If I carry on like this my CV is going to look rubbish!

G'Meister

Hi,

I've got a good CV, excellent references from good jobs with accompanying professional sounding titles within the NHS and a London Council (Electoral Services Officer and Governance Standard Auditor; these are my two most recent jobs).
Thing is, after I was made redundant for the second time in a row, I decided my eBay business had potential to grow, so rather than go back on the jobhunt I started building a business I could live comfortably off.
Got off to a good start; started developing a website and e-store so I could move off eBay, and investigated various solutions, and tried some out, e.g. Auctiva, ChannelAdvisor, for advertising via multiple online streams; froogle, pricerunner, kelkoo, aswell as eBay and my own webstore.
But the profit margins are tiny on eBay, chargeback rates are high, and by the time I'd paid eBay, PayPal and the Royal Mail and I was left with a pound or two profit per sale (I was averaging about 15 sales a day).
This carried on for a few months, and the profits I recorded were well below minimum wage considering the number of hours involved (mostly spent hunting for stock).
At the same time, I had created a good revenue stream from something else, which is tax-exempt and I don't have to pay NI on, or register as self-employed to do. So I reconcentrated more and more of my efforts on that, and I'm now making (when I average out the previous 4 months detailed records) more than any previous job I've done; equivalent to over £30,000 a year (I say equivalent, because I make about £25k gross a year (and with forecasted growth, at least £32k by the end of this year).

So here's the big problem: the gap on my CV is only going to get wider. I can't register this as self-employment, so unless I save up the money or borrow from family I won't be able to get any form of credit in the future, and if I want to keep my options open, but this isn't something I can list on my CV and be taken seriously (it is legal though :P).

What should I do about it? Let it grow, and not worry? I'd be open to getting a job, if I could fit it around my working hours of 2PM to 5PM, and it would have to look appropriate on my CV - no point being able to say I've been doing some bottom wrung job for years having already started to climb this ladder...

If I carry on like this, I'm going to be closing alot of doors, which it would take years of crud jobs to re-open...

Savvy_Sue

I can't imagine any form of income sufficient to live on that would be tax exempt, nor anything which couldn't go on my CV as experience of some kind. My cv lists a period of 12 years during which I was employed for a few hours each week, but spent most of my time on voluntary activities. That experience was enough to get me back into a good full-time job when I was ready for it.

I'm sure you have your reasons for not saying what you're doing, but if you did I'm sure we'd be able to suggest ways of describing it which made the most of any transferrable skills!

17Dave

You really must register with the Inland Revenue as a business.
The fines and investigations you might face are not worth the risk, especially as recently the IR have started to look at e-bay more closely.
You are not going to be able to argue that £25k is not a business.
Also you are obliged to pay National Insurance.

I hate posting to suggest this, generally hating the "authorities" but have seen the results of a tax investigation on two friends - not a pretty sight - and the IR tell you what they will charge tax on if you do not have complete records - this figure is almost always way above what you actually made, plus a fine, plus you are on their radar for the future.

Finally, your CV - you are self employed!!
Except for the IR (unlikely an employer will or even can check) you do not have to register as a sole trader with any other official bodies.
You are building valuable experience and skills.
However, as a self employed person myself for several years, I would ask why would you ever want to go back to making someone else money??? You do seem to be financially successful in your business.

Debt_Free_Chick

Whether you pay tax or not is nothing to do with whether you are gainfully (self) employed. You could be operating a loss, but still be "doing work".

Your CV should describe the experience and skills you've acquired, not what you earned.

G'Meister

Sorry for the lack of a response to your replies, thanks for looking (didn't think I was going to get any replies).

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

I can't imagine any form of income sufficient to live on that would be tax exempt, nor anything which couldn't go on my CV as experience of some kind.

This is: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/bimmanual/BIM22015.htm

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

My cv lists a period of 12 years during which I was employed for a few hours each week, but spent most of my time on voluntary activities. That experience was enough to get me back into a good full-time job when I was ready for it.

Not to be nosey, but were you a housewife during that time; bearing children, that sort of thing? - I agree, employers wouldn't have any problem with that.

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

I'm sure you have your reasons for not saying what you're doing, but if you did I'm sure we'd be able to suggest ways of describing it which made the most of any transferrable skills!

Well, the best way to describe it is to compare it to Currency Spot Trading (hxxp://www.gocurrency.com/articles/about-currency-trading.htm), or (to a lesser extent) hedging on the stock market - basically I buy from one dealer at one price, and then instantaneously sell at another price elsewhere, locking in a profit in the process.

