Starting up?

[Reddave83]

Hi, this is my first post so go easy on me!
I have been flirting with the idea of setting up on my own, and basically welcome any advice possible!!
Im based near Liverpool and have been working mainly on vrf and close control systems, both installation and service/maintenance. I have practical knowledgeof the trade but am unsure exactly of the set up procedure (insurance, taxes, Vat etc etc) to get going. Im aware its going to be tough so any help would be much appreciated!
Thanks

[sedgy]

hi northwest,
if you want to start up . on your own can you indicate how many contracts you could have allready?in our modern finantial situation it could be a slog to get things going, you say you have an apeceation of this fact so you know a finantial adviser will be a must, I wish you all the best in your quest, from a man who has been there and seen the other side its not allways automatic to win
sedgy

[Abe]

Hi, this is my first post so go easy on me!
I have been flirting with the idea of setting up on my own, and basically welcome any advice possible!!
Im based near Liverpool and have been working mainly on vrf and close control systems, both installation and service/maintenance. I have practical knowledgeof the trade but am unsure exactly of the set up procedure (insurance, taxes, Vat etc etc) to get going. Im aware its going to be tough so any help would be much appreciated!
Thanks

Hi Red

Theres a seed planted which says " I want to work for myself" Thats the starting point.

Its good, youre young, experienced, competent, and you have gung ho, now consider these things.


My first port of call will be your local Business Link. Tell them what you want to do. Get all the free and business advice you can get your hands on.

I could not possibly give you any advice about the myriad of running a businress from the complexities of employment laws to taxation.

Good luck.............Do your ground work first!

The most important thing you must have is:

Can you sell and close a deal?
Can you persevere and run the game into the ground?

If you cant, forget it

All the very best to you

[chilliwilly]

Good advice from the other two posters. Here's my tuppence ha'penny. Chances are you will be dealing with mainly commercial customers. So make sure that you have a twenty thousand pound overdraft for when they breach your thirty day agreement, or when they don't pay at all.

Make sure you get a signature everytime you visit them to prove you have done the work, that way they can't say they've never heard of or ever met you before. And then use it as a defence in court.

Register for VAT the first day you set up in business, tell the office that you project to hit the VAT limit in your first year. But be prepared to keep up the three monthly audits. And keeping the books one hundred percent accurate, and have an excuse for actually being up in their favour.

Don't rely on advertising in phone directories and the like, they will only attract cold callers and time wasters, however you will get some genuine business calls that may turn into jobs but you can't bank on it. Keep away from pamphlet distributors and other tossers and chancers that print calendars with your company name in a box that surrounds the calendar. They will only print off a hundred or more and tell you they have delivered to dentists, schools, libraries and the like. Then when you ask them which ones they've delivered to for proof, they will tell you its against the data protection act to give out that information. Just sign up your van, that's the best advertising you can have.

On certain jobs that you consider to be financially heavy (this could be a job that's less than two thousand pound), always agree on interim payments on agreed stages of the work. And agree a deposit for the first batch of materials delivered to site. That way they belong to to customer even if their still packaged. And if they get nicked, its not your problem.

You will probably find liability insurance in excess of seven hundred pounds a year, sometimes it includes fire damage through hot works, sometimes there's an excess.

And most of all... ask yourself why you would want to go through all the above and more, when you can clock in and clock out for a firm and take home a guaranteed wage, and let them go through the above.