What do I need to do to get my own business going?

Phate said:
Yeah was going to. Thanks though dude :)
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I cant stress that enough, don't do any work without it. Sods law says the first machine you do will die coincidently while you are there and lose someone's entire home business.

Loss of earnings compensation, not to mention the cost of the kit you "broke". Dont risk it.
 
LordSplodge said:
Seems to be the way GD is going at the moment.

This thread would have been better without the bickering between Fox and Phate though...
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Don't worry, I promise to stay out of next weeks 'Spec me a brand of toilet duck' or perhaps 'I'm going to become an airline pilot, spec me some clothes for the interview'.
 
LordSplodge said:
Why do it if you haven't got ambition? Those businesses that succeed are those who are run by people with drive and ambition and the ability to get up after taking a hard knock, dust themselves down and carry on. Having some financial nouse helps too! :p
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'cos its only extra money on the side?

I'll take a knock and get going again don't worry. But seriously, I don't want it becoming massive. Just a bit extra on the side.
 
[TW]Fox;12265384 said:
Don't worry, I promise to stay out of next weeks 'Spec me a brand of toilet duck' or perhaps 'I'm going to become an airline pilot, spec me some clothes for the interview'.
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fool! it's going to be "spec me liability insurance"
 
[TW]Fox;12265384 said:
Don't worry, I promise to stay out of next weeks 'Spec me a brand of toilet duck' or perhaps 'I'm going to become an airline pilot, spec me some clothes for the interview'.
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As official GD cynic you know you cannot stay out of such threads. They cry out and need your cynicism! ;) :p

Phate said:
'cos its only extra money on the side?.
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I know you think it will be useful for earning some extra money on the side but having that limited mental attitude also limits the potential growth of the company. Aim to be the best, it doesn't matter if you are not - just aim to be the best.

It is all about the correct mental attitude.
 
Fox is good at that.

A one point I was 'pity'd' for being in a situation where £3 a month was assumed to be a great deal to my household outgoing in relation to a 2p fuel price change...

Limited company sounds a lot bigger than it is. Just means you can pay yourself minimal directors fee to keep up your NI (not really applicable in your case) then the rest goes to the shareholders as dividends after only 21% corp tax. You would be the only shareholder so you get it all. Costco trade card amongst other things and going VAT flat rate can get you a nice benefit every quarter as you charge your services at 17.5% but pay less back and keep the difference. This amount varies depending on the work you do and you get a 1% discount in your first year. Im currently only paying 11.5% back to HMRC.

Thats a bit further down the road i imagine though.
 
Jez give's good advice as far as Sole Trader goes.

Fox, and I'm not being cheeky here, have you ever started your own business?.

In fact, what do you do for a living?. I don't think I've ever seen you post anything on that subject?.

I'll be up front as before, I'm a firefighter and I love my full time job.

I started off my part time business with web dev and PC repairs about a year ago, as I already posted.

As Jez said, Sole Trader aint that difficult to get up and running.

Put the effort in and it should yeild results if you are providing a service that folks will gladly pay for.

To start with, undercut the "usual suspects" locally and take it from there.

Word of mouth is the way most things start in this field, then branch out as you see fit.
 
Jonnycoupe said:
VAT flat rate can get you a nice benefit every quarter as you charge your services at 17.5% but pay less back and keep the difference. This amount varies depending on the work you do and you get a 1% discount in your first year. Im currently only paying 11.5% back to HMRC.

Thats a bit further down the road i imagine though.
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Can you explain the VAT thing a bit more, please?
 
As Jez said, just act as a sole trader - you don't need to even worry about VAT until your company is turning over about £50k, and if you manage that fixing pcs in the evening then i want in!!

