Start my own business?????

djtonyb

Could someone point me in the correct direction.

What books to read, who to see, how to get started?

Many thanks

Amanda

P.S I'm hoping to open a craft store

Seraphim

In terms of setting the company up, this is what I asked myself...

How are you going to set yourself up as a company? Limited, partnership or sole trader? There are advantages/disadvantages to each. It might be worth talking to an accountant as they can talk you through the tax benefits etc of each.

Will you need a business bank account? If so, who does the best deals for what you want?

Will you be borrowing money, or do you have your own start-up capital? If you are borrowing money, where from? Is it from the bank? In which case, you will need a business plan (this is probably a good idea for you to have anyway....I have a plan of where my company is at, revenue targets etc).

My personal feeling is you should definitely speak to an accountant because they can answer a lot of your questions, and also advise you. A lot will do their initial consultation for free. I set my company up before I went to see one, but a lot of people have said I should have done it the other way around The only other person I spoke to was my bank manager, mainly because I had to

Good luck if you do setup your own company...loads of *really* hard work but definitely worth it!

Tallymanjohn

Also, contact your local tax office - you're going to have to deal with them sooner rather than later - they are extremely helpful these days, offering free seminars on how to do things correctly & they give you a free, very helpful, manual as soon as you register with them (which you're obliged to do anyway. If it's only going to be a small business initially (<£15,000 turnover) then they will be able to help you more than an accountant, & unless you have a lot of initial investment to make you don't need anything more than a basic spreadsheet program to keep track of income/outgoings.

You are more likely to get a good business bank account deal if you have an initial deposit - mine only wanted £1,000 & I got free banking for the 1st 18months.

Pink.

Hi Amanda,

You should get more help with this on the Small Business board, so I'll move your thread over there.

Pink

Mark7799

A good starting point is https://www.businesslink.gov.uk

researcher

I recently did a research project on business banking and I found that Lloyds Bank do a very useful start-up guide. It gives lots of very useful information whether you bank with them or not.

These are also useful business forum

http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/index.php
and
http://www.teneric.co.uk/forums/