I didn't realize how hard it is to run a business!!! :-)

Kayalana99

Royal Mail collection - Might be an idea in future as I will be expanding to other products when I have the funds but for now all my items fit into a letter and are sent in the post box and I don't think atm my sales would be enough even if they did do letter pick ups.

Childcare - I was looking into getting half a day, I suppose a full day would be £140 a month... (well 4 weekly...) I need to have a good think about it really as your right saying I would get tax credits as I am on maternity leave but if I got it right they paid 33% when I was back at work so it would still be looking at around £100 extra.

I'm putting away £100-£150 a month so that I can take the 3months extra from work unpaid, its hard because I don't think I could manage the extra £100 a month without crossing it with this (i.e using £50 from that and £50 less in my monthly spending) BUT if it all works out then by April I'd be able to take money from the business anyway...and hopefully that would be enough for me to cut my days off work anyway.

phill99 wrote: »

The phrase that springs to mind is 'don't sweat the small stuff'. There are 3 key areas to running a business: getting the work, doing the work and getting paid for the work.

Of all three, the first one is critical. Allied to that is execution ( ie sending the stuff to customers). In your case, getting payment isn't an issue as you receive payment prior to dispatch of goods.

On that basis, your focus needs to be on developing and expanding your business.

The details of how much you get paid, in what quantiies etc are largely irrelevant. Not irrelevant in terms of the business but irrelevant in terms of the 'big picture'. You are evidently god at developing the business and that's what you, as a business owner, needs to concentrate on.

You would be wise to invest in the services of a book keeper. This will be far more effective than spending money on a course in double entry book keeping. Let the book keepers do what they are good at and you concentrate on developing and expanding your business. You might spend three of four hours trying to sort out your books and fret over how to invoice. An experienced book keeper will do this in an hour and know all the answers to your queries. You should spend the time developing, promoting and expanding your business.

Good luck.

Thanks for this, its really got me thinking. I just feel like I am looking for ways to spend the money coming in atm...I.e I need a laptop, I could use with a new desk and a big cupboard for storage..book keeping...etc but your right I'm sitting here fretting about things when really I could do with handing it over to someone else who would just get on with it...

Mistral001

Firstly I would not hire staff. They will cost you far more than you think they will. Also they will take up your time organising and supervising. Also they might steal your idea and start up on their own in competition.

I started a small business many years ago and the lesson I learned is to keep my accounts as simple as possible. The purpose is to make profit and not showing the world how sophisticated your book keeping system is. Simple cash in and cash exercise books will probably look unsophisticated to your friends and other non-business folk but not to an accountant or other professional. Keep it simple and look towards growing profit.

Kayalana99

Stealing my idea is one reason not to hire staff I admit - but I'm not going to grow if I don't take staff on in the long run plus the job I want someone to do for the min is really simple but could get abit boring...hence wanting a teenager wanting abit spare cash but wanting to put it through the books!

You've got to take the risk

Pennywise

"Proper" double entry book-keeping isn't necessary for a small sole trader business. It's nice if you can do it, but definitely not necessary. In actual fact, it's a pain for small start ups where you're paying in/out using a variety of personal accounts/credit cards, sometimes in cash, sometimes via a business account etc. You can easily waste hours just trying to make sense of "how" you paid rather than what really matters is the payment itself.

Of course, not ideal long term, and definately not advised for a limited company, but adequate for the first year or so.

All you need is a comprehensive, complete and accurate list of income and another list of expenses. That's the basis of your accounts and tax returns and then for the year end you can adjust for stock values, debtors, creditors, accruals and prepayments - i.e. just once at the year end, not constantly.

I don't feel a book-keeper would add value at the moment. I'd suspect you'd spend just as much time in working out and telling them how the money was banked/spent, i.e. which account etc., for them to feed into something over the top like Sage.

I'd suggest that you muddle through the current year and plan some proper books from the start of your next financial year, try a simple book-keeping software such as VT which is ideal for basic record keeping. If you want something more powerful, maybe for linking with online sales/bank/website, then have a look at Kashflow. Rather than getting a book-keeper, I'd suggest you get your accountant or a software specialist to set up the system and train you how to use it and how to automatically import data from other systems.

Switching systems mid year or trying to go back several months to start again using a different system is not a good use of your time. The best time to change is the end/start of the financial year. Forget the past and concentrate on the future. A set of accounts and tax return can be muddled together from basic records and for a sole trader, double entry is simply not essential - there's no legal requirement to produce a balance sheet for example!

Kayalana99

Pennywise wrote: »

"Proper" double entry book-keeping isn't necessary for a small sole trader business. It's nice if you can do it, but definitely not necessary. In actual fact, it's a pain for small start ups where you're paying in/out using a variety of personal accounts/credit cards, sometimes in cash, sometimes via a business account etc. You can easily waste hours just trying to make sense of "how" you paid rather than what really matters is the payment itself.

Of course, not ideal long term, and definately not advised for a limited company, but adequate for the first year or so.

All you need is a comprehensive, complete and accurate list of income and another list of expenses. That's the basis of your accounts and tax returns and then for the year end you can adjust for stock values, debtors, creditors, accruals and prepayments - i.e. just once at the year end, not constantly.

I don't feel a book-keeper would add value at the moment. I'd suspect you'd spend just as much time in working out and telling them how the money was banked/spent, i.e. which account etc., for them to feed into something over the top like Sage.

I'd suggest that you muddle through the current year and plan some proper books from the start of your next financial year, try a simple book-keeping software such as VT which is ideal for basic record keeping. If you want something more powerful, maybe for linking with online sales/bank/website, then have a look at Kashflow. Rather than getting a book-keeper, I'd suggest you get your accountant or a software specialist to set up the system and train you how to use it and how to automatically import data from other systems.

Switching systems mid year or trying to go back several months to start again using a different system is not a good use of your time. The best time to change is the end/start of the financial year. Forget the past and concentrate on the future. A set of accounts and tax return can be muddled together from basic records and for a sole trader, double entry is simply not essential - there's no legal requirement to produce a balance sheet for example!

Thank you for your reply, I don't want this to come out the wrong way....but are you a book keeper accountant etc?

I'm quite happy dealing with my own accounts for now, but I am worried that if do need a book keeper /account for any reason down the line are they going to have to back track through everything to sort it out? I think this is my main concern...

As long as I have my sales day book my purchase day book and then work out my profit margins can I really just start again at the beginning of a tax year?

Thank you for the suggests of book keeping programs, I will look into these to start in April if someone confirms I can literally just start again in april then I think I might just paddle through untill then at least even if I do get a book keeper then?

Also could anyone / yourself elabuate what you mean by stock value? I know what I have in my head but I havn't put this on paper should I be doing?

Suarez

I would do as suggested earlier and download youre ebay sales in a .csv and open in excel so you have a monthly sales total. It can be done in minutes rather than doing every transaction manually. Try and keep all your business income/expenditure through a different account to your personal account.

Percy1983

Here is some info for you, I am an accountant and don't run double entry on my business accounts.

I will say you current spreadsheet system sounds the same as mine so don't worry.

Likewise as an accountant if I was to pick up your accounts it wouldn't be a problem as long as they have the basic info and are logical we would change it to whatever we want in minutes.

patman99

You could use MSMoney (it's free), GNUCash (another freebie) or something like YNAB.
All of these allow you to design custom categories (and in the cash of GNUCash, cost centres) to which you can assign things like postage, ebay fees, paypal fees, item purchase costs & price sold for.
At least then you will have your accounts on a PC which can make book keeping much easier.

paulwf

Kayalana99 wrote: »

Hiya guys.


Second having the children....its hard. It takes me half an hour to get myself/kids organised...set up the double pram...get the kids in...basically just to get out the door to go to the post box is a 45min job ! I am thinking about employing a teenager to make some of my products to help out...is their any legal way I can do this where I can pay them out the business account and take it off my books?

In terms of cost v benefit getting a teenager to do the post run is a no brainer. If kids can do paper rounds they can pop to the post box for you. You could also look at getting a retired person, they'll be reliable and might like to earn a bit of money whilst walking the dog.

Template contracts are straightforward, just check your business insurance covers them. Your book keeper should be able to do payroll.

You sound like you have your head screwed on, outsource the specialist jobs that aren't part of the core business (book keeping) and the low cost time consuming jobs and you'll have so much more time to grow the business.

Laurajo_2

I'm not sure a bookkeeper would add value to your business - not at this stage anyway. A bookkeeper wouldn't be doing much more than you are doing now but charging you £20 to £40 p/hour for the privilege for what, from the sound of it, is basically data input. Also, as others have said, you sound like you have your head screwed on and a bit of basic bookkeeping knowledge and like to keep on top of how things are doing - I wonder if you might find engaging a bookkeeper a bit too 'hands off' and spend time going over their work, which would defeat the object.

You really don't need a double entry bookkeeping system - in fact, I would be surprised if a client of mine was using one in a new, relatively small business...it's rather an unnecessary complication, particularly where you are maintaining a sales and purchase ledger so you know where you are with who owes what and what you owe. I wouldn't really go further than that with the double entry, tbh.

How are your days structured at the minute? I appreciate with a young baby it can be hard to have a set routine, would it maybe help to hire a teenager to babysit for a couple of hours a couple of times a week whilst you get on with the business side of things?

I agree it makes sense to bring someone in to help. If you are employing them for less than £109 per week, you don't have to set up a PAYE scheme or operate PAYE:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/working/emp-in-home.htm

So it should be straightforward.

Of course, as your business grows you will need to reconsider these things; in particular, watch your turnover re the VAT threshold - remember, it is twelve months on a rolling basis, not just the year end.