Man who went bankrupt shares Uber driver earnings as he builds back to £100,000

A man who went bankrupt and is trying to earn his way back to £100,000 ended up becoming an Uber driver, and has shared how much he makes in a day's work.

Sean Smith used to run a car dealership but he told LADbible he ended up 'in a difficult situation' and realised that despite the amount of work he was putting in he couldn't afford to keep it going.

He explained that he struggled to get the place in profit and ended up getting caught 'in quite a big debt cycle', and some of the loans he was taking asked for personal guarantees.

Sean sold his house and invested the money into the business, but it wasn't enough to keep the place afloat and a few months before it went under he decided he needed some money coming in and started driving for Uber.

He said: "I actually started the business within three months before COVID was even mentioned, I remember picking the keys up to my first commercial premises and then being told that we were going into lockdown

"So that was an interesting start to any business.

"We had periods of the business where I would say it was performing well but I think in the grand scheme of things, well I know in the grand scheme of things which is why I've ended up in this situation.

"We would always have quiet months and because I never managed to build up any sort of contingency fund or emergency fund it was very challenging to keep up with the rising costs, the debt repayments

"It's a difficult industry to be in without having the kind of level of debt that I had, but that was essentially what triggered the personal bankruptcy."

He's since been documenting his attempts to go from bankrupt to making £100,000 on social media, saying it gave him 'something to focus on' and he's been surprised by the response.

Plenty of people have been in touch to say what he was doing resonated with them, and it's even got him a new job, though he's still planning on driving for Uber.

"I've actually secured a new job through my Instagram page, which was incredible," he told LADbible.

“This page that I've made has already done more for me than I could ever dream of in such a short space of time.

“And I'm actually starting a new position. I'm going back into the corporate world. I'm very much looking forward to that, it's a remote working job as well so I will definitely still be doing Uber on Friday and Saturday nights because again that's the best money.

“It's not going to interfere with my job. The end goal, depending on where this next year takes me, I may well go back into the motor trade. I do have a passion for that."

Getting behind the wheel for Uber

Sean explained that he started as an Uber driver 'probably about three months before I closed the business'.

“I was, I suppose, trying to spin up a bit of an exit plan if I did need to jump ship in a way. But mainly it was because I wasn't taking any money from the business," he explained.

"Naturally you start thinking to yourself ‘right well I want to keep the business going and we need to survive as a family’.

"So I'm going to run the business and I'm also going to drive Uber on Friday and Saturday night."

He's been driving for Uber for about five months now, and at the time of speaking to LADbible he said he'd racked up 1,578 trips.

Impressively, he's still got his five star rating.

His earnings from Uber

Friday and Saturday nights are busy periods for Uber drivers and if he's working over the weekend then Sean reckons he can 'easily average £300 to £350 a day'.

That sounds pretty good but he pointed out that's gross earnings and his car, a Mercedes E-Class E220d, is not the most efficient thing he could be driving.

On the other hand, while he says the fuel mileage you could get from something like a Prius (a favourite among Uber drivers) would mean he takes home more money he doesn't want to buy another car to save money when he's driving a car.

He said: "It could pay more, don't get me wrong, I think sometimes when you work until two, three o'clock in the morning it is a very hard job to do.

"It could pay more but I wouldn't say it pays badly. I would actually say it pays okay to be fair for what it is."

Sean said it wasn't 'that busy' during the week and most of the work was on weekends.

He said the Uber app lets you do 10 hours of driving time a day and he tries to hit that on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

How to keep a good Uber rating

As for how you keep that five star Uber rating or a close as you can, Sean said he likes it if people are up for 'a good chin wag when they get in the car', but he knows that's not everyone's taste.

"It’s nice to have people that want to have a chat," he said.

“But at the same time, if people want to be quiet, or they want to listen to their music, or they just don't want to talk, that's also fine."

He like a chatty customer and reckons 'there's nothing bad that can come from a from a good conversation', so having a group in the car who are willing to talk is pretty good.

On the other hand, the stuff you don't want to be doing to get on your driver's bad side is suddenly playing the old ‘oh, I tried to book this destination on the app and I actually need to go here’ card.

Trying to add in extra destinations is not going to earn you brownie points with your Uber driver, and Sean is also on the lookout for people 'trying to bring open cans of beer or maybe food that they're trying to finish from the kebab shop' into his car.

Fortunately, he's not had anyone be sick in there.