Hopes and dreams for a new home...

Iris_Blue

I'm not with quidco as I use TCB, we don't really buy much nowadays apart from food. Do you know if you can you get it on food?

Aww thank you! The tax scares me, the whole thing does but I want to do it. I really do. Funnily enough DH wants to now do something that he's interested in too. I really don't know where to start though but I know I'm running at the moment when things haven't actually started yet. Is there any book /site or whatever you can recommend at all ?

Iris_Blue

Good morning !

OH heard something “go” in the car and it broke down when he was coming home for work last night and didn’t get in until 4am – thank goodness we have breakdown cover as part of the car insurance! I was oblivious to it all as I took 2 paracetamol before bed and didn't hear my mobile go off. Opps! He was towed home in the end, he could have gone to a garage but they were all shut anyway . I think he was thankful that I’m so organised and had everything he needed to hand to phone the company up himself. I’m disappointed as this car has low mileage and only had one owner ( my FIL ) but I feel everything is going wrong with it at the moment.

He has his interview tomorrow so I think he’s going to take the day off now to prepare and make some calls about the car.

I’ve ordered my clubcard deal pizza expr3ss vouchers today to use when we go on holiday, so a nice treat for there. :money: We are taking £320 in cash with us for the 4 days but I’m really hoping to bring some of that back with us. I hope it’s enough.

2 of the boys catch the bus to school and the fares have increased this week to £8:50p.w each.:( That is a lot of money and school isn’t that far away but too far to walk. I’ve seen a house near to school where we could move to and working things out it would only cost us about £100extra to live there if we saved the bus money with the boys walking. It’s a better postcode than ours and a little bit bigger in size, nicely decorated with a wood burner so all we would have to touch is the bathroom .I’m hoping that no one is interested in it. I’m waiting on a call back from the E.A’s. We’re thinking that with this house we could blitz the mortgage within a few years and then move to where we originally wanted to live with a good deposit to put down.

The viewing went well that we had on Sunday but we haven’t received feedback yet. They wanted to rent a property out as they get living accommodation with work ( lucky lucky things ) but have never owned a property before and want to get on the ladder. So fingers crossed for us!

lincoln-potter

Iris_Blue wrote: »

I'm not with quidco as I use TCB, we don't really buy much nowadays apart from food. Do you know if you can you get it on food?

Aww thank you! The tax scares me, the whole thing does but I want to do it. I really do. Funnily enough DH wants to now do something that he's interested in too. I really don't know where to start though but I know I'm running at the moment when things haven't actually started yet. Is there any book /site or whatever you can recommend at all ?

I only use Quidco but the supermarkets give (but most grocery items aren't included):

ASDA - £5.50 for new customers and up to 8%cb on goods
TESCo - Up to 10%cb on goods
Sainsburys - 50p per grocery shop and up to 5%
Ocardo - £7.50 for genuine new customers

The tax shouldn't scare you too much, HMRC aren't so bad. As long as you grow organically and don't spend all the profits without paying the taxbill you will be fine. For small startups http://www.taxassist.co.uk/ are a cheap and effective source of information and assistance with tax related issues, plus they should have a branch close to you.

First thing I would suggest is to draw up a fully detailed business plan, it will give you a full understanding of the costs you are likely to need (there are plenty of generic templates online) whilst also giving you a concise action plan and direction.

You say you are running at the moment, how far along with the process are you? You mentioned the product in spain, have you fully looked at all the costs (shipping, customs, exchange rate variances). have you thought how you are going to ship the item to customers? (parcels or pallets), have you sourced rates?

Have you sourced a firm to design the website for you yet? If so be careful there are alot who charge daft prices, we paid several thousand for our first website (which was c**p), relocated to a small husband and wife team who charge just a few hundred and do a far far better job, so be careful.

If there are specific questions you don't want to make public PM me.

Few links
- http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/layer?r.s=tl&topicId=1073858805
- http://www.smallbusiness.co.uk/channels/small-business-finance/government-grants/

Iris_Blue

Thanks LP I'll take a look at them later. I want to read them through properly.

I meant I was running ahead with ideas and not really thought things through yet. My father had his own business when he lived in England so I do have someone to ask, and he is helping me although it's hard on the telephone.

The costs for shipping the item is minimum as the product is light. Its more buying from France and selling it here in order to get a few hundred behind me so I can look at properly what I want to do business wise but saying that I have an idea on what to do with this product and I intend to go into specialised shops to see if they would buy some from me. If this happens then great, I'd set up officially straight away, but it may be a pipe dream and just fizzle out.

I have a domain name already but not got as far as a website as I feel that this will be much further down the line. I initially want to sell on eb8y to test the water and see which direction I want to go in. Which ever way , I want to make this work.

Sorry if I sound vague about things , that is because it is all a bit vague at the moment, hence me wanting the book for dummies!

I appreciate your advice though and anything else you can throw in anytime would be a great help too.:)

lincoln-potter

Good to have somebody to ask even if its just on the phone.

When you come to buying the item and paying for it, always compare two foreign exchange dealers.
I use Travelex, worldwide currencies and First Rate FX for all my payments in Euros and US Dollars (I buy a fair amount each year so they are legit so no need to worry about your money vanishing). Always compare the live rates and never assume you are getting the best rate as they always try and sneak up their %, also NEVER use your bank to make the payment on your hebalf, you will get ripped off.

A wesbite really is quite straightforward to do, £114 (inc VAT) is the basic cost for hosting and deisgn, at the very least it will make you seem more professional even if you don't derive many sales from it initially. Having a true website email adress is far better and reassuring than an @hotmail or @yahoo etc.

If it is something you look at going for then I would suggest Bank of Scotland for your business bank http://www.bankofscotlandbusiness.co.uk/business-accounts/starting-a-business/ (free for the first 18 months)

LilacPixie

Tax is a doddle

Iris_Blue

Thanks LP that's a help. Yes I agree about the website address I wouldn't touch someone who didn't bother getting a proper one. I only bought the .co.uk one I didn't see the point in .com

I've thought a lot today about a business and I'm getting excited by it all. I need to start jotting things down now and coming up with a plan.

Mrs LP - You would say that wouldn't you! :)

I've just popped on to share my news - We have a offer on the house which we are going to accept! :j PLUS ..YES there's more....seeing as my wage is out of the equation at the end of this month I was worried about how much we would be offered by the H/F but we now have a mortgage offer in place. We have ummed and arrrhed and have decided not to go for our dream house by the waterfall but for a local house which makes sense as there will be no boys bus fares , they can walk- saving £70 ish pm, a good location, a drive for 6 cars,( not that we have 6 ! ) utility room ( I've always wanted one of these ) and a downstairs toilet ( Not that I have trouble going up the stairs but it'll be handy with the little ones ) Hopefully it will still be available when I phone to make a viewing tomorrow.

sarahevie

well done on the offer - brilliant news:j:j:j

isn't this your second?

LilacPixie

WooHoo... I must admit a downstairs loo is lovely but another to clean

Iris_Blue

Our 4th offer Sarahevie. The first two were much too low and the 3rd one we accepted but they hadn't sold theirs yet. ( and I beleive they put offers on other houses too, which we wasn't told about ) and then this one. I'm not happy with the Ea's and wouldn't recommend them.

Double toilet cleaning , hmmmm never thought of that ..with all those boys too! :eek: