Small business help please.

Gorgeestwo

Hi, to cut a very long story short, my husband has had two strokes within the last 8 mths, he has been unable to go back to his very physical job full time, he was doing 3 mornings a week before his second stroke. He has been making things that started off as good rehab, that friends & family then bought & since October it grew into a small business & has become very popular, potentially this may become his main income if he’s unable to go back to his day job, but we obviously want to get it right! We own our own home (mortgage) & I work full time. 

Help needed please with a good bank account, we’re with Santander for everything at present, but happy to look elsewhere for a good account, we also need a decent (but not too expensive!) laptop as everything is done off my phone at the moment, what would you recommend? 

As I understand it we don’t need to fill in a tax return until this time next year (only started in October 2020) any other advise very much appreciated! Thank you. 

tacpot12

Santander are ok for business banking.

If his requirements for a laptop don't include video editing, any reasonable laptop would do. I recently bought my partner an second-hand Asus Core-i5 with 8GB ram + 1TB harddrive (as her main requirement was to store and sort her very large archive of photos) for £160 from eBay. HP, Lenovo and Toshiba version of this specification would have been better, but were c£220-250. Look for laptops with256GB SSD drives as a better alternative to the 1TB harddrive.

He should have a look at this  website: Small Business Toolbox - Being Self Employed in the UK and the associated channel on YouTube for further advice.

Savvy_Sue

Well, there's a few questions there ... tacpot has given a good start for the laptop: as well as that the Techie board is your best bet (although they may blind you with science ...), but before you go there, what's your budget, and what will you be doing / what do you need? For example, if it's staying at home, then you probably want a decent screen size, and if you're spending any amount of time on it then a stand and separate keyboard and mouse are IMO essential, although none of them are particularly pricey. On the other hand, if you envisage taking something to art fairs / events (when such things are happening IRL again), then a small tablet might be a good idea, BUT for working at home you may want to attach a monitor, keyboard and mouse - which not all tablets make easy. 

If he is working from home, then you should tell both your mortgage provider and your insurer, definitely the latter, because if he is storing materials at home, and the finished product, then you're not covered by domestic insurance. Also, if customers are coming to your property you may need insurance for that: those issues are covered in this thread. 

Can't help with banks, but even if Santander are good for business banking, there can be sound reasons for having your business account elsewhere. But again, what do you need? How do people pay for these items? If it's ever by cash, you may want to find a bank where you can pay cash in, OR you may decide to log cash in his accounts but not pay it into the bank and make a transfer from your personal account, OR just log it and not pay it across - the key is good record keeping. However, note that there may be charges for cash payments in, and cheque payments in, etc etc etc, so what's your key method of receiving payments in? And how does he pay for materials etc? 

I'd also think about how much he'd expect to make - turnover and profit - if this business does take off, because it may be worth getting an accountant's advice (I am not an accountant, btw). You should be able to chat about the current situation and see what pointers you get, if there's ever a need for him to replace or buy equipment to carry on with this making then how that is accounted for can make a big difference to profile margins / tax due.