The Great 'Working for Yourself' Hunt

Slinky

Little_Miss_Moneysaver wrote: »

Dear all,
Apologies if i'm asking a redundant question - i've only recently discovered Martin's amazing website!!
Question for the money saving experts: I became self-employed about a year ago, and formed my own Ltd. company. It's going well, but i can't seem to find any decent paying savings accounts that i can link to my Ltd Co. bank account. Seems as though "personal savings accounts" have super rates of interest 6%+, but "business reserve accounts" for use by ltd. companies are only shelling out 3% or less. I am making a profit of about 2k per month after expenses, so would really appreciate some guidance on where to put the hard earned money! My accountant has informed me i am not allowed to move the extra money from my ltd co account to my personal savings account :mad: . Does anyone know where i can get a decent savings account for my ltd. company?:rolleyes:

I'm just opening a business savings account with Bank of Scotland Business Banking for my Ltd company. You don't have to move your whole banking business to them, although they'd like you to. I think it's paying something like 5.25%

I did have to laugh about them credit checking me when all I am going to do is open a deposit account with several 10's of thousands of pounds.

I'll see if I can find the link to their website for you.

Edit:
Here's the thread I found the info from and there are also some other options you might want to consider

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=862309

Little_Miss_Moneysaver

Slinky wrote: »

I'm just opening a business savings account with Bank of Scotland Business Banking for my Ltd company. You don't have to move your whole banking business to them, although they'd like you to. I think it's paying something like 5.25%

I did have to laugh about them credit checking me when all I am going to do is open a deposit account with several 10's of thousands of pounds.

I'll see if I can find the link to their website for you.

Edit:
Here's the thread I found the info from and there are also some other options you might want to consider

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=862309

Dear Slinky,
Many thanks for that - much appreciated! :j . I went with abbey last year because of the free business banking, but a year later and minimal interest from significant savings, got me quite concerned. I was beginning to think that decent savings accounts for business accounts didn't exist! Many thanks again for replying to my question :A

harryhound

sooie73 wrote: »

Hi, i have just read your post about comm power etc. I have done exactly the same as you did! Can you send me details of how i can get out of it please. I received the recording of the phone call but they only start recording half way through!! Please help me, suzanne

Hi Suzanne,

Welcome to MSE. We are here to help.

I'm not clear what it is you are talking about. It would have been a better idea to have quoted the original posting (deleting it down to the bit that matters if necessary ).
Alternatively you could click on the poster's MSE identity to find out if he/she is still about and then send a Personal Message to their MSE mail box

Harry

PS Are you a "sole trader" ?

HappySad

nykmedia wrote: »

Everything about self employment is much more complicated than anyone ever told me! Regardless of what you do or how you do it, if you are going to rely on that income entirely then you need to know right from the start how much you NEED to turn over just to survive. I've just arrived at a figure of £16,372. If I cut that to the bone and live without savings, pension, holidays, social life or luxuries of any description whatsoever, I could take it down to about £12,500. That is CLEAR PROFIT needed and allows for the increase in National Insurance and income tax for the 2008/9 year. If I was selling products and working on a 33.3% mark up, I would need to sell about £37,500 worth of goods per year just to live! And I haven't even considered the cost of borrowing and working capital..

Can you explain the calculations in more detail.

NI - £??
Income Tax£???
Living costs £12,500
Business expenses £??????
Does this all add up to £37,500??? Which is why you have to make this amount a year???

motorguy

HappySad wrote: »

Can you explain the calculations in more detail.

NI - £??
Income Tax£???
Living costs £12,500
Business expenses £??????
Does this all add up to £37,500??? Which is why you have to make this amount a year???

I think it was a throw away example based on 1/3 of turnover = net pay.

Probably not worth getting worked up about. (?????)


One issue i do have with this post is it encourages the notion that

'if i work for myself / start my own company i will be better off'

So many businesses fail in the first two years - probably twice as many as make it past that point, and when they do fail, they dont just fail with a 0 balance in the bank, they go down owing thousands, which the individual involved usually ends up having to pay back.

HappySad

pgilc1 wrote: »

I think it was a throw away example based on 1/3 of turnover = net pay.

Probably not worth getting worked up about. (?????)


One issue i do have with this post is it encourages the notion that

'if i work for myself / start my own company i will be better off'

So many businesses fail in the first two years - probably twice as many as make it past that point, and when they do fail, they dont just fail with a 0 balance in the bank, they go down owing thousands, which the individual involved usually ends up having to pay back.

this is good advice. My DH ended his 2year business completely drained, underweight & £25k in debt. He plans to start again another business with many lessons learnt about keeping organised with money & paperwork, getting invoices out on time , ensuring customers pay on time, using an accountant, and also keeping the running cost down to a minimum.

camowen

I work fopr myself..in community development and rely heavily on funding...hard work...rewarding...flexible....time off...no pay....but benefits and draw backs...but benefits outweigh any negative problems!

Frugaldom

Hi guys, just helping bump this thread back up again, as moneysaving for the self-employed is high on my own agenda. My top recommendation for anyone working for themselves is to live within a strict budget that's easily achievable when compared against earnings and stick to it. I now base my work around what I need to earn and anything extra is a bonus, plus it doesn't hurt so much when paying out a share to the tax man. Mind you, I am STILL awaiting my over-payment rebate!

adhutton

Not sure if anyone has posted this information before, so if they have apologies.

If you run a 'Work from Home' small business then you can get yourself a dedicated 'Business' phone number at a fraction of the cost of a full BT Business line.

Rather than paying BT an additional line rental for a dedicated business line, just use your home phone line. Sign-up (with BT) for their additional 'BT Call Sign' feature, which costs just a few quid a month (about £2.50 per month the last time I looked). This gives you a second phone number with a different ring tone.

The benefits are that you don't have to give out your home phone number to business customers. You know when a business call is coming through because the phone rings differently and it doesn't cost a fortune.

Another benefit is that you can buy a filter (from BT or on eBaY) which detects the ring tones and routes the call to a specific phone. So, if you have an office or work area at home you can have all your inbound business calls ring on that phone and any others ring on the other phones in your house (for family calls).

Hope this helps?

A

Slinky

adhutton wrote: »

Not sure if anyone has posted this information before, so if they have apologies.

If you run a 'Work from Home' small business then you can get yourself a dedicated 'Business' phone number at a fraction of the cost of a full BT Business line.

Rather than paying BT an additional line rental for a dedicated business line, just use your home phone line. Sign-up (with BT) for their additional 'BT Call Sign' feature, which costs just a few quid a month (about £2.50 per month the last time I looked). This gives you a second phone number with a different ring tone.

The benefits are that you don't have to give out your home phone number to business customers. You know when a business call is coming through because the phone rings differently and it doesn't cost a fortune.

Another benefit is that you can buy a filter (from BT or on eBaY) which detects the ring tones and routes the call to a specific phone. So, if you have an office or work area at home you can have all your inbound business calls ring on that phone and any others ring on the other phones in your house (for family calls).

Hope this helps?

A

On this subject, if you are just starting your business and are going to use call sign, make your previous home number your new business number and give all your friends and rellys the new call sign number as your personal home number. This is what I did when I started my business.

Reason for this is that when you dial out, your primary number with the ordinary ring tone is the one which will people will see on caller display/1471. If they then phone back on that number, you'll know it's a business call and answer appropriately.

You might think, oh that's OK, I'll block my phone from giving out the number and leave messages with the callsign number on. If your new business is going to involve you cold-calling new customers, be aware it's been illegal since April 08 to cold call from a withheld number.

HTH.