Hot answers tagged uk
16
This is a time tested and effective marketing strategy that you should take under consideration. As long as you do not lie about your competitors you are in the clear.
A tactic with many faces
Your proposed tactic is to get your prospective customer to test your product "head on" with the competitor.
Remember the blind taste tests between competing ...
9
Free Options
You have a friend that either owns a company and has a spare desk he is willing to let you use until its taken.
To introduce some variety during your work day you could try to work from different coffee shops for part of that day a few times per week.
Paid Options
Hubs or Workspaces. You pay membership and you get things like free wifi, a ...
7
There is nothing wrong with running a side business while employed, however you'll have to check your contract of employment to see if there are any terms which prohibit you from doing other work, or which allocates the work to your employer (I see US people complain about that sometimes, but it is less common here in the UK). Such contract terms are not ...
6
Your personal income is separate from your company's revenue. You and your company are separate legal entities.
The VAT threshold applies to your company (self-employed traders also have to consider VAT but that doesn't appear to be relevant in your situation if your other job is not self-employment).
You are only obliged to register for VAT if you reach ...
6
You have two options in the UK, operate as a sole trader, or form a private limited company.
As a sole trader you pay special rate of income tax and national insurance, but you are personally liable for your work and any debts you take on board.
As a private LC, you would generally take a salary up to the national insurance start band and pay the rest in ...
5
A UK business bank account registered in the name of a limited company (e.g. 123 Ltd) will always be able to receive cheques made out in that name.
Most banks will also, subject to receiving proper notification and completing some simple forms, allow you to accept cheques made out to a trading name.
So for instance, if you incorporate as 123 Ltd, but ...
5
Yes this counts as income. In the UK you will need to register for self-assessment http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/sa/register.htm and declare this additional income.
Personally I wouldn't set up a LTD company until you are sure that this is going to be a significant enough income stream to warrant the effort. However when you do this it is not a difficult process ...
5
You should talk to a UK accountant. But what you suggest is not how things should be done in the US, and proably the UK.
It is important to have an easily identifiable paper trail that proves what are business and what are personal expenses. Deducting things from your salary obscures what is being deducted. So I would bet your accountant will not like that ...
4
I have to say I wouldn't agree with Zuly. Until the income becomes significant, you can just declare it as part of your personal income. Registering a limited company will create a fair bit of paperwork and reporting requirements. You'll also need to hire an accountant at the end of the year. If you are already a PAYE worker then you can probably just ...
4
Forget analytics and online advertising for your main market. The people you need to reach may be worrying about the problems you're solving, but they're not in general sitting browsing the web.
Reaching out to them means
Going to see them - in the times you know are convenient for them
Making friends with individual salespeople who are looking to get ...
4
I have used simply docs for a number of years for various template contracts in my small software company
http://www.simply-docs.co.uk/
I had a terrible experience and wasted a lot of money trying to get a custom contract out my solicitors, which I had to throw away in the end anyway. I was surprised by the extent to which a major commercial firm really ...
4
You generally shouldn't use the word Director in a UK job title, unless they are. Nothing to stop you, and no need to register them with Companies House, but ...
It should be noted that only actual directors appointed by the Company
and registered as such at Companies House should be called directors.
To give a job title to an employee such as ...
3
You are required to inform HMRC that you will be employing people, even if it's only yourself. The main thing to be aware of is your obligation to withhold income tax and National Insurance under the PAYE system, and to pay employer's National Insurance contributions.
The HMRC website has a lot of information about these topics. I also found this guide ...
3
Your prototype will probably be the most expensive single unit you build (especially if it requires molded parts made from custom molds). You will have to source each component of your product (like the bike would have a frame, tires, seat, hardware, etc.) from various vendors (useful exercise so you can talk about bulk/production pricing while you sort out ...
3
I'm not a legal expert (standard disclaimer about consulting a qualified lawyer goes here) but as far as I'm aware the only legislation that you need to be aware of are the anti-discrimination laws. As long as you can justify your hiring decisions with respect to not discriminating against people based on age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation or any ...
3
Have you tried meetup.com? Meetup.com helps groups of people with shared interests plan meetings and form offline clubs in local communities. These meetups are free.
I just did a search for small business in London, UK and found 122 meetup groups. Doing a search for entrepreneurs in London, UK gave me 186 meetup groups. It's worth checking out if you ...
3
It depends on what you are trying to do. Some things could be to:
Get funding (Angel/VC)
Hire new talent
Be near potential customers/partners?
We are currently based out of Cambridge, UK and have been finding it very conducive to web-based start-ups. Use the big cities that have lots of resources to find contacts, then keep in touch with them on a ...
3
While access to certain VCs may be an issue, being located outside the big city may actually be looked upon favorably by angel investors and VCs because this is a better allocation of resources -- you're investing more in your developers than in rent and other forms of overhead associated with being in London. Just make sure you can market your product ...
3
Ask them to do something that is not possible and daft, if don’t tell you that you are being daft, or they use lots of works so as not to hart your feelings, then find someone else.
Explain something to them in a way you know they cannot understand, ask them if they understand the task, if the say “yes” find someone else.
The sad fact is a lot of India ...
3
It depends whether the director is also a shareholder or not. If the director is a shareholder, usually this is recorded as a "shareholder's loan." You are correct in thinking that a directors loan is usually a loan from the company to a director, a transaction which is subject to high scrutiny due to insider dealing and very regulated in corporate law.
...
3
The set of service providers between countries does not have very much overlap. The reason for that is to accept visa and mastercard transactions you technically need to be a bank (or be sponsored by a bank, which is what all the non-bank processors do) and there aren't that many truly international banks.
The fees involved in accepting cards are:
...
3
This came up recently as a topic on the BizSpark UK group
Here's the link if you have access - bizspark
Alternatively, here's a blog writeup about the discussion we had and some research that was done afterwards - Tim's blog
I do think there's a gap in the market for a UK company to do this at present - especially if they could take on lots of the hassle ...
3
It's a while since I've contracted, but self billing shouldn't of itself be a problem, for example see the VAT Page on self billing, but due to IR35 you are trying to accumulate as many indicators of "being in business on your own account" as you possibly can.
Sending your own invoices was one of the items that was always advised as being an indicator.
So ...
3
Look for incubators as well. Here in Cambridge we have a few science parks and innovation centers which boast a range of services from desk rental (hotdesking) to small office spaces and fully managed incubator premises. As well as co-working, check out the incubator facilities and search for "shared office space [city name]". St Johns Innovation center ...
3
I worked at home for 3 years building my company then moved to co-working style space, then upgraded to a cubicle. The psychological benefits are incalculable. I still work at home too, but knowing that work and life are separate helps me do better work. There's something incredibly profound about being around others while working.
If at all possible, ...
3
Rob, I think you have two different issues to solve.
First, your UK company. I am fairly sure you can run it from anywhere in the world, less sure on the fiscal consequences. The UK tax authority might not be happy with it, revoke tax benefits, and the like. Check with local tax advisor to find out.
Second, your immigration status in the US. I was able to ...
3
If the company is shown as dissolved by Companies House, then it no longer exists, so it should be perfectly fine to start a new business with a similar name.
The only time this may not be a good idea is if there was any adverse publicity with the old company, where potential clients might confuse you with them. A simple Google search should help here.
As ...
3
Founder of GoCardless here. You can read about some of about our customers here, or see what people are saying about us on twitter.
If you've got any technical questions, pop by our campfire room (gocardless.campfirenow.com/3ae88) and we'll be happy to help.
Tom
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