Pudnpepsi

iTrader: (2)

I need some help, as i am thinking of starting my own business. basically, i have found a premises, and i will be viewing soon. my business will be a lot of mail order stuff, and i will need to get a CC terminal. will i need a business account or can i use my own personal account??

next thing is, i have a bit of a chequered history with Credit cards of my own in the past, and got in a lot of debt. im totally clear of debt now, but i still cant get credit, will this affect a business account??

any help would be excellent!!

cheers

Spinners

I used to run my own online shop and a mobile tyre business. You need a business account go for barclays, i found the account the easiest to use online and the credit card terminal was the best quality and seemed to connect quiker than some.

They will also ask for your company reg forms so get a name and register, again the easest way buy a copy of the exchange and mart and there are companies in the back that will reg you for around £100.

Go for a ltd company as the any debt lies within the business and not your own goodies, also split the shares between you and ie: mum or dad, dont split them with a wife or partner as this can cause problems in the future.

If this becomes source of income you need to register as self employed and pay your national insurance you can do this upto 3 months after starting up but do it or you will get screwed.

Next thing is to become vat reg. so you can claim vat back but you also have to pay, the best way to work you vat and accounts out are buy a cheap sage program from day one and update and invoice from this as you can do end of year for imcome and your vat 100.

If you need anymore info pm me.
Cheers Dave

Pudnpepsi

iTrader: (2)

Dave, many thanks, i think i have a few Q's if thats ok to PM ya?? cheers

FletchCossie

iTrader: (4)

Please post up ya questions and answers, as I am also interested in this Been tempted to start my own company for years, just afraid of folding and having no cash

john

If you have bad credit you wont get a business account......I THINK.

Loads of stuff available on google for people with bad credit and needing business accounts and payment options.

Iain Mac

Although it is true that forming a Limited company will limit your liability in respect of the debts that the business incurs (hence the name!) lenders know that too and may well seek personal guarantees which kind of negates the reason for going Limited in the first place. In their eyes, why should they risk their money on your dream if you aren't staking your money too? Which is a perfectly reasonable attitude for them to take.

A £100 company will probably have 100 £1.00 authorised shares, and maybe only 2 of those will be issued (so the £2.00 of issued share capital represents the "worth" of the company on start-up) so unless you are putting a sizeable chunk of your own cash in, whether by way of buying shares and thereby increasing the worth of the company or by making director's loans to the business, or putting your house up as security, don't expect lenders or suppliers to be falling over themselves to give you credit or extended payment terms.

You need to get professional advise on whether to go Limited or operate initially as a sole trader or even a partnership. There are advantages to both and your accountant could be a good first stop for advise, because - apart from anything else - your accountant can probably register your company cheaper than some of the E&M agents.

If you start a Limited company and work there as a Director you aren't self employed, you are an employee of the firm. The company pays you a wage and makes the deductions from your wages for your own personal tax and NI, as well as paying your Employers NI, and pays both sets of money to the taxman, along with,m eventually, your Corporation tax. As a sole trader you need to register as such and sign up to pay your own self-employed NI direct.

With a bad credit history you may have a real problem getting anyone to supply a cc terminal from a bank, but watch out for some of the third-party suppliers - Flyglobespan was put into administration before Christmas because their cc provider wasn't passing on £35 MILLION of ticket sales money, £20m of which was for flights that had already taken place so no comeback.

There are legal requirements on being a company director and on keeping the records of the business, preparation and filing of annual returns and accounts, and so on. Some of these carry fairly hefty penalties for getting them wrong so you need to talk to a business adviser either from a local Business Gateway scheme, your accountant, or even the JobCentre maybe able to put you in touch with someone.

VAT is only compulsory at £68,000 a year turnover (the value of the sales you make) but is optional below that. Lots of info here:
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/vat/start/reg...o-register.htm

There are pluses and minuses to both registering or not being registered. Depending on what you actually do/sell, you may be able to get onto a flat-rate scheme but, again, you need professional advise as to whether registration is right for you and, if it is, what type of registration to seek. Remember that the VAT man has more powers than the police and nowadays works more closely with the Inland Revenue.

Hobomassiv

Go with STREAMLINE, they are shit hot on their behind the scenes stuff, www.commidea.com do mobile terminals that work off of GPRS, or wifi/ethernet terminals, sub 5 second auth times per card.

I work in the card payment industry and streamline are the best to deal with IMO.

