Self-employed (maybe) and paye

nappy501 · 22 September 2014 at 11:18AM

Hi Everyone,

A bit of background I work 2 jobs, one is 9.00 hour contract and the other is a zero hour contract. The zero hour contact normally gives me enough hours to make 16 hours for working tax credit as I am a lone parent with 2 children 17 and 13 years old.

Recently I had an accident at home and whilst I have been off sick, I have been examining the way I feel about the 9 hour contract and I really don't want to go back.

So I am looking at working for myself. I am looking at cooking healthy meals locally for an individual. I realise there can be a problem with only having one customer, so I would also bake or craft for our local Country Market and I might attend some local craft fairs.

So I would be receiving a payments and buying ingredients plus cost of cooking.

I am looking for free downloadable bookkeeping software, they all seem overly complicated for 2 or 3 customers and only 1 employee. This may change if it is okay for my eldest to accompany me to craft fairs. It would also be great if it was open source and worked on Linux.

I realise the HMRC are a good source of information, but I have got in the gov.uk website. Any pointers with where to look would be great.

Also I think my idea is really great and would work for me, but I am really not sure how to market myself. I haven't said what it is here, because I don't want to get told off for advertising.

Thank you for your help in advance.

Regards

HappyMJ · 22 September 2014 at 11:32AM

To do what you are thinking of...for payment...requires you to meet local licensing conditions. You can cook for a friend voluntarily in return for the cost of the ingredients but if you charge for cooking the meal you'll need to make sure your kitchen meets commercial standards i.e having several different chopping boards for example and is checked by local trading standards at regular intervals. You'll need insurance. You'll need a method of transporting these meals at the correct temperature throughout the journey. An insulated delivery pouch might be sufficient. It might not. You'd need the necessary temperature probes to determine if it is or not. They aren't cheap.

Personally, I'd just do it as a hobby and you don't need to meet all those requirements but you can't use the hours in a tax credit claim.

nappy501 · 25 September 2014 at 10:15PM

Thanks for your response. I have my basic food hygiene. The meals are cooked, cooled appropriately and collected the night before.

I don't think all local authorities check domestic kitchens as they didn't when I used to bake for the Country Market, but I will have to check. Thank you.

phill99 · 25 September 2014 at 11:26PM

I have a customer who bakes cup cakes etc from home. She had her kitchen checked by the council and has to have a separate oven, separate storage and separate work surfaces for her cake business as opposed to her domestic side.

CKhalvashi · 26 September 2014 at 12:47AM

phill99 wrote: »

I have a customer who bakes cup cakes etc from home. She had her kitchen checked by the council and has to have a separate oven, separate storage and separate work surfaces for her cake business as opposed to her domestic side.

This is standard practice in my LA, too.

It may vary, it may not, but it's something that needs to be checked before going into this.

DomRavioli · 26 September 2014 at 4:41AM

nappy501 wrote: »

Thanks for your response. I have my basic food hygiene. The meals are cooked, cooled appropriately and collected the night before.

I don't think all local authorities check domestic kitchens as they didn't when I used to bake for the Country Market, but I will have to check. Thank you.

Hi OP,

The majority of LAs check all domestic premises which want to operate a food based business from home. I would put money on you having to go through the same inspections, as they cannot certify you until you have had said inspection.

Surely you would have known this through having Food Safety/Hygiene? Its a pretty big part of the course.

OhReally_2 · 26 September 2014 at 10:12AM

nappy501 wrote: »

Hi Everyone,

A bit of background I work 2 jobs, one is 9.00 hour contract and the other is a zero hour contract. The zero hour contact normally gives me enough hours to make 16 hours for working tax credit as I am a lone parent with 2 children 17 and 13 years old.

Recently I had an accident at home and whilst I have been off sick, I have been examining the way I feel about the 9 hour contract and I really don't want to go back.

So I am looking at working for myself. I am looking at cooking healthy meals locally for an individual. I realise there can be a problem with only having one customer, so I would also bake or craft for our local Country Market and I might attend some local craft fairs.

So I would be receiving a payments and buying ingredients plus cost of cooking.

I am looking for free downloadable bookkeeping software, they all seem overly complicated for 2 or 3 customers and only 1 employee. This may change if it is okay for my eldest to accompany me to craft fairs. It would also be great if it was open source and worked on Linux.

I realise the HMRC are a good source of information, but I have got in the gov.uk website. Any pointers with where to look would be great.

Also I think my idea is really great and would work for me, but I am really not sure how to market myself. I haven't said what it is here, because I don't want to get told off for advertising.

Thank you for your help in advance.

Regards

I'd suggest you stick with the day jobs whilst you look into the possibility of running your own business, what it entails, etc, and finding some customers.

As you are only committed to working 9 hours a week at present in your day jobs, that'll give you plenty of time to investigate and even then possibly launch a business alongside your existing commitments (and current income source)

Self-employed (maybe) and paye

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