An experience to share with you....

I'm back after an absence of about 3 months and it is nice to be back nosing through some of the threads and pictures

My reason for leaving the site was to concentrate on becoming self-employed. This venture was forced upon me by virtue of the financial misfortune my previous employer experienced. Not a nice thing to happen to anyone I assure you. Redundancy followed so there was a choice I had to make.

Quite a lot of soul searching went on from December to January and the decision was to take the plunge. Despite reservations, being scared (never been unemployed since I was 14 years old) and delving in to the unknown I have come out of the other end much better for it.

I have attended numerous FREE HMRC (tax people) courses to learn about being self employed (I recommend anyone going on them as they are informative and enlightening) I have attended a FREE course run by Company's House in London to learn how to be a successful Director and earn lots of money too. I have searched the web, picked everyone's brains about the task ahead and what I should do. My cousin built me a website, a friend helped with business cards and folk on here have also offered me help (thank you - you know who you are).

I am happy to pass on any knowledge should anyone also be thinking of setting up alone.

My website is arbor-eco.co.uk and is in its infant stage if anyone has any constructive remarks to make.

Again thanks and those venturing out - good luck!

welcome back me old mucka, nice post.

I hope it all works out well for you. One thing to remember about running your own business is that you are learning every day. Learning the skills of the job is easy, learning to be a businessman is hard. Well done on making the effort to learn that side of the job. Be prepared for a few eye opening experiences though...

Well done mate, I have recently done the same thing, hope it all works out for you!

Hey that is very true Tom, I have a few 'experiences' already!! I will be on my guard for sure...

Just spent five minutes nosing through your site, very impressive

Hi,

Hope it all works out, just looked at the source of your website, nice layout but could do with some meta tags in the head section.

N

Hi there this is my first post on arb talk so i feel ashamed writing about something other than tree's lol, but I used to design sites for a living so could give you a few pointers.

As above about the meta tags also you could do with adding a message box aswell as an email address on the last page If you need to know how to do this give me a shout (PM) I could talk you through it or failing that I could set you up on a better site..Search for joomla thats the best sort of site for you no real html knowledege needed.

Hope this helps

Thanks for the help ref the website folks. My cousin built this for me in a hurry so it is embryonic. I'd be happy to take any constructive criticism from you. uuurg what is a Meta tag? I will add it to my list of things he needs to sort for me.

Is a message box another way of sending me mail or is it like a blog for testimonials? I fancy a testimonial page.

You fire away kitnskye - this is tree related....I am an Arb consultant

So is there a difference between being self-employed and starting your own business?

I'm currently in a temporary arboriculturalist post in Edinburgh - enjoying it, but well aware that the end of contract creeps closer each day. What are the options when it ends if work is too hard to find?