Starting a business young

Ksenia_2

Hey all

This is my first post, so please be nice to me. Many of you will know my uncle on here, who has helped my along the way in making this decision.

I am currently 19 years old, working on the phones for a taxi firm for 40h/week+overtime at £10/hour. I am currently taking home between £850 and £900 per 2 weeks. My contract ends at the end of January (Maternity cover). The company belongs to my mother.

My uncle works in music and this is something I'd also like to do, however I said that I would like to go out alone. I will be working on a 12 month contract with him, for £15 per hour, again on a maternity contract. I know that I am lucky to be in this position, and it has been agreed that I will be trained in PR, with possible views of a permanent contract after the year, which will be on more than double this money. I don't want them to feel ungrateful, leaving one of the options as working with extra freelance.

Does anyone else have any thoughts on this?

Ksen

goodz

That all sounds very good, well done you and your mum and uncle.

To have any job at the moment is good, to be earning £850/900 take home per two weeks at 19 is very good, followed by £15/hour while you get into the pr is extremely good followed by £30/hour in just a year's time is fantastically good. £30/hour for a 40 hour week would be £60k per year which at the age of 20 will be very successful. Amazing. Well done indeed.

I appreciate that you're young but as you're doing so well then perhaps consider getting a mortgage and buying a place. Some people buy property at your age and I was 25 which is only 6 years older than you when I got mine.

If you think this might be worth considering then have a think about it and then, obviously, run it by your mum and uncle and see what they think.

If you do get a place then you can either live in it or your can rent it out to tenants. Or you can both live in it yourself while also having a lodger or two or three in the spare rooms, if you get a big enough place.

If you buy property in cheaper areas you could even consider perhaps buying two properties and renting out at least one of them although this would, of course, be more complicated and ambitious and so perhaps that's going too far at this stage. But if you do decide to look into property then this might be worth considering as well even if your main decision is not to go as far as that at the moment.

If you decide not to invest in property then perhaps ask your mum and uncle as to what they would suggest as good things to put your money into. A mostly fairly safe and relatively straightforward option is savings and you can get about 3% or 4% interest per year at the moment, there's lots of information available on this website and lots of others.

More risky and variable are shares, gold, silver, commodities, art, antiques and such like and or another start up business. All of these, of course, require some knowledge and research and attention. And can go wrong, it's always a bit of a gamble, so, obviously, you need to be cautious and careful if you go in these directions. Again, I'd suggest that your mum and uncle are first stops to run ideas by and maybe they can suggest some things that they think are good and sensible and doable.

Alternatively just spend a lot of it or even most of it and enjoy yourself if you feel like it. You're young so there's no rush, time is on your side, you don't particularly have to have much savings or investment plans just yet if you'd rather live a bit for now.

But sooner or later it would probably be sensible to start planning for the future and get some things in place.

Hope this is of use or interest, good luck with everything, all the best.

Emmzi

you don't say what you want to do running your own business.

whatever it is will need start up capital. I'd do the maternity cover (it isn't forever) and out the money away while I wrote my business plan.

Notmyrealname

You will probably make very little money in the first year unless you've some absolutely brilliant idea nobody else is doing. Is your uncle self employed? You'll find one of the reasons he is doing well is because of the contacts he's made over many years. Contacts are everything if you're providing a service in a specific sector, especially if you're providing PR - people pretty much only go with who they know or who they've been recommended. .

My advice is to hold off for a few years. Work well and get your name known whilst an employee. Network, shake hands, hand out business cards with your name on. When people start ringing your company and asking for you or you become the first point of contact, thats the time you know you're ready to go it alone in that sector and it'll be reasonably likely to provide you a living from the start.

Without doing that its going to a pretty hard slog working long hours for little or no pay.

goodz

Ksenia wrote: »

I will be working on a 12 month contract with him, for £15 per hour...a permanent contract after the year, which will be on more than double this money.

Notmyrealname wrote: »

You will probably make very little money in the first year...

Without doing that its going to a pretty hard slog working long hours for little or no pay.

£15 per hour for a 40 hour week is £600 which is £30k over a year. That's very good for a 19/20 year old. That's not "little or no pay", that's riches.

Then when it increases to more than double that will be more than double riches. More than £60k a year is good for anyone and will be spectacularly good for a 20/21 year old.

The important consideration will be what to with all the cash, whether to invest it in your future and or how much of it to just enjoy now as you go along.

scheming_gypsy

Ksenia wrote: »

My uncle works in music and this is something I'd also like to do, however I said that I would like to go out alone. I will be working on a 12 month contract with him, for £15 per hour, again on a maternity contract. I know that I am lucky to be in this position, and it has been agreed that I will be trained in PR, with possible views of a permanent contract after the year, which will be on more than double this money. I don't want them to feel ungrateful, leaving one of the options as working with extra freelance.

Does anyone else have any thoughts on this?

Ksen

what business are you looking to start instead of staying full time?
Because if you're planning on staying in the same industry then you'll get a bit of a shock. You'll be a fresh faced, newly trained PA with 'some' experience but not enough for anybody to warrant throwing big money at you when they can get somebody with experience for the same / less.

Ksenia_2

I love the idea of marketing or a living, especially around the music scene which is what I will be doing for the next year.

Mum bought me a Mini for Christmas, complete with private plate :beer:. This means I won't be spending 4 hours on a train each day. I've lived opposite work for the last 18 months and this was what has bothered me. I like the idea of 'carding', but don't like the idea of doing this to a family member.

I've saved about £10,000 so far and I've given up smoking for 3 months so far, working out that I'm saving around £5 a day (Polish cigarettes from the off-license next to the office). Would be enough of a deposit for anything? I don't want to live alone yet, but would like to invest in a spare property as some have suggested.

If anyone else has any ideas, please let me know.

Ksen

Notmyrealname

goodz wrote: »

£15 per hour for a 40 hour week is £600 which is £30k over a year. That's very good for a 19/20 year old. That's not "little or no pay", that's riches.

I was on about self employment, not being an employee covering maternity.

Notmyrealname

Ksenia wrote: »

I love the idea of marketing or a living, especially around the music scene which is what I will be doing for the next year.

You definitely need to build up contacts first then. Take the opportunity whilst working for your uncle to do this, listen and observe. You will find pretty much everything he does comes from knowing someone.

Emmzi

Ksenia wrote: »

Mum bought me a Mini for Christmas, complete with private plate :beer:. This means I won't be spending 4 hours on a train each day. ....

If anyone else has any ideas, please let me know.

Ask mum to buy you some time with a business start up advisor. You are now sounding clueless and maybe a tad trolly.

Ksenia_2

Emmzi wrote: »

Ask mum to buy you some time with a business start up advisor. You are now sounding clueless and maybe a tad trolly.

This will be a good idea to look into. I'm also thinking that it would be worth speaking to my uncle later down the line, as I know he is subcontracting a lot of work out due to cost-efficiency. If I could offer those services through a company of my own, this could surely be the best way in.

I'm still a little confused by the actual running of a business, and it was also suggested to sit with an accountant later down the line to discuss this. There are opportunities to be sought here, especially being less than an hour from London, without committing too much initially.

Ksen