Another year gone

Well another year has been and gone, overall for me it has been a good one. First year in 4 that I've had a constant stream of work, good sign we are finally coming out of the recession and don't we all need that! It's hard enough providing for a family without the constant worry of not working always looming over your head and the relief you get when that is lifted is immense.

Started this year off with the aim of working solely for myself, looks like this year has the same aim! Well maybe not, see my aims changed over the year with the birth of our second child. While I would love to solely depend on my own work, the risk of having no income at all sadly outweigh the rewards of independence. So for the next few years that has to go on the back burner. Of course if any work does come my way I will always endeavour to accommodate it, the benefit of being self employed is that you can flit between companies and jobs if you choose to. Plus it is also a great way to build up your contacts.

Found out about a lot of new ways to work this year from various outlets. Main source has been painters pit stop, a forum for decorators. I've learned so much about different paints, tools, ways of working from there and it has honestly been a eye opener. Also been expensive with all the new equipment you want to buy after spending 30 minutes on there!! Reading these forums has also been a cause of debate, on what type of work some of us do, about the standards of some painters we come across and how some think they are better than others. It's good to hear how others think though and you can take their viewpoints on board in your own working day, might even improve or change how you do things.

Working on building sites you get to meet a lot of characters, also a lot of chancers. Amazing how many painters I've seen this year who claim they've worked here or done that and then the standard of work they produce is worse than an apprentice would do on their first day. No wonder painting companies get bad names when they take a chance, an honest chance, on people who then let them down. It was also interesting to see how many struggled to work with water based trim paint. A lot treated it the same as oil based and got poor results. The sad thing is this is the future of our trade, if we fail to learn how to work with it or just refuse to, then we will just be left behind.

Anyway onwards and upwards for the new year, hope that it is prosperous and rewarding for us all

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