Went from teaching hair to running my own salon. Did both for 18 months whilst building up business so didn't take any wages from the salon during that time then took redundancy and lived off that for the next 6 months!
Finally able to take a tiny wage after 2 yrs in but still not yet matching my teaching salary and I don't get the lovely long holidays or Saturday's off any more. I must be mad but I've actually never been happier!
Teaching was really rewarding for a long time but I needed a change after 17 years as it was getting really stressful. It became less about actually teaching the skills the students need to get employment and more about meeting targets for other stuff like functional skills, equality & diversity, differentiation or whatever the latest buzz word was etc etc and the dreaded ofsted! There was more and more pressure to get students through that weren't really up to scratch & I was never prepared to compromise myself like that so was always bad cop for not passing everyone or not giving out distinctions if they wern't deserving of one lol!
I can't say I miss it and despite working 24/7 for v.little £££ I love going to work every day & think it's the best thing I ever did!