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I've decided to give up my well paid secure job as an ICT teacher/Senior Director and try something different. Going with the old adage of if you do a job you love etc I want to do something to do with classic and sports cars.
The slight barrier I have is that other than my home tinkering I don't have any specific industry experience but do have lots of transferable skills so I'm looking at my options, so far I've got.
1. Back to school - complete a restoration course, Leeds college have a good one, fees are £2500. This will provide me with a qualification but as it's a Level 2 designed for school leavers I'm not sure it will teach me that much more than I already know and I'll still be limited to trainee type jobs (and salaries) on completion.
2. Training on the job - if I'm paying £2.5k and no salary to train I might be better offering to work for free or not much at a good restoration firm. This will probably be more hands on which I'd prefer and hopefully put me in a better position when applying for vacancies.
3. Go it alone - buying and selling classics. Lots of people seem to make a living out of this, I could start with flipping cars bought at auction and or light restoration of cars. If combined with a couple of days restoration experience as above I could build up to more extensive restorations and keep the overheads down instead of farming jobs out. Maybe look at importing cars from SA, Italy or the US.
4. Hiring out my cars - I'll probably need to do this anyway to subsidise what ever I choose but I could try and make this work by expanding the fleet. Not sure they'll be much call for the Alfa's so will probably focus on VW Campervans for weekends and weddings.
5. Work for a dealer – there a couple of prestige dealerships local to me, I could try and get a start with them (tricky I know with no direct experience) and work my up to the acquisitions department which I fancy.
What do people think, please feel free to say I'm crazy, any other ideas definitely welcome.
Thanks
Simon
The slight barrier I have is that other than my home tinkering I don't have any specific industry experience but do have lots of transferable skills so I'm looking at my options, so far I've got.
1. Back to school - complete a restoration course, Leeds college have a good one, fees are £2500. This will provide me with a qualification but as it's a Level 2 designed for school leavers I'm not sure it will teach me that much more than I already know and I'll still be limited to trainee type jobs (and salaries) on completion.
2. Training on the job - if I'm paying £2.5k and no salary to train I might be better offering to work for free or not much at a good restoration firm. This will probably be more hands on which I'd prefer and hopefully put me in a better position when applying for vacancies.
3. Go it alone - buying and selling classics. Lots of people seem to make a living out of this, I could start with flipping cars bought at auction and or light restoration of cars. If combined with a couple of days restoration experience as above I could build up to more extensive restorations and keep the overheads down instead of farming jobs out. Maybe look at importing cars from SA, Italy or the US.
4. Hiring out my cars - I'll probably need to do this anyway to subsidise what ever I choose but I could try and make this work by expanding the fleet. Not sure they'll be much call for the Alfa's so will probably focus on VW Campervans for weekends and weddings.
5. Work for a dealer – there a couple of prestige dealerships local to me, I could try and get a start with them (tricky I know with no direct experience) and work my up to the acquisitions department which I fancy.
What do people think, please feel free to say I'm crazy, any other ideas definitely welcome.
Thanks
Simon