starting an ebay business - buy + sell from carboots

windswept

rare_stuff wrote: »

If you're planning to make a living from this you better hope for a turnover greater than that or be selling stuff that came free, with no outgoing costs. Turnover is very different to profit -

Bought £12,000 of widgets,
sold for £15,000,
expenses, £1,000

=
Profit £2,000,
turnover £15,000

good grief, those profit margins are terrible!
if I had spent £12k on stock I would hope it would sell for at least £20-22k.
my 6 months turnover is £2500, my cost of sales £900 - but with a lot of start up expenses we have a loss of £600 to carry forward. (I also have £7k of stock in the garage).

wubbzy

windswept wrote: »

you do claim mileage as an expense, just keep a record of all business mileage, it's got nothing to do with being an employee, I have the guidance notes in front of me, it's definitely 40p per mile up to 10k miles.
we sell at events and toy fairs etc. so the mileage adds up.
I dont include trips to the P.O. as I usually post on my way to work ( I am employed as well as self employed in partnership).
you are correct on the insurance front, how on earth would anyone know you were in business if you had an accident? Insurers dont normally ask you what you were doing when you had an accident, I know because I crashed my car last September.:o
I would download the relevant forms from the hmrc website to get a feel for all you need to do, also you will be invited to do a free tax workshop-they are well worth a few hours, just don't get a parking ticket like I did! they are NOT tax deductable.:p
Dont forget that if your earnings are likely to be over £5k you will have to pay class 2 NI, at £2.20 a week.

thankyou for your reply, i was starting to worry over the insurance, i have found it difficult to find answers to quieries like this as only the facts figures etc are covered in official forms, but theres so many little specific queries that concern me, like the insurance as i am a named driver and it would be very expensive for me to get insurance in my name as its my first year, nevermind buisness insurance.

wubbzy

windswept wrote: »

good grief, those profit margins are terrible!
if I had spent £12k on stock I would hope it would sell for at least £20-22k.
my 6 months turnover is £2500, my cost of sales £900 - but with a lot of start up expenses we have a loss of £600 to carry forward. (I also have £7k of stock in the garage).

my opinion was that turnover was the amount of money that was recieved, so to get to 15k turnover i am thinking for example

9k sales recieved
6k recieved for postage
15k recieved in total = 1k turnover

did i interpret this wrong,

rare_stuff

windswept wrote: »

good grief, those profit margins are terrible!
if I had spent £12k on stock I would hope it would sell for at least £20-22k.
my 6 months turnover is £2500, my cost of sales £900 - but with a lot of start up expenses we have a loss of £600 to carry forward. (I also have £7k of stock in the garage).

That's why I don't sell widgets!

Though must question you advising someone to operate a car for uninsured purposes, if you're going to advise people on action that they may get away with, you could advise them not to bother with insurance, car tax or MOT as well, as the may get away with it!

Not 100% sure on the business expenses of motoring, and I did state I wasn't 100% sure, I was just repeating the advice my accountant gave me in relation to keeping expenses and claiming a percentage of them as business usage. Which in my case will give me a much better return than 40p a mile!

rare_stuff

wubbzy wrote: »

my opinion was that turnover was the amount of money that was recieved, so to get to 15k turnover i am thinking for example

9k sales recieved
6k recieved for postage
15k recieved in total = 1k turnover

did i interpret this wrong,

Yup! You Was Wrong!

that would equal 15k turnover.

wubbzy

rare_stuff wrote: »

Yup! You Was Wrong!

that would equal 15k turnover.

lol yes missed the 5 off i did mean 15 k

tom_and_barbara_good

windswept wrote: »

(I also have £7k of stock in the garage).

Insured?

I have around 2k in stock scattered around the homestead in various outbuildings but it crosses my mind from time to time about a fire or burgulary - flood is about the only thing that I'm not worried about!

windswept

tom_and_barbara_good wrote: »

Insured?

I have around 2k in stock scattered around the homestead in various outbuildings but it crosses my mind from time to time about a fire or burgulary - flood is about the only thing that I'm not worried about!

yes it's insured on the house insurance, we had to have an alarm fitted on the garage as it's separate from the house, we also have a very large padlock on the doors.;) and a very noisy dog.
it is an old asbestos garage so if someone tried to set fire to it I doubt it would burn very well!:p although my hubby set fire to the paintwork with a catherine wheel:rotfl: .
That said, the very expensive stock is in the house, anything over about £75.
If the business takes off we are thinking of having a unit on the local enterprise park, a small one is about £40 a week so it's definitely a possibility.