Self Employed Marine Engineers and COVID 19. The First business casualties.

[PaulRainbow]

There is actually nothing in the new rules to top marine engineers from working, on the contrary, the rules specifically state that one of the valid reasons for leaving home is to go to work, if your work cannot be done from home. Millions of people are indeed still going to work. Of course, many boatyards and marinas may be closed or not allowing contractors on site, supplies might be difficult to obtain and customers might cancel work.

Personally, i shall continue to work, whilst following the social distance guidelines. I will not work on any liveaboard boats and i won't be working on any boats where the owners is present (he should be at home anyway) or has been at the boat in the previous three days. I have a list of outstanding work, but i'm not sure how much additional work will come along, fingers crossed.

Good luck to all of the other self employed people out there, whatever your trade.

 

[michael_w]

I've got outstanding jobs. One where the yard has closed and I'm 3/4 of the way through. Another, the marina has shut down with no access for anyone.

The government's scheme isn't much of a help as most self-employed people I know aim to make a living, but not much of a profit to reduce the tax bill.

 

[Daydream believer]

Thursday a chap was servicing the 6 RIB engines at our club. he will need another couple of days. No problem with that. I saw it but never went closer than 30 feet as I walked past. The shed had been unlocked prior to his arrival & he pulled the boats out on his own & closed up himself.

Wednesday, at the marina, another bloke was fitting a fridge in a boat. Presumably the marina operator was happy with that. He was on his own & was causing no one any obvious harm. His van was about 8 feet from the boat. He kept to himself, although he did plug into an electrical supply.

Do we really need to stop that happening, if the people act responsibly, which both seemed to be doing?

 

[lw395]

To make a living, you need to firstly be living.

If you can't survive a few weeks off for a once in a lifetime worldwide catastrophe, perhaps you need to re-evaluate your career and lifestyle?
I've been independent for 25 years and seen a lot of people doing the same come to grief, and a lot do well.
You need to put by enough in an ordinary year to live reasonably through a crap year.
When you get a good year, it's a bonus, not an invitation to expect every year to be the same.
We're pretty quick to see the advantages of not being permy wageslaves when it's going well, and tell everyone we're successful businessmen.
The flip side of that is we need to take the knocks and not expect too much sympathy from those who've sold their souls to employers.

 

[steveeasy]

That grant is to pay the rent on the premises that the small business rates are levied on , it doesn't go into your pocket as the landlord still needs paying.Almost all owners are on £8k pa and then take dividends from profits. 80% of £8k is helpful sure, it will buy food. It won't necessarily keep a business going , almost all businesses would fail if there takings were just £550 per month. No sales, usually means no business. Your statement that there is no need for any small business to go to the wall is naive in the extreme. Mine won't, but not because of any govt help. ( Not that I'm slating it, if it comes through it will be very useful)

Thursday a chap was servicing the 6 RIB engines at our club. he will need another couple of days. No problem with that. I saw it but never went closer than 30 feet as I walked past. The shed had been unlocked prior to his arrival & he pulled the boats out on his own & closed up himself.

Wednesday, at the marina, another bloke was fitting a fridge in a boat. Presumably the marina operator was happy with that. He was on his own & was causing no one any obvious harm. His van was about 8 feet from the boat. He kept to himself, although he did plug into an electrical supply.

Do we really need to stop that happening, if the people act responsibly, which both seemed to be doing?

No carry on doing things as you want too.of course it might not be fine.that chap might have the virus. He may have left it on a gate for someone else. They might be a high risk person and die. While those are carrying on as normal or convincing themselves what they intend to do is all right some of us have shut down completely for 3 weeks to as they say.protect the nhs and save lives. It's cheesy but it's true it is going to make a difference.the more people that do it for a short time will make us return to some normality quickly.Steveeasy

 

[GregOddity]

I got 3 jobs half way I cannot finish, 2 boats to lift to start work. All marinas are in lock down so I cannot access the boats. I can’t get hold of materials and even if I did, I could not access the yards.
Skint and the only thing I’m getting is an edge to my skills that will allow me to survive another crisis. I started trading 11 months ago as a marine engineer. Whoopsie Daisy !

