New Deal Buisnes startup...

Orville

Hi.

I recently had a meeting with a New Deal advisor. Part of the meeting covered the possibile startup of a new buisness and he said they could help with funds etc. To be honest i dismissed that option as i plan to go back to college in September and also move locations. Since then i have been thinking maybe of starting up an internet based buisness which i could manage alongside my course at college.

I will admit as it stands i am very nieave in what needs to be done and the amount of time i might have to spend running it and setting it up. I will say it works alongside the lines of e-bay.

My question is how much help financially can i get through the New Deal in setting this up?.

Also if i spend over 16 hrs a week running it can i claim working tax credits while still signing on the dole?. Sorry not sure how it works:o

I have my next meeting on the 2nd March and will of course ask more then, but if anyone could help in the meantime i would appreciate it.

Hammyman

You cannot claim WTC whilst signing on as you need to be working a minimum of 16hrs to qualify which then means you're working above the limit for JSA.

I will admit as it stands i am very nieave in what needs to be done and the amount of time i might have to spend running it and setting it up. I will say it works alongside the lines of e-bay.

That worries me. You need to do a proper business plan. First of all you need to do some market research, work out your target market, who else is doing the same thing and how well are they established and what can you offer that's different to the rest (lower prices, faster postage, better quality item..). Secondly work out what the startup costs are - stationary, equipment, initial stock purchases and money to live on until money starts coming in and how to fund that. Finally you need to find out where to get the goods and how much they are per unit and if there's any price breaks - i.e if you buy 1000 you get 20% off, how much it will cost for packaging, how long to process a sale and how much others are selling them for. You also then need to work out how many you are likely to sell in a month (Ebay fees, Paypal fees, packing, item cost). Take the figure you get from how much it costs you to sell that amount in a month from what the total you'll get in sales.

So..AT A VERY SIMPLISTIC LEVEL

Cost per unit = A
Sale price per unit =B
Paypal & Ebay fees =C
Profit per unit (D) = C-(A+B)
Total REALISTIC estimate of amount sold per month = E.
Total monthly profit from from sales (F) = D x E.

So next you need to work out what your fixed costs are. These are things you pay for over time. So that includes insurance, rent, rates, phone, internet access for example and work out what they'll cost you per month.

Subtract that figure from F you got above and if its a negative, the business isn't viable and if you've got a positive, does it give you enough to live on?

Orville

Hammyman wrote: »

You cannot claim WTC whilst signing on as you need to be working a minimum of 16hrs to qualify which then means you're working above the limit for JSA.



That worries me. You need to do a proper business plan. First of all you need to do some market research, work out your target market, who else is doing the same thing and how well are they established and what can you offer that's different to the rest (lower prices, faster postage, better quality item..). Secondly work out what the startup costs are - stationary, equipment, initial stock purchases and money to live on until money starts coming in and how to fund that. Finally you need to find out where to get the goods and how much they are per unit and if there's any price breaks - i.e if you buy 1000 you get 20% off, how much it will cost for packaging, how long to process a sale and how much others are selling them for. You also then need to work out how many you are likely to sell in a month (Ebay fees, Paypal fees, packing, item cost). Take the figure you get from how much it costs you to sell that amount in a month from what the total you'll get in sales.

So..AT A VERY SIMPLISTIC LEVEL

Cost per unit = A
Sale price per unit =B
Paypal & Ebay fees =C
Profit per unit (D) = C-(A+B)
Total REALISTIC estimate of amount sold per month = E.
Total monthly profit from from sales (F) = D x E.

So next you need to work out what your fixed costs are. These are things you pay for over time. So that includes insurance, rent, rates, phone, internet access for example and work out what they'll cost you per month.

Subtract that figure from F you got above and if its a negative, the business isn't viable and if you've got a positive, does it give you enough to live on?

Hi.

Many thanks for that. As i said it works along the lines of e-bay but i wouldn't be buying/selling. My idea is to basically start my own hosting website up and run it.