I'm pretty much in the same boat as you JimBob. I've done 4 paid for jobs now and got 5000 business cards on their way to me so will be pounding the streets posting them through doors over the next couple of weeks. I was on £37k with company car and got tired of being messed around at work by people with grand titles but blessed with few brains.
It's not easy. Your backside twitches like hell in your first jobs and you worry you are going to make a mistake but if you stick to the rules it always works out. There are some things I am not ready to do, like natural stone (until I have more experience) but last week laid a porcelain floor and ceramics on the walls over 30 sq meters. The walls were 3.8m tall so standing at the top of the ladder I had some scary moments where I wondered what heck I was playing at but once I had polished the dust off on my final day of grouting I felt like I had done a good job and that the money I quoted was rightfully mine.
I think you will surprise yourself and earn more than you expect. Certainly my business plan said £400 a week for the 1st 6 weeks but that's easily surpassed already on these 4 jobs. Guys like Gaz at Topps Tiles and the others are ultra supportive so just go for it.
Don't think though, that you will leave all the rubbish behind you at work because customers clock watch, check up on you every 5 minutes and generally annoy the heck out of you while you're sweating trying to do the best job you can for them but in time I think that feeling will go for me just like it probably did for all the experienced fellas ( and ladies) on this site.
Thanks to the originators of this site for helping us newbies out! Banked my 4th cheque today thanks to you guys!
