Sole Trader Startup

nevets2001uk

I have been doing photography as a hobby for a number of years but now have an oppotunity to sell some prints. I want to make sure I do everything by the book and have been reading up on the options.

I'm currently a full time employee for a company and pay full NI contributions etc and would intend to run this as a part time self employeed business via a website.

• I am looking to register as a sole trader.
• Can I opt out of paying NI contributions since I already pay these via my employment and would expect very low earnings from my photography?
• Can I operate under two business names for the purpose of splitting my two main lines of photography onto two different websites? One would be general photography services and the other would be landscape photography prints for sale. For example can I have Main Business Name and then one which could be Main business Name trading as Secondry Business Name? If not can I register twice to use both names?

Any other advice would be welcomed.

Caroline73_2

If you phone the self employment registration line - you can register as self employed as a sole trader and apply for a NI exepmtion form.

If you run two businesses thats two lots of self assessment and accounts to keep! Why not have two websites and one business name?

Good luck.

danjames20

nevets2001uk wrote: »

I have been doing photography as a hobby for a number of years but now have an oppotunity to sell some prints. I want to make sure I do everything by the book and have been reading up on the options.

I'm currently a full time employee for a company and pay full NI contributions etc and would intend to run this as a part time self employeed business via a website.

• I am looking to register as a sole trader.
• Can I opt out of paying NI contributions since I already pay these via my employment and would expect very low earnings from my photography?
• Can I operate under two business names for the purpose of splitting my two main lines of photography onto two different websites? One would be general photography services and the other would be landscape photography prints for sale. For example can I have Main Business Name and then one which could be Main business Name trading as Secondry Business Name? If not can I register twice to use both names?

Any other advice would be welcomed.

I agree with the previous poster, i set up my photography business in jan 07 and it's going fairly well.

I have one photography company registered as a private ltd company and pay NI even though im only taking a small wage (may switch it to PAYE (Pay As You Earn) soon.

I also run a website design company but for accounts purposes i simply Daniel James Design part of Daniel James Photography < adding part of clarifies for anyone wanting to read up on your company etc.

Regarding nature prints, i tried an online shop but this didn't do too well to be honest so i sell via a few sites now such as Folky, Etsy, Photo Dimension and RedBubble, google them for links

I also advise maybe trying to sell via stock photography, good source of income if you get really into it, personally i haven't the time currently but will certainly be looking into it when i get chance

Drop me a PM if you want to talk further about photography/starting up etc