Join in if you are self-employed and work from home

GreyhoundAngel

TCM, MM, Starx - You’ve had me laughing today – I must say I did like the suggestion of hitting OH with something large n heavy !

Horace – As always, you make me feel tired just reading your daily pursuits :rotfl:

A-B , Sorry to hear you’ve got the dreaded “S” bug – Hope you recover swiftly. :heartsmil

Today’s been positive for me ..
In an attempt to keep focused I’ve now added my Debt Totals to signature (I’m classing Mortgage as a debt!) Need to redo my SOA, but find it’s confusing on the income side –due to the variation in income & work. Have updated the diary thread today, but have some extra bits to add there later.

Spoke to BCo (the new Assignment company) and booked in 6 Assignments so far for August, so that’s a good start. :T Contacted three others, and now awaiting the intro packs from them – then need to complete the forms & return to them. All sounded quite hopeful regarding work availability.

Paid my fine (though getting in the first place wasn’t good) so that’s done and dusted, not happy about it but just need to live with it – only 6 years & the points will be removed. :rolleyes:

Got a small unexpected extra payment in today – so used it to clear one of the smaller debts (must update my signature) so that’s one less debt to worry about.

I’ve booked the training course to get the certificate I need to become a Consultant for this other company. As soon as I qualify, I can start booking appointments, some will hopefully be from company leads passed on to me for people in my area who’ve made enquiries.

I found an advert for space hire available in a new “bazaar” type set up not too far away from us, considering the options on this for my “products” business. Will give them a call in the next couple of days to get info on prices, inclusions, terms etc, It may possibly be a better option than doing individual shows / exhibitions or similar. Think it would be a good idea to visit and see what volume of footfall they have and observe if people are buying or mooching. This could be a good platform to combine with my (eventual) online outlet. :think:

Begun the task of re-researching prices / services & local competition for two of my proposed income pillars, still got a fair way to go yet – and then will need to look at preparing the website for it. I want to include some free information, maybe a blog (need to research that too!), together with some related e-books (free & low cost).

Business & Work Tasks for the next week (including tomorrow …… or should that now be today!!) :

1 ) Continue to source additional work opportunities
2 ) Continue to look & apply for PT PAYE work.
3 ) Look into availability of free / low cost training & business courses (ie ones not targeted at those claiming benefits, as I don’t qualify for those)
4 ) Look into local “networking” opportunities
5 ) Complete draft version of Business (and Life) Goals, knock into “final” Plan & then prepare some variations on action plans to achieve them.
6 ) Follow up previous applications.
7 ) Re-do Income Planner & Forecast spreadsheets
8 ) Re-start working on Accounts spreadsheets
9 ) Do Course preparation homework.

I’m sure there’s loads of other little bits I’ll be adding to that little list – but it’s a start, wondering if I may get a little bored though ? :rotfl::rotfl:

G:A x

TCM_3

Greyhound Angel you're going to be a busy bee too... between you and Horace buzzing so quickly I'm afraid I might have to lie down in a darkened room!

My brother in law is painting our front room at the minute. He arrived at 10am yesterday and left after 5. he managed to undercoat 2 doors:rolleyes: that was it:rolleyes: The OH said he painted merrily all day and did not stop once. I hope it will be finished before Christmas. He is good but my goodness there is no speed! Thankfully he does not charge by the hour! I reckoned I could have had the room done in a weekend but the OH insisted on getting someone who knew how to paint and not just sling the paint at the wall. Cheek of it.

Horace

Sorry if I am whizzing along at a million miles an hour - its what entrepreneurs do according to D Meaden:D

At long flippin' last I have managed to gain control of my bank account:j and now I am going to move it to the co-op - well I would like free banking for life thank you very much but it will be a pain having to walk to the post office to deposit money but at least the walk gets me out of the house and will shift some of the poundage that I have put on recently:rolleyes:

Not much to report really today - went to the village and got a few bits and bought some bits for the emergency kit (oh i do miss Woolworths - because I need a sewing kit, spare buttons and some earring backs), I got a few bits in Boots and when I asked for smelling salts the assistant gave me a funny look and asked why I needed them - so I said I was a wedding planner, woman then launched into how her daughter organised her own wedding and didnt need help from planners thank you very much - I reminded her that I hadnt actually offered my assistance and anyway I only organise society weddings (I can be so cutting when I want to be:rotfl:).

