Going self employed - advice needed please - Gardening

Pennywise

Game_Over wrote: »

Is that mates rates, or doesn't your accountant provide you with much help?

I find that most accountants charge at least £100 to complete a self assessment (and take care of all associated matters involving HMRC) and that excludes self employment

e.g. here's a couple that I have just plucked off google

http://www.jamesesmith.co.uk/taxreturns.htm
(Prices start from £99 +VAT)

http://twdaccounts.co.uk/services/self-assessment-tax-return
(£125)

Those aren't for self employment either. I'd say that £500 was on the high/expensive side. For a simple sole trader, £200-£300 is nearer the mark. I suspect that £40 is either mates rates from family/friend or an unqualified/unregulated "accountant". You won't get a qualified accountant in practice doing it so cheap as it costs that much in time just to set up a blank return and do the ID checks, before any work is done.

Newdirection

Thank you so very much everyone for your time in replying to me. Sorry for my late reply. I have been thinking long and hard about this and just keep coming to the same answer I "want to do this kind of work" it suits me and I get on with people very easy and I am so very proud of any work I do so I think I will fair well on those avenues.

I really need to find someone whom can advise me on what I need to do next and each step I need to take in order to set up, so if anyone out there has time feel free to message me I would really appriciate any advice and information on whom to speak to and whom to join up with etc etc.....

I do have a business head and I am confident at my marketing of my business and I am hard working and have some good ideas, its coming on to places like this and asking for direction form great people like yourselves whom have the kindness to take time out and give me a direction and to learn form you. Thank you so very much.

I am at present just getting a litle more knowledge of gardening and looking at small starte course to attend and I will keep learning and doign bigger courses until I am fully loaded with information. I am also looking at equipment I need and get the basisa in so I can start smaller kind of jobs and build up as I learn and grow. I just really need a shortlist kind of approach of things I need to have and do before I can take a booking if you get me, that list so I can work through it and get to a place where I feel I can start. I want to do this in the correct way and really give it a go as I am at an time now where I can not return to office work, its not me its making me miserable and I have the chance to turn my life around and do somthing I feel I will work hard in and at least say well if it did not work it was not for me trying as I will.

Thank you again and anyone with a clear guide to what I need to do please leave me a list of things I need to do before starting, I know some people just get a car/van and put flyers out and work, but I want to do it right and build myself a business that provides for me and in the correct safe and legal way.

Thanks again, great site and really extend my thanks to those above whom messaged me.

tomterm8

My advice is not to start up this business yet. Get a gardening job with someone elses company for a year, learn the trade and see what it's really like to work in the field.

You'll be surprised how much Gardening can suck in February...

Mattygroves2

Newdirection wrote: »

I really need to find someone whom can advise me on what I need to do next and each step I need to take in order to set up, so if anyone out there has time feel free to message me I would really appriciate any advice and information on whom to speak to and whom to join up with etc etc..... I am also looking at equipment I need and get the basisa in so I can start smaller kind of jobs and build up as I learn and grow. I just really need a shortlist kind of approach of things I need to have and do before I can take a booking if you get me, that list so I can work through it and get to a place where I feel I can start.

Thank you again and anyone with a clear guide to what I need to do please leave me a list of things I need to do before starting, I know some people just get a car/van and put flyers out and work, but I want to do it right and build myself a business that provides for me and in the correct safe and legal way.

As above the best thing for you to do would be to work for someone else for a year. However, if you're determined to start on your own some of the things you need to do are (no doubt there will be others):

1. register as self employed with HMRC
2. get some public liability insurance
3. get a van and make sure you've got appropriate insurance cover
4. work out what equipment you need and buy it
5. get said equipment insured
6. make sure you can safely operate your equipment and get licences as appropriate ie. if you're going to use a chainsaw or bigger power tools and sprayers
7. make sure your van is big enough (will probably need kitting out) or get a trailer and make sure you've got the correct licence to tow one
7. find out about disposal of waste regulations and costs
8. find a source for products that you'll need alot of - wood chip, compost, sprays, maybe gravel, rocks for creating rockeries or water features etc
9. open a business bank account
10. work out pricing structure and what you are and aren't prepared to do. Will this be enough to cover your required income level ?
11. work out how you want to be paid - on account or cash on the day ?
12. go and get some customers

You're a bit late in the season to be starting out but you might pick up some customers at the end of the summer when they realise it would be much easier if someone else looked after the boring basic maintenance tasks. You'll be doing alot of pushing (or riding on) a lawn mower and strimming I think.

We have gardeners and from what I can see it is a 7 day sometimes 9/10 hour job in the summer and patchy in the winter. The first 6 weeks just before and after Easter seem to be the busiest times as we've been waiting for them to fit in taking 6 feet out the top of our leyllandi since then and they've only just got round to starting. Great if you like skiing but won't fit in well with summer holidays.

Good luck and I hope you've got enough savings to buy the kit you'll need and get you through your first winter.

newuser78

You don't need an accountant for self assessment tax returns. You just need to register online with HMRC as self-employed, they will then send you an UTR card (keep this safe!), and you can then use its online forms to complete tax returns.

As long as you keep on top of expenses, income, etc. - add the numbers in spreadsheet yourself on a regular basis then it should be fine. If your income is low, you could apply for a SEE

An accountant is necessary only if your accounting is complicated with PAYE, employees, etc.

I agree with others though, it is a good idea to get a PLI especially more so when your job is physical with dangerous tools!

Newdirection

MattyGroves 2 - Thank you for the list and advice, much appriciated.

It would be great to get the chanc eto speak to some other gardeners or people in the know how on E-mail and have a good chat, I think it is the best way for me to find out the information I need and learn form people whom have done this work and set up there own small business.

This is really boosting me hearing form people and all the great advice, this is a big step but this is somthign I need to do and try, someone people I know say "dont bother" and are negative but hey other people so it and earn cash, so I think I can too. I really have hit a tuff time and survived it and I have hit the wall in terms of work and doing somthing I hated every minuite of and made me ill. I want to try somthing I really enjoy anf learn and progress my skills in it whilst working and building a small business starting at the bottom I know, smallish jobs, but in time building, I dont need to earn a fourtune, just the amount I was on before.

I will put a list up soon I have made of things I need to do in order to just get started on small jobs and get me out there and the plans I have ongoing to build myself and the amount of customers etc. It would be great again to hear more advice as I am really starting form the start.

It seems to me that in order for me to do basic works and just get out there to start with is car/van - PLI - tools - and rejester myself with HMRC, then I am legally ok to go. I know a lot of gardeners are out there with no PLI, cash in hand etc etc, but I do not want to do this.

Thanks everyone. I do no the pitfalls it is just nice to hear encouragment, it has given me the passion to keep going and get a job where I dont feel intimedated or at unease 24/7 and somthing I really enjoy and have a passion for.

newuser78

Just had a thought... how about working at a garden centre or nursery centre? I used to work in the nursery during holidays from university and I found it very helpful, picking up skills, etc.

I then did occasional garden work (friend of friend sort of thing) and as the owner and I parted on excellent terms, they still give me a discount many years later so it definitely helped!

So perhaps worth asking your local garden centres and ask if they have any part-time seasonal work?

Ivana_Tinkle

WHA wrote: »

If you're providing your own equipment (mowers, trimmers, etc). then you need to be looking at the £15-£25 per hour range as a minimum. Anything less just isn't worth you doing it. If you're using the customers' equipment then £10-£20 per hour.

I agree with everything else in your post, but just wanted to comment on this. Obviously rates of pay will vary massively depending where you are, but I don't think those rates are anywhere near realistic for basic tasks like mowing lawns and a bit of weeding and pruning. Where I live, even £10 an hour would be on the high side. Unfortunately this is unskilled, entry-level work - if the OP wants to earn more than this then they're going to need to widen their skillset.

967stuart

£40 to do your accounts! wow
Got to be mates rates there, either that or their undercutting the market massively... or they've got their numbers wrong lol

As for the OP.
Good luck in your new business, you do get out what you put in.
Do you research and work hard.

The only real advice I can offer is turn up when you say you'll be there and work your backside off.
Nothing more annoying that trades not showing up on time.

Good luck

Pennywise

Ivana_Tinkle wrote: »

I agree with everything else in your post, but just wanted to comment on this. Obviously rates of pay will vary massively depending where you are, but I don't think those rates are anywhere near realistic for basic tasks like mowing lawns and a bit of weeding and pruning. Where I live, even £10 an hour would be on the high side. Unfortunately this is unskilled, entry-level work - if the OP wants to earn more than this then they're going to need to widen their skillset.

Someone can earn £6-£7 per hour in unskilled employment with paid holidays and few/no expenses. For a self employed gardener, you've got your down time (bad weather, out of season, etc), no paid holidays, your equipment to buy and maintain, your vehicle running costs, accountancy, insurance, stationery, advertising, bank charges, etc. Anything less than £10 per hour is probably running at a loss and is more likely a "hobby" or pocket money job, rather than a business, usually for someone early retired or a second job.