New Enterprise Allowance scheme - My story

WantToBeSE wrote: »

I ask for a projection of income - then use that figure for 3 months - 3 months time I ask for 3 months self employed income and expenditure - repeat every 3 months until I have 1 years self employed figures - once I have 1 years figure I use the last years figures to calculate the coming years benefit. Most benefit departments should use a similar method in calculating benefit entitlement for the newly self employed.

I also have a problem with this. What is the point in asking for the projection when you have only just launched your business and have no previous data to base your projection on?? Essentially, the projection is nothing more than a complete guess, just an estimate, and it could be completely inaccurate and totally different from actual takings. Then, if your actual takings don't match your projection they assume that something isn't right. What a stupid way of working it out. Please, someone tell me, is there actually any logic whatsoever in the way the government works in this country or are they really this incompetent??

CuriousWorker- Is there any reason that you wont just come off the NEA scheme (and JSA) and get the ball rolling on your own? That's what i have done.
I waited 3 months for them to refer me/re refer me/c*ck up, and then i just knew (after having written my business plan, and attending self-employment workshops) that i could do it alone.

As Andy2013 (and others) have experienced, the mentoring is pretty much non-existant, so no point relying on that.

If i were you, i'd just consider going it alone.

Projected income is a hugely important part of business planning. Yes, to an extent, it is grasping at figures out the air, but it should be done in an informed manner - if you have researched your business and competitors properly, you will be able to make a fairly good educated guess as to what you can expect your earnings to be.

If you are in need of any kind of stock at all, to make your business viable, whether it be in the form of raw materials for production, consumables or even just envelopes and paper, projections of sales/income levels are required to ensure you're not left with nothing to work with.

Yes, in a number of ways, NEA is sadly lacking. I think a lot of us went into this expecting a good deal more support than we have received, however, I have found all the government departments to be friendly and helpful, from the local council office, when I needed to re-apply for council tax reduction when I signed off JSA to the tax credits people.

I now have no doubt that I could have done this without the NEA help, but it would have been a far bigger struggle, not just financially but also mentally, if I hadn't done it this way. Despite the lack of contact from my mentor, there's always that thought in the back of my mind that Business Gateway accepted my plan as viable. It's a mental boost when I'm having a rubbish day.

Hi Pinky, thanks for the invoice template

It went really well thanks I am working Mon, Wed, Thur & Fri with the agency (3-4 hours each day) and then i do paperwork, invoices and buy in supplies on a Tuesday.
So, most of my work is done during the day, which is nice.
Saturday mornings are when i get the rota for the following week, and that generally entails some emails to/from the agency and different clients.

I am enjoying being my own boss! It's much harder work than i had initially thought when i first ever considered being SE (about 18 months ago), but the rewards (not financial!) are well worth it.
Tax Credits and housing Benefit things have been easy to sort (Phew!!) too.

How about you-how are things going?

NEA_OUT wrote: »

What an unbelievably stupid quote CuriousWorker, you have no idea how a business works if you think that.

Last week I went to a bank for a loan and even though I have almost 10 months of good figures they still ask for a projection, as does any bank in the world.

Things like that make my blood boil, get real :eek:

What an unbelievably stupid response, you just said yourself you have 10 months of good figures which means you actually have something to base your projection on. Yes, I did do a projection and if things had actually gone like planned then maybe I could have hit those targets... but if you had read my posts you would know that the whole thing has gone NOTHING AT ALL like I planned because of things that were beyond my control (thanks to NEA). I know I went a little over the top with those last couple of posts but I'm seriously getting more and more (Text removed by MSE Forum Team) off and more and more disheartened by the day with this scheme.

You can research your market all you want but by no means does it mean that you are more likely to be on target with your projection. Some people are lucky, some people are very lucky, some people are unlucky and some people are very unlucky - that's just the way it is. My projection was based on things going as planned - which they haven't thanks to all the messing around I've had to put up with. I started considering this business over 5 years ago, went on course, have had previous experience of it, etc. yet now I've actually tried to do it it has been nothing more than severely problematic thanks to having to stick to all the rules and follow everything by the book and now my council are questioning why my (extremely minimal, obviously) takings are not in accordance with my projection when they would have been if everything had gone as planned.

Oh, and by the way, I have helped in the running of family businesses (my own family) for the last 20-odd years - yes, I do know how businesses work but we have never had to put up with any of this faffing about before, there has never been any need to.