TCM - what kind of brush is the BIL using? does it only have one strand of bristle? I bet if your OH was there that the pair of them had a chinwag over several mugs of tea and then a trip to the pub for lunch which is why only 2 doors have been undercoated:rolleyes:

SunshineDaisy

Hi there,
May I join the group?
A bit of background..
I have been self employed for about 5 years, after taking voluntary redundancy from an IT job for a large corporation. I had a larg-ish redundancy package so planned to use some of the money to finish renovation work on the house and to take the time to de-stress. I lived alone at that time so decided that I could take a pay cut if it meant I could do something more enjoyable. As long as it covered the mortgage, my rather large heating bill (my house was about the same temp as the tropics - yes I realise that wasn't very eco-friendly) and left me enough to buy basic food (I'm the worst cook), buy a few simple luxuries (chocolate, wine) and enough dog food to keep my best friend happy - then all would be fine.


My first venture was an online shop and I ran it full time for 2 years. It was great fun and just what I needed to de-stress. However I then realised that I wanted more from life, and my company wouldn't be able to provide a large enough income to achieve it. I wanted to travel and my dream was to buy a little house somewhere warm (save on the heating bill). Secondly, there were rumours of an imminent recession and my shop sold 'nice-to-haves' and collector's items so I could see it struggling in the future. Time to make the jump.

I decided to buy a small business selling stationery with my partner - my thinking was, even in a recession, people are still going to need to print letters/invoices/etc and send in envelopes. Plus there is the student market, and the essential services (doctors, insurance services, etc).

So how is it going? Well.. not great. Contractually, we are tied to one supplier for our stationery stock (don't ask) and the margins are really low. We have been going for a couple of years and haven't yet taken any money out of the business. Legally we can't walk away from the deal for another couple of years without the risk of our 'supplier/partner' threatening to sue.

I sold my house and put half of the proceeds into the business - I have now accepted that I won't see the return of this money (sob). The rest I put in the bank and have been living off it since we started.

My current issue is that my nice big lump sum that could have been a sizable deposit for my dream house in the sun ( in some countries may have even been enough to buy a house outright) is now down to the equivalent of a few month's wages. I find this heart-breaking as it was the result of many years of hard work, overtime/ being on-call, working weekends doing up the house, saving, etc and it's almost all gone.

After reading through the forums, I stumbled on MSE. I know my situation isn't quite like the normal debtor problem, but I enjoyed reading through your stories and you might be able to motivate me back to a more positive frame of mind.

My goals are to :
- Firstly, stop taking money out of my 'house proceeds' savings account so that it doesn't reduce any further. This will mean finding ways to make money outside the business. I've gone through my essential and non-essential outgoings (very enlightening) and believe I can live quite cheaply. I have been through all the remaining stock from my first business and am spending my weekends listing as much as I can on ebay. I have also registered with a few mystery shopping sites.
- We pay our rent annually in advance in return for a discount, due at the end of the year. We will have to review whether this will be a good idea this year. If we do decide to do it, it will take another big chunk of my savings - perhaps reducing it down into single figures (k's). I've opened a savings account with the challenge of earning another 4.5k in the next 4 months.
- Once I have the situation stabilized, start to build up my savings pot again.


My other goal, for which I need your help with, is motivation. I have become so de-motivated about my main business that I will find absolutely anything on which to spend my time, rather than do what needs to be done. I love the idea of the little goals that you have been setting each other (e.g. setting targets and reporting back at a specific time to report progress). If anybody wants to do this with me, let me know. The main thing I procrastinate about is making sales calls. I hate doing them and I'm sure it comes across in my technique - so any tips on this would be appreciated.

Right, talking of which - the phone awaits.

ally_bally_3

Welcome sunshine daisy! Motivation often is helped along I think just by the simple task of coming on here and simply saying, today I will do XYZ. It's like shaming yourself into tackling things one step at a time!

Well luckily for me I have just taken my last Tamiflu tablet so I can leave the house for an oh-so-exciting trip to Sainsburys. I haven't been out of the house since Sunday, not once, am going stir crazy! Everyone else I know who has had it is excited to get 5 days off work but doesn't quite work like that for us self employed...

I used the time off to tackle a horrid job for one of my clients (and friend). He is a disorganised musician who is currently on tour in the states and he hasn't yet submitted any info to his accountant so I said I would compile his expenses and reconcile his company credit card. Well I wish I hadn't said I would - I got a Sainsbury's carrier bag bursting at the seam full of crumpled up receipts going back 2 years. Have spent 6 hours on it already and haven't even emptied the bag never mind entering them on a spreadsheet and starting the reconcilliation! Pah!!!

Hope everyone else is having a nice Friday
x

TCM_3

Hi Sunshine Daisy!!!
Welcome to the merry band! Ok, tough talk time... as you can see, I am typing on here instead of working... hmm... I have plenty to do but today my shop is quiet when I have been very busy all week, so I am having a "me" day in between customers! But, I know when the work is done I will feel so much better and if I keep that feeling then the motivation stays... for a while!

