I'd like to be a mini Martin - any suggestions?

jesdan

Not making you a bad person but the way you put "this service would be for people who have no inclination or enough knowledge to do these things themselves. And I do not see many people doing this for strangers (except for Martin) out of the goodness of their hearts. "
I take exception to a couple of points - the no inclination/enough knowledge - I personally think that people are actually scared (I know I was) it is not that they haven't any inclination - who doesn't want a better life, or knowledgeable - it feels as though you are insinuating people are a bit dense??
Also, the doing it out of the goodness of our hearts - yes I bloody would given half the chance, even to the point of boring friends (actual) about the help that there is out there - particularly this site - I just don't have the experience / knowledge inn being able to "reach" them properly

Martins_apprentice

It's great that you would give advice for free jesdan, I also do to my family and friends. And I'm not calling people stupid, I'm saying a lot of people do not know what to do. That has been very obvious around my immediate circle. I didn't myself until I spent a lot of time looking into it.

It doesn't matter why people don't follow Martins tips, a lot just don't. And it is the banks and other huge companies that are profiteering. This is what I am against - and if I did moneysaving for a job I would need a nominal fee...which people would not HAVE to pay of they didn't want the advice. I would tell them what website I work from (this one) and then it would be their choice to do it themselves or not.

BeenieCat

Surely you couldn't take all Martin's tips and then charge people for helping put them into practice?

Not sure why, just seems a bit wrong. You just want paying to read these forums all day, admit it .

How would you advertise this service? I mean, you'd be helping them lower their bills, but using comparison sites is so well publicised nowadays with their tv adverts that you'd be hard pushed to convince anyone to pay you to do it for them?
Also, it's not something you could do for any period of time with the same client is it? So would they pay you a one off fee, say once a year to get their finances in order?
How far would you want to be involved with any particular family's finances? You might find yourself becoming a personal accountant, or on a more practical level, showing them how to make a pack of mince last for 150 meals

Martins_apprentice

Hi BeenieCat,

I understand your thoughts - although if people do not want to do this themselves and would prefer someone else to do it for them then that would be their choice. We all are happy to read and digest this site, others aren't. It's a service, nothing else.

The fee may be say 5% of what I've saved them, maybe paid over 3 months so that their future savings that I've made them covered this. They would not lose out financially in any way. They would then continue saving over the next however many months (hopefully many). And I would only look at the basics of moneysaving as this site does - I'm no guru on making a pack of mince last 150 meals.

At the end of the day this is an optional service - I would be happy to pay someone to save me money. I pay for advice if I don't want to research stuff myself.

But maybe there wouldn't be a take up for the service and then that's my answer I guess. I haven't thought about advertising.

ManAtHome

But presumably you'd have to give specific advice rather than just leave the punters with a list of possibles and some general recommendations (which is what this site is).

Other problem is how you get customers - what do you do with door-knockers or flyers claiming they can save you money..?

Dustangle

Martins_apprentice wrote: »

Food for thought there regarding being sued but I would only be giving the same advice as Martin and can he be sued? Maybe if I charge some sort of fee I would be liable - I will look into it. But it would not be Icelandic Bank advice - that is for the professionals.

Thanks.

Martin Lewis doesn't give advice. Look at the bottom of this webpage. If he did give advice he would be subject to a duty of care and liable for the foreseeable consequences of any breach of duty.

Martins_apprentice

ManAtHome,
I would give specific advice to the best of my knowledge, a couple of choices if possible and then it would be up to them what they felt was best. The same as any other advice service I guess.
Getting customers would just be through word of mouth - recommendations from people who have saved money.

Martins_apprentice

Dustangle, I would only want to save people money and would not want to venture into the arena where I could get sued for doing so. Maybe you have answered my question whether this is viable or not - ie not. Any thoughts?

gordikin

Oh dear OP! Anything you could advise is already here!

Dustangle

Martins_apprentice wrote: »

if I did moneysaving for a job I would need a nominal fee...which people would not HAVE to pay of they didn't want the advice.

You suggested taking 5 per cent of savings over three months.

Now let's say you wanted to pay yourself a salary of the average wage, presently £25k.

Even trading from home as a self employed unincorporated trader, unisng your home computer and personal internet connection, you would have overheads as well, including postage, phone, stationery, advertising, business rates, and - I would hope - indemnity insurance and help in collecting bad debts (your customers would by definition be people with chronic problems paying bills!). Put aside £5k for that. So you'd want to bring in £30k.

You would need to help people save £600k a year to bring in average wage, and more realistically a lot more since you would face bad payers and people who disputed the savings you claimed. So your target would be to save people £1m a year.

And since it would take some time to be established and work to that level of efficiency, you would begin with no income and living off - what?

This is not advice, by the way. If I was to offer advice, I'd say why not do a degree in law or accountancy, then obtain the relevant professional qualifications, and set yourself up in business as a solicitor, accountant? Then you would have the professional standing that would give potential customers confidence in your knowledge and abilities, and you would be a member of a professional body that set standards, enjoyed legal standing, and organised professional indemnity indurance to protect customers.

While you're doing that, you can volunteer at a CAB and help people for free.

But there isn't really a viable niche betwen the two. You can't set yourself up as a solicitor or an accountant when you're not - that's a criminal offence.

There are qualified money advisers, who work for local authorities and CABx, I suppose. And there's all those firms that advertise on daytime telly, who might give you a job!