Start a Business

Take the plunge, start a business, be your own boss. In the UK it’s easy to start trading as a business until you hit the magic £1000 profit figure. This means you’ve taken off your expenses and you’re left with £1000. Nothing to worry about, HMRC treat this as a tax-free bonus and there is no need to declare or pay tax on it.

Go £1 over the £1000 of profit and it’s an entirely new world. You are now an official taxable business. So, for a small enterprise that makes around £30,000 a year the administration part needs to be set up.

You need to do the following for legal reasons

• Set up a Government Gateway account online.
• Request a UTR or Unique Tax Reference for your business activity from HMRC, phone them. This will take 6 weeks to organise.
• Open a second bank account for the business.
• Get an accountant or a bookkeeper to help you file your taxes.
• Set up basic bookkeeping systems for invoicing and expenses claims.
• Think about what insurances you now need.

Operational things that you’ll need

• Address for business.
• Phone number for business.
• An invoice template.
• Google maps account.
• Optional domain name and website.

More help once you are trading

• Do some market research before you start serious marketing expenditure.
• Look for any free no-strings help you can find and use it.
• Think about the best apps to help manage your business.
• Join a professional body or trade association, keep up your knowledge base.
• Read this page also