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Foamys bikes'n'stuff on the web!


wild foamy
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Hey peeps,

Since i am now buying/selling/breaking bikes as a hobby, i figured i may aswell try and make a proper go of it.

CHECK OUT MY (UNDER CONSTRUCTION) WEBISTE!!!! XD

Thing is, i know f/a about ACTUALLY starting a registered business... reading a few wiki pages which is better than nothing i suppose, would be great if i could get this thing all up and running :)

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Good luck with your latest venture foam's but don't forget the fucr project, looking forward to seeing it at squires

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nice one foams. As far as running a business goes I know you should keep receipts for EVERYTHING! So you can claim as much back against profit. Therefore no tax. It's not uncommon for people who earn 45k a year self employed to pay tax on about 8k of it. I mean clothes, fuel, vehicle costs, vehicle depreciation, consumables, parts you use to fix bikes up, food if you travel a way away to pick stuff up,

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Tools, etc all adds up!

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Thing is, i know f*ck all about businesses...

i mean, apart from that you buy stuff and sell stuff on for a profit (hopefully)

The questions i am finding myself asking now are what is my insurance? (been looking into public liability for when i venture into servicing and light repairs), when and how do i regsiter for VAT? what do i pay VAT on? how do i work it all out?.

im keeping it small for now, very small... its just me, i buy/break/sell, balance carbs and valet

Also, project FUCR is now full steam ahead :)

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:luck: with the new venture. Hope it works out for you.

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Nice site foamy, feel free to give me a shout if you need any website assistance, I run a number of sites for people and have a bit of experience.

Only suggestion is to fork out a little for a website once things pick up, get yourself a domain name and ad free hosting, doesn't cost much these days, and looks more professional without the banner ad up top.

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These are "must's"

Domain name - as previously mentioned. About £40 a year. Try pixel Internet and go for Linux hosting.

Personal indemnity, public liability and traders insurance - first 2 can be brought via the web, not sure about the last one.

Look at the impact of where you are trading - if you are using your home then there may be mortgage, business rates and capital gains tax implications. Hiring a lock up may help here.

Business address - if you are trading as a business you need to have your address on your site and paperwork. You can get a post office box number or use a company that will forward your mail.

Tax - you need to register and pay tax. An accountant may be required for your returns.

Sole trader or limited liability - you should have a separate bank account for the business. You can be a sole trader and would be "you" trading as "whatever you want". Benefits are that it is easy and you don't have to submit returns to companies house. Downside is that if you get sued they can take everything you have. Limited liability means that you have to submit returns to companies house or risk fines and being struck off. Easy to set up and this limits any action to what the "company" owns except if you are fraudulent and your dealings with companies house. No need for a company secretary any more.

Vat - 2 basic types. Normal means that you don't pay vat or claim it back and you charge vat. At the end of a quarter you calculate how much you paid and how much you took and pay the difference. You really need an accountant to do this for you and you need to keep all receipts. The second is flat rate. You register online and, depending on what category your business is, you pay a flat percentage of vat. You don't get anything vat free as such but it is a lot easier and you can make a few extra quid. The flat free scheme is limited to about £150k or so a year I think but this may have gone up. You pay your vat each quarter online and it is easy to do.

That will do as a start I think.

This is from experience with both owning a limited company and being vat registered. I also have a domain name etc.

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fuckin hell, didnt know it was that complicated!!...

Im just one guy taking bikes apart in the middle of a car park... know sweet f/a about P.O boxes and having my mail forwarded :o

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nice one foams. As far as running a business goes I know you should keep receipts for EVERYTHING! So you can claim as much back against profit. Therefore no tax. It's not uncommon for people who earn 45k a year self employed to pay tax on about 8k of it. I mean clothes, fuel, vehicle costs, vehicle depreciation, consumables, parts you use to fix bikes up, food if you travel a way away to pick stuff up,

This is very true however, you need to have a decent turnover to make any money and you need to pay out more than anyone on PAYE for any "business" things. As a very rough guess, I would think that you need to have around £9,000 clear income to cover the running of a small business. By income I mean that if you buy a bike for £500, spend £100 on it and it costs another £100 for fees, you petrol etc you are into that bike for £700. You sell it for £1000 so your income on that bike would be £300. This obviously does not include any tax, NI or the cost of running a business. so you would need to turn over 30 bikes a year just to pay for running the business. This doesn't include any salary or drawings for you.

Your site also is breaking at least 2 current laws;

No cookie information

No company details

Seems a pain to have to do all that business when you are just selling a few bikes on. Can't you just start out selling them via ebay and maybe you won't have to jump through all the hoops immediately?

This should be your first plan. Sites are trawled and you may get a visit from HMRC and you will end up in a pile of it.

Sorry if this sounds negative but this is the reality.

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ah shit, this is starting to sound like some heavy shit, no way i can manage 30 bikes whilst working a full time job aswell :o.

probably best to stick to buying/selling/breaking whenever i have the time for now tbf... maybe one day though

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As Benedictine suggested, start small by buying/selling through ebay and while you're doing that learn about what it takes to start up a small business. There should be plenty of literature available on the subject.

Then when you feel you are in a better position, make the leap.

Any profit that you make on the ebay transactions can be put into a seperate bank account and used as start-up funds when you're ready.

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As Benedictine suggested, start small by buying/selling through ebay and while you're doing that learn about what it takes to start up a small business. There should be plenty of literature available on the subject.

Then when you feel you are in a better position, make the leap.

Any profit that you make on the ebay transactions can be put into a seperate bank account and used as start-up funds when you're ready.

This is the way forward to start with.

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