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Horace

pcfixmanchester wrote: »

Hiya
What a great thread. Though reading MSE seems to have become my biggest time hog these last few weeks !!
Anyhow, a little about me, am just starting up a new business after 6 years of Illness. Hoping to start at the beginning of April, so currently madly designing leaflets, cards and websites and getting very excited about being in the working world again.
Been very impressed with all the tips and support you all give, and been reading about Horace with great interest as you say you finishing Test Trading. I am just about to start so would love to hear about what support you got and how you found it.
Anyhow, have said Hi now !! thanks for all the tips and motivation on the forum.
Cheers
Andy ;-)

Hi and welcome - I was going to send you a PM about test trading but thought that it would be better if posted where all could see and maybe get some tips.

When you decide to go onto New Deal for self-employment your jobcentre advisor will send you to the local chamber of commerce (this is what happens in the Midlands and I am not sure if it is everywhere). You start on Stage 1 which is basically a meeting with a chap to see if your business idea is viable - if its not then you don't get past go. I didnt like my first chamber advisor as I thought he was a nincompoop but now I see someone else who is fantastic. Stage 2 - involves weekly (or is it fortnightly - I can't remember) meetings with your chamber mentor who steers you through the process of setting up and helping you with your business plan (I was lucky I had already attended some free chamber courses about setting up a business so I had a head start), during Stage 2 you get your travel costs paid for but this stops as soon as your business plan has been accepted. I didnt start Stage 3 straightaway as I wasn't and didn't feel ready and therefore didnt actually start test trading until 27 October 2007. I had to fill in HMRC forms at the chamber and these were sent off plus they helped me set up a bank account. On test-trading the chamber of commerce keeps the cheque book and you have the paying in book but if you want to withdraw money you have to ask permission as they sign the cheque. During Stage 3 you are essentially signed off the dole and they send you a P45 but you still get your £60.50 allowance plus an additional £15.38 a week training allowance - I put this extra bit into the business bank account because I have to pay my insurances from it. Each fortnight you visit the chamber and have a meeting and this is where you sign to say that you have worked 30+ hours a week. You need to keep your books too so you note down your spends so that you can claim them back from the business. At the end of the test trading period and you decide that self employment is not for you then any monies accumulated in the bank account get used to pay your work debts. I have no intention of going back on the dole so at the end of test trading I will receive my cheque book but will still be able to see a mentor but it will be someone different as the chap I see only deals with New Deal clients. The chamber of commerce also encourage you to come off the dole and will help you to get working tax credits.

I found the New Deal for Self Employment brilliant because of the support that I have received and the fact that I have acquired some new contacts because my local chamber give those on Stage 3 - 3 free adverts in their monthly magazine now these ads normally cost £50 plus VAT, I have found loads of potential suppliers and have even persuaded some suppliers to branch out - one writes personalised poems and now she is also writing wedding vows and another is an artist (she does rather strange cartoons) and she is working on some wedding invitations that we can produce between us.

My local chamber of commerce is brilliant and have created a membership package purely for start ups which costs £170 plus VAT and you get 3 years free banking, a free £500 overdraft, free business mastercard with Nat West and a host of other stuff plus the opportunity to attend networking events. There is one being held on Friday that is local to me but I have made other plans - as I am taking my business cards to a marquee firm who are having an open weekend and I am having a meeting with an accountant (not that I need one yet):D

BTW I havent been paid by my local chamber of commerce to say this to promote New Deal although I was told last week that they would be looking for another mentor and I immediately put myself forward:rotfl: - what do I know I haven't even got any clients yet:rolleyes: :rotfl:

Hope this helps and if you need any more information, feel free to ask.

Seaxwyn

Hooray! 10.56 and I have done and sent off one of the articles. Now I have a 15 minute interview and will aim to do one more before lunch. Did you list your one item and prepare 5 more, sashanut?

sashanut

Hi Yes Seaxwyn - Put one doll + pics & description on site, got 5 things ready to photograph, bit rushed as taking DD to college took longer than I thought......this is great! It is the most I have done on the site since last Nov!!

OK will have a break for 15, get lunch ready (HM soup) & aim to photo the outfits before lunch. Will report back this pm on progress - GO US!!!!!!!!!!!

Horace

Well done Sashanut:T :T :T

Well done Seaxwyn :T :T :T

tyllwyd

I'm working on a big editing job - quite a nice one actually because its updating a previous edition on paper, so not too taxing on the brain and not hard on the eyes like working on screen. But I am starting to worry a bit because I need to find an indexer to work on it over Easter, and obviously all the indexing mums won't be working, and my contact who is supposed to be helping me find someone isn't in the office today. Fingers crossed, if I can just get a name it will sort itself out easily.

Purpleroses

Morning all!

