Thread: Starting a small business

Hi all, i'm toying with the idea of starting a small hire business from home, it would run alongside my full time job, but does anyone else have their own small business and any hints and tips to share? Currently crippled by indecision, procrastination and maybe even fear of failure which i need to overcome xxx

Originally Posted by Devon_Dumpling

Hi all, i'm toying with the idea of starting a small hire business from home, it would run alongside my full time job, but does anyone else have their own small business and any hints and tips to share? Currently crippled by indecision, procrastination and maybe even fear of failure which i need to overcome xxx

All those things you are feeling are the norm.I would be worried about you if you didn't have them.

My only advice would be check out the legalities first , or more to the point the cost of the legalitiesi.e. public liability insurance etc.

Good luck D.D.

My OH is self employed and kinda works from home. He is an IT technician so and has contracts with 3 or 4 schools and he has various people who he does regular work for such as a local garage and stuff.
I believe that when he was setting up, which will be 2 years ago in April, he had to spend a lot of time contacting possible customers (schools in his case) and he did lots of research online regarding the legality of stuff. He had to get public liabilty insurance and he had to have a contract that appealed to people. Luckily he had worked for a local authority doing the same job for 10 years so he had a good idea as to what schools would be looking for.
He researched the prices that other people charged so he knew what the competion was like, some of the competition were close friends as they all got made redundant at the same time and all started up on their own so that was sometimes awkward but they have all got work.
He also had many reservations but he bit the bullet and went for it and it paid off, he is glad he did it. The only thing he hates is the tax return as he is not organised with his expenses at all, we have receipts all over the place! He hasnt hired an accountant or anything but he said that completing the returns are pretty straight forward and the tax website explains it all. He doesn't have anyone working for him... I go with him sometimes if he has a big job on such as installing a full suite of computers but I dont get paid of course!... so he doesnt have to worry about wages etc.
I hope it all works out for you x

First thing I would do is contact mortgage/landlord to see if it's against terms of mortgage or tenancy.
Check contents insurance to see if it covers business equipment if not you'll need to get separate insurance.
If your going to get lot of deliveries/customers to your house or make extra noise you need to discuss with council.

If using one or more rooms solely for business you may have to pay business rates rather than domestic rates on the room/s.
You can claim a proportion of your council tax,heating,lighting etc as business expenses.
Also when you sell your house you may have to pay capital gains on the proportion thats dedicated to your business.


I was talking this over with a solicitor yesterday as OH is looking at working from home.