Starting a part-time business

shhhhh

Hi all

Some really interesting info and I think I have a fair idea where Im going with this now but I suppose I just wondered what your thoughts or advice would be for me. I want to start a part-time business to provide a second income so I can start saving to be self employed full time and I think give me some discipline and focus. At the moment I cant afford to chuck in my job and go for it.

I have done a bit of research and I reckon there's a need for a specific type of fitness class in my area. I would be teaching this maybe 4 nights a week 2 classes per night ideally. My question is initially to advertise it I would like a company name and website but I dont want to go down the whole registration for VAT etc until I know that it will actually take off and be worth doing. Is it ok to start advertising under a name for a few months, leave the website because I would like a .ie domain so I need to register the business name? Or will I have issues with the tax man?

And do I have to tell my employer or what are my obligations here? Its not in competition or in anyway related to my current job.

Thanks

TheWaterboy

Dont get bogged down in all the VAT and company stuff.

Simple thing is register as a sole trader...get a website up and start advertising. Open a separate bank account and put all the money in there and then just do a tax return in October 2011...You prob wont have to do a tax return in October 2010 unless you actually trader in 2009.

Your employeer never needs to know. No harm in mentioning it to him in passing but as long as it doesnt interfere with you 9-5.

Good luck with it

Andy_Black

Hi shhhh,

Good luck with your new venture! I started part-time on mine and am very glad I did when my other work dried up. At least I had a plan B and it was a case of ramping it up.

You don't need a .ie address. They're slightly more expensive and a whole lot more hassle. Get one if your .com website is working really well and you setup a company or register a business name.

Purchase a .com name from www.letshost.ie and a hosting package. The .com domain will be about €8 a year, and the hosting package maybe €120pa. With the hosting package you can add-on up to 25 additional domain names for other business ideas/experiments you have.

Don't bother registering business names etc until you've actually got a business going.

The following post might help if you've not already checked it out:
A Quick & Inexpensive Way To Find Out If There Is A Market For Your Products/Services.
You can find it at: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055721635

For your geographic area you might find that there isn't enough volume of searches for you to learn quickly enough what people are looking for, so you might extend the geographic area your Ads are serving a little more just for the market research phase.

Of course, Search Engine Marketing (ensuring you are found by people actively looking for you using search engines) isn't the only way to get customers. You should also find out where your target market hangs out... online and offline. Go there, be helpful, offer free advice, become and authority on the subject, and people might start asking you for more information. Ahem... just like I'm doing on this forum

Oh, and you might want to have your website being a one-page survey that you send people to asking them how interested they would be in your new gym class. This all helps you with the market research that you need to do before you prove you have a viable business idea.

I hope this helps.

Andy


Grow Your Business With Digital Insight
www.digitalinsight.ie

podgeen

Some good advice there from both Andy_black and the waterboy. I would recommend you shop around for domain registration and hosting. I host my site with the basic Blacknight package and it costs €49.95 per year. You can register a .ie, a .com and host the site for one year for less than €100 and in the early stages of your business keeping costs down without compromising on service will be essential.

Rylan

Just to put this out there. If you were to register as a sole trader get a VAT number to operate a business part time while you worked full time in another job, would this affect your redundancy and/or social welfare were you to lose you job.

shhhhh

Thanks all.
Some interesting points, would it effect any redundancy payment?

Will have to do a bit more research I think, I'm reckoning if I spend minimal amount on advertising in local papers and maybe printing a few hundred fliers and dropping them in letterboxes (any recommendations for printing services?) then see if I get enough people to run the classes I can then see about registering and getting website up and running. May as well just take it slowly and if it doesnt work out then back to planning!

AtaStrumf

shhhhh you can make you own website! I've build mine and once you get the hang of it it's quite easy and fun. You can see it at http://www.minor-ailments.com/

Not too shabby for a?

There are so many tutorials out there (you tube is great for free video tutorials) and basic hosting is so cheap that there is no reason why you shouldn't have a website. Books are another way to go. I'm using Drupal CMS and even though all you need is available on-line it's so much easier when you have a book. I bought my Drupal books from pack publishing: http://www.packtpub.com/drupal-books it's really not a big investment.

You would really only need a very basic website, so don't be afraid to give it a go. Get a .com they're dirt cheap and don't worry about a .ie one just yet Then you print that in your local magazine ad and on your fliers and buy some Google ads and that's how you can advertise on the cheap. Facebook and Twitter are also great for promotions nowadays.

I'd say there should be plenty of interest in a fitness class. My GF is looking for one and there's none to be found locally. You don't really wonna travel far for your evening workout after a long day's work and some people don't have a car, and it's raining and the bus takes forever etc. I think it's a perfectly doable business provided you market it right and a website is a must nowadays.
A local Tesco often has a notice board where you could stick your poster or at least a website address And they have the free magazines where you can advertise as well.

Condoms

If you live and work in Ireland then get a .ie address, it's a way of letting the world know that you operate in Ireland.

Rylan

Anyone able to answer my question. Shhhh thinks you want to know too right.

Tony255

To be honest if it is for a fitness class in one specific area only then maybe for the time being focus on local advertising rather than immediately looking for a website. Simple things like flyers in local shops and maybe something in some of the local free papers would be a start, there are loads of options out there for getting free advertising maybe offer to do a column in one of those papers once every two weeks, some papers would be delighted with the offer as it saves on them having to pay someone else to do it.

You website wouldnt need to be anything special at first maybe a introduction page, and a contact us form. Later on down the line you could look at adding testimonials and then a small shopping cart where people could purchases classes in advance for a online discount or else buy gift tokens online.

I would definitely go with the .ie address it isnt that much hassle to get it once you register as a sole trader you just need to fill out one form for the domain registration and then thats it.

As mentioned in a previous post for now dont get bogged down thinking about VAT, etc... get it up and running with the basics first and build it from there.

Best of luck with it.

One last thing, as you are going to be providing a service if you do not see yourself going over €37,500 in one year then you do not need to register for VAT.

shhhhh

Thanks for the advice all.
Does that 37500 include or exclude my full-time earnings though?
If I register as a sole trader dont I have to register to pay VAT?
Thanks

trishw78

Sorry for the hijack shhhhh... You've asked a lot of questions I was going to ask.

How do you decide on pricing your products services? I don't want to price them too low or price myself outta the market either.

shhhhh

No problem.
For me I just did some research around similar classes and what people are likely to pay then priced less than the other classes