ISLAND businessman Tony Harnden, of CT Associates accountants and tax advisers, is encouraging people caught up in the economic downturn, to work for themselves. Through his own experience of being made redundant, he found freedom and enjoyment. Here’s his story ...

I know we are having difficult times at present and many people are losing their jobs and there are fewer and fewer jobs available.
I would like to relate my experiences when I was made redundant for the second time and also point out the absolute happiness and satisfaction that can come through becoming self employed.
I was an accountant with a reasonable firm and had been with several other companies in that capacity.
Like many other people who become redundant, I was relatively happy in my job, I felt important, I had a reasonable salary, a company car and four children.
All of a sudden I lost my job because the company was in trouble.
One day I was sitting in my office feeling quite self satisfied and the next day I was standing in my kitchen thinking: “Yesterday I was important and employed and today I am just me and without a job.”
For several months I applied for numerous jobs, without success and finally I came to a momentous decision and thought 'I have had enough, I am going to go on my own’.
That meant self employment, but I hadn’t got the foggiest idea how to get started or what I had let myself in for.
I do remember having an overwhelming sense of pride informing the Job Centre that I was now self employed. Just the decision to work for myself was very liberating. It was also very scary.
The first thing to do when you start self employment is to find some work to do and some one who is willing to pay for it.
I tried various avenues, writing to people I had known or to businesses I did not know offering to do wonderful accounting tasks for them for very low fees and got nothing at all.
Eventually I settled on the idea that instead of trying to impress people in larger firms, I would go to the very opposite end of the market and try to do accounts for small businesses.
In fact, very small businesses and I started putting advertisements in the Times Guardian.
This started to show results and I started to pick up one or two customers.
I remember getting my first client and his wife saying: “Don’t keep Tony talking any longer, Andrew, I am sure he has lots of work to do.”
I agreed and left their house and came back to the office with one client and no other work to do.
Another client called me and said: “Before we go any further, do you work for me or the taxman.”
That of course, was very easy to answer. I told him that I worked for him and suddenly I was becoming a salesmen.

Had to learn very quickly

I had to learn very fast and the only thing that didn’t happen fast enough was getting enough customers.
It was quite scary sitting at my desk with a computer, pad of paper and a telephone and no work, but it was exciting as well and I learnt quickly about all sorts of things.
I learnt very quickly how to sort out the tax affairs of small businesses, which frankly I didn’t know a lot about when I started, because I had always done accounts for big companies.
Some 18 years later, my customer base is approaching 500. I have six staff and as one of my very good clients says we are 'scratching by’. What I hope my story done is inspired you to turn adversity to success and take your courage in your hands and have a go at self employment.
Most of my clients started in a very small way, as I did. Some are still fairly small, but they are making a living and getting the satisfaction of organising their own lives and making their own decisions.
The main attribute you need to go self employed is a skill or ability that you can sell. That doesn’t have to be something wonderful.
It can be any trade, or maybe the ability to run a shop or a pub or turn a hobby into a living.
As long as you have something that you can sell, then you have the basic attribute.
Secondly, you need the courage and confidence to say 'yes I can do that’ and to take the steps to get on with it.
Thirdly, you need the confidence to convince other people that you can do a good job for them, in other words salesmanship.
I know I couldn’t sell computers or windows, but I can sell my business because I am selling my and my staff’s ability to do a good job for our clients.
If I could not do that, I wouldn’t have a business. And I have the right staff to do a great job for my clients.

Examples of people who started their own businesses

Here are some examples of clients who started businesses up that you may not have thought of.
I have a client who trades in stamps. He was a collector himself, and used his knowledge to turn his hobby into a living.
Another client uses her needlework skills to embroider shawls and sell them on the internet.
A car salesman decided to become a landscape gardener, a teacher opened a recording studio, and so on.
I am talking to people who have lost their jobs and need to earn money, so probably all tradesmen without work can find some way of earning a living but will need to adapt their skills.
The way to find the impetus to go self employed, if you haven’t got an obvious trade or profession to use as I had, is to think outside the box and to see if there is an opportunity to earn a living doing something totally different.
You also need to have the courage to follow your instincts. You need to earn a living. You can’t get a job, so you need to find something that you can do and self employment can often be the answer.
Being self employed does not mean that you have an easy ride.
You will probably find that you work a lot more hours and you worry about getting jobs in on time, getting more jobs in and getting your money in and so on, but if you work at it, as most people do, then you will get a tremendous amount of satisfaction out of it.