Can I sole trade with a personal account?

Mistral001

phill99 wrote: »

I think its more professional. For instance if you trade as 'ace dog walkers' and then ask your customers to make cheques out to 'john smith' it looks unprofessional and people often think you are pulling a fast one.

It depends on the service offered in my opinion. If it is a professional service, then paying the person rather than a firm, I would have thought looked more professional. If you were paying for the services of a private doctor who specialises in sore backs, would you think it less professional to pay J Smith MD than it was to pay his firm with a made up name such as The XYZ Back Clinic.

Mistral001

However, following on from my last point. When you ask people to pay you personally, some people might think that because they are not paying a "firm with overheads" that they expect you not to charge as much especially if you operate from home.

PlutoinCapricorn

Mistral001 wrote: »

However, following on from my last point. When you ask people to pay you personally, some people might think that because they are not paying a "firm with overheads" that they expect you not to charge as much especially if you operate from home.

This could be a good selling point! You may be able to charge less than the competition if you have lower overheads.

It depends on many variables: if you get work mainly from personal contacts and word of mouth, operating in your own name is not a handicap. If you need to advertise and sell yourself to strangers, you do need to make it clear what you are offering. If I were the buyer/client, I might be suspicious if I appointed 'Sparkling Windows' to clean for me, then was asked to pay Mr John Smith.

InsideInsurance

PlutoinCapricorn wrote: »

I might be suspicious if I appointed 'Sparkling Windows' to clean for me, then was asked to pay Mr John Smith.

But, as has already been pointed out, on any official documents, eg invoices, you must legally identify the legal entity the customer is dealing with. If you are a sole trader using the brand name "Sparkling Windows" then your invoice must state "John Smith trading as Sparkling Windows" as such to subsequently ask for payments to be payable to John Smith shouldnt be a total shock.

Now, the legal information can be, and often is, in the footer and the top right just be occupied with the trading style and so not immediately obvious its also easy to point it out.

System

PlutoinCapricorn wrote: »

However, this would not work if you paid in loads of cash, if you have a lot of transactions or have a trading name.

Our turnover is 1.5M and we use 3 personal accounts :money:

Mistral001

I have been using my personal account for my business for years I do not have a business account. I have discussions with my bank about business matters and they are totally OK with me using the personal account for my business.


I think it depends on the business. If you have a lot of business transactions going through the account, then the bank will not be happy no doubt. Otherwise, I suppose they are glad of your custom. Only about 10% of transactions going through my account are related to my business.

lovinituk

berbastrike wrote: »

Our turnover is 1.5M and we use 3 personal accounts :money:

I'm really hoping this is a p*ss take! Otherwise you are seriously missing a trick or two!!

Mistral001

PlutoinCapricorn wrote: »

This could be a good selling point! You may be able to charge less than the competition if you have lower overheads.

A good point, but speaking from experience, it is not a good idea to charge less. To beat the competition, I would aim at providing a better service than the competition rather than being cheaper than them. If you have low overheads because you are a one-man-band operating from home, you have an advantage in many ways to the bigger firms with rented offices and staff. However, you have a lot of ground to make up in other ways. Can you provide holiday and sickness relief as economically as a bigger firm? Can you deal with workload spikes? Can you keep up to date as economically as the bigger firms who have a big pool of knowledge among all their staff? It can be done of course, but it requires expenditure.

System

lovinituk wrote: »

I'm really hoping this is a p*ss take! Otherwise you are seriously missing a trick or two!!

Its true

Why would we use a business account if the fees charged are ridiculous

lovinituk

berbastrike wrote: »

Its true

Why would we use a business account if the fees charged are ridiculous

So you are trading as a sole trader on a £1.5M turnover?