Thinking of going self employed- any advice on where I start?

Head-Out-Of-Sand-Now

Hi this is my first thread. I was hoping for some advice as am thinking of starting a small part time business (approx 16 hours) doing ironing at home and perhaps cleaning peoples houses.
I am a job seeker at the moment but really want to get off benefit and the way things are am finding it difficult finding a job so come up with this idea but have no idea where to start with regards to things like;

At what point do you tell Inland revenue, I think on 16 hrs @ 7.50 per hour so approx 120.00 per week so just above the tax bracket of 116.00 per week.

How do you go about paying National insurance? How much is it per week?

I think ill be entitled to working tax credit and housing benefit but what happens if for example I do less hours because customer goes away or am not needed that week? Or if I go away for a week or cant work if ill. How do they work out how much rent id pay? Id be concerned if didn’t earn much one week through no fault of my own, then not have enough money to cover the rent.

Is it easy to keep accounts? What do you include for expenses, and how is it worked out for example electric if ironing from home and petrol travelling between customers?

Id be grateful for any advice, Many thanks.

Ballymackeonan

There's a lot of information on setting up on the Bytestart site -

http://www.bytestart.co.uk/content/24/24_4/index.shtml

Some won't apply for you- for instance, you'd be below the level of buisness where you have to register for VAT, and you will be trading as yourself, not a company, but a lot of the other articles on the page are worth a read.

Depending on what area you are in, there may be help/advice on starting up through your local FE college (some run courses), or there may be various development agencies. You don't say what your age is, but you might get help from the Princes Trust if you're young enough. Ask your benefits office, they'll know what is available in your area.

Good luck!

Head-Out-Of-Sand-Now

Thankyou Ill have a look at that

Wookey

Do you have worked lined up allready? You will have 3 months to tell the HRMC you have turned self employed. You will be cutting yourself of from JSA once you are self employed. Class 2 NI is approx £30 per quarter.

At £7.50 per hour you aren't giving yourself much room for the overheads you mention (electric, petrol/car costs, equipment/wear and tear) eg. the modern day iron will consume at least 2000-3000 watts per hour so you will have a direct electric cost of up to 45p per hour. Why not price some jobs rather than rely on an hourly rate, an example would be someone who wants a house cleaned once a week, you know it will take you 4 hours to do all that is required so price it at say £38 with any additional work that the client wants done priced in on time only @£7.50.

With regard to expenses write down everything you receive in income and everything you spend money on as outgoings that are job related, allthough not needed it could be worthwhile looking for a good local accountant to take care of the whole tax side of things.

Head-Out-Of-Sand-Now

Hi thankyou for your reply. No I havnt any work lined up yet. The way things are ironing/cleaning are the first things people cut back on so not sure how things will go, but it will fit around my daughter. Ill probably aim for 16 hours to begin with and think its a good idea to think about pricing jobs individually rather than by the hour.

And i wouldnt know the first thing about keeping accounts so would need to look further into that aswell, this is a very new idea and in the very early stages of looking into. Tax assesment forms etc appear to be quite complicated so will look into seeing how much an accountant would cost every 6 months.



Thanks again