New Small Party Plan Business- Help!

lullypops

Hiya! I have invested in a party plan/direct selling business called the soapy cauldron, it runs along the same principles as ann summers, slightly similar to avon too, you sell to family and friends, through facebook pages and on websites, also parties and fairs etc. Now i did avon for a very short stint a while ago but didnt take it seriously with accounts or anything. This time i want to do it all properly as i see it as a long term thing and want to start as i mean to go on. Basically, i sell the products, order them direct from soapy cauldron and take 25% profit from my sale.
This is on top of a full time job so i will be employed and self employed at the same time.

Can someone give me information with regards to keeping accounts, tax, national insurance, whether i actually need a business bank account (its only going to be a very small earner, especially at first!) any other costs there may be involved etc.

Thanks
x

Savvy_Sue

Welcome to small biz.

Does your party plan 'business' not offer any advice on this?

First thing would be to register as self-employed with HMRC. Work out what you think your profit's going to be in your first year: if less than (about) £6000 then consider asking them for a Certificate of Exemption. That will get you out of paying self employed NI: there's no advantage to doing so if you are employed.

Keeping accounts: money in - money out = profit, very roughly speaking, and that's what you'll declare to HMRC when they send you a tax return. Put at least 25% of your profit away for your tax bill: there are some expenses you can legitimately deduct but having a read of other threads here will help with that.

Business bank account: if not a 'proper' business account, then at least a completely separate personal account ... Much easier to keep track.

InsideInsurance

If you are going down the self employed/ sole trader route then there is no legal requirement for you to have another bank account as legally you and your business are one and the same thing. That said, it can be easier to keep track of things if all your business expenses and incomes go through a single account without the waters being muddied by your weekly grocery shopping etc.

An advantage of having a business account can be that you can then accept payments (aka cheques) in the name of your business (if you have one) rather than just in your own name.

I have to agree with Sue in terms of thinking the company your representing really should be providing this sort of information to you.

lullypops

thanks for the advice both, this is kind of what i thought. I have yet to recieve my start up kit which may indeed have all of that info in it, im just trying to find it all out before hand so i can get started asap!