“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” – Socrates
Do you dream of being your own boss, working for yourself or running your own business? Do you have a hobby that you enjoy so much you believe that you could earn a living for yourself from it? Perhaps you have a new idea that you would love to turn into a business? This is all you need to be successful: dreams, belief and ideas!
Working for yourself can seem daunting, you are good at the thing you want to do but there are so many more questions! Where do you start? How do you promote your business? How do you pay your taxes?
Scroll through the topics below for more detail and links to the information on You Tube. You can also navigate to the information you need quickly using our menu bar or search function
Trading Style
Trading style refers to, the way in which you chose to set up your business and trade. Whichever style you decide is most appropriate for you and your business, it is important that you understand the implications and the requirements on you as a business owner…..
Making Tax Digital
Making Tax Digital, or MTD for short, is the name given to the government initiative that seeks to modernise and improve the processing of returns for all taxes, meaning more accurate and timely information available to HMRC and better liability predictions available for tax payers. Making Tax Digital simply means keeping your accounting records digitally, on the computer, in a way that is designed to be able to submit your records to HMRC in the way that they will require with MTD…..
Support Available
As we have explored throughout our pages, working for yourself, running a small business brings lots of different aspects to manage and be aware of.
We all have our own individual skill sets, some things come more naturally to some than others and we all have different things that we enjoy or dislike. This is no different when it comes to business, there will be some things that you enjoy doing and are good at and others that you dislike or simply are not your thing!
With somethings, we need to engage professional advice because of the importance of getting things right and others it simply is not efficient to do yourself because it is something you dislike and it makes you feel negative and demotivated….
VAT Registration
It is important to have an understanding of what Value Added Tax (VAT) is even if you don’t need to register your business. There are some situations where you may benefit from voluntary registration but this won’t be the case for everyone. You will need enough understanding to be able to determine the best thing for your own business….
Insurance
Insurance is a way of protecting us from financial risk, an insurance company will weigh up all of the risks involved, including the potential financial losses that they will be covering and determine a premium for the insurance needed, but what business insurance will you need?
As well as thinking of business insurance. you will also need to think of any possible impact on personal insurance. You should notify your car insurance provider if you will use this for business use in any way and your home insurer if you will carry out any work from home, even administrative or storing of stock of equipment. You should also review any income protection policies you may have, to reassess that any cover remains sufficient and to confirm that your policy covers your employment status.
Employing Staff
Employing staff to work for your business can be daunting, and whilst you should ensure that you have checked that the employment will further your business objectives and that you are familiar with the employment laws you will need to follow, it can also be rewarding when you find the right staff for your business….
How To Market My Business
When you first start your business, indeed on an ongoing basis, you will need to let people know about your business in order to sell your products or services. Marketing is also known as promoting and advertising.
This can seem daunting at first, but it is important to let people know about your business in order to find your customers or clients. People often ask if they have customers or clients, according to the ….
Social Media
Social media can be a great way to let people know about your brand and to connect and engage with your customers and clients as well as learning what is important to them and how they make their choices!
Social media comes in many different forms and they are known as “platforms” You should learn about each platform, how it works and whether it will be advantageous to your own business….
Borrowing Money
Sometimes you may find that you may need to consider borrowing money, either to make a large purchase or to support cash flow. Before borrowing money, it is important to understand exactly how why the need to borrow money arose and be confident that your business is able to repay the funds….
Keeping Your Accounts
Keeping your accounts is essentially maintaining the financial records for your business, known as bookkeeping. Depending on your business, this can become complex with lots of rules and regulations to keep on top of, in which case it may be wise to outsource to a professional bookkeeper. There is no reason though that you cannot undertake at least some of the work yourself and you may be able to work with a bookkeeper who will support you to undertake the areas that you are comfortable with & they will cover the remaining aspects for you. Even if you outsource the bookkeeping, it is crucial for you to have an understanding of the finances of your business and you should still therefore understand some basic principles and be on top of the figures for your own business…..
How To Get More Help
As we have explored throughout our pages, working for yourself, running a small business brings lots of different aspects to manage and be aware of.
We all have our own individual skill sets, some things come more naturally to some than others and we all have different things that we enjoy or dislike. This is no different when it comes to business, there will be some things that you enjoy doing and are good at and others that you dislike or simply are not your thing!
With somethings, we need to engage professional advice because of the importance of getting things right and others it simply is not efficient to do yourself because it is something you dislike and it makes you feel negative and demotivated….
Protecting Your IP
Intellectual Property, known as IP refers to creations of the mind and ideas as opposed to physical, tangible property. Intellectual Property law deals with the protection of IP. Even in the smallest of business you should have a basic understanding of IP law and how it affects your business.
When we talk about protecting your IP, there are two sides to consider
- Protecting your own IP to ensure that someone doesn’t copy your creations and try to use them as their own, known as passing off
- Ensuring a sufficient understanding of IP law is necessary in order for you to be confident that you don’t inadvertently infringe another person’s IP
Health & Safety
The term “Health and Safety”, often abbreviated to “H&S” refers to safety and is the prevention of death, accidents and ill health relating to work environments.
Health and Safety is a far reaching topic which will vary hugely depending on your business operations, your working environment and also who else may be affected by these. Employees, the general public and your customers should all be considered when you are thinking of ensuring safe working practices
The Health and Safety Executive has evolved from HM Factory Inspectorates, first appointed under the Factories Act of 1833, they are a government agency whose aim is to reduce work-related death, injury and ill health
Data Protection GDPR
Data Protection is about how you use data that you may come across during your business operations and ensuring that people can feel confident to trust you with their data that you may have. Data isn’t just about personal information and records but can cover wider areas such as CCTV capture
The Information Commissioner’s Office, also known as the ICO, are the independent authority in the UK, set up in 1984 to uphold information rights in the public interest
Environmental Impact
Environmental impact refers to the impact that your business has on the environmental. Some common impacts are:
- • air pollution
- • water pollution (seas, rivers, groundwater)
- • soil pollution
- • waste production
- • noise pollution
- • damage to ecosystems and loss of biodiversity
Human activity has an impact on the environment and it is important for you to know what impact your business has and how this can be reduced or offset….
“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” –
Theodore Roosevelt
There is a lot to think about when working for yourself and it is easy to become overwhelmed. Write notes as you navigate the information on our website and then break your notes down into bite sized to do lists, prioritise what needs to be done straight away and keep a list of things to revisit
Working for yourself is a constantly evolving learning curve, try to focus on one thing at a time and revisit the topics often as you become more confident and more successful.