Looking to set up a company/as a sole trader (UK)

FAST6191 · Feb 16, 2009

Long story short I am bored with effectively being unemployable in the traditional sense and decided to set myself up as a business (specifics below).
Over the years I have noticed a few electricians, plumbers, IT people, builders (basically those in technical fields which is what I intend to enter) and whatnot hanging around the 'temp, it is my experience that many of those are self employed and I wanted peoples experiences of such a gig.

Read a few sites:
http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/actio...icId=1073858805
http://www.startups.co.uk/6678842909215558...a-business.html
and the associated laws that I could find on the subject.

My liability is not an issue (no debt necessary and insurance if I deem it necessary) so I was either looking at becoming a sole trader (under a business name of my own) and possibly working "contractor" status in there some how. Nicely it seems entry to such a thing is fairly hassle free and bookkeeping need not take a accountant to pull off.

Tools, skills, finance and experience* are all present or available. *this is mainly "off the grid" as it were but whether I did it in the shadows or officially it still got done and the ability to do it is there, this is also one of the main barriers I face when applying for things.

Javacat · Feb 16, 2009

I think that it might be worth you looking into help from your local chambers of commerce group, along with Business Link. When setting up my business we went to ours and they were of excellent assistance.

Before choosing to become a sole trader it might be worth looking into all the different types of businesses as they all have their advantages and disadvantages. For my company we decided that it would be best for us to become private limited. This was partly due to the way our company works and the sorts of people we work with. We also became VAT registered straight away.

Although you have dismissed it, it might also be worth looking into finding an accountant. They do a lot more than just number crunching. They are extremely knowledgeable about setting up, running and managing businesses. If you know an independent accountant it might be worth coming into some sort of deal, ie you do some work for them for free and they do the same for you. We did this sort of deal with a few people and it worked very well.

It could also be worth looking into dealing The Prince's Trust. Although you don't need it, they can provide a range of funding and low cost loans, along with mentoring programmes and much training. A lil bit of info @ http://www.princes-trust.org.uk/need_help/...s_start-up.aspx.

You might also want to know that HMRC provide a huge range of free training sessions for a range of things and are extremely useful. I went to a ton of these to learn all about business taxes n stuff. They are very useful and you'll find a range of people attending them from all sorts of businesses (when I went to them there were people like plumbers, builders, marketing advisers, consultants, estate agents, etc).

Anyway, there is an insane amount of help available for people starting businesses and much of it is free. It's well worth abusing it

EDIT: PS, I have no idea about your age, whereabouts or qualifications, but if you've left uni at some time in the last 5 years then it might be worth you looking around their website to see if they have a business incubation programme. A lot of universities now provide this service and they are generally pretty good (from what I've heard).

FAST6191 · Feb 26, 2009

I meant to come back and thank you for your reply Javacat but I got sidetracked.

I did some more looking and becoming a "contractor with own tools" looks to be what I want to do so it looks like a proper business is on the backburner for now.

Thanks for your reply.

Javacat · Feb 27, 2009

You're welcome

I'm a bit surprised that no one else replied to this thread. I thought that there were a few people on here that ran their own businesses, but I guess I might have been mistaken (or they are based in other countries, in which case what they had to say might not have been much use ).

Hope being self employed works out for you!!