"I'm sorry, we're going to have to let you go". It's an understatement to say these words have been over-used in recent months. The latest statistics from the Office of National Statistics show that a whopping 23,000 people a week across the UK are losing their jobs, among them many hundreds of printing industry workers. Along with the recent news that the jobless total has rocketed to a new high of 2.38m, the BPIF estimates that 3,000 printing industry jobs have been lost already this year.

Being made redundant can be a confidence-shattering body blow. Indeed, there's a recognised ‘grieving' process that redundant workers go through, involving shock, anger, depression and finally acceptance. But a there can also be a more positive side to losing one's job. There is life after work and, for some people redundancy has been a stepping stone to a more fulfilling career working for themselves.

Pamela Raftery is embarking upon just such a journey. After 10 years working at St Ives as the web division's technical and quality manager, her role was made redundant at the end of last month. "I was told about the potential redundancy at the end of May and spent the following month going through a whole range of emotions - from being shocked, to real sadness and then excitement about future possibilities," she recalls. "Within hours of being told I was being made redundant, one of my old colleagues had set me up with a company name and a website domain and my husband had returned home with two of the biggest self-help books on starting your own business. With support like that, it's impossible not to be motivated."

Part on good terms
She is also quick to praise her former employer for its support during the redundancy process and for allowing her to keep her mobile phone number and buy her old company laptop so she could hit the ground running. "I really can't praise St Ives enough for how they've looked after me," Raftery adds, providing an object lesson in the benefits of leaving a company on good terms.

This, along with any contractual small print, is one of the important factors to be considered by anyone facing the termination of their employment. "People may have restrictive covenants in their contracts or a separate document that might restrict what they can do in the future," warns Sue Evans, a partner and head of the employment team at solicitor Lester Aldridge. "It would be nice to be able to get in touch with familiar clients, but there may be restrictions on this. If there's been an acrimonious ending, it's important to be especially cautious. While a company can't restrain someone's ability to trade, it can protect its legitimate business interests and the courts have upheld this."

Raftery is thankful not to be constrained by any such restrictions. With her new consultancy business - named
Pr-intability (www.pr-intability.co.uk) - she aims to pick up where she left off with the know-how gained during her time at St Ives.

"I did take time to think about my options, but I had always been busy in my old job, so I could see there was an opportunity out there," she says. "With Pr-intability, my aim is to teach publishers and printers the tricks of the trade to make print-ready PDFs, achieve ISO quality control and anything else that may help them to streamline their business."
Raftery plans to give the venture a year to get up and running, joking that she will "move to Canada and become a snowboarding instructor" if it doesn't work out. But there's a serious side to this quip. It can be an uphill struggle to establish yourself outside of a corporate environment, as others who've trodden the same path confirm.

Slow start
Alan Dresch set up his consultancy business, Mellow Colour, in 2003, but it was a hard slog to begin with. Ironically, he'd been made redundant from his previous role because his employer didn't think his colour management ideas were going to come to fruition quickly enough.

He explains: "I had two years of virtually no income to start with and it was really tough. People said ‘why don't you give up', but that gave me even more resolve. I thought back to being made redundant and I wasn't going to let that happen to me again. I was going to work for myself and sink or swim. I was on a mission. You've got to find that spark and when you do, it really drives you."

Drive and discipline ("you can't just go downstairs and watch television") are traits that are also highlighted by Paul Sherfield, who in 1999 set up the distinctively named Missing Horse Consultancy, specialising in graphic arts workflow and process control efficiency, after a parting of the ways with his former business partners.

Sherfield emphasises the importance of setting an appropriate daily rate. "In a typical week, you could spend one day on selling and marketing, one day on research and building knowledge and one day on admin, leaving two days for actual work and that's the way you have to cost yourself," he notes. "For example, if I go to a Ghent Workgroup meeting I'm not being paid by a corporate to attend. It's all part of your operating costs and you have to plan that in."

Number crunching
Day rates for consultancy in the printing industry typically range between £500-£800, or in some cases as much as £1,500 a day, depending upon the length of the project and the type of work involved.

"The other thing you have to realise is that, although you can make a good living, it is topped out by the physical number of hours you have available," Sherfield adds.

Armed with the necessary drive and an acceptable day rate, the putative consultant also needs to be suitably proficient in their chosen field. The New Life Network organisation identifies "having genuine expertise" as one of three essential requirements for success (see boxout). The good news for those considering a consultancy move is that for print's legion of SMEs it is nigh-on impossible to employ all the necessary management expertise in-house. Ever-changing legislation and evolving quality standards provide an opportunity for the external expert.

This was something Clare Taylor recognised when she was made redundant as part of a massive corporate downsizing at the then Cable & Wireless 12 years ago, which involved her and 4,500 colleagues losing their jobs.

"I'd always been interested in the environment and part of my role was auditing printing companies - I'd done hundreds," she recalls. "I saw a lot of printers that were too small to have their own staff or deal with the big consultancies."

Hard graft
Like Dresch, Taylor found it "incredibly hard work" for the first few years of Clare Taylor Consulting's existence. She benefited from some executive outplacement consultancy as part of the redundancy process, which helped with establishing how to calculate an appropriate day rate, and urges anyone faced with redundancy to make sure they take advantage of all the help and advice that is on offer.

Taylor also invested some of her redundancy pay-off in studying for an MSc. "That really did something for my confidence, it made me realise how much I actually knew and it was a real morale boost," she says. She urges anyone considering self-employment to build a suitable training budget into their costs.

With more than a decade of consultancy experience under her belt, Taylor says that job satisfaction is one of the best things about working for herself. "I love my work. At the end of the day, you feel like you've done a great job, and that's
really satisfying."

Further positive reinforcement comes from Lester Aldridge's Evans, who echoes this sentiment: "I see individuals who have been with the same organisation for many, many years and they've got stuck. They have ideas of their own, but they never take the leap. Sometimes redundancy can be just the impetus they need to do something different - it really can be the making of them."

Three requirements of a successful consultant

• The most crucial thing is that you do need to be really good at something – have real expertise in an industry or a business discipline and have good interpersonal skills – or you won’t get any initial clients, repeat business or referrals. Also remember that you need to be able to apply that expertise and knowledge in a setting other than your old company
• You have to be exceptionally good at selling and marketing – selling yourself, selling your ideas, selling your pricing, selling your methodologies. You may be good at what you do, but how are you going to get the work? Selling in this context is hard for newcomers, especially if you have either no experience or you have only sold to a captive internal audience in your previous role. You have to have the courage to ask for the order, learn how to close and be comfortable networking and looking for business
• You have to be good at building relationships with clients  and understand your accountability to them or you won’t get any business the first time or any time after that

Source: New Life Network www.newlifenetwork.co.uk

Useful resources

• Business Link – A great source of straightforward advice, including a useful business start-up organiser and information on grants and any available support – www.businesslink.gov.uk
• New Life Network – An online career management resource centre that helps people to find new jobs, rebuild their lives after redundancy, find a new career direction, start their own business or develop their skills through training and education – www.newlifenetwork.co.uk
• Creative Entrepreneurs Club Plenty of free advice, plus more if you upgrade to paid-for membership – www.creativeentrepreneursclub.com
• Weebly Let’s you create your own website quickly and easily – www.weebly.com
• Startups.co.uk Online resource for those looking to start a business – www.startups.co.uk
• Build Your Own Rainbow: A Workbook for Career and Life Management, by Barrie Hopson and Mike Scally, this book contains exercises designed to help you to analyse and develop your personal skills, aptitudes and ambitions.