Becoming a self-employed Stonemason in Perth

It has been one year to the day since I left my old employment to go on my own 😅

Don’t get me wrong, I had been working weekends and having an odd week off a couple of times to do my own jobs throughout the year previously but I always returned to my old work to continue as normal.

After taking around 4 weeks of paternity leave after my son was born I figured I would do a phased return to working as I knew I had a few day shift ‘homers’ here n there to top up my savings whilst being off.

I had a half days work surface repairing this mullion, a small lettering job and managed to find a pointing job on something like ‘MyBuilder’. I also sent some messages to the clients I had from earlier in the year trying to follow up more work they had briefly mentioned the last time I was there. In a sense it was my first attempt at marketing my services.

Bearing in mind we were fast approaching the colds of winter and Christmas I think it was a pretty bold time to make the commitment to sole trader/ self employment. However, by chance I managed to secure work on a new build development building 5 houses clad with stone. It was massive to us. It was a lot of work but it was guaranteed for the winter. I felt buzzing but nervous at the same time.

Since then I have learned a lot of good and very harsh lessons (the ones people don’t post on their social media platforms). Regardless of what you think, you need to now develop business skills after only ever being on the tools. Sales, marketing, tax, wages, cashflow, communication, quotes, invoices, leadership, pressure, problem solving, resilience, consistency, discipline.. the list could go on. Mostly new skills the naïve me never even thought about. It is hard.

We have stayed good and busy since then and I think it’s the result of waking up every day and trying my best to make shit happen for my family. I’m not different to anyone else and my work is no better than anyone else out there trying to create something. It comes down to your mindset and how much you actually want something.

This post is just a reminder the time will never be right, just get out there and go for it if you really believe in yourself. ⚒️