Setting up new business - help!

Mrs_Monkey_Boy

Hello All,

A little bit of background! I am currently self-employed and registered with HMRC for the last 2 years.

I have an idea for a new business idea which is slightly different to what I am currently doing. Do I need to advise them of this or just add the income/expenses to my existing ones when doing my tax return?

Also, I am aiming to set up a website to advertise and provide a place of reference and contact for my new business. It's based in the events industry and I would also like for people to be able to pay online for the service provided.

Can someone suggest a simple, cost-effective solution? I don't need anything to flash as I want to keep the content fairly simple. However, I would also like to be able to manage the content myself to keep it updated with any special offers etc.

I hope that makes sense! I have a clear plan of what I want to offer but need some advice as to how to make it simple and accessible for potential clients.

Many thanks,

Laura

Deepmistrust

Mrs_Monkey_Boy wrote: »

Hello All,

A little bit of background! I am currently self-employed and registered with HMRC for the last 2 years.

I have an idea for a new business idea which is slightly different to what I am currently doing. Do I need to advise them of this or just add the income/expenses to my existing ones when doing my tax return?

Also, I am aiming to set up a website to advertise and provide a place of reference and contact for my new business. It's based in the events industry and I would also like for people to be able to pay online for the service provided.

Can someone suggest a simple, cost-effective solution? I don't need anything to flash as I want to keep the content fairly simple. However, I would also like to be able to manage the content myself to keep it updated with any special offers etc.

I hope that makes sense! I have a clear plan of what I want to offer but need some advice as to how to make it simple and accessible for potential clients.

Many thanks,

Laura

Yes you have to notify HMRC for every different self-employment you have.

You may face a loss in one business, which can be offset against the other, but you still have to inform HMRC.

You will only Self-assess once, albeit for both profit/loss statements.

Savvy_Sue

Deepmistrust wrote: »

Yes you have to notify HMRC for every different self-employment you have.

You may face a loss in one business, which can be offset against the other, but you still have to inform HMRC.

You will only Self-assess once, albeit for both profit/loss statements.

Surely, if you're self employed as a sole trader, HMRC don't care two hoots if you're making your money via one line of business or 60?

I agree with the last two points, however.

Of course, the best people to ask would be HMRC: their helplines are generally fairly helpful for things like this.

Deepmistrust

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

Surely, if you're self employed as a sole trader, HMRC don't care two hoots if you're making your money via one line of business or 60?

I agree with the last two points, however.

Of course, the best people to ask would be HMRC: their helplines are generally fairly helpful for things like this.

No, you need to register EVERY self-employment with them.

Both (or all) employments will still need to be accounted for seperately, two income/expenditures will still have to be done. (Although only one self-assessment).

(In fact some businesses attract different tax rules and regulations, so what is allowable in some types of businesses, isn't in another).

The taxman will need to see which expense relates to which income.

And that's aside from the fact that it's extremely bad practise for business purposes to account for two businesses in one income/expenditure. If the OP ever needed her profit/loss for any other purpose, such as business loan, expansion etc, it would be extremely difficult to prove which business made what profit.

Mrs_Monkey_Boy

Thanks very much for the help. It has helped to clarify for me. Do I just phone the helpline and advise them?

Also, any thoughts on website hosting/providers very welcome :j

Laura

Deepmistrust

Mrs_Monkey_Boy wrote: »

Thanks very much for the help. It has helped to clarify for me. Do I just phone the helpline and advise them?

Also, any thoughts on website hosting/providers very welcome :j

Laura

Yes, just ring the self-employed helpline, they'll add your new business to your existing UTR details.

No idea on the website side of life sorry

paulwf

Mrs_Monkey_Boy wrote: »

Also, any thoughts on website hosting/providers very welcome :j

Laura

Hi Laura,

It is difficult to tell from the details you give how complex the website is, perhaps you could give a more comprehensive spec? A site with 5 products selling for £100 each will be quite a bit different to selling 1,000 products worth £1 each for example. How many payment options will you be giving?

Mrs_Monkey_Boy

Deepmistrust wrote: »

Yes, just ring the self-employed helpline, they'll add your new business to your existing UTR details.

No idea on the website side of life sorry

No problem - thankyou for your help :beer:

Mrs_Monkey_Boy

paulwf wrote: »

Hi Laura,

It is difficult to tell from the details you give how complex the website is, perhaps you could give a more comprehensive spec? A site with 5 products selling for £100 each will be quite a bit different to selling 1,000 products worth £1 each for example. How many payment options will you be giving?

Hello,

In the first instance, I am aiming to keep the website quite simple. Probably only 6 pages - it's really to provide a place of initial reference and introduction. I won't be selling a product but charging for a service. I will have 2 or 3 difference packages that people can choose and am planning to take payment via cheque or online as this will make it easier for a lot of potential customers.

I did think the paypal standard package might be a good option? Does anyone have any experience of this?

If I hosted a simple site with someone, could this feature be integrated or would I need to pay someone to do the whole lot for me?

Sorry for being a bit confused - I am itching to get started but feel like the chicken AND the egg - not sure what to do first!!
Thanks again,

Laura

paulwf

That all sounds fairly straightforward - it would be worth spending a while going through past threads on this board as website/shopping cart questions pop up quite regularly. With regards to payment providers the important thing is to read and understand the way they work with regards to fraud and chargebacks. I know there is a lot of talk about how Paypal can leave retailers prone to chargebacks and what steps you can take to minimise this...it's quite similar to the way credit card companies work so take the time to understand it even though it is very boring

You've basically got 3 parts to getting your website running:

1) Buying a domain name and then a hosting package

2) Getting someone to build your site and integrate a shopping cart, and preferably do some general housekeeping such as optimising your site for search engines and setting up your email addresses

3) Getting someone to do the graphic design for your site, if you already have logos designed and a colour scheme this will be easier

There will probably be a lot of overlap, I use a hosting company that can handle all three elements. OTOH if design is really important you might want that to be handled by someone different to the friendly geek you use to code the site

I think the main thing is to make sure that the domain name and hosting package is registered to you and not the designer...that way if there is ever a falling out or they start charging silly renewal fees you still own the site or can point your domain name to another host.

There are lots of CMS - content management system - options out there, basically they allow you to update as easy as posting on this forum. You then won't have to pay a developer for basic text updates.

As to costs...each domain name is around £5-10. A server host with capacity for a small business will probably be under £50. A developer and designer can be a student or outsourced overseas for very little money or could be a professional that may want up to £1,000ish.

Without knowing how important the image your company portrays is it's hard to say what is best, as a middle option getting some competant uni students to do the work should easily give you change from £500.

Mrs_Monkey_Boy

Brilliant paulwf - thanks for all your help.

A few silly questions. If I was to have the site designed by someone using a CMS do I then upload it via my host? Are the CMS options easy to set up and is there one that would be better suited to me?

I've seen a few templates for CMS with fairly nice designs. Is it fairly foolproof to do my own site using one of these or would I be better to get someone else to do it for me?