Horace you are responsible for me ordering Deborah Meden's book off amazon but i did do a sneeky and used the OH's card instead of my own! Although I did do a good deed today and loaned a vicar 5 buckets for his Bible club next week! I did make him take a pink one and told him the Good Lord would appreiate his sense of humour!

I did however discover that I can sell books on amazon which I didn't know so I put one on that I read on holiday - its a scary one though which may not appeal to everyone.

Am glad you've got your bank sorted Horace, I hate that feeling of someone else having access to your business accounts.
The BIL i think is painting with a mascara brush or something equivilent!

Horace

Hi SunshineDaisy (your name will probably get shortened to Daisy:D)

If you are on a low income have you tried applying for working tax credits? I get them - its a little over £50 a week, its not much but it will help.

I won't ask how you got involved with one stationery supplier (we all make dumb mistakes from time to time). Have you thought of re-negotiating the contract so that you get a better deal, at the moment it isnt cost effective for you if you are barely existing. Have you thought of selling something else alongside the stationery supplies? For instance, craft supplies (rubber stamps, inks, peeloffs, fancy handmade papers) or even art equipment such as paints, easels etc. I have noticed that a local stationery shop (in the heart of studentsville) has started to put on weekend demonstrations - on a saturday they will set up a few chairs down one side of the shop and have someone showing people how to paint or make things, they offer them tea and coffee and maybe have a big tin of chocs (no lunch). I asked this shop about a business account but the minimum monthly spend is £50 which is too much for my acorn-sized business but they do have a loyalty card for craft things which can be used for any stationery purchases, they stamp the card (in reality a piece of paper which they seem to keep, well mine wasnt handed to me) and then according to the level reached you may get a free thing (I received my choice of two kinds of peeloffs (another way of getting rid of old stock) and when the sheet is filled with stamps then you get £25 to spend in the shop:cool:

I was thinking about the free demonstrations as then you would have a captive audience in the shop who are likely to spend money especially if you sell the items that are used in the demonstration as folks always like to buy things after they have seen them used.

Would your current supplier object if you also sold art stuff or craft stuff? Diversification maybe the way to go and the stationery will still be your core business. Just a thought.

Does your partner work in the shop? If so, what is he like with sales calls? I was thinking that if he is better than you then maybe a change of roles is in order and he makes the calls and you do something else?

AllyBally - I am glad you are on your last tamiflu tablet - you must be going stir crazy?:eek: I need to get some shopping but will have to rely on friends to drive me as my eyesight is such that I am not legally able to drive until I get my new specs - its a bloomin' inconvenience and haven't been shopping for over a month and my cupboards and freezer are looking rather bare:eek:

Sorry TCM if I have caused you to buy Deborah Meaden's book (I admit that I don't like her much on Dragon's Den but after reading about her - she is shrewd), using OH's card was a stupendous idea as he owes you for his snide remarks about the shop. I love the fact that you gave the vicar some pink buckets - the good lord moves in mysterious ways:rotfl:

mizmir

Ok - Horace's posts on bank accounts has got me thinking I really must do something about a business account - at the moment - because things have been so parttime and small I have just used my standard personal account (I know ). My question is about the name. I do have a business name but I am thinking of changing it (to broaden the area) and later I may change it again as I branch out. I don't mind that as fundamentally people are hiring me not the business name. So my question is can I just get a business account in my real name - without giving a business name. That way I wouldn't have to change it and cheques from all the sources can go in the one account. Essentially I work as a sole trader - me trading as... just haven't quite finalised what I am trading as..! :rotfl:

Also best buy business accounts? I know the Abbey has a free for life account - any others? Horace - I couldn't see that deal with the coop - is that a personal deal or a standard one for small businesses?

Horace

Mizmir the deal with the co-op is for members of the federation of small businesses (it costs £150 plus VAT for the year to be a member but you get all sorts of benefits).

I was looking through the paperwork again for the co-op and they want things like 90 days worth of personal bank statements, business plans etc so I may stick with Lloyds TSB for a while and then next year switch to the co-op.

I think for a business account as a sole trader you would need your name T/A Pooches Paradise Dog Training. In fact there is no reason why you can't have more than one business.

mizmir

Horace wrote: »

I think for a business account as a sole trader you would need your name T/A Pooches Paradise Dog Training. In fact there is no reason why you can't have more than one business.

so if I had a business account as say fred bloggs t/a pooches paradise would I be able to pay in cheques to either fred bloggs or pooches paradise? Trouble is the second strand of my plan is not about dogs so I am not sure I want the business account to be in the name of the dog thing - or I would have to have two business accounts eventually!

I suppose the second name would encompass the whole so I could just open a new account in that name when the time comes!