New Small Business - Crafting - lots of Questions

kazimojo69

Hi

I started a new business in September with some handmade crafting items.

It has been unbelievably successful and I really want to develop it further next year with lots of new ideas.

So I have a few questions and need help and advice please:

1. How do I set up a website? I need a "tag-line" and logo as well I think - altho I do have a name and have an idea of what I want

2. Do I need to register for VAT or would it be recommended?

3. Anyone any idea of an accounting package I could use or spreadsheets to records outgoings / proft/loss?

4. How can I send large packages? Which way is cheapest and easiest/ Courier?

5. How do I go about putting my company name across pictures? (a few people have been copying my ideas - can I stop this anyhow?)

I really wat to get cracking over the holidays while I am off from the day job, and turn it into a more national / professional company so any help would be much appreciated. Many thanks xx

BigAunty

You really need to produce a comprehensive business plan that would address all these points and some that you haven't considered - this will prompt you to research each facet of the business in detail in order to make a decision on the steps forward.

There used to be templates on the business link website but not sure if they survived the revamp but there will be plenty of info on this.

Mistral001

kazimojo69 wrote: »

Hi
5. How do I go about putting my company name across pictures? (a few people have been copying my ideas - can I stop this anyhow?)

If people are copying your ideas then putting a name acrosss photos will not help. Perhaps you mean they are using your photos without permission and you want to put a watermark in them. Just do a search for watermark. You can also try "Microsoft Paint" which comes free with almost every computer. This will put solid text rather than a watermark, but should still keep people from pinching your photos.

mandatory

kazimojo69 wrote: »

2. Do I need to register for VAT or would it be recommended?

When you have turnover of VAT taxable goods above the current threshold of £77k you need to register for VAT. Until then you are fine.

3. Anyone any idea of an accounting package I could use or spreadsheets to records outgoings / proft/loss?

I only have knowledge of Sage but I work for an SME and it's quite simple to use. There are various versions but Sage Instant Accounts is worth a look at.

Hope that helps, even a little!

InsideInsurance

kazimojo69 wrote: »

1. How do I set up a website? I need a "tag-line" and logo as well I think - altho I do have a name and have an idea of what I want

2. Do I need to register for VAT or would it be recommended?

3. Anyone any idea of an accounting package I could use or spreadsheets to records outgoings / proft/loss?

4. How can I send large packages? Which way is cheapest and easiest/ Courier?

5. How do I go about putting my company name across pictures? (a few people have been copying my ideas - can I stop this anyhow?)

First off all, assuming you are trading as a sole trader, have you registered as self employed with HMRC?


1) This is a controvesial subject.... are you wanting to sell on the site or just have it for information? If your selling are your products all roughly "off the shelf" or are they 100% bespoke?

Assuming they are mainly off the shelf (or theres no selling) then there are turn key solutions you can use with a web interface for you to design it yourself, create content etc. They offer their services with no set up costs but an inflated monthly fee.

Middle ground is to use a normal webhost and a solution like Wordpress with the appropriate ecommerce add on. This still allows you to control content yourself but you need to upload the design the site - plenty of places either sell themes or give them away for free (or you could commission a designer just to do the theme)

Far end is a bespoke solution however unless you have some very complex customisation options or want something very off the wall then the likihood is that the developer would still use a standard system but tweak it a little more than you could

What ever you decide, somewhat think along the lines of... if your not willing to invest in your business why should your customers? Many "home made" solutions look very amateur.


2) No need to register until your sales hit the required level. Voluntary registration is only advisable if you are selling 0% rated products (eg kids clothes) or are selling almost exclusively to other businesses that are VAT registered. Assuming your doing neither of these then voluntary registration is a bad idea



3) Are you intending to use an accountant? If you are then it is good to get their advice and in particular what formats they support. If your not then a spreadsheet can be fine for a very small business. There are a fair number of entry level products but I'd also checkout KashFlow which is a web solution (so as usual, no set up costs but higher running costs)


4) It'll depend on the volume your sending. Whilst its small then a combination of post office and using 3rd party brokers for couriers are probably going to be cheapest for you. If your volume goes up a lot then it can be cheaper (and simpler) to open your own business account with a courier


5) You cant stop people copying your ideas unless you have millions to spend in solicitors and are willing to lose money handover fist using solicitors to send and chase on stop and desist letters knowing that most will never have the funds to recover losses from.

You can add a watermark to the images using whatever photo editing software you use but this will impact your customers ability to view the product too.... you need to get the balance right but from my point of view, its not worth putting of customer given it wont stop the people copying.

paddyrg

To watermark, I suggest using irfanview free software- it can take a batch of photos, resize, change format and watermark all in one operation, great if you're doing a load of different images a week and manually fiddling with then is getting boring.