If you are certain that self employment is for you the next steps are to inform the relevant authorities that you are  now working for yourself:

Image: 89studio / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

2) Do you need to register for VAT? If your turnover is expected to be above £77,000 per year you have to register for VAT. There are several schemes which you could use and they could actually save you money. It’s worth seeking advice before registering for VAT, below are 2 blog posts which explain how you could save money by registering for VAT:

• Should I Register for VAT?
• What is the Flat Rate Scheme?

3) It is advisable to find a bookkeeper or accountant to help you compile your accounts and help you look after your financial affairs. Whilst you will be paying for their services on a monthly basis, over the course of the year their help will be worth it’s weight in gold as they will help you save money, tax and deal with HMRC for you if needed. Reducing stress is a major bonus for any business owner

• Choosing Your Bookkeeper
• Should I Outsource?

4) Once you have chosen your bookkeeper/accountant the next thing you should do is send off form 64-8 to HMRC. This is a form which will register your bookkeeper/accountant as your agent, which means that they can talk directly to HMRC about your tax affairs. This is very advisable and will also cut down on the admin work you have to do. You’re paying for someone’s services, make sure you get you put that money to good use!

Image: renjith krishnan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Image: David Castillo Dominici / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Working for yourself is fantastic, but it is also very hard work. If you are not prepared to work longer hours that you would in a ‘normal’ job your business is already at a disadvantage

2) Can you work alongside your main job?

If you can run your sole-trader business alongside your main job this will ease some of the financial pressure on you as you have a guaranteed income stream. In many ways this is the ideal way to start your business as you can grow at a pace that suits you.

3) Is there a demand for your product/service?

You may think that your idea is fantastic, but will other people? Unless there is a demand for your product/service your business will not be able to grow. Make sure you do your market research before starting with your new business venture.

4) How will you price your product/service?

You need to have an idea what your costs will be in running your business, this will enable you to ensure that your prices will provide you with a healthy profit margin. It’s very tempting to try to get early sales by lowering your prices, but that could harm your business long-term. Make sure you have a firm idea of how your pricing will work.

5) Support from Friends & Family

Running a business will seem much easier if you have the support of your friends and family. Explain your business idea to them and see what their reaction is – they may even be able to offer some help and ideas. If they are totally against the idea you may need to re-think your venture.

I’ve already got a lot of ideas to include, but are there any that you would like including too? Even if you think it may be a silly question and don’t want to post it in the comments box below
email it to me instead and I’ll answer your question in the blog.

What do you want to know?

Image: Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Whilst you will bend over backwards to meet your customer’s requirements at some stage it wont make good business sense to continue bowing to their demands. They may be buying more stock from you, but if you are having to lower your selling price and margins to make those sales, coupled with the extra administrative and staff costs you will incur, are you actually going to be making any money on the sales?

For service based businesses the customer will always try to get the lowest price they can and often say ‘well it can’t be that big a job’. Let them try it themselves and see how big a job it soon becomes to put right. I read this great blog last week, these are prime examples of when to consider saying ‘no’ to a customer and taking a firm stance with them.

Image: renjith krishnan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

It’s a very competitive market place for all businesses, but don’t be afraid to stand your ground. If you start to give in to your customers’ demands too easily you may get a reputation for it and then all new customers may expect the same from you.

Good luck in your next venture

Image: graur codrin / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Make it easy for them to do this by only using 120 characters, or even better, 100 characters or less. Remember that when something is retweeted the RT will include your Twitter name, which will use up some of the characters. If the RT is over 140 characters some of the content will be lost, and most people wont take the time to find out what is missing.

Image: arztsamui / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

‘We’ve just launched a great new product, find out about it here www.xyz.com‘

That tweet is more likely to be clicked on than ‘We’ve just released a new widget into our range that will totally transform the way you do business by saving you lots and lots of time’

If you are trying to get some news across to people, think before you tweet.

Image: vichie81 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

• You Are What You Tweet
• How Much Money Do I Need to Start My Own Business?
• 5 People You Should Be Following on Twitter
• 7 Tips to Balance Your Personal and Professional Life
• 5 Social Media Pet Peeves

Thank you to everyone who has viewed/commented on my blogs over the last 30 days. I hope that you continue to come back and read the blog (hint: subscribe to the RSS feed )

Image: pakorn / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

1. Lakshmi Mittal and family – £12.7bn
2. Alisher Usmanov – £12.3bn
3. Roman Abramovich – £9.5bn
4. Sri and Gopi Hinduja – £8.6bn
5. Leonard Blavatnik – £7.58bn
6. Ernesto and Kirsty Bertarelli – £7.4bn
7. The Duke of Westminster – £7.35bn
8. David and Simon Reuben – £7.08bn
9. John Fredriksen and family – £6.6bn
10. Galen and George Weston and family – £5.9bn

The list shows that the combined wealth of the top 1,000 has increased by 4.7% over the last year and it you have aspirations to be on the list you’ll need have a worth of at least £72m. Despite the overall rise of the combined net worth several of the most wealthy lost a large proportion of their worth due to drops in the share prices of their businesses.

It just confirms that despite the double-dip recession Britain’s richest are getting richer whilst those on much lower incomes are continuing to struggle.

But do you use it to find out what people are saying about you?

Image: sheelamohan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Google Alerts

This is so simple to do I wish I had done it sooner. Go to this webpage -http://www.google.co.uk/alerts?hl=en – fill in the blanks, create the alert and sit back until the emails start coming through. You can use this without a gmail account, but it is much easier to create and manage alerts if you have one. Not all the results will be relevant to you, but if your business is mentioned on the web this alert should let you know

Twitter Search

Also very simple to do. Log in to Twitter and go to the search screen and enter your business name. The results will show any tweets you have made, but they will also show tweets that other people have sent that did not contain the @yourusername tag. If you want to narrow the results down even further try using the advanced search function

There you have it; 2 quick, easy and free ways to find out what people are saying about you on the internet.

I’d be interested to know how you find out what people are saying about you…

1. 5 People You Should Be Following on Twitter
2. 10 Reasons for Starting a Home Internet Business
3. Company Vans – Avoiding a Benefit in Kind

When you have read these posts take time to view some of the other blogs which give free small business tips and advice, which can be easily done be scrolling to the bottom of this post and clicking on the pop-up at the bottom left of your screen.