Honest advice required

[Overlay]

Find a Part time job that will bring in a few shillings to pay your way and allow you to be with the family and over the next year. And not use up your nest egg, Prepare and plan your next move, it will give you a chance to clear the ground to start again. And earn some dollar

whatever you decide to do. Chickens or deer. Preparation is the key, you wont pull in all the stalking you need to make a living in a year and the chickens will take up all your time.

When I started up, going self employed was like a never go there thing, one week I put £70 of fuel in the Landrover, worked 80 hours and took twenty quid in a week, it can only get better. If you plan it you can work it.

Good luck on whatever you decide


ATB

Phil

 

[Klenchblaize]

Having re-read my first post it could have been a little less cruel so apologies for that.

Your last sentence in reply is telling and I suspect of no little familiarity to many on the site but I do believe you need to be a very selfish person indeed to follow the path of personal fulfilment to the detriment of the self imposed responsability of a wife and child.

Have you produced a Business Plan for the client stalking option?

Cheers

K

 

[widows son]

Stop kidding yourself ,unless you can bare with let downs from people, lean areas with deer getting shot out ,the wife moaning at you, you moaning at her get a employed job .

Stalking work isn't all it is cut out to be ,there isn't the cash in it for starters once you've paid out leases, transportation cost ,insurances, larders etc

By all means dip your toe in and have a look you'll see it isn't what you think it is ,try summer morning after morning with a different client at 0230 and they arrive 2 hours late, or don't turn up at all excuse after excuse on the phone but they don't get you your money .

Think well and hard .

 

[Taff]

full time keepering or stalking or even chicken farming, is not all itscracked out to be, it's a way of life not a job, long hours, 20yrs ago, go for the stalking, now buyin leases in Dorset with lots of deer is going to cost you a fortune, you know who the opposition is in your area, and you will have to outbid them, and when you start doing that, they will come after your ground. if you think you can afford a au pair, save the money look after the kids yourself and go part time on the stalking, giving your kids time is the most important thing you can give them, you cn always earn money.

 

[unlacedgecko]

Whatever is going to bring in the cash to allow you to provide for your children.

I am in a similar position. I am mid-way through retraining prior to entering the agricultural sector. However, the news that my mrs is pregnant is making me reconsider this course of action. It is looking increasingly likely that I will at least delay for a few years in order to be a full time HGV driver. Not my ideal job, certainly not what I dreamed of doing when I was younger, but needs must.

 

[Uncle Norm]

Multi-criteria decision-making is never easy, especially when emotional aspects are added to the mix.

You may find this simple but effective decision-making tool helpful.

It is old fashioned but has helped me on numerous occasions. It is called a SWOT analysis. S=strengths, W=weaknesses, O=opportunities and T=threats.

Get a piece of A4 paper and draw a cross on it to create four equal quarters, put one of the words into each quarter, then apply it to each aspect of your situation that you can think of. In your situation you will probably need several sheets of paper. Ask your wife to be involved so you get her perspective too. A wife and mother may see things very differently and doing this together can be quite illuminating. The outcome may be surprizing too.

Give it a try and I hope it helps to organise your thoughts and enable objective decisions. With best wishes.

 

[Cyres]

Difficult decision, SWOT is what i would do but needs a while to complete.

As a divorced Dad with 5 kids 18-8 I have some handle on the situation, I used to work away long hours and only home at weekends and competing factors of wife, kids, sporting intrests and 0.5 acre of garden, not really a suprise that divorce occured.

Kids grow up really fast, however I feel that in early years mum is more important but as they get older dad's role is more prevelant. My kids now want to be with dad to do things that mum wont let them do ie go shooting, fishing have bonfires, climb up and cut down trees. Dad now acts as ghillie both fishing and shooting. Huge satisfaction in helping kids catch fish or shoot their first live quarry.

Chicken buisnees: well if its eggs could be difficult, best friend is a free range egg producer, full on job with lots off stress but at least they live on the farm. Difficult financial situation at present, egg market quite volatile.

If you are being employeed by a big commercial player then may be more secure.

You may be happier stalking but at what cost to your familly life, it could cost you everything, prehaps something to do when the kids are a bit bigger?

I was sent to boarding school and hated it however it was the only way to get me to study so eventually paid dividends, so a good education for the kids is an important consideration.

I expect you might take a few months to come to a decision.

D

 

[snowy]

No brainer really buy a new rifle in the calibre of your choice loads of new kit including top of the range rangefinding bino's and run off with the au pair .

 

[TerryC]

Like others who reach a certain age myself included you get to a stage where you think time is going by and you are being left behind, some people buy a Harley or get a younger partner others start new ventures and follow the dream.
I don't know your personal experience but I will say that stalking for a living is a labour of love and a way of life and if this isn't borne in mind by many people who think that it is a good earner and a way of getting some shooting. As a full time stalker I rarely shoot myself as every deer I take is one less to sell to clients also there is no free shooting as you pay in some way or another for each outing even if its your petrol. I also have a young family and for weeks on end I don't see them or my wife and your relationship must be strong to survive that.
Also take into account the stress of no deer with demanding clients, bad weather, the chances of illness impacting on your abilities to stalk, vehicle breakdowns and the difficulty of finding leases and the rose coloured hue of being a 'professional' tends to fade.
Whatever your decision I wish you the best and if I can assist in any way please feel free to contact me.
Regards Terry

 

[R8 user]

Work out how much money you comfortably need and try to see how much stalking you need to do to make that. Leases are going for top dollar and I know your well connected but there hard to find and cost a lot.
For a stalker I think the biggest earners are Roe, Muntjac and Chinks. The demand is very high and if you can constantly produce quality animals sustainably and you are not paying stupid money then I think you'll be ok.

A lot of people have tried and failed.

Me... I'd get a job part time doing something you like that pay ok as well as your wife working and do some semi pro part time stalking.

 

[Cut+Squirt]

Let's consider the most important thing first .. the Swedish au pair .. once you have sorted her out I think things will be clearer in your mind. on a serious note ..Mrs and kids come first. Good luck.

 

[Labrat]

A lot of people have tried and failed.

Me... I'd get a job part time doing something you like that pay ok as well as your wife working and do some semi pro part time stalking.

I think thats the best solution too

And remember the words of the Butthole Surfers in Sweat Loaf

"Daddy?"
"Yes, son?"
"What does regret mean?"
"Well, son, the funny thing about regret, is that it's better to regret something you have done than to regret something you haven't done..."

 

[Si]

Well last year I reached a crossroads in my life. I had a successful business partnership in the garage/Mot trade, my business partner decided he'd had enough and wanted out so we negotiated an agreement and I carried on the business on my own. It's easier now because I only have myself to consider when I want to go shooting or take a holiday.
Anyway that's only part of the story.... My Nan got taken ill and needed to go into a care home, so my wife and two children and myself moved into Nans old house and sold ours which we had a fair old chunk of equity in. We've used part of the money to buy a property abroad, right near a popular area for wild boar hunting would you believe?
So I now plan to arrange boar hunting (I've made a few contacts) as well as scuba diving trips and get some rental income from the property.

None of this would have been possible if my wife didn't have a well paid job, it would have been too much of a risk. But if you have dreams and a means to achieve them you should go for it.

 

[User00014]

This is loosely related to stalking.

Today I successfully sold my business. It was not not a Kings ransom but enough for about a year of doing nothing without any worry.
So what should I do?

I have an offer to go and be trained as a commercial poultry unit farmer. Good money and okay career prospects. But my wife works away from home 3days per week and I therefore have to look after my kids. This is not employment friendly, so my wife and I are looking at hiring an au-pair. I could then throw my self into the chicken job and get a new career but the kids (5 yrs and 9 yrs) will see their parents less but we will have plenty of money and maybe able to send them to private education (as the eldest has ADHD)

Alternatively I could do commercial stalking. I have taken clients before although I have pretty much stopped as the politics were getting too much. I will have enough time to search out new grounds and can expand them with the funds available.

I really am not honking my own horn and genuinely would like some cold hearted advice particularly from pro full time self-employed stalkers. When I worked as a stalker I had another job at the same time so have never done it as a sole full time occupation.

Basically do I throw my dream and possibly only opportunity of being a full-time deer manager away in favour of a better life and education (possibly) for my kids?

Really stuck on this one

dont look the gift horse in the mouth , 6 months ago i was catching chickens for a living (for those who dont know , 90% of all chicken syou see on the super market shelves are all caught by hand 3 blokes 6600 4.5lbers in about 45 mins bloody hard graft) , now im a poultry farm manager rearing 500,000 broiler chicken a year .

have almost completed the NVQ L3 qualification , being a manager is a kushdy number when things are good the hours are minimal BUT when thing go tits up you have to be prepared to throw your self at it and sort out the problem.

my job gives me a tied 3 bed bungalow a wage good enough that mrs 6.5 can be a stay at home mum to our daughter AND it still enables me to stalk 150 plus outings a year , my boss has even aloud me to have a walk in cold room wired into one of my poultry sheds so life is good .

i will assure you there is a heap more money in chickens than deer and if you work it out that you can have the best of both worlds like i have that really is the icing on the cake !

if you want to have a yarn about it ill pm you my phone no

​cheers lee

 

[teyhan1]

Thanks for all the great suggestions so far. I guess we all come to a point in our lives sooner or later where crunch decisions have to be made.

For all of the suggestions about running away with the au-pair, well I looked at an au-pair site last night. There was a nice girl, and I jest you not, called Fanny and she was french. But the idea of asking the missus is she wants French Fanny in the house might not go down so well but there are so many wonderful conertations. eg. I just go and fetch Fanny from the airport

Si, I will call you soon. Thanks for the offer

 

[ronscomon]

It depends a bit on how much you have, though even a years salary would be a nice start. I would recommend using your windfall for the acquisition of assets that bring in an income without you having to lift a finger - or not too much anyway - rather than risk living on capital and squandering all the work you did building up the company to be a saleable asset in the first place. A bit of 'passive' income is a nice thing to have and gives you more freedom to make the choices you really want. It's not instant, but it's probably the most secure and to my mind, most satisfying way forward in the end.

 

[TankGunner]

I suspect you know the answer to this as a man with a young family and attendant long-term responsability so I'm not going to be the one who tells you what you may prefer to hear rather than what common (admittedly unadventurous) sense dictates.

You also allude to a certain frustration with where the stalking profession is headed if not already docked and as so helpfully laid bare for all to see throughout this site.

Were you single I wouldn't hold back from telling you what I'm sure would be more palatable but that chance has past so forgive me for my bluntness but deal with it.

Good luck though with whatever you do.

K

+1 Sound advice IMO

Amatuer/recreational stalking, even with the odd paying client, is a far different ball game to self employed, full time stalking. Chalk and cheese in fact.

As the man said now is not the time to try and live the dream. Good luck though with whatever you decide.

 

[RED-DOT]

I thought this was a stalking site and not a sub site of the Jobcentre plus?

 

[TankGunner]

Give the broad spectrum of the non stalking related topics that get posted on this section of the site, I opt for the self editing route myself.

 

[paul o']

have a go at the chickens feller and keep your nest egg for a while use your new income to move on in life with a x-y x£ back stop just in case ? and slowly start the stalking up . as per 6.5 my pal who he prob knows runs a chicken farm in halstead essex he has a house on the farm and is very happy with his lot hard work and some silly hrs but rewarding
good luck