Self Employed for Double Glazing Firm

dipsy81

My husbands final date for being made redundant was yesterday. He has been to the Job Centre over the holidays and got information about working self employed for D/G firm.

He will not be cold selling door to door. He will work for the company and they give my husband the leads. The company are saying he could earn ex amount of money a year.

My husband nor myself have never been self employed before and we just wondered if anybody has ever had any dealings in this sort of work before. It all sounds good but is there anything we should know. He's been informed he has got the job and would like him and two others to go to Norwich for a weeks training next week.

Debt_Free_Chick

What will he be doing? "Collecting the orders" or fitting the products?

dipsy81

Hi.

No he won't be fitting them, he will be closing the sale at the customers property.

LittleVoice

dipsy81 wrote: »

My husbands final date for being made redundant was yesterday. He has been to the Job Centre over the holidays and got information about working self employed for D/G firm.

He will not be cold selling door to door. He will work for the company and they give my husband the leads. The company are saying he could earn ex amount of money a year.

My husband nor myself have never been self employed before and we just wondered if anybody has ever had any dealings in this sort of work before. It all sounds good but is there anything we should know. He's been informed he has got the job and would like him and two others to go to Norwich for a weeks training next week.

And will they provide the training and accommodation free or will he be expected to pay for it as a self-employed person?

I don't know the company (but could guessd) so the following comment is not about a specific company (truly). Though they may provide leads, that doesn't mean the people are going to be very keen to buy (from anyone). They may even have been pressured to see a salesman (no obligation "adviser"). It will be a difficult selling environment over the next few months.

Putting the self-employment aspect aside for the moment, would this be the best sort of work for your husband to do? Is it in line with his experience and skills?

Unstoppable_2

All I'll say is this.

How many people do you know who are likely to be able to afford to spend £10,000's on double glazing? How many loan companies and mortgage companies are going to be willing to finance it over the next 12 months?

dipsy81

Thanks LittleVoice for the info.

Well first of all he has gone to Wakefield today for a quick crash couse before going down to Norwich on Monday. Don't know if they have given him any money for today. When he goes on the Training Course next week, they are paying for the Hotel Accomodation and also giving each of them £100 for petrol etc.

My husband has never done anything like this before. He worked on the shop floor on machines and was classed as Skilled worker, because he could set his own machine up.

One of my questions would be, does he really need an accountant or could he do it himself? What receipts does he keep. There is so much going through my mind.

fengirl_2

He needds to keep accurate records of all payments he receives from the company, together with receipts for all expenditure, mileage records, etc. HMRC do local seminars for the newly self employed.
Personally, this sounds like a really bad deal. Your OH will have no job security, no holiday or sick pay and no employment rights whatsoever, apart from no guaranteed income.

dipsy81

Thanks Fengirl.

He did say he has to take 4 weeks holiday a year. Also if he is wanting a day off here or there, then he needs to let them know in advance.

Thanks for the info about keeping a record of his mileage. Why would he do this, as he will have kept his petrol receipt?

PasturesNew

s/e for a company like this is touch and go if it legally meets the requirements for self employment. I always believed that the legislation a few years back was to stop companies like this using self employed reps, thus avoiding employing them and the paperwork that means. However, they still all seem to be doing it.

However, that aside, he's got some free sales training, a hotel break and a few quid for petrol.

I think the issues will be how good he performs as a salesman. If he's got no previous experience, I'd be looking to see if they are the sort of company that take on 20 new people every 2 months and 19 of them burn out without making a sale. But as they're self-employed there's no risk to the DG company and they train the next 20.

Any market for double glazing will be hit by the credit crunch. People would have been buying it when they bought a house, less house sales now. People would have been buying it to tart up their home, usually borrowing to do so, there's little borrowing for this.

I suspect a lot of DG companies will struggle in the next 2-3 years, alongside the building industry in general. What people want and what they can actually afford are two different things.

All the financial risk is on him. The leads might dry up, or he might find himself driving a 40-60 mile return journey to do a presentation only to find the people are hiding behind the sofa/not answering the door. First presentation or two he'll be nervous, will probably not close the deals... but by then he'll become desperate for a sale - and you can't sell if you're desperate because that's transmitted to the buyers and they back off.

I do hope he does well, I just don't think it's a job you should be pinning your hopes on.

Good luck!

dipsy81

PasturesNew, thank you very much for your input. I will inform my husband of this thread I have created when he comes home.

If anybody else has any information or experience along these lines they would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Unstoppable_2

dipsy81 wrote: »

Thanks for the info about keeping a record of his mileage. Why would he do this, as he will have kept his petrol receipt?

If he claims the standard HMRC mileage allowance rates, he'll be far better off than claiming for petrol as it is 40p per mile for the first 10,000 miles then 25p per mile thereafter. Ideally, records should have journey details (from, to), start and finish odometer readings and the mileage and also any parking fees.

Also you must make sure that his car insurance is altered to add business use NOW as he has already started as social, domestic, pleasure and commuting does not cover him whilst using his car for work.

Has he phoned the HMRC Self Employment registration line to register as self employed?