To ask for your best tips on launching a small business?

[whoneedsakey]

Name change as definitely outing!

My DH is an auto-locksmith as a sideline business, so can basically make spare car keys, can deal with 'all keys lost' and locked out of vehicle situations.

He started doing this recently, has invested in all the kit and is fully trained.

He has at the moment a Facebook page and all of his business is coming via this or word of mouth.

He's probably averaging one job per week and making roughly £150 a week profit.

He's not doing any advertising and we are rarely even posting on the Facebook page.

My question is - clearly we can see this is a viable sideline business to be making 600-800 a month for perhaps 5 hours work - but what do we need to do in order to really launch the business to get him busier?

We just both feel a bit clueless, like we know this can definitely make money but we don't know how to properly 'launch' it!

Also does he need to register as a sole trader? We are honestly complete newbies and no idea what we are doing!

Any and all advice is welcomed!
Posting here for traffic as I never get a response elsewhere!

My son got locked out of his flat in central Manchester recently. The guy turned up and said that he had several jobs that night. He was charging about £100 for each one and it took him just a couple of minutes to open my son's door.

Advertising has to be key with this. Could he advertise on next door? Does he use Google ads?

How does the check that the person as legitimate?

Look at how he can join a trade association - https://autolocksmiths.net/

What training and qualifications does he have? Are they only the basics or will he need to upgrade them over time? Could he work on absolutely any car or is he restricted in his capabilities?

What guarantees is he providing for his work? Is he insured in case he damages a car or breaks a lock etc?

Does he have a clear fee schedule for customers? What happens if they are unhappy with his work?

If he earns over £1k in a year this way, he needs to self report his income and register for self employment. He'll need to keep back some money from this income for tax and NI each year or face a massive bill:
https://www.gov.uk/working-for-yourself. Remember he can offset some tax against costs like equipment, training, travel etc but he'll need to look it all up and apply it to his situation.

it's all about getting as many online links and being seen as much as possible. e.g. via a website, optimised with appropriate keywords (e.g. surrey, locksmith, locked out, broken key etc - whatever is appropriate for his business but ensuring you do the correct regional area and keywords e.g. brighton, sussex, hove, east sussex, west sussex locksmith / brighton key replacement etc etc). regularity of posting on social media will ensure people remember his name. Add a location business on Google maps and get people to leave reviews for him, same for Facebook page e.g. reviews are good.

Registering as a sole trader just means registering with HMRC for self-assessment. You need to do this once you earn at least £1,000 in a tax year.
https://www.gov.uk/set-up-sole-trader

One way of promoting the service might be to join gig economy forums like Task Rabbit and AirTasker https://www.theguardian.com/money/2018/mar/10/boring-chore-airtasker-or-taskrabbit-could-help-at-a-price

Google AdWords definitely. The first thing I did when I got locked out of my house was google! Have a decent website/Facebook page so it seems legit business.