Aibu to ask for your stories of quitting work and starting your own business

[Jazzybeats]

At the end of my tether at work due to unreasonable hours and poor management. I’ve decided to set up my own consulting business (am pretty senior in my profession).

Can you share your stories of quitting work and starting your own business? What would you do differently?

Take two months off beforehand to deal with all the admin so you are ready to work in your business rather than on it.

Ahhh admin! I was planning on doing that during my notice period - setting myself up as a private company, insurances and so on.... really 2 months to do that?

Following as desperate to have the courage to set up my own business!

PI insurance
Regulatory approval
Website design
Stationery and branding
Contract (and regulatory approval)
VAT registration
Company registration
HMRC registration
Contact clients - phone calls
GDPR
IT equipment and security
Purchase of suitable software
Secure contract for IT support
Money laundering registration
Open bank account
Devise contingency plan in case you have an accident and need 3 months off work
Reconfigure Linked In and other social media

.......read the small print on all of the above and discover some areas of underlap, reprocess and check.

...... return those calls of the customers where you keep missing each other.

Also make sure you have some money in the bank for the 'getting established period and to cover those clients who are slow to pay

I was bullied out of my previous work and ended up starting a business officially at midnight on new years eve four years ago. It was a baptism of fire as I had to make it work, but I've never regretted it. It gave me back the confidence I'd lost and I've met some fab people over those years. I learnt new skills and decided to home educate too.

I did it without much planning because I had to and yes there were ups and downs and things I learnt on the job. But if you have skills and an idea it might be the best thing you ever did. One of the best things I did was join a business group online, I gained loads of support and ideas and always have people to talk to!

And of course I can dictate my own hours too...

The bank account takes bloody ages, we were warned but we were still unpleasantly surprised you are required to be an owner in the business. Are you allowed to be a director/owner of another company while you are working for your firm - can you get your OH to set up the business in their name and transfer ownership when you officially leave??
Websites also take longer to construct that you'd expect as do logos, company name etc
Have a good capital sum to fall back on - clients will not prioritise paying you - and will try to get the longest payment terms possible.
Keep all your receipts - make sure you get proper VAT receipts, check the receipt because even if it has VAT recorded, it may still not be a "VAT receipt"
Take a copy of all your client's names and phone numbers and photocopy any documents that might be useful - protocols etc - do not download them as it will be noted.

See NatWest Accelerator and Pre Accelerator programmes. They are free and offer an incredible amount of support. You don't need to bank with them. You can do the Pre Accelerator while you are still employed.

accelerator.natwest.com/?domain=null

Also Learn Direct have a great course to guide you through the basics of setting up and qualifying your business idea to ensure it's viable. Have a look for ones in your area.

Google digital garage also offers free courses to help with business set up.

Great tips. What do you believe is a good capital sum to fall back on? It’s been on my mind actually as will have mortgage etc to pay...

Also I am not sure I would start with logo, website, etc. I would imagine that my first few clients would be people I know...

I did but I had actually resigned while on mat leave ( or didn’t go back) but managed to negotiate my end of year bonus so had a few £.
DH was also earning enough to keep us, additionally I had my first client and no overheads.
No regrets at all, I pick and choose my clients and hours
It’s Business Development/advice
Find a good accountant, they will pay for themselves and often offer free business advice/seminars

We worked out that we need to be able to survive for a year without a salary, we tightened our belts, we were lucky and won a client almost immediately but it still took almost 3 months to get paid for the first invoice.
I really struggle with this aspect as I am naturally very risk averse. It helped for me to look at the worst possible scenario and see if I could live with that which was having to sell our home, we decided that we could live with that if we just rented in the same area till the dcs finished their education and then we'd move somewhere cheaper.

Don't scrimp on the logo/ website and don't settle until it's perfect. This will be the first impression people get of your company so it must be spot on.

Get your head around cloud accounting packages, like Quickbooks Online and Xero...they offer a free months trial, so have a play with them and see which one suits your business model better.

Anyone actually start a service based business? Specific pitfalls to that?

Such as what jazzy?

What type of service are you looking at?

In terms of lump sum, do you need to invest in anything to get your business up and running?

Then how much do you need to go 12 months before drawing a salary?

All of the free small business courses help you get to the point where you can create a financial projection. This is what you need to do, and it will help you to be overly thorough at this stage.

I'm approaching 8 months in business and I've got another 5 months savings to live on before it all gets scary. I'm not earning enough to pay a wage yet, still building my client base. I thought I'd be there by now, I know what I need to do. It's just a lot slower than I expected.

Anyone actually start a service based business? Specific pitfalls to that?

As I said earlier;

PI insurance
Regulatory approval
Website design
Stationery and branding
Contract (and regulatory approval)
VAT registration
Company registration
HMRC registration
Contact clients - phone calls
GDPR
IT equipment and security
Purchase of suitable software
Secure contract for IT support
Money laundering registration
Open bank account
Devise contingency plan in case you have an accident and need 3 months off work
Reconfigure Linked In and other social media

.......read the small print on all of the above and discover some areas of underlap, reprocess and check.

...... return those calls of the customers where you keep missing each other.

I started my own busibess in a specialist retail area which I had absolutely no experience in. Five months in and I have three staff and am drawing a wage - apart from the initial investment I have not touched a penny of my own money since the day I opened.

I'm a web developer and it's surprising the amount of people who scrimp on a website. Websites are very important, so are social media pages.

Websites are very important, so are social media pages.

Not necessarily. depends on how you intend to secure work.

By the same token I think we spent too much on the website - it really is not the focus of our sales...our client contact is word of mouth and networking with the right people.

@SwizzelsFizzers - it does, but an awful lot of people look at reviews of the company/person via social media and websites.

I think social media is going to be very important. Think LinkedIn. So that will need a revamp.

A website will be important, but since I expect my initial clients to be people I know, not something I will pay for on day one. I would probably hone my service/idea with those first clients and ensure I have a bit of revenue coming in before I made the investment on website.