Expanding business. ..heeeelp?

[lucielou74]

Hiya, not sure I'm under the correct category but I'm currently self employed doing domestic cleaning. It's been going really well, working full time but can no longer take on any more jobs which is very frustrating as the demand is huge.

I have been thinking and researching about taking on staff but it all seems to be so complicated with lots of red tape and legal stuff I have no idea about.

Is there somebody out there who is currently running their own business with staff ? Where do I start?
I thought employing staff would be easy, find good people (not easy I know), find them work, pay them ...should be simple enough ..BUT!!

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you xx

[nameschangerer]

Have you registered as an employer with HMRC? You'll also need employers liability insurance. When you come to actually hiring someone ensure they can legally work in the uk and then get a contract started. You can get free stuff online.

Ensure that you have them set up ion a payroll system by your accountant too x

[nameschangerer]

www.gov.uk/employing-staff

[lucielou74]

No I haven't registered yet. I'm still in a process of researching and trying to figure out if it's worth the headache..
Thank you for the link x

[RB68]

you need employers liability insurance
public liab (shld have this anyway but will need to change to reflect staff)
you will need to do a payroll
you might need timesheets
should have an employees handbook with all sorts of policies in
You also need to consider pensions these days
you will need to pay NI and tax on employees behalf and also for yourself as employer - although there is a grant at the moment for small businesses and employers NI contributions (so you need to look into that too)
I would think about having a training manual so everything is written down and can be referred to - nothing to stop this being online so long as folks have access etc. I would also keep a personnel file with CV, any references, and a list of training provided to them with dates.

We pay someone to do our payroll and NI each month, they just tell us what to pay and we do that - they send out payslips and any p60's etc. But ours are straight forward with no hours to calculate or anything

[lucielou74]

Thank you for the info RB68. If I employ somebody on part time basis, let's say 16hrs at £7ph, do they still need to pay NI ? And do I still need to contribute to their pension? And there are sick days and holiday pay. So really, I wouldnt be making any profit anytime soon...