Have you actually crunched the numbers on going SE, Ritchie?
All assuming that there is nothing in your contract to prevent you from setting up a tailoring business of course.
That would be an illegal restraint of trade clause
Being an adult means doing the things you have to do before you can do the things you want to do.
Calvin and Hobbes
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Oh really? I know a few people who have these conditions in their contracts.
You can have some restrictions on what people do when they leave, but preventing them from using their skills is not enforceable.
So for a builder example, you may be able to stop someone from doing a specific type of roof that your company makes, but you couldnât stop them from being a roofer. Even if they learned all their skills in your employ.
There may well be non-solicitation clauses (quite common in professional service employment contracts).
The corporate consultancy I worked for had time limited restrictions on both employee and client contracts.
However when I left I took advantage of the loophole which restricted working for a current client as consultant or substantive employee, by working for them as an interim which wasnât covered 
Only roughly. I have a handful of good clients that I could expect consistent annual business from but it wouldnât be enough. I could augment this, at least in the short term, whilst building a client base with making stuff for other tailors. I donât think it would be too difficult to get this work. I wouldnât have the eye watering commuting costs, Iâd work from home and I could arrange fittings in London on days here and there and travel outside peak hours. A website and instagram etc would be a good way of promoting myself. It would be possible but on balance, at the moment at least, a guaranteed wage just has the edge and this eats away at me a bit!
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I donât think that you would be happy working for yourself, the selling and management side of it would drive you to distraction.
Jimâs idea of forming a new company with someone who can do that size makes some sense, but I think that plugging into an existing brand that wants a high-end tailoring product makes the most sense - exactly as you have done with your current employer. Maybe there are other fashion or tailoring brands that want to go upmarket, but arenât as shittily corporate?
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You could come and work for me. I could teach an old dog new tricks 
Realistically 
though, your skill set should be much in demand. Never fear change. While it all seems daunting, it could be an opportunity. âSecurityâ is a millstone at times but is incredibly magnetic.
If you could tie up with a sales person, a small business could be a winner.
Itâs a coin toss.
Security vs (potential) opportunity.
Whichever way it goes, rushing headlong should be resigned to much younger individuals. Much as it frustrates me these days, I realised that my rashness wasnât my best trait. Analysis will win the day.
It goes without saying, but good luck with whatever you choose to do and if I can be any help, please just let me know.
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Only you can decide which direction you take, but whichever one you choose, good luck mate!
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Reading your posts Ritchie, I would have said that SE is not the way to go, for you.
I would have thought you could join another high end brand easy as, with your skills.
Have Leica moved into bespoke menswear yet ?
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Day 3 of Mrs Craig away with work, so just the regular single dad day with E (8) and A (2)
If any of you know a single mom, give em a hand with something small thatâll buy them a sit down a cuppa for themselves. I donât know how the bloody hell they do it, frankly. Heroes
(Apart from the slags, obvs)
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Another scenario for the future could be working for the company as a consultant, whilst doing my own thing on the side.
My end game has always been that I would build a bit of a customer base and work as a coat maker for other firms. Until my mortgage is paid off this may be a little more pressured than I would like! I never want to retire.
My trade has shrunk to such an extent that there are very few people in it who can genuinely produce the goods. Selling myself to another brand would mean going through all this again and having to explain to them that bespoke tailoring is impossible to scale because there isnt a huge pool of talent to actually make the stuff. This isnât really what companies that might be interested want to hear!
However, because it has shrunk so much, a top class coat maker will never be out of work and it is getting to the point where they can name their price. There are a small handful of old codgers who can do it right. Within 5 years or so they will have all gone. Then there is me, then there is a yawning great gap to a bunch of youngsters who lack experience and havenât been trained properly in the first place. I have tried to use a few of these people in my current job but have given up because the amount of alterations I get has made it unworkable. Itâll not be long before a single breasted jacket will command a 1k fee. If I put the hours in, I can make 2 a week on my own with no overheads, no selling or marketing etc. Morning coats, dress wear, velvet etc, all command a higher priceâŚ
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Is opening up your own shop a ridiculous idea?
Hmm, the economics donât really work well for a company. You can make ÂŁ100k a year yourself, but without a way to scale it a bit, that isnât much for a large company. They would want to bring apprentices through and really increase the throughput. Either that or triple the prices and have a fashion link between the bespoke and off the peg, so the latter benefits from the prestige of the former.
Itâs an interesting industry.
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Really yes, Been there, done that⌠Investors, west end premises, full on refurb, ready to wear line, plus bespoke tailoring. Massive headache. It was a vanity project for the investors, which I naively didnât see from the beginning. They werenât prepared to invest enough- it was a bit like refurbishing a house from the ground up but then not bothering to put tiles on the roof. The whole experience kind of got it out of my system! 
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They lock the kids in the cupboard under the stairs and spend all day on Mumsnet ot internet shopping.
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You have summed it up very well. As a one man band I could make a very nice living but as soon as it gets to having premises and overheadsâŚ
It takes a long time to learn and gain experience and the trade has traditionally relied on people my age and older I think. The problem in the industry these days is that in the late seventies through to the mid-nineties no one was trained and now there are very few people my age and older left in it. A good thing for me but a dire situation for the trade. Itâs a shameâŚ
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