I'm also self employed. Have been for nearly 3 years now and things are finally picking up. Started out as a small craft business as there were no jobs and got bored sitting around waiting for a job to come along so a friend and I started making jewellery and handbags and selling them online and at craft fairs. We've now moved onto another business with a few others as cloth makers and we now supply fashion houses and tailors.

In London just now about to go meet a shoe designer who wants to use our cloth! To say i'm slightly freaking out would be an understatement but will do my best. eep!

Fab thread btw!

gwynnington

Hi all
Ive been reading the posts and I must thank you all for taking the time to write your stories...its so great to know we are not alone!

I am a freelance graphic designer 'working from home' and got made redundant from a studio in jan 2006..the boss was an idiot and I asked too many awkward questions so was the first to go!! On that day I brought a mac and started my business.

All went well for a few years, but this last year my major client, a journalist, halved his workload for me. This last week thats halved again bringing my freelance salary down to something pathetic, around £9,000 a year.!!

Ive also had several nasty experiences, one of which involved me working in a studio for a month, then on putting in my invoice in, was told that they were not going to pay it! Having spent £150 of my own money taking it through the small claims court and winning, only to be told that the bailiff cant get any money out of them, I have decided to drop it and put it down to experience!!! Its been plagueing me for over 6 months and i cant see a way to getting my money now...what goes around comes around though I hope?

So I have taken to working at my local theatre for minimum wage on several evening and weekend shifts, which causes a few probs at home, as Im never here, and sometimes feel im doing 16 hour days, as i start job hunting/networking/trying to get motivated and then go out to my shift from 6 - 11pm.

Im desperate not to become a casualty of this recession, but at the mo, I cant even get an interview for Tescos as my CV is so heavily biased in design, even though i have so many skills I could use? Then like so many of you, I get down, disheartened and do nothing instead. (other than email radio 2 to winge to Ken Bruce and enter online competitions hoping for an easy way out!)

Funny how most of us posting here are in some kind of creative/writing/marketing types of business... if anyone wants careers advice DONT GO INTO THE MEDIA...go into IT..my OH earns in a day what i earn at the mo in a month!! and i work a helluva lot harder than he does!!

If anyone wants my email for support or a general winge and mutual encouragement, then please PM me...I would only be too happy for another human being to moan with...the cat is getting fed up with me!!

TCM_3

this thread is great!

Sammy 115 thank you for the VT accounts package. It has revolutionised my accounts - i was using Sage and getting bogged down and confused and if I made a mistake you had to go round the houses to correct it!
I downloaded the package last week and have almost everything up to date from the beginning of the Tax year! Brilliant!

However - business was very quiet on Tuesday but really good yesterday. Still panicing about ordering stock in as i don't want to over stock and tie up money but yet i can't afford not to have a certain amount. Then I panic incase i order stuff and then no one comes in to buy it!

Dammed if I do and if I don't!

T
xx

AKA2021

Hello!!!
Thank you very much Wordsmith for posting this thread.

I have been a fan of MSE for a while but have never really taken action on the advice given.... I am new to the forum & really want to start the new tax year right.

I am a contractor working for a company that is based abroad, I am the only one based in the UK, I have masses of debt & have buried my head in the sand somewhat. I need many kicks up the %@#& to sort stuff out....

I need advice about tax, trying to save, trying to unravel my debt position etc etc.....

Any help will be very much appreciated!!! More soon!

Cheers!

Horace

Welcome to all newbies:D

I don't pay tax yet so cannot give any advice on that score unfortunately.

Thought I would update you - I contacted the posh wedding shop this morning and they weren't amused that I had gone in under cover (tough titties), although they were mildly interested that I was a wedding planner I cannot be one of their 'partners' because they already have a wedding planner who plans everything for free - all I can say is that this planner isnt going to be in business for too long if everything she does is free:rolleyes: I am not changing my fees and if you want good service then you pay for it, if you want bad service go somewhere where they will work for free. As you can see I am not too bothered by this and basically it was as I expected plus I don't want to hand over loads of commission to them. They have said they will keep my name on file but I am not holding my breath because to be truthful I don't see them being in business that long.

Just come back from the stationers - I managed to get an A4 display stand and the lad in the shop gave me a small discount too:D trouble is as soon as I stepped outside the shop the heavens opened and I am doing a good impersonation of a drowned rat:rolleyes:

Tomorrow is a busy day - I am off to the spa (one treatment), going to the marquee place which is on the same site (its all on a farm and the farmer has diversified and yet part of the farm still has cattle on it) and then after lunch I am off to meet a potential supplier at the local craft centre where they do a mean cake and a cuppa (and it will be a business expense).

Well, I must try and write and submit these two remaining assignments - I know I keep talking about it but never do it, its because they are so easy and boring which is why I keep putting them off so I need a kick up the backside really.