How did you survive the beginnings?

woman

I am a stay at home mum and I'd love to start my own business working from home. Since my husband lost his job some time ago he's been taking on occasional part time jobs etc just to keep us above the water and we rely on the state benefits to be able to pay motgage and our bills.

Obviously if I start my own business and register myself as a self-employed we will lose the benefits we get and with my husband's irregular income it would be very hard to survive if I don't make at least €400 per week from the start which I know I won't.

I'm in the middle of writing a business plan so obviously there will be some targets, but it's all wild guesses so I have no idea how much I'll be making at the beginning.

So my question to all of you who started your own business is how long did it take for you to start making some money and how did you survive the beginnings when you had no income yet you had to pay mortgage and all other bills?

Acoshla

Would the line of business you're considering starting be eligible for the Back to Work Enterprise Scheme or anything like that? Have you spoken to your Local Enterprise Board (or Rural Development Scheme if you're in a rural area)? If you're on JobSeekers Benefit or Allowance you might be eligible for help from them, for example with the Back to Work Enterprise thing, if on JobSeekers Allowance you may receive your full Social Welfare payment amount for the first year and 75% for the second year, which is a big help when starting out.

As there is no straightforward answer to how long it takes to make money from a new business I would definitely suggest you speak to someone in the places I've mentioned, they can help you out and point you in the right direction.

woman

Hi Spadina, thanks for taking time to reply.

Unfortunately I'm not in receipt of jobseekers as I'm not seeking work (being a stay at home mum), it's my husband who is and I am down as a dependant adult. I'm almost certain he would lose his jobsseekers allowance if we told them I am now self employed (as I know from my friends how social welfare treats self-employed people )

I don't expect any help from the local enterprise board either as I did a start your own business course with them and then when I wanted to do a more expensive course directly related of what my proposed business is and asked for a funding for the course they didn't even bother getting back to me with a reply

Acoshla

I was recently dealing with SW and Rural Development myself (I found local Enterprise ridiculously unhelpful) and they were telling me all the possible options, one of them was that if your spouse is on 3 day week or unemployed you may be able to do a "spouse swap", where they apply with you as a dependent. Sorry I misread your post and thought you were getting SW payment, but I would say even if you aren't go into them and tell them you want to start your own business and what would they advise, it was them that sent me to Rural Development.

bigneacy

Woman, I'd advise you to go and chat to BTWE people. In my dealings with them I found them to be very helpful. Even though you aren't getting anything, there is incentives for partners etc. I found them very accommodating and the predefined lists of eligbility aren't neccessarily the be-all and end-all....

tinnuvial

Hi, I'm in same position, partner on SW and me as dependent. When I spoke to the dole office they said that I could take his entitlement to the Back to Work Enterprise Allowance (spousal transfer). If approved you would then claim the BWEA payment and your husband would become your qualified adult.

woman

Thanks for all the info, I just checked the citizens info website for the BWEA qualifying criteria and it does mention about transferring the entitlements between the partners, however it states you have to be in receipt of jobseekers allowance for at least 12 months and my husband has "only" been getting it for 7 months (he was getting the jobseekers benefit before that) so it looks that I would have to wait with my plans for another 5 months to be able to qualify for that. I have to call in to the social welfare office next wednesday anyway so will ask them about it then

Acoshla

Woman ask about it anyway, I wasn't on Jobseekers Allowance at all, was on Benefit for a few months with a break in it when I went to Rural Development and they are doing their best to help me. There's no harm in asking, the worse they can do is say no and if you're going to run your own business you have to get used to this sort of thing anyway.

bigneacy

woman wrote: »

Thanks for all the info, I just checked the citizens info website for the BWEA qualifying criteria and it does mention about transferring the entitlements between the partners, however it states you have to be in receipt of jobseekers allowance for at least 12 months and my husband has "only" been getting it for 7 months (he was getting the jobseekers benefit before that) so it looks that I would have to wait with my plans for another 5 months to be able to qualify for that. I have to call in to the social welfare office next wednesday anyway so will ask them about it then

don't worry about that stuff.. I know people who got it and they were only on it a week. they are very flexible. would much rather see you making your own moolah next year than still on the dole!

in my first company I didnt pay myself a cent for the first six months. Didnt even have a beer. i was 20 and lived at home with no rent thats how I was able to survive. I would think long and hard if you have the kind of responsibilities that you have and the potential of losing your income. I can't imagine the stress if your business was losing money and you werent able to get your benefits etc. with kids to support.

Startup companies are usually high risk, especially if its your first business. Perhaps you should think about something very small to start with, that has little expenditure. Something you can make yourself thats cheap and sell it yourself. I know a guy in florida, he bakes a certain type of small savoury cake in his kitchen at home and sells a couple of hundred a week at local markets, deli's etc. something like that would be a low risk start.
Just stay under the radar until you start making some money, and then when you know its going to work and your in profits, thats when you register as self employed etc and forego your benefits.

woman

Thanks for an honest opinion El Rifle, the truth is I have been thinking about it long and hard, for the last 12 months to be precise What I want to do is an online shop - so the setup cost wouldn't be too high, the biggest expenditure would be the cost of the website - and what I want to sell isn't expensive to buy either. And I'm not going to need any money form the bank - I have some savings that I want to use for this, so if it doesn't go well at least I won't have to be worrying about getting into debt.
I know what you mean by staying under the radar until I know it works but unfortunately to get the .ie domain name I need to register the business first, long before I even make a cent

HappyKate

Hi woman,

Why do you need .ie domain? .com is 4 times cheaper and there is no need to register the business. At least you'll see is it worth to set up the business and you'll see how the things are going

woman

Hi HappyKate,
I know that as I already have two .com websites, but the reason that I want .ie for the online shop is I want to get across that this is a shop based in Ireland (my target is irish consumers) plus the name I have in mind already exist with .com, I would have to give up the shop's name and I don't want to do that as I spent long thinking about it and it is a phrase that is frequently searched in google by people who would be my target customers

bigneacy

Could you get someone else to register it for you? Maybe somebody who doesn't get any benefits? Somebody you trust like a sibling or parent...

Register the business name in their name, get them to sign all the forms and then you could even wind down the "business" as soon as you're registered.

woman

No I don't have any family in Ireland unfortunately

Pixelcraft

You can register a business name without any commitments, this would be enough for a .ie registration

Acoshla

As mentioned above registering your business name is fine to do early on. I register my name in September last year, didn't use it until January this year, got the .ie domain in May this year and started using it in July.

bigneacy

Ok, but somebody you could trust like a friend, perhaps?

bigneacy

And this is true also, just because you register a business name doesn't necessarily mean you need to register as self employed...

woman

Oh that's great, didn't know that, from what they were saying at the Start your own business course I thought once you register your business name you have to notice the revenue and social welfare

tinnuvial

I had a business name registered for years (set up to get .ie site) without ever starting the business. It didn't stop me getting benefits in the past and it seems to me that there is no connection between tax office and company registration - I never heard a word from the tax man before I registered as self-employed.

bigneacy

thats because start your own business is purely by the book... doesn't always apply to the real world. Possibly just go ahead with all your plans, only register and that as and when you absolutley need to.