£100/month Self Employment worth it?

Pmarmalade

I have just started fixing computers in my local area on top of my FT job. I have made myself a website and submitted myself to local directories. In time I hope word of moth will spread and I'll bring in a bit more business but at the moment I'm getting just a couple of call outs a month and only brining in up to £100 profit per month (projected). It may increase but it's never even going to even be a PT job. Obviously I have to register as self employed now.

I enjoy it but is there much point to me continuing?
How much of this will I have to pay out and how much time will I spend filling out paper work?
I think at this rate I don't have to pay the weekly NI even though I have a full time job?
And do I really need to keep a separate bank account etc?
Can I claim back VAT on tools I use for the job?

I'm only working for myself, get paid cash in hand and I'll take all profits out for myself.

To use my car for call outs I will have to register it for business use with my insurer - is this usually charged on a per mile basis and is it likely to increase my insurance premium by a large margin. I believe I can also claim tax relief?

As of the 21st of Jan I'm also redundant. Will this self employment stuff affect job seekers allowance when I claim (assuming I don't find work straight away)?

Pmarmalade

Any advice on this?

moneymabel

when you sign on for jobseekers they will ask you if you have made any money from your business and deduct it from your benefits.
I have a small business making about the same a month, car allowance is so much a mile so write down evertime you make a business related trip. Lots of advice on the yougov website. I only have a current account not a business account.
Good luck!

Pmarmalade

Thanks - I have looked around but everything seems to be aimed at people doing this as FT or even PT - not a couple of hours a week, and then claiming JSA I really hope I don't have to go near JSA and I manage to get a job soon. Things were much simpler when I had a FT job and was going to do this PC repair stuff in my spare time!

It almost seems completely pointless doing the repairs at this stage. I feel like they're discouraging you trying to help yourself. I could work on this computer stuff and not make any extra money at all or I could just rely on JSA and spend the time learning new skills in my actual trade (which I'm actively doing now). It's not what I want to do but it feels like that's what they're encouraging me to do!

Did you have to get business car insurance? Did it put your premium up by a lot?

lumar

I looked into going self employed recently. I went on a business start up course. I also found the tax office very helpful - do contact them. You will have to register as self employed within 3 months. You will need business car insurance, mines was added and didn't cost any more.
If you market yourself well, you may find you can get more business and more income. The business start up told me all about that kind of thing. I think you still have to pay the NI contributions, even though you are also paying them through your main employment.

PolishBigSpender

Pmarmalade wrote: »

Can I claim back VAT on tools I use for the job?

No, not unless you are also VAT registered.

Chopper98

Personally I would say if you're being made redundant then unless you have anything else soaking up your time, throw yourself at it full pelt. Advertise, advertise, advertise. Repeat business and word of mouth is make or break for that kind of business. What about branching out into teaching people computer skills? Getting broken computers, fixing and re-selling? Think about it creatively

Just remember anything worthwhile takes time and effort, no business is successful over night.

tiddly_widdly

Ask your insurance for class 1 business use, most of the time it doesnt cost any extra.

If you register for small earnings exemption certificate you wont need to pay NI contributions until earning over approx 4500.

If youre not VAT registered then you cant claim VAT back but when you fill in a tax return you can use allowances for 'tools' so you pay less tax (if youre paying tax) or get allowances to carry forward as a loss.

Get an Abbey account or similar. There are no bank charges at all unless you go overdrawn or pay more than 4000 per month cash into the account. The benfit to having a business account is that it is useful to pay suppliers and also ;'prove' you are self employed when you need to buy wholesale.

Good luck, dont give up, something starting small now may eventually become a fully fledged business at the right time.

Pmarmalade

Thanks for the responses everyone!

Chopper98 - those are some good ideas. If I was stuck in a dead-end line of work I think I'd definitely give it a go at taking this FT but being a web designer (of sorts, more to do with the e-commerce side) I was earning a decent wage and I enjoy it. I'm going to try to get another job in that field and in the mean time I'm improving my skills (learning PHP currently) and that's taking up a lot of time.

It's just a case of waiting for the right job at the moment and I'm not sure how long that will be... just trying to make the best of my situation just now with the PC repairs and hopefully I'll be able to continue it alongside a FT job whenever I get one.

I will call my insurance company and get a quote. I have my site ranking well on Google for my key terms and I've submitted my listing to all the popular directories. I'll ask around local businesses asking if they'd take my flyers or put one up in the window.