of life, just wait till they really start to bite.

[triffid]

Don't they say that its a recession when your neighbour looses his job..... but a depression when you loose yours!


I suppose it all depends on how bad 'it' is?
I think the secret is tobe flexible in your outlook. Our modern society is 'specialist' - I was an accountant by trade but what good would those skills do me if something big happened? - to survive and prosper you need to be able to adapt to what ever happens. The adage 'Jack of all trades; master of none' is fine in the modern economy but probably a bit narrow in a more basic society. The much derided 'Jack of all trades' is more likely to survive than an accountant, web designer or whatever.

Personally I think if you can grow your own basic food this is a first step - assuming you have the land & facilities. In addition any surplus can be traded.
It's worth considering whats called 'adding value' to whatever you grow, (or whatever your skill is). Put it like this: If you grow a potato it will 'sell ' for say 10p straight from the ground. If you wash it & wrap it in cellaphane with a label saying 'baking poato' it will sell for say 60p. If you chop it & fry it, a portion of chips is worth say £2. But that same potato if finely sliced & fried would sell for a fiver if marketed as 'hand cooked, home made fries'.
So grow / make something cheap & easy but something that can be 'bigged up' as a luxury if conditions so allow.

[hobo]

Spot on, gnoley. Thanks.

[diamond lil]

Haven't I been saying this for 900 years? Does anybody listen to me at all??
I said people who can turn their hand to anything- ditching, fencing, dyking, digging, mole-catching, rabbit catching, felling trees/chopping logs, clipping sheep/dipping sheep, minor building work, minor welding, mechanical repairs... (and inhale!) - these are the people who will get by! Learn now!

[TwoDo]

After reading this thread - here is a summary (as I see it).

1) Set up multiple sources of income even if you have a good job now. You need resiliance. You need fall back positions.

2) Ruthlessly control the costs in your income streams. Make one penny do the work of two.

3) Take only known "above the waterline" risks when setting up an income stream. These are risks that you can recover from if the anticipated results do not happen.

4) Don't value your time or labour too highly. Human labour is not scarce and you may have to get used to busting your hump for very little - just like it was in the old days.

5) Do a good job - give good value. You will need word of mouth advertising (its all you can afford with your strict cost controls) and with so many people looking to turn over a coin or two you must be super competitive.

6) Try to set up a community of the like minded. As has been demonstrated in other threads these people will not necessarily be your relatives.

7)

anybody got any more.....

[the-gnole]

Try and get it so it is labour only and short time expense, take on jobs of a few hours, and try and get some cash up-front for longer jobs as a day without pay is money lost, try and do one day jobs only, less if possible.

Minimal outlay for maximum income is going to be important in a market where money is tight for everyone.

[decoy111]

I guess my backup plan is to work as anything, I know a lot of people consider some jobs to be degrading, but I consider unemployment degrading over being a cleaner. We currently live in a flat, so growing food is not a option.
I'v got college/uni qualifications in forestry/ tree surgary, NVQ's in housing, and soon my doormans course, so anything I can turn my hand at to generate income is my security.

I think if the situation was bad, landowners would be all over protecting there land, and rather then drug use, police might be proactive against 'community poachers'. Somthing to bear in mind if you dont have land. My grandad used to poach back in the 40/50/60s but that was to feed his family, even when he was a gamekeeper LOL

[decoy111]

I would be out with the rifles and other kit getting small game to sell to anyone who had the cash, we have butchers shops that buy in locally shot rabbits etc.

The biggest problem that will be faced is that if it is due to financial restraints or similar then if no one has the money to buy anything much more than food then they are unlikely to be spending on other things.

It is finding what people will need rather than want, and that they can afford and cost the supplier of such things as little as possible to do.

Can you supply pelts? I'v had a fetish for getting pelts from a cow or deer for my partner to make into a smock ever since I watched 'the snow walker' 3 days ago

[the-gnole]

I only take rabbits for the pot at the moment, and field dress everything, all waste gets put out for the scavengers, I'm not that fussy with the pelts as it is usually still attached to either the head or the tail as I skin from the centre of the back to front and back.

If I ever take to the butchers they insist on it being gutted and pelt still attached, so unfortunately no pelts