Sometimes, on a sunny day, there might be a customer who says that they wish they had my job. It never happens when it’s cold and wet and windy, surprise, surprise! Depending on how I’m feeling I might say that maybe we could swap jobs so that I could have the benefit of paid holidays, have entitlement to sickness pay, work 5 days a week and perhaps not have to be dependant on the weather. Plus, above all, have a regular income. I also suspect that most people in paid employment are earning far more than me.

There are many advantages to being one’s own boss. But there are disadvantages too. It’s essential to be self motivated, no-one is going to tell you what to do or how or when to do it. The plus side of this is that there isn’t anyone breathing down my neck so if I want to have a break at say 12.15pm then I can do so. It must be incredibly hard to work for a person whose priorities are different from your own. There is the delight in working outside on mild (not hot) days rather than stuck in an office or shop. Obviously the downside to that are all the other days when its either too cold, too wet, too windy or too blisteringly hot to be able to work comfortably. The ‘wrong’ weather days far outnumber the good weather days.

A skill which is necessary is to be adaptable. I can rarely carry out a task without being interrupted by either a customer or the phone or a friend popping in for a coffee. Stopping and starting jobs can be quite maddening plus with a memory like mine I could easily forget what I had been doing before the distraction.

 

I am convinced that I am now, after many years of self employment, unemployable. I really couldn’t cope with an inefficient boss or unlikeable colleagues. Luckily I am totally at ease with spending hours and hours on in my own company (and the cat of course). When I’m potting I usually have the radio on tuned to programmes I want to hear not dreary canned music or something similar.

I guess the reality is that some of those people who say that they would love to run a nursery are being a bit dreamy and that the relentlessness of growing and tending plants plus an acre of garden would be beyond their abilities. But for those who have some understanding of how hard the work can be and if they also have a real feel for it then there isn’t a better way (in my opinion) of making a meagre living.