17Dave wrote: »

You really must register with the Inland Revenue as a business.
The fines and investigations you might face are not worth the risk, especially as recently the IR have started to look at e-bay more closely.
You are not going to be able to argue that £25k is not a business.
Also you are obliged to pay National Insurance.

I used to sell on eBay actually, but no longer. Out of interest do I have a legal duty to report my annual earnings to the Inland Revenue, despite them being tax-free?

17Dave wrote: »

However, as a self employed person myself for several years, I would ask why would you ever want to go back to making someone else money??? You do seem to be financially successful in your business.

I don't, I just want to keep my options open for the future. I doubt I'll ever need to work for anyone again (not that I plan to stay in this same line of business forever; I'm working on a business plan for something that is taxable which I can invest my profits into - it might even be more lucrative!).

I have thought about Charity Work, if I could work the right hours that'd suit me down to a tee.

EDIT: I've got other incentives to work within someone elses business part-time - I generally only have enough cashflow to do about 3 hours work a day (this has been the situation for months now, although I'm at last getting credit to rectify it (as discussed here). The other major incentive is to gain new skills and well, my work isn't particuraly social (I've got some "colleagues" on MSN; i.e. people who work from home doing the same, or who work for bookmakers).

Savvy_Sue

I admit my limited imagination was going in different directions, but the kind of activities I was thinking of are taxable, although rarely declared ...

Gnomemeister wrote: »

Not to be nosey, but were you a housewife during that time; bearing children, that sort of thing? - I agree, employers wouldn't have any problem with that.

I never needed to describe myself as a housewife. I was keeping simple and not so simple accounts, organising events, chairing meetings, preparing publicity, organising recruitment of staff, managing payroll - and that was all in my voluntary work, before you start on the kind of skills developed by ANYONE who has children or runs their own household. Ah, read your other post and you're not living independently, so possibly less 'skilled' in that department. However, even if you're living at home, I hope you're as independent as you can be, capable in all departments, and take responsibility for general household duties as necessary! (That means I hope you do your own laundry, help out with shopping, cooking and washing up as required, and know how to use a vacuum cleaner!)

Gnomemeister wrote: »

Well, the best way to describe it is to compare it to Currency Spot Trading (hxxp://www.gocurrency.com/articles/about-currency-trading.htm), or (to a lesser extent) hedging on the stock market - basically I buy from one dealer at one price, and then instantaneously sell at another price elsewhere, locking in a profit in the process.

Now, I can see that an employer MIGHT have a problem with you saying you'd spent years supporting yourself through gambling, but the skills I'd hone in on would be managing money, simple book-keeping, and good time management. Because presumably without those, you could end up losing money?

Gnomemeister wrote: »

I used to sell on eBay actually, but no longer. Out of interest do I have a legal duty to report my annual earnings to the Inland Revenue, despite them being tax-free?

If in doubt, phone your local tax office and ask them. You'll usually find them quite prepared to answer general questions without requiring your name, address and inside leg measurement first, and I've always found them very helpful. And I would definitely ask about your NI contributions - you might be able to make voluntary contributions even if you're not required to do so, and you should think about whether that would be a good thing to do in the longer term.

You see if you've asked the question and they've said "No, we're not interested" then you are on stronger ground if they start asking "why haven't you been paying tax, we'll have £X000 in back tax right away" than if you never asked the question. Plus they are quite clear that it's for you to declare income rather then for them to ask you about it.

Gnomemeister wrote: »

I have thought about Charity Work, if I could work the right hours that'd suit me down to a tee.

EDIT: I've got other incentives to work within someone elses business part-time - I generally only have enough cashflow to do about 3 hours work a day (this has been the situation for months now, although I'm at last getting credit to rectify it (as discussed here). The other major incentive is to gain new skills and well, my work isn't particuraly social (I've got some "colleagues" on MSN; i.e. people who work from home doing the same, or who work for bookmakers).

I've read your other post, which makes about as much sense to me as my sons talking geek, but I don't need to understand it to ask if you would be available to work / volunteer regular hours? I dare say you'd have less time on your hands if your cashflow was improved (ie you'd be able to spend more time gambling), but if you do have regular time on your hands, then honestly the best thing you could do for your cv would be to get either a part-time job, or do some regular voluntary work. I agree you would have to be careful about how you describe your gambling activities, in case people think you might need to 'borrow' their money to finance it, but if your cv had something OTHER than gambling on it, you could keep that quiet.

I have to say I personally have a moral problem with gambling, because too many lives are ruined by NOT knowing when to stop. and my worry is that the longer you do it, the more likely it is that you'll take risks, and regret it. Gambling isn't called an addiction for nothing. I hope you don't mind me saying that: it certainly won't stop me trying to be helpful, quite the reverse!