12 Month Review Of Back-To-Work Allowance.

PonyXpress

Hi there.

10 months ago or so I came off the JSA and went onto the Community Enterprise Back to Work Scheme.

My business plan was of an umbrella nature- I intended initially to import lithium batteries, electric bike motors etc and sell them off at a profit, amongst other things.

I was forced to revise this aspect of the enterprise after importing and subsequently exporting lithium cells became harder than it was worth, this was for two main reasons:

1, the subsequent bank-bailout meant that foreign imports began to attract really rigorous customs checks, including requests from the An Post Parcels Depot of the Customs people {in Portlaoise} for the actualy PayPal transaction details, so they could determine the EXACT Customs and VAT. I can actually show you copies of letters I received from these people. Not only did this drive up the cost of importing, it also involved delays of up to 18 days at a time waiting for the Customs people to even inform me that my product was detained.

2. This incident-, in which a fire on a UPS cargo flight from the Far East killed two pilots. I actually had a small consignment of UPS batteries on that flight, and I received confirmation that they had been destroyed in the fire. This incident and the resulting concerns drove the transport cost of lithium up. In some instances, batteries became impossible to ship.

Subsequently, I decided to source a supplier of battery cells and import them in much smaller quantities and use them to build my own electric bikes. In otherwords I went from importing components for resale to importing much smaller quantities of component for reconstruction into finished, working bikes. This means I have a lot of accumulated stock but very little comparative turnover.



I have had had some success with this and have successfully constructed, from both locally and foreign sourced components, no fewer than 4 unique electric bikes which are far-removed from the "Pedelec" variant sold in bike shops.

One of the bikes is a 6 Horsepower bike which is capable of speeds exceeding 40Mph and has a wealth of options including a programmable controller, an air-cooled motor, indicators, headlights, 24" dirt-bike rims, etc.

Another is a childs electric BMX capable of speeds up to 15Mph.

The other two are 2000w {3 horse-power} bikes.

I have built all of these bikes from scrap frames and involved motors and batteries which I imported myself. I build the battery packs myself from the raw cells. You cannot buy any of these bikes or any of their components like the motor, batteries , in Ireland.

Here is a video of a test I did on one of the motors, you can see the sort of power it has.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCpEXLYfKE8

I basically only have one problem, and it is this: during the interview I conducted with local enterprise, the gentleman conducting the interview asked me for a ball-park figure on gross or total sales for the first year. I didn't actually volunteer a figure but for some reason, we settled on €20,000, which probably seemed reasonable at the time, considering that the bank bailouts were yet to be announced.

I have only made around €2000 of sales, I also suffered an accident where some soldering acid destroyed around $500 worth of batteries, I spent a small fortune on tools- all of which can be documented, and I have stock which I estimate to be worth, in its finished form, €12,000. I have not asked for extra money from the Scheme {you can ask for an extra 500 or so for tools, a laptop etc}

I have received some offