need some advice with things to consider when setting up a small business.

[DidEinsteinsMum]

I am in two minds as to whether this is a good idea or not at the moment. The issue being that I need to sort out income so that i know that there will be enough for rent etc So was considering investigating and possibly setting up part time, whilst working part time.
So the first question is does setting up a small business as a part time thing work or do you end up being stretched in two dirrections?

The business i am considering is selling homemade iyswim tableclothes, decorations, wall hangings etc.
I know that i am going to need to made NI contributions and pay tax (will have to disappear and routtle round govt website later)
How likely is VAT to be needed as it is made/manufactured and thus value will have been added? And is it different for service vs manufacturing type companies/

WHat else do i need to consider? I have a work space set up and have been recommended a good supplier for materials.

Other then that how do i check that a name i want to use for possible company type name isnt already used? or is this a companies house type. will i need to register the existance of the business with anyone other then the tax man?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Business Link is the place to start.

If you are selling your products to consumers (as opposed to businesses) you don't want to register for VAT until you have to, which is basically when you have sales of £70,000 a year.

You probably don't want to form a company at first (make sure you have product liabilitiy insurance in case your wall hangings catch fire and burn someones house down though), but it is probably an idea to choose a name that doesn't conflict with someone else.

You can check what company names are registered at Companies House, search for trade marks at the Intellectual Property Office and check whether your name is available as a web domain at any reputable domain name registrar - try 123-reg or godaddy. Google it too to see if anything unfortunate comes up.

Can you seriously get sued if wall hangings table clothes etc catch fire?

brilliant, thank you mrachovy.

You might need to check whether you need to pay business rates if running a business from home....

If you go down company route you probably need an accountant....

would business rates depend on turnover? or just whether trading?

Don't worry about business rates, you would only be liable for these if you converted (part of) your house from a dwelling into a workshop and then you would need planning permission and a whole load of other things.

They are assessed on a notional rental value of business premises, but you don't need to know that .

always nice to be fully informed
who or where would be best place to investigate the insurance thingy?

It's all there on the Business Link site - this page.

thank you.
no idea why i could find that when i was harassing using google earlier.

will lose many hours tomo investigating.

oh an it is official. you never read through thing when multi-tasking

Don't miss this page either

do you want to write the business plan/proposal whilst you are at it

thinking very very carefully about the practicalities.

am i right in thinking that technically if you sell stuff at car boot then you would need the product liability insurance? cos it seems to read that way. or is it an accepted risk?

Must sleep. If you dont do this already - business advisor role would suit you

Thanks, yes I am a business advisor - as it happens I am (supposed to be) writing a new business proposal at the moment: most of the numbers have eight digits . I also work with microbusinesses and small charities - it keeps me sane.

The liability situation is this: if you sell anything, particularly if it is something you have made, someone could suffer a loss that is related to something you have sold them (like with my example of a fire). If they or their insurers decide that they want to sue you and you have business insurance including product liability you send their letters to your insurer. If you don't have insurance you have to find and pay for a lawyer, prepare and present a defence and fight the case. This will take over your life, and you risk being made bankrupt. Now this risk is pretty remote - but the stakes are so high that if you have a home and a family it is probably not worth taking. Not for the couple of hundred quid a year the insurance is going to cost.

Note that if you set up your business as a company (or a limited liability partnership) the argument for insurance is less strong - the company won't own your house so it isn't worth sueing and in the worst case you can just walk away from it with your life intact.

The situation at a car boot sale is complicated: people selling at car boot sales are not supposed to be traders so they probably do not have a duty of care with respect to the things that they sell; you should probably not be allowed to sell the things you have made there.

I'm going to come back to your original question: how easy is it to start up something in your spare time while working. In my opinion, really hard. For a new business to succeed you have to commit yourself 100% and you still won't have enough time to do everything that needs to be done.

Good luck!