Turning Self Employed

S

Sm1thers

Guest
hi all,

Thinking of changing roles with my current employer which will be going from employed to self employed.

It will involve alot of driving, general pc work and loads of phone calls faxes ect.

Is there anything I should look out for before I take this plunge.

I will need a gud accountant and to be VAT registered.

Anything else? people can think of.

This will be a big change for me, a risk into the unknown but if it pays off the rewards will be excellent financially and its something that i would really want to do.

Ps non home owner if that matters and currently a car owner.

thanks in advance
 
Not turning you off or anything but you asked, and here's a few things I'm sure you already know:
Your not a home owner: It took me several years and several attempts to acquire a mortgage although my employees never had a problem, you see self employed are not secure investments, You are not entitled to anything like teeth,medical,or unemployment benefit or the old age contributory pension nor is your wife or Dependants entitled to anything, If you are 7 days late with tax returns or especially vat assessments you will get a 7 day warning then you will have the sheriff at your door to collect, Yes time is your own and you wont have someone breathing down your neck but you will find that you will be doing a lot more hours than you did when on a wage, I do a normal day away at work, then every evening and at weekends I do bookwork,I spend hours pricing work that I never hear of again. The most important thing you must be is a go getter and not lazy or you can't be the sort of person that waits for things to happen, you must be the sort of person that pushes and chases all the time and still be able to show good spirit even when your down.You should see me on a Monday (a live wire) by Fri I'm recked. I'm self employed for 30 years and have had some really bad times and some great times. I believe a lot of it is to do with money,If your making good money things seem to go well and if your not every thing goes wrong. The only other thing is the tax man and everyone believes all self employed are are rolling in it and believe me its not always like that, Remember nothing is for free.
 
Many thanks for taking the time to respond in an honest way,

27 at the moment and renting , happy to do so while clearing debt I am in. I understand about the unemployment benifit or lack of.
Please god a good accountant will keep me on my toes in relation to Tax returns!!!

I woudlnt have anyone else working for me, just me myself ect ect.

I have alot of drive and ambition and am very hungry when there is money to be made, from a sales background so used to working more then the standard 40 hrs to get the job done.

Wages would be between 70k and 250k - Before Tax and expences.
On approx 40 at the moment which is why this is also appealing, but I would be doing it for me primarily as its something i always wanted to do,

thanks again for the reply
 
No holiday pay, no sick pay, no security or permanancy, competitors ready to undercut you etc etc.
 
Understand the below, thanks for pointing it out,

No compeditors though thank god
 
Budget for health insurance both to pay medical bills and to protect your income. Do not get "critical illness" insurance as this has so many exemptions it is worthless. Do look (if you are currently in good health; if you're not they won't touch you) at income protection insurance should you become unable to work through accident, sickness etc.

Good luck

Imogen
 
nah there isnt a compeditor in my sector nor will there be as its all managed under the unbrella of one company
 
It looks like you are changing from working (employee) for a company to being a sub contractor for the same company. If you have a tax / VAT audit and revenue notices that all your invoices are made out to the same company they could look at you as an employee again and this could have major tax problems for you in the future.
 
Sm1thers said:
nah there isnt a compeditor in my sector nor will there be as its all managed under the unbrella of one company
Click to expand...

Please don't make the decision to go self-employed on the basis that there will never be a competitor. If there is money to be made, competitors will come out of the woodwork.
 
i amnt going into it completely blind, i have been looking at the perticular sector for the last 12 months from the inside out. Now i want to go to the outside and look in!

Anyone got any advice on actually becoming a contractor for a company? I will be employed by them and have to handle my own Tax ect
 
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