I'm wanting to start my own business in addition to working fulll time (at leat for the first year anyway)

Has anyone done the same thing and held down a full time job too? What advice do you have and how do our friends the revenue treat you in this situation?
I havent set up yet but am interested in hearing experiences

Thanks!

I think more details would be required for anyone to give a constructive answer

I'm wanting to start my own business in addition to working fulll time (at leat for the first year anyway)

Has anyone done the same thing and held down a full time job too? What advice do you have and how do our friends the revenue treat you in this situation?
I havent set up yet but am interested in hearing experiences

Thanks!

If you want to work for yourself, go for it! Don't mix it with a full time paid job, though. You will need all your time and energy to make a go of it. Just make sure that you've got some money in the bank to start and plenty of bottle to keep it going. Oh, just make sure you've got some customers lined up too. After that it's plain sailing. Yeah right. It's tough, you may lose your house but you'll feel good.

you may lose your house but you'll feel good.

is this a wind up?

is this a wind up?

Nope. I came close.

Now I can count Sir Sean Connery as one of my clients (indirectly, of course).

The first year of any business is by far the most important year of all and will require 110% commitment if you really want it to be a success.

My advise to you would be research, research and more research then think about leaving work and starting up.

The first year of any business is by far the most important year of all and will require 110% commitment if you really want it to be a success.

My advise to you would be research, research and more research then think about leaving work and starting up.

Bang on. The research and planning prior to starting up will make the difference between success and failure. I don't know what it is that you are planning to do but you must think about who are your potential customers, can you supply them and can you do it at a competetive price.

Oh, by the way. Keep records so that you can do your tax return.

is this a wind up?

I wouldn’t think so. People who start businesses with little money and even less business sense usually end up in queer street. The OP may have the enthusiasm the money and whatever skills are required, but his/her business sense is questionable e.g. asking forumers when there are all sorts of experts ready to give business advice free.

On the other hand, his/her full-time job may be exactly the same work he plans to do as a business; in which case he’ll probably succeed. Trouble is, the OP hasn’t given enough information for anyone to provide a reasonable answer.

From an accounts point of view, you can be both employed and self-employed at the same time. You register as self-employed with the Revenue and you pay your self-employment NI contributions.

Your next tax return will contain self-employment pages for you to enter details of your business income and expenditure, and it's kept separate from your employment income, although all of it will figure in your tax calculations.

Many people are both employed and run their own businesses as well, but it very much depends on what kind of business you're in. If you provide a service (say you're a decorator working for a firm but who wants to branch out on your own), it may be easier to slowly take on more private clients and ease yourself away from being employed.

On the other hand, if you want to start a trading business that requires premises, stock to sell, expenses such as rent, rates, light, heat, wages for other staff, you're going to find yourself pretty stretched trying to hold down another job as well.

You also need to consider the riskiness of your venture. Is it a low risk, low financial outlay, business? Or are you chancing the family silver on the project? Depending on your answer to this, you may have to consider whether you want to be a sole trader (easier to start i business, less expensive in accounting, but leaving yourself open to losing everything you possess if things go wrong) or a limited company (more expensive to set up, more costly in accounting, but separating your business's finances from your own personal possessions).

This is a long post, and I'm going to bed now!

You best check your current employer's contract of your full time Job too.

They have clauses it them to prevent you from doing a second job. If you are plannng on setting up a competing business, there could well be a clause in it to prevent direct competition with your current employer even upto 1 year after you have left the company.

I'm wanting to start my own business in addition to working fulll time (at leat for the first year anyway)

Has anyone done the same thing and held down a full time job too? What advice do you have and how do our friends the revenue treat you in this situation?
I havent set up yet but am interested in hearing experiences

Thanks!


Hi Be Happy


You might find this organisation useful to talk to and go see.


http://www.senta.co.uk


Good luck

Thank you, very helpful. I was going to post this question as well.

I was thinking there must be a small business centre/new business centre/busssiness starting info centre somewhere in Sheffield.
The only bad thing being the course i really need to do that they run is on the same night as my other college,though i did only have a brief look (will go back to it later) but at least i have the info to find them now.

Thanks

If you want to work for yourself, go for it! Don't mix it with a full time paid job, though. You will need all your time and energy to make a go of it. Just make sure that you've got some money in the bank to start and plenty of bottle to keep it going. Oh, just make sure you've got some customers lined up too. After that it's plain sailing. Yeah right. It's tough, you may lose your house but you'll feel good.
I have been running my own business for 3 years while holding down a full time job. It's time consuming but especially in the early parts it was necessary to ensure bills (i.e mortgage) was paid each month and income was guaranteed.

I'm not part time with the day job and should have left it inside the next 12 months. It's very rewarding running your own business as it encourages you to work harder... the harder you work the more you earn.

As far as HM customs and revenue are concerned, it really depends on whether you're going to become a sole trader, ltd company or other.
If you're a sole trader bear in mind the 40% tax threshold is (IIRC) approx £32k-£35k a year. Anything you earn over that is taxed at the 40%.

You need to register with HR C&R and National Insurance to ensure you're paying correctly and don't get fined for late notification of business inception (i think you have 90 days from starting your business to registering it with HR C&R).

There is a lot fo information available on their website if you have quick look.
Also (unless you are planning on doing your own) get an accountant to do your accounts properly. You can book keep yourself (as I do) but an accountant ensures you are claiming the tax against everything you should.

E.g. If you run your business from home and you have an office at home where you work from, then you can claim a percentage of your household bills against your taxable income etc.

I can recommend a reasonably priced accountant when you've set up.

Finally make sure you know your prospective customers, whether there is room in the market for your company, suppliers (if required) costing and budget planning. The best course of action is to setup a business plan even if you dont intend to borrow money from anywhere. It will help you see where your company will be heading and you can follow it through the year.

Good luck :thumsbup:

By the way what is it you're doing?

They have clauses it them to prevent you from doing a second job. If you are plannng on setting up a competing business, there could well be a clause in it to prevent direct competition with your current employer even upto 1 year after you have left the company.I'm not sure if it's legal for an employer to prevent someone having another job unless it's in direct competition or might make doing their main job illegal such as excessive driving hours. An employer cannot prevent you leaving and setting up in competition because a person is allowed to ply their trade where and whenever they want. If however someone has sold their business the buyer can prevent them setting up in the same trade for a maximum of 3 years (I think) because they have received a payment to prevent them doing so.

A trade that often abuses this is hairdressing whereby they intimidate naive, often young staff into believing they can't work elsewhere. That isn't correct, they can.

Good luck with it, it may be hard work and you need to be prepared to work for nothing at first but best thing is not having anyone telling you what to do. I did it 24 years ago.

I would think very carefully before I started my own business if I were you. It can be VERY stressful particularly if you ever start employing people and most businesses need to employ people to make real money.
If you are the sort of person who just can`t work for anyone else (as I am now having had my own business for 12 years) then it`s a bit different and obviously it`s then a more positive step, but remember the grass is always greener.....
In terms of which business I`d go into, plumbing and building are the obvious answers though you obviously need the skill/experience.

There are two rules of thumb :
1 Try to specialise and avoid "competing with the big boys", that`s a recipe for disaster.
2 Any trade where you have experienced a lack of interest in your custom is a good indication that there is a surplus of demand over supply, so get into that trade !

Good Luck (apart from if you start competing with me of course ! TV aerials etc www.aerialsandtv.com )

I'm not sure if it's legal for an employer to prevent someone having another job unless it's in direct competition or might make doing their main job illegal such as excessive driving hours.
I have seen this kind of clause in 2 of my contracts and they were large companies too. I doubt both of these companies have made them up. They will have got solictors involved drafting these documents. Whether they are enforceable or not in the court of law, I am no expert.

An employer cannot prevent you leaving and setting up in competition because a person is allowed to ply their trade where and whenever they want.

A trade that often abuses this is hairdressing whereby they intimidate naive, often young staff into believing they can't work elsewhere. That isn't correct, they can.

Well, it really does depend on how unfair the contract is but legally they can restrict you somewhat if it fair. The court will decide on the definition of fair if it ends up going that way:
It falls under restrictive covenants
http://www.accountancyagejobs.com/vnunet/features/2129978/legal-advisor-employers-protect-business
http://www.roydens.co.uk/content09.htm

The original poster really should check their terms of employment and seek legal advice if in doubt otherwise they could end up losing their job for breach of contract.

If however someone has sold their business the buyer can prevent them setting up in the same trade for a maximum of 3 years (I think) because they have received a payment to prevent them doing so.
Seems logical.

I have seen this kind of clause in 2 of my contracts and they were large companies too. I doubt both of these companies have made them up. They will have got solictors involved drafting these documents. Whether they are enforceable or not in the court of law, I am no expert.




It wouldn't surprise me if large companies put clauses in that were unenforcable just to intimidate their employees who daren't question it, then having left and questioned it the big company wouldn't do anything, there's nothing to stop them doing that. Say you were working as an apprentice trained telephone engineer for a big national company and decided to leave, that company cannot prevent you working as a telephone engineer for another company or for yourself because that may be the only trade you know. An individual is obviously the owner of their own skills and has the right to use them wherever they wish.

I have a situation at the moment with my business where some new legislation requires my employees to have extra, expensive training to comply. Even though I am paying for it, it is their qualification and what's more I'm not allowed to charge them for it, so they can leave the day after they qualify and use it elsewhere which may well earn them higher wage.