Want to start a car valeting business, unsure of how to do it.

AndiW_2

I have experience in valeting and enjoyed the work but didn't receive much money for it as i was an employee, but I feel I could as a business owner.

I Want to write up a business plan but I don't know what expenses a small business has as I am completely new to the whole thing. I know that I don't have to be vat registered straight away but I want to fit that in, also don't know how tax works or any other expenses. Is there anywhere I can find this all out?

passatrider

You could try the governement backed 'Businesslink' website. Just google it for website address.:)

bengalknights

If your car valeting wouldnt the only expenses be the accesories and maybe a van if your being mobile?

The only time you would incur the costs of premises would be if you was solely operating from say a garage etc.

Small busineses would usually incur utility bills,business rates and material costs.

WLM21

AndiW wrote: »

I know that I don't have to be vat registered straight away but I want to fit that in

Current VAT threshold is £73,000 !!

You'll need quite a while to build up to that level, so probably OK to ignore VAT for now

property.advert

Forget VAT. Immediately your costs go up 20% and as most of your inputs will be labour, you have little inward VAT to offset against it. If you get near those levels, you will have to be more creative an by then you'll probably be employing people so you may think about the way you set up their contracts and whether they are employees or self employed quasi franchisees. That is for the future though.

Don't start with the cost of a sponge and work up, start with the big ticket items and work back. For starters you'll need a van together with insurances, lots of insurances, as you need cover if you screw up their car ! Then you'll need advertising and a means of handling your calls. A website is essential in 2011 and not some poor 1 page job either. In fact, the name of your business may well be dictated by the web names available.

Working capital and cashflow will be your main problems so get some books out and start understanding what they are.

Could you do it with £1000 ? not really but you don't need £100k. The more you have though the better you will be.

If you have no formal training, then get some, even if that means working for someone else first. You need to know what they do and then work out how to do it better. Get accredited if possible.

But first, before anything, work out who are your target customers.

(Text removed by MSE Forum Team)

Savvy_Sue

bengalknights wrote: »

If your car valeting wouldnt the only expenses be the accesories and maybe a van if your being mobile?

The only time you would incur the costs of premises would be if you was solely operating from say a garage etc.

Small busineses would usually incur utility bills,business rates and material costs.

I am pretty sure that a car valeting business would be required to demonstrate safe disposal of waste water, even if (perhaps especially if!) they were operating as a mobile unit.

Also consider how to operate in drought conditions!

bengalknights

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

I am pretty sure that a car valeting business would be required to demonstrate safe disposal of waste water, even if (perhaps especially if!) they were operating as a mobile unit.

Also consider how to operate in drought conditions!

Interesting id never thought car valeting would have more to it!

s_b

AndiW you only need a business plan if you intend asking to borrow money and you wont get it for your proposal anyway
to be self employed all you need is the skill to do the job and people to pay you to do it and in your case you basically only need a vacuum cleaner a valeteting machine a power washer and cleaning chemicals
you will have transport so get this insured for your business and also get public liability at the same time
if you valet already you should have some contacts both trade and retail so see if you can nick some of this business (tip try and nick it before you leave next time like all good hairdressers do)
now for the tax
inform hmrc you are going self employed and also the ni part of hmrc
its a piece of cake to fill in your tax return online for a business like yours because its so straight forward and easy
dont be daunted go for it
forget vat you wont need to worry about it for a good while yet
keep every receipt and get a receipt for everything

good luck

Savvy_Sue

bengalknights wrote: »

Interesting id never thought car valeting would have more to it!

Pretty much EVERYTHING has more to it than you expect! :rotfl:

s_b wrote: »

AndiW you only need a business plan if you intend asking to borrow money and you wont get it for your proposal anyway

However, drawing up a business plan is probably a good idea for anyone who wants to make a living wage out of their idea, because if you don't have a plan, you won't have anything to measure your progress against, so you won't necessarily see whether you're roughly on track, or whether you need to 'tweak' things a bit, or whether it's all completely off track and needs serious revision.

Also if you have a plan, you can ask someone else to take a look and see if they can spot any obvious holes. For example, people have sometimes mentioned their rough ideas on here, eg "I intend to set up a business selling widgets which I can make really cheaply", and someone else will point out that unless you are selling your widgets at £100 each, you're going to have to sell an awful lot of them to actually make a profit.

googler

s_b wrote: »

AndiW you only need a business plan if you intend asking to borrow money and you wont get it for your proposal anyway to be self employed all you need is the skill to do the job and people to pay you to do it and in your case you basically only need a vacuum cleaner a valeteting machine a power washer and cleaning chemicals

Who said he needed the business plan to show to someone else?

He needs a business plan to project how much business he'll need to get in order to cover expenses, and therefore make money. If the business plan shows that he won't make money, then it's served its purpose and he should consider another vocation.

It should also consider how the business will expand, given the projected turnover, etc.

googler

If the OP plans to work from home, he also needs to consider how this will affect household insurance and car insurance.