Tim

iTrader: (1)

listen to iain mac,well written

Pudnpepsi

iTrader: (2)

Iain, thank you for the insight, i have taken on board! cheers

BLACKCOS

i've been fitting credit card trerminals for the last 4 years for the banks eg hsbc barclays streamline A&L credit card solutions payzone. It all depends what you want from the terminal. The best alrounder fixed is a 5100. Thermal rolls are cheap for it. you can take paments over the phone with it all you need is a phone line for it .For good service and barclays is the best if you have any problems. There about £15 a month + set up fee and transaction charges.There are lots of termainals out there but have a good look at exactly what you neen it to do. I ve seen it plenty of times the owner of the shop business has decied on a terminal that is not up for needs. Do the research first. My self i would uses barclays.

Rick Astley

Lots of useful information here:
http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg...cId=1073858805

Also give your local council a ring as some can offer grants to help you get started. Some also offer free consultations with business consultants and accountants to help you get on your feet.

Tim

bailey1

iTrader: (2)

if you are not vat reg can you still claim the vat back on purchases ie for expense purposes ???? or am i being a numpty lol as im just starting on my own but would like some advice on this if poss also with items like shopping and stuff i buy through or for the company ??

john

Also Natwest do a basic business account called the foundation account, you have to apply for the normal business account first and then they offer you that option. Offers the same facilities bar an over draft.

Good luck.

Iain Mac

If you aren't VAT registered you can't recover any VAT and can't charge any either, but that can be an advantage depending whether you sell to retail customers or business customers.

Retail customers can't recover VAT either so don't care how your price is made up so long as it is cheaper than your competition. If they are VAT registered they have to charge VAT on their sale price but only recover VAT on their wholesale price - roughly, say half.

However, if you sell to business customers who can recover the VAT, it is the price you are charging versus your competitors ex-VAT price.

And you should not be buying personal purchases through your business and recovering the VAT - that is something they are working very hard to stamp out. Obviously if you buy a ream of paper and a box of envelopes, it won't matter if you use a couple to write to your granny, but try buying a new plasma for the living room and calling it a business expense and wait for them to "pop round for a coffee and a chat"! If the plasma is for your reception area then there is no problem.

Bobs rst

you can claim alsorts ,cloths, tools.fuel, all against tax ,even ur company van if you need one ,i claim al the above ,go see accountant they will get you started

Iain Mac

Obviously, business expenses reduce your taxable profits, but he's asking about VAT.

Agree that an accountant should be high on the list of people to speak to.

CossieRich

iTrader: (1)

Nice clear info Iain

St3V3_C

You can set up so that as people phone you you type the info into a website to do the card payment.

http://www.sagepay.com/ IIRC it is also nice and easy to automate if you set up a website selling stuff too.

nthorpey

another good bookkeeping / accounting package is solar accounts , I use this and is very simple but powerful for £100

bailey1

iTrader: (2)

cheers for that

ZTSI

i got a business account and my credit rating aint great. i got one with abbey, stright forward to do, took 3-4days from going in to geting cards, cheque books payin books etc through the door.

markk

iTrader: (2)

try your best to avoid a business account with the banks, as thats how they rip the business customers off with their massive transaction charges.

ZTSI

i got a gd rate with abbey,

Pob

Has anyone got a good template layout for business plans? I need to write one.

MadMac

Ian Mac's advice is spot on Couldn't have put it better myself.

I work for a bank, and yes, if you go in borrowing a lot of money and the business isn't worth much or has no track history they will ask for personal security.


You can get a business account, NatWest has a business credit only account. Its restricted on your benefits. BUT, NatWest do have a team that deal with only these sort of accounts and they do look into your credit history for you and see what needs fixing to help you clear it.

Wrong! If you want to give ammunition to the tax man about avoiding tax then trade from your own account. Because in essence, people will be paying you personally and its just as bad as cash in the back pocket except they can track that!

However, if your clever and avoid certain types of transactions, then you can avoid most of the charges. For example, Cash is the most expensive way of putting money in or taking it out of a bank. Well think about it someone has to count it, store it, transport it.. so it costs the bank more. But, Standing Orders, Direct Debits, Cheques and online are the cheapest. Some banks will do automatic transactions for nothing. (NatWest Autofree Tariff for example)

Besides if you get big enough you can start negotiating your own charges.

If you want to know about any tips and tricks with business banking, let me know, and I wont even charge you for it

MadMac

http://www.tsbc.co.uk/sbo/hsbckn/vie...id=1?WT.srch=1

Try that one

Pob

cheers, i'll look into that