I did survive 2009 by the skin of my teeth, but I did. I’m planning to survive this one as well.

I have shut down completely since Monday last week. I do not wish to be an unaware carrier and pass it on or get it myself. We have no built-in immunity to this virus and the cases keep exploding. It is what it is. We stop.

This is an unprecedented situation in modern times. It's not just the UK the whole world is stopping and we have to respect that. I wish everyone a long life and do not want to be in anyway responsible for more contagion.
Let's just hope that the Government wakes up to the reality that only sound bites and slogans will not restart the economy. And then Brexit (insert expletive here)

Tax breaks only work if there is an economy to tax. Grant’s will have to be introduced or the pay back from all of this is only going to add salt to the injury. I would have thought they read history books; I stand corrected.

 

[steve yates]

Not entirely why your quoting me there steve? As I shut down 10 days ago, well before the lockdown, from choice. It was the right thing to do, for us. And I'll be shut down longer than most as my wife is cat A risk, so we have to self isolate for 12 weeks.
I doubt I will work again till July. Still, after initial lockdown We should at least get some work done on the boat as no one else will be touching it or even going near anywhere near it.
Saying that, I absolutely don't blame anyone going to work cos they need food for their kids!

 

[Deleted member 36384]

To make a living, you need to firstly be living.

If you can't survive a few weeks off for a once in a lifetime worldwide catastrophe, perhaps you need to re-evaluate your career and lifestyle?
I've been independent for 25 years and seen a lot of people doing the same come to grief, and a lot do well.
You need to put by enough in an ordinary year to live reasonably through a crap year.
When you get a good year, it's a bonus, not an invitation to expect every year to be the same.
We're pretty quick to see the advantages of not being permy wageslaves when it's going well, and tell everyone we're successful businessmen.
The flip side of that is we need to take the knocks and not expect too much sympathy from those who've sold their souls to employers.

What's the difference between 'perm wageslaves' and 'successful businessmen' aka contractors; 2 weeks.

 

[James W]

The marine industry is not the first casualty Greg. I had to finish work a long time before my boatyard shut its gates and I won’t have any work for a long time after the boatyards open again. Count your blessings.

 

[steveeasy]

Hi Steve,
No idea why I quoted you, Just to say I can see you have taken quite a hit understandably with bookings and it will take your business a long time to recover. Im just in shock that both PM and Mathew Hancock have both been found positive with the virus. 3 week shutdown just to halt the virus. Things will recover for you but it will take some time for your particular Trade.

Steveeasy

 

[GregOddity]

The marine industry is not the first casualty Greg. I had to finish work a long time before my boatyard shut its gates and I won’t have any work for a long time after the boatyards open again. Count your blessings.

No, it's not we're all in the same boat. I meant in the marine Industry. Everyone is taking a massive hit. Self-employed more than most from the point of view of support offered. It's so easy for a politician to say "tax cut" but when it comes to real world solutions for concrete problems it's another thing altogether. Somehow, we will make it. We're just going to have to do the unthinkable and help each other out of this.

Most are still comparing this to 2009 and thinking this is going to be a walk in the park. It's certainly not going to be anything of the kind. This is really an unprecedented situation and impossible to measure from every point of view, from consumer confidence to restart the economy to the specific actions the government is going to have to take after this initial round.

It's over a trimester of business that has evaporated for some and for others I even dread to think, photographer’s and marriage venues... Tourism? the end of this epidemic will give us a changed world. It’s not three weeks and back to normal.

I’m not trying to be a prophet of doom, but people need to start planning for hard landings. The time for meaningless slogans like Brexit is Brexit is long gone. This is the time to face facts. That little thing that seems to have gone out of fashion with Brexit.

Someone has to say it.

 

[gertha]

We live in strange times.
As families and people adjust to new values, the desire to spend less time working and more time relaxing could be the new norm.
Society may well have to re write what is important.
The most recent Audi on the drive and finest TV may be replaced with maximum fun for lowest cost.
A smart little boat to play on , endless fun , hours drifting on the tide enjoying the sunset, a reliable repair man.
Could be us sailors know a thing or two about life that the whole world will soon be looking for

Keep safe and do not take life to serious.

Simon

 

[Topcat47]

Club is now in complete lockdown. Only staff allowed in.

 

[steve yates]

Hi Steve,
No idea why I quoted you, Just to say I can see you have taken quite a hit understandably with bookings and it will take your business a long time to recover. Im just in shock that both PM and Mathew Hancock have both been found positive with the virus. 3 week shutdown just to halt the virus. Things will recover for you but it will take some time for your particular Trade.

Steveeasy

Yeah, it will recover for me, there are many trades and industries that just won't survive. I'm treating it as a business reboot. I am basically closed till July. This week I am just taking off and doing nowt. Then I will use the next 2 months to work on the nuts and bolts of the business, finish off the new website, get the seo top notch, design portrait promotions for a year ahead and have them sitting there ready to go with the click of a mouse, new sample albums, all sorts of shit. I'll do a 4 day week and 3 days on the boat. The real irony is that despite the financial kicking, I'll probably come out the other side with a much stronger business, cos I am not tied down with the day to day tasks of shooting,processing, designing, printing, admin etc etc. I count myself as being one of the lucky ones in all this, but I can see how disastrous it will be for most folk.
I just need to make sure my wife doesn't catch the damn virus, she is cat A risk, and once they are swamped she won't even get considered for treatment.
Bizarrely we feel safer now, the last two weeks we feel we have been pissing in the wind talking about how bad this is going to be, with no one else taking it seriously. Now it is serious, and everyone is locked down instead of cramming into the pubs and going to gigs etc, it strangely feels like there will now be less chance of contact and infection for her. It's gonna be a strange spring and summer for sure.

 

[JumbleDuck]

It's over a trimester of business that has evaporated for some and for others I even dread to think, photographer’s and marriage venues... Tourism? the end of this epidemic will give us a changed world. It’s not three weeks and back to normal.

Even after it's under control here I expect there to be limitations on international travel for a considerable time, and it won't just be the tourist industry which suffers. There are 120,000 Chinese students in the UK, including 30% of all postgraduate students in the UK. Many third-rate universities rely totally on overseas students and when these dry up, as they will, those places are going to be in deep, deep doodoo.

Likewise, around 40% of all pupils at UK boarding schools come from China. They won't be back, so I expect to see a lot of schools close their boarding provision or shut down altogether.

 

[lw395]

What's the difference between 'perm wageslaves' and 'successful businessmen' aka contractors; 2 weeks.

The sensible wageslaves with responsibilities to others chose safe careers.
You don't see too many unemployed doctors or maths teachers. If you work in the public sector, your employer is much less likely to go bust.
You make choices and have to take responsibility for them.

 

[JumbleDuck]

What's the difference between 'perm wageslaves' and 'successful businessmen' aka contractors; 2 weeks.

"Permy" is the derisive term used by IT contractors about colleagues who accept permanent (hence the term) employment and actually pay their taxes. IR35 is wiping the smiles off their faces.

 

[Dawnrazor]

As soon as we are up and running again Greg we will see what work we’ve got for you on the fleet boats

thanks for your recent work on Dawnrazor mate

 

[ffiill]

Heard about the boat builder working from home in his attic.
the sales are going through the roof!

 

[doug748]

......

Likewise, around 40% of all pupils at UK boarding schools come from China. They won't be back, so I expect to see a lot of schools close their boarding provision or shut down altogether.

Dodgy figures I think:

"In ISC schools, there are currently 28,910 non-British pupils whose parents live overseas, which represents 5.4% of the total ISC pupil population in 2019. In 2018, there were 28,513, also 5.4% of total pupils. ............... By far the largest numbers of pupils come from China. "
ISC Annual report 2019.

So certainly less than 3% from mainland China

I think many will want to continue in UK education, they are long standing language, curricula and examination links with many far eastern countries.

I agree that the whole business will be disruptive for a long time and is a potential catastrophe for undeveloped countries.
.