Francesca Toman sacrificed her savings to launch a furniture upcycling business and now runs her own interior design studio. She wants to see more pension support for the self-employed
In our Pension Diaries series, we speak to people of all ages in the UK to find out how much or how little they have saved for retirement and the realities of putting money aside for your future.
Today, we speak to Francesca Toman, 32, who lives in Northamptonshire, and took a chance on herself by quitting her job to launch her own business.
She reveals how as she poured every penny into keeping her business afloat and focused on daily survival, longer-term financial planning slipped further out of reach. However, Francesca has now turned her attention to her pension and is determined to prepare for her future.
What was your route into your career and what other jobs have you had?
I did a degree at university in management and marketing of fashion and textiles and after graduating, I followed the career path of marketing. I started off in events and then moved to a new position in social media and PR. I then moved into a marketing exec role.
I did that job for about four years, then Covid happened and I went on furlough. It gave me some breathing space to evaluate what I was doing and what I actually wanted to do. This led to me handing in my notice within days of going back to work after furlough as I realised it wasn’t for me.
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That’s when I decided to launch my own upcycling business. I have always been really creative and did two different textiles GCSEs and carried it on into A-Levels and also did some textiles at university. But when I went into marketing, I had lost that hands-on creative side.
I rediscovered it when my sister and I bought a house together which was derelict. It had to be taken back to brickwork, needed underpinning and there was subsidence, the full works. Once we had all that work done and moved in, we painted the whole house white and had bare, minimal furniture.
‘During Covid, as part of our daily walk, I would see what people were getting rid of, taking it home, upcycling it and then selling it on Facebook,’ says Francesca (Photo: Stephanie O’Callaghan)
Over time, I started filling the house with things from Facebook and eBay and travelling around to pick things up.
I started off upcycling for myself and really enjoyed the process and how we could use things that already exist to build a lot of character into the house and make things completely personalised without it costing very much at all. The sustainable side of things also appealed to me.
Then a friend said, “You could sell this”, so I did. During Covid, as part of our daily walk, I would see what people were getting rid of, taking it home, upcycling it and then selling it on Facebook.
After a year, I decided I would retrain as I had always wanted to be an interior designer. I did a diploma with the National Design Academy and transitioned my business. It is called Ches & Co – short for Francesca – and is now solely an interior design studio.
When did you first start thinking of a pension and what is your situation now?
I have always been auto-enrolled into pensions, even when I was younger. I always had part-time jobs from the age of 16 and a small amount of my wage would go into a pension. At that age, I didn’t understand pensions and probably saw it as a bit of an inconvenience. However, my parents told me I should keep paying into it.
Once I started my marketing career, I was auto-enrolled into a pension scheme, but I never really paid any attention to it. One of the companies I worked for ran clinics where someone from the pension scheme came to answer questions. However, I never went.
Since becoming self-employed, pensions completely fell off my radar as it has been more about survival mode. I put all my savings into launching the business and keeping it afloat.
Now that we are getting more steady on our feet, it means I can now start looking at the financial planning and pension side of things. I am aware of my age and that there’s been four years of no financial contributions.
How many pension pots do you have and what is their estimated total?
I knew I had several small pension pots, but I had no idea exactly how many or how much was in them. I live with my partner, Matt, who is a private tutor, so he is self-employed too.
We sat down and went through the different options for a pension and decided to set up a private pension with PensionBee.
I am now in the process of finding all my pensions and combining them into one with PensionBee. I have managed to get £12,000 moved into my PensionBee pension so far and still have a few smaller pots to find.
I have also started putting in £25 a month into the pension. It is just a start while we are working things out and I will be increasing that.
What is your biggest barrier to saving for a pension?
When you are employed by a company, you are auto-enrolled and don’t have to think about it and can learn about it as you go. However, when you are self-employed, you have to research it and learn all about it first.
Also, when you launch a business, you are putting all your money into it, so pensions are the last thing on your mind and your income is irregular. I do believe there should be an auto-enrolment pension system for the self-employed which is flexible and reflects the realities of modern working life.
The other barrier to a pension is the lack of education and support, especially for self-employed people. They are expected to understand, manage and commit to pensions without any of the automatic support employed people receive.
We have no employer support and no built-in guidance. I had to do the work and research myself.
What is your biggest pension regret?
I do wish I had learnt more about pensions when I was in employment and that I had gone to the pension clinics to learn more about how it all works. This might have meant me increasing my contributions at the time and perhaps I would have looked more into making pensions a higher priority sooner.
I do feel there should be better pension education earlier in life.
What is your goal for retirement?
My dream retirement is not to necessarily retire really young because I know I love a project and love what I do.
However, it would be good to have the flexibility and freedom to take the brakes off as I get older and enjoy what I am doing without feeling pressured.
My aim is to learn as much as I can about pensions and make sure I put enough aside to live comfortably in retirement.
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