Start an ironing service... official MoneySavingExpert.com discussion

Whoooooooosh

One place a mate of mine suggested that I think is a very good idea is nursery/childcare places. I'm also planning a door-to-door leaflet drop, targetting certain areas of town.

giggles_alot

This is something i have thought about starting in my area (Lincoln)
Have been put off bu self employment, tax, ni etc but after reading this thread it doesnt seem so scary.
Could anyone give me a rough idea of set up costs, insurance, decent iron, hangers, baskets etc. Any places to buy such items in bulk?

Maz

Whoooooooosh wrote: »

One place a mate of mine suggested that I think is a very good idea is nursery/childcare places. I'm also planning a door-to-door leaflet drop, targetting certain areas of town.

Have done all that but no joy as yet. Not giving up tho', next week I plan to call in the local launderettes and speak to the owners, also do some more flyers and dropping to select areas i.e. the posh bits!

Stephb1986_2

dont worry too much it does take a while for people to come round to the idea just be patient and it will soon happen.

Giggles your best asking the customers to provide hangers for the stuff they want hanging it saves you having the mess of all the hangers. we've been rang up by loads of local ladieswear shops asking if we need hangers i could sell some back we have that many now! your also best with bin liners in different colours instead of baskets as they take up quite a bit of room. decent irons are the steam genarator ones such as tefal, rowenta ect but make sure they dont have a valve on the side as it will take a while to refill them when they are hot. all you need is a iron, board, van, insurance thats pretty much it.

HTH

Steph xxx

cazi

hi Maz, I have had a lot of enquiries from my website, which didnt cost anything to make, pm me if you want more details on it (we cant advertise on here, but I would be happy to give you the site address if you want to have a look)

Sign up to your local netmums website and advertise for free on there. Also google free ads and post on all of those sites as well, it will take a while to do it, but it is all free advertising.

Good luck xx

Maz

cazi wrote: »

hi Maz, I have had a lot of enquiries from my website, which didnt cost anything to make, pm me if you want more details on it (we cant advertise on here, but I would be happy to give you the site address if you want to have a look)

Sign up to your local netmums website and advertise for free on there. Also google free ads and post on all of those sites as well, it will take a while to do it, but it is all free advertising.

Good luck xx

thanks Cazi, have pm'd you.

picklepick

Hi all

I came across this thread yesterday. its great, so much useful information! :T I've been wanting to become self-employed for a while now and this seems like exactly the sort of thing im looking for. I live in a new housing development (posh apartments ) and think there would be plenty of busy, well off business types who are too busy to do their own ironing. plus i wouldnt have to go far to collect and pick up.

the problem is that i rent my apartment and im not sure if running a buisness from there would be breaking the terms of my rental agreement. ill also ask this question on another board about renting etc, but just wonderd if anyone here has experience of this already??

any help would be appreciated.
thanks

Whoooooooosh

Pickle, are you a private tenant or council?

I'm council & had to ask permission to run a business from home. Basically because I'm not making any changes to the property & there will be no customers coming & going that could irritate my neighbours, I'm fineeee. Same for planning permission (which was a question on the form about the tenancy).

Another one to watch is business rates - if you are running the business from a dedicated room, that room then becomes eligible for business rates. If it's a spare bedroom then keep a bed in it & it's dual purpose & exempt

Good luck with it giggles, if you want to know the results of my costing research gimme a PM & I'll send it all on. It's all recent cos I'm just setting up myself.

Good luck Maz - hope work starts flooding in for you soon xx

I'm hyper today - my bank book arrived this morning all emblazoned with my business name on it - it all feels like reality now. I just need a van !!! We've off to the van auctions next week to try to get me one there. Once I have that, within a week I'll be up & running, waiting for my first customer

Maz

Hello everybody!

Right, have had some enquiries (horrah!). BUT, they all (all two of them! lol)seemed to think I was charging too much, tell me what you think please?

I am charging £12.50 for 20 items (or part thereof), with free collection and delivery.

Should I be charging per item? By weight? (nothing to weigh stuff on tho'!) By basketful?

Am really confused, don't want to price myself out of the market of course, so some guidance would be very much appreciated. What does everybody else do?

grey_lady

"Another one to watch is business rates - if you are running the business from a dedicated room, that room then becomes eligible for business rates"

Not sure where you got this from but its not correct, plenty of people have an office in their homes without being liable for business rates, its more complicated than that - from memory i think its something like if your making something e.g have a production line going :-) or if more of your house is given over to the business than what's used for living in then your liable. There was a little book i picked up in Smiths recently about setting up and running a ltd company where it talked about this.