Self-employment

hamesy · 25 Apr 2008 at 13:52

Hey guys,

I currently in the process of thinking of going self employed but only part-time. During the days I work as an IT helpdesk assistant and during the evenings and weekends, I have a lot of free time.

During the last couple of weeks, I’ve been thinking about setting myself up as a mobile technician, mainly fixing people’s computers and if I can get it, providing some sort of technical support for businesses.

I’m not too worried about the process of setting the tax, VAT and NI up, as I have family who are self employed and I can ask them for advice, but my main problem is I’m not sure on equipment I should carry with me or any issues I may have with software licences. For instance, when I go out to a customer’s house, I would take spare components with me to test hardware faults, but do I also take new hardware with me so I can replace it there and then?

Also would I run into any licensing issues with software, ie having spare copies of Windows and any other software such as AV?

I would like to hear off anyone who has gone at it alone and their experiences as I would really like to make a go of this.

Thanks in advance.

Morba · 25 Apr 2008 at 14:04

Do you really feel there is enough of a market out there to recover what you will lose by doing less hours in your current full time job?

Smitho3 · 25 Apr 2008 at 14:06

I am currently doing the exact same thing as you. I would advise getting some posters, business cards and website made. Once you have that i would do some market research, find out what people around the UK are currently charging and then set your prices. Also think about what services you want to provide.

I will be offering memory upgrades, home networks and windows upgrades (Amongst other things) and will need to buy a range of different hardware so that i can act quickly when any business comes my way. Don't forget about Liability insurance!

HMRC also mentioned that i wont need to pay class 2 national insurance contributions if my yearly income is less than £4825 so bear that in mind

As for licensing problems, i cannot foresee any problems with buying an O/S and selling it on so long as it has not been used before. However i am not entirely sure on this so will be watching this thread with eager anticipation.

Morba · 25 Apr 2008 at 14:22

Smitho3 said:
I am currently doing the exact same thing as you. I would advise getting some posters, business cards and website made. Once you have that i would do some market research, find out what people around the UK are currently charging and then set your prices. Also think about what services you want to provide.

I will be offering memory upgrades, home networks and windows upgrades (Amongst other things) and will need to buy a range of different hardware so that i can act quickly when any business comes my way. Don't forget about Liability insurance!

HMRC also mentioned that i wont need to pay class 2 national insurance contributions if my yearly income is less than £4825 so bear that in mind

As for licensing problems, i cannot foresee any problems with buying an O/S and selling it on so long as it has not been used before. However i am not entirely sure on this so will be watching this thread with eager anticipation.

err, wouldn't it make more sense to do the market research first?

Smitho3 · 25 Apr 2008 at 14:27

Morba said:
err, wouldn't it make more sense to do the market research first?

Good point, I did my market research after i made the posters/business cards as no prices are mentioned on them, the website however is still not made which is why we are able to market research after the marketing material was made... do i make sense?