Entrepreneurs

My husband set up as a one man band offering to do odd jobs and never once had a no payer because he never ripped anyone off, fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay. His older clients always appreciated that he would advise when they actually never needed a job doing when a simple fix would suffice.

He officially retired 5years ago but carried on until his last old dear (and I mean that so kindly) died a few months ago and he was invited to her private funeral service along with her gardener.

So many people are happy to pay for good service so go ahead and offer that.

I started running classes, teaching a skill to adults. I had to invest in equipment and was very glad I did not skimp on what I needed.

Thanks for the replies @ilovecheese and @Pantglas2! It would be great to hear how you marketed these services please?

Do you have a particular skill or hobby harry? My DH sold his business when he 'retired' but started another one the next day. Both his current and previous businesses started from a specific niche.
Marketing wasn't really necessary as he was already known to his potential customers.

I marketed my classes by putting an advert in a booklet that is published locally every month, not exactly a local newspaper, but a few articles of local interest and lots of adverts for local services. After I had been running the classes for a while this publication wrote an article about us, with photographs, which was good publicity. Perhaps you have something similar in your area.
I designed and printed flyers which we distributed in local cafes and bars, and shops.
My classes were craft based so I also put up posters in local craft shops.
My husband rigged up a board on our gatepost, where I displayed a poster (this was surprisingly effective)

I bet word of mouth helped too
Ilovecheese! Personal recommendation counts for a lot.

I agree on the word of mouth - it was the only advertising my DH needed.

Also don’t forget that any weekly earnings over £240 will be taxable (£12500pa 2019-20) so put away 20% of any income over that amount into a savings account so that you don’t have a shock at the end of the year.

Thanks for the additional messages, and the heads up @Pantglas!

@ilovecheese - were you scared of the financial risk of this? I wonder how much I'd have to invest to do this?

I'd also be super interested to learn what type of craft classes you taught!