Meet Florrie to find out more about life as a bird of prey specialist. Part of our Bitesize world of work series.
Hi, I'm Florrie, I'm 17 and I'm a bird of prey specialist.
My company's name is Fab Falconry. I started it a year ago and we do educational talks, visits and events. I would like to inspire people to care for, protect and look after our wildlife through my birds.
I've got eight birds of prey. Five of them, I've rescued and three of them I've bought from breeders. My favourite bit about going into schools is the reaction on the children's faces when they see my birds. They look really shocked and impressed and really happy to meet them. I've been home educated by my mum and dad since I was six or seven years old. I fell in love with birds of prey when I did my Gold Award and Nature Ranger Award with the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust. I spent 18 months studying birds of prey from Britain. I then did my Lantra Beginning Falconry Award course when I was 15 and got my first bird of prey later on in the same year.
Nightingale is a female Harris hawk. I picked her up from a breeder when she was 16 weeks old and I've trained her myself so she now flies free. I take Nightingale flying because I'd like to imitate what she would do naturally in the wild. So now she's calmer than she was when I first got her. I'm like so proud of her.
Chris Packham and Sir David Attenborough have been great inspirations to me when they're hosting wildlife programmes and one day I'd like to be the next face of wildlife education and conservation.
Chris Packham and David Attenborough have been great inspirations to me.
- Florrie was home-schooled from Year 2 onwards, which allowed her to focus on the subjects she loved
- She fell in love with birds of prey when she did her Gold Award and Nature Ranger Award with the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust
- She has now set up her own company, Fab Falconry. She attends events with her birds of prey and delivers educational talks to students in schools.
Florrie runs her own falconry company.
What to expect if you want to be a business owner
The salary and working hours when you own a business can vary enormously but what's most important is that you work hard and love what you do.
Working for yourself looks different for each person and each business, but in general it means you:
- run your own business and are responsible for its success
- can decide how, when and where you do your work
- charge an agreed, fixed price for your work
- sell goods or services to make a profit
- can hire people at your own expense to help you or to do the work for you.
You can be both employed and self-employed at the same time. You can work for your employer during the day, for example, and run your own business in the evenings and at weekends. It’s important to contact HMRC for advice if you’re not sure if you’re self-employed.
You can get help with setting up or developing your business, through the government’s business support services, for example, for advice about tax or about how to find funding to start your business.
This information is a guide (source: GOV.UK).
For careers advice in all parts of the UK visit: National Careers Service (England), nidirect (Northern Ireland), My World of Work (Scotland) and Careers Wales (Wales).
Work experience in your area
Find work experience placements with Workfinder.
Tips and advice
Help with interviews, writing a CV and all things work experience related.
Jaidon: rap workshop leader. video
Jaidon's a rap workshop teacher and youth ambassador.
Chris: volcano vlogger. video
Chris explores volcanoes as a job!
Lucy: vet
Lucy uses her knowledge of Biology in her job as a vet.
