Isle of Wight !!!

[sam171989]

Hi I'm planning on moving to the Isle of Wight as a self employed tiler what are people's opinions and are there any on here who is from Isle of Wight thanks

 

[bugs183]

Why not get your self a more permanant job on the Isle of Wight, then you are earning straight away, either with or tiler or something else.
I imagine it could be a hard market to break straight away as you won't have the density of people as you would on the mainland and especially like the Midlands. People will already know tilers and will recommend them first.
I see you want to go on a course to learn tiling, do the before you leave and then you can start small jobs at the weekend and gain experience.
Don't make the mistake of thinking 'everything will be ok', lots of very experienced tilers are finding it very hard at the moment and there are no signs of it getting any better for ages. You will have to work very hard and get some lucky breaks to earn decent money.

 

[Spud]

good luck with your move,there are some excellent tradesmen living on the isle of wight who struggle to get enough work on the island and have to work on the main land and channel islands to get by but dont let this put you off you may be lucky

 

[hotrod]

Hi sam
i have just joined the forum, I live on the isle of wight and am looking to start a 10 week tiling course soon with a view to starting up self employed. The island has a lot of drawbacks but a lot of overlooked advantages from the mainland but it is very much who you know and can take a long time to settle, we've been here 7 years and only just coming to terms with the different way of life from London. What is it that makes you want to move to the island ? In terms of employed vs self employed I can tell you the iow is officially now the most difficult place in the uk to find a job and has the highest proportion of self employed people vs population in the uk so you probably thinking on the fit lines. As an example a recent minimum wage job advertised at a holiday park has 180 people attend for an interview ! Without knowing you it would be impossible to say your chances of success but I have to be honest I'm pretty nervous about making a go of it and have a fair bit of capital behind me, lots of local contacts including a few builders and plumbers and have four or five jobs lined up to get me off (all very basic and being done for free) and away and build some confidence, so I think it would be wise for you to have a plan b to fall back on.
Anyway I wish you luck mate the island is a great place to live, I would never move back even with how tough the work situation is but have met a lot of people who can't adapt
anything else you want to ask feel free
Cheers

Rod

 

[sam171989]

Thanks for that rod so when you going self employed and how did you get your jobs just ringing up tradesmen thanks

 

[White Room]

Hi and welcome....

 

[Bubblecraft]

Hi & welcome to TF

 

[Ian]

Welcome along to TF

 

[hotrod]

Thanks for that rod so when you going self employed and how did you get your jobs just ringing up tradesmen thanks

Hoping to be up and running for sept mate, the jobs I have lined up are for friends family and a complete kitchen for the local rugby club (free of charge) to help them revamp their clubhouse, also have a few bits in my own home I can do to help nvq assessments like replacing a few broken tiles and doing a large conservatory floor, don't expect to be taking on paid work till late autumn at the earliest mate and the plan is to stick to straightforward pieces until I can be confident of doing a good finish, the island is a very small place mate and if you were to do a substandard job you'd be finished before getting going so thats why for me as I want to build a long term business I need to make sure I'm very careful about what I take on. I've got a plumber prepared to pass work on but don't want to run before I can walk so will make sure I can deliver it right before doing any work for him. The other thing I would say mate is the island is a very social place so once you are here the more you get involved in the easier time you will have finding work, I used to run the kids rugby team, play on a darts team and generally spend 4 nights a week in the boozer lol so have plenty of pops to network.
Like is said on pm anything you want to know about the island just ask, anything about tiling best to ask the people on this site by the looks of it there ain't much they don't know between them all !

 

[sam171989]

Hi rod how much capital you looking at for going self employed have you done any tiling work I've done a few for family

 

[hotrod]

Well got enough to pay for training and business set up then pay myself a wage for 12 months followed by half a wage for another 12 months, the alternative was to use it all to buy a franchise in something but not sure that's any safer in the current climate and doesn't leave anything to live off. Have done a fair bit of tiling over the years but only splash backs and half tiled bathrooms that sort of thing, and a kitchen floor, not enough to kid myself I'm anywhere near good enough yet, I've got loads of bits I can do for friends and family after training to build up confidence before charging anyone and am going in with the attitude that if I give it a year and don't realistically feel its got a future I can probs find another job in what I do now and chalk it up to experience, you had any joy finding any tilers down this way you could shadow ?

 

[sam171989]

No mate haven't found a tiler who is willing to take someone on and when I phone up and say I am moving to island and don't live there already they don't take me serious probably have you asked any tilers mate