Give it a go, and make sure you keep good records of your finances or you'll end up in a mess when you do your tax returns and have to pay the IR a load of money... that's a point, put aside 30% of whatever you earn with your business and you'll be sorted when the tax man wants his cut :) and you'll have some left over as a sort of saving scheme :p

I'd also re-assess your £1k setup costs... i'd imagine you already have some of what you need, and i don't really see you need much for this business... if it does turn out to be too much hassle for the returns, then you don't want to have spent out a grand in the first place when you could have got away with £200... buy yourself a flash laptop etc with money that you MAKE not money that you BORROW :)

Good luck anyway
 
Jonnycoupe said:
Limited company sounds a lot bigger than it is. Just means you can pay yourself minimal directors fee to keep up your NI (not really applicable in your case) then the rest goes to the shareholders as dividends after only 21% corp tax. You would be the only shareholder so you get it all. Costco trade card amongst other things and going VAT flat rate can get you a nice benefit every quarter as you charge your services at 17.5% but pay less back and keep the difference. This amount varies depending on the work you do and you get a 1% discount in your first year. Im currently only paying 11.5% back to HMRC.

Thats a bit further down the road i imagine though.
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Could you expand on the VAT situation at all?
 
Good luck with the business Phate.

[TW]Fox, do you run your own business? What do you do?

Edit: Sorry just realised already asked.
 
If you're not buying a great deal of stock, supplies or materials and simply offering a more service based 'product', ie a IT contractor, then you charge your client your price, whether its an hourly or daily rate + VAT of 17.5%.

When you do your quarterly VAT return you pay HMRC if you are flat rate VAT registered you pay back less than you charged your client. IT contracting is around 12.5% I think, hairdressing is something like 9.5%. So you instantly make an extra 5% on your rate, this VAT benefit is subject to corporation tax, but it is a nice benefit. In your first year of registration you also get a 1% discount. Im in engineering so my rate is 12.5% but as its my first year registered with my ltd company i pay 11.5% to HMRC.
 
Jambo said:
[TW]Fox, do you run your own business? What do you do?
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I'm a lazy, hypocritical annoying armchair critic. But that doesn't mean that some of what I say isnt right - before you can expect others to help you you must help yourself, some of the questions he's asked are those which anyone who'd have a half decent chance would have already answered for themselves.

I'd love to be proved wrong, becuase if I'm proved wrong he'll have made a go and suceeded and there is nothing better than somebody elses success proving an opinionated moron like myself wrong :)
 
Can't see why some people in this thread have been so harsh. Sounds like you're ambitious and hard working. it is not difficult to start a business as a sole trader or for that matter a Ltd company (you can get an off the shelf company same day for a modest fee). It is also not difficult to manage tax liability or VAT.

HMRC website has all the info you need in its FAQs. VAT is double edged for smaller businesses, it's nice claiming back VAT on what you buy, but makes you look more expensive to purchasers who are not VAT registered i.e. consumers, who can not claim the VAT you charge them back. Sounds like you will not be reaching the VAY threshold anyway.

Get yourself a decent accounting package. You will be fine with one of the simple versions of the main packages like Quickbooks Simplestart

Good luck with it.
 
Janesy B said:
I wouldn't bother, unless you have an new and original idea it's a waste of time starting your own business.
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Not really, there is money to be made simply by beating the competition on price or quality of service/goods.

To the OP, you may have to get some sort of public liability insurance (I think)...
 
LordSplodge said:
Aim to be the best, it doesn't matter if you are not - just aim to be the best.
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This is the best bit of advice given in this thread - offer the best service, price or both. But I would rank service before price every time. A quality service sells itself by word of mouth.

Also of note - I have heard people at my workplace having unresolved 'computer repair' callouts at £200 for 2 hours of 'investigation' - truly shocking
 
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Skidder said:
VAT is double edged for smaller businesses, it's nice claiming back VAT on what you buy, but makes you look more expensive to purchasers who are not VAT registered i.e. consumers, who can not claim the VAT you charge them back. Sounds like you will not be reaching the VAY threshold anyway.
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Surely it wouldn't really be that more expensive? I mean the actual goods would cost the same (as they would include VAT from where he got them from) it would only be on the service side of the business?
 
Janesy B said:
I wouldn't bother, unless you have an new and original idea it's a waste of time starting your own business.
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Just noticed this, what on earth gives you that idea? My sole trader business is nothing original at all and ran alongside my employment, its simple a resale business, but it will turnover around 8x my salary 08/09 @ around 23% net.
 
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