The Great 'Working for Yourself' Hunt

MuddledOfMiddlesex

If you can, try to combine self-employment with employment for a year or two, i.e. run your business alongside your employed work. It's hard work, of course, but it's a great, lower-risk way of both learning the ropes/technicalities AND seeing whether your heart is truly in the business. If you can't wait to get stuck into your business after a shift at your day job, even if it means propping your eyes open with matchsticks, then it's a sign you have the drive and passion to go it alone.

I did this for three years before committing to full-time self-employment in 2006. I was able to negotiate going four days a week at work, and then running my business the rest of the time. I am so glad I had that experience when I finally relied on my business for my income - it made it much less scary.

daddygez

Great Idea Martin.
Been self employed for most of my life and still learning.

1. take a note of all your mileage at the outset, it might be better to claim 40p allowance than car expenses BUT also keep all vehicle reciepts and compare the two at time of filling out tax form.

2. a good accountant is better than these computer tax programs. An accountant knows what 'little' extras you can claim for whereas a tax program just fills out the form for you. Ask around those that are self employed in your area which accountant they use and do they think the're good.

3. put a regular amount away each week/month in an isa or similar to cover the tax bill ( the payment at January 31st can be destroying straight after peoples mad christmas spend)

4. depending on your clients, try to build a good rapport, customer loyalty depends much on a 'feel-good' factor as well as good and trustworthy service.

will post more as I think of them.

nicky_nacky_noo

I need advice, my hubby has been Ltd Co for 2 years (Electricial company with 2 employees), it is ticking over ok, he has some good customers, but we have 3 small children and we are up to our eyes in debt, resulting in us living well below the bread line, we are drawing money from personal credit cards to pay into the company to meet the 6 grand a month over heads. Is it work carrying on I think wwe are at breaking point, but he thinks this is normal, which one of us is wrong, will it get better? Help

CoatesFranklin

As an accountant I can recommend two areas that save our clients c.£4,000 per year for very little effort:

1. Set yourself up as a limited company rather than self employed. Depending on your level of income, this can save you around £2,000 per year as there is no National Insurance to pay.

2. Register your business on the Flat Rate VAT Scheme. Depending on your type of business, this can save you upto £2,000 per year.

I also agree with most of ncrossland's tips although I would say that, depending on your type of business, you can work from home without your customers knowing if you hire a virtual office (postal address / tel no.) which is on offer in most cities. This could save you ££'s in office rent.

Kazza1

Hi

I have been self-employed for almost 10 years now and have been involved with the Prince's Trust as a business mentor for around 5 years. So, my tips are:

1) If you are aged between 18 and 30 and are currently unemployed or only working part-time (or fit some of the other Prince's Trust criteria) then you may be eligible for a low cost loan to start up your own business. As well as the loan, they will assign you a business mentor who can give you loads of free advice and support. A lot of the mentors are accountants, bank managers, experts in marketing etc so they are a resource well worth having.

2) Don't rely on friends to give you business. In my first two years, only 1 of the dozen or more people who promised me business actually came through for me. You HAVE to go out and find your customers - they won't just turn up on your doorstep.

3) Don't give up. Trying to sell yourself/your services etc is very hard work and you get an awful lot of rejection but keep at it. Eventually someone will say yes.

4) Keep tabs on any grants etc on offer from your local Business Link. We have managed to get a free day's website development training and half the cost of a new laptop. Not a lot in 10 years but still worth having.

5) For an awful lot of businesses, advertising is a waste of money. Really think about your target market and whether advertising is the best way to get to them before you spend your hard-earned money on it. Mailshots tend to be cheaper and better-targeted, and even leafleting in the street (if appropriate) can be effective.

6) My final tip is this... Tidying the house, doing the washing etc don't matter. The business is more important. If you are earning enough, you can always pay someone to do household chores for you. Or, in our case, just get used to living in a pigsty!!

Good luck to anyone thinking of taking the plunge.

olgacrackcorn

Hi out there to all MSE budding entrepaneurs,
im looking to jack my day job in at the end of march to start up on my own painting & decorating.What i need to know,is it possible for me to claim housing benefits & uneployment benefits for a short while,whilst i try to get established & get a run of work in.I really need to know this,as i have no cash to fall back on as i live week to week on my wages,& also i have a very very bad credit rating,plus three children & a wife to support.
All replies will be very gratefully received.

olgacrackcorn

Hi out there to all MSE budding entrepaneurs,
im looking to jack my day job in at the end of march to start up on my own painting & decorating.What i need to know,is it possible for me to claim housing benefits & uneployment benefits for a short while,whilst i try to get established & get a run of work in.I really need to know this,as i have no cash to fall back on as i live week to week on my wages,& also i have a very very bad credit rating,plus three children & a wife to support.
All replies will be very gratefully received.

Epiphone

CoatesFranklin wrote: »

1. Set yourself up as a limited company rather than self employed. Depending on your level of income, this can save you around £2,000 per year as there is no National Insurance to pay.

There is if you take a salary!

Lizbetty

We asked on MSE in the early days of our business whether Yellow Pages were worth the money (the quote we had was quite high for a relatively small ad).

The advice was spend the money on a website! Then we found www.spanglefish.com who offer free websites which have small google ads on them. But if you pay £25pa you can get rid of the google ads and end up with an impressive site! Quite a few MSE-ers have sites with them. We went for the £25 pa option and have had loads of help getting it set up.

There are other places to get free websites but the folk on Spanglefish (including other users) are straight there if you need help, plus it's easy to tinker with the site with no knowledge of HTML and suchlike - even good for techno phobes!

We've ended up quite high up on the search engines and we've had lots of hits. We've found it's useful to potential customers my husband has cold called as it gives them the chance to read up on us, and gives us more credibility as a business.

The only other advice I'd give is don't keep waiting for the 'ideal' time to start working for yourself. We'd always fancied it, but it was never the right time. I've been a stay at home mum since June 05 with a second baby of 5 months when he started, and we were quite financially challenged... but we decided it was then or never.

Although we're still finding it a challenge financially, my husband is happier and so we all are! Nowt beats earning money for yourself rather than earning it for someone you possibly don't like for them to buy their new ivory backscratcher...

Hope this helps someone, and good luck if you are starting out on a new venture!

Luce

ademoore

Nicky Nacky Noo!
In response to your question, I don't think it's about who is right and who is wrong here, more about, if your business isn't making the money you originally expected, then "why" is that the case, and being prepared to trawl through to find those reasons.
Questions to ask include, are jobs being costed correctly (i.e. time correctly allocated per job, and being charged appropriately, cost of materials, markup etc), are both employees being fully utilised, are the actual costs of the business being managed. There are so many questions you need to ask, and will only find the answers by looking and questioning every cost into the business. The same is true with home life, can you get the cost of living down, do you have luxuries that you can afford to live without for now, at least until you start to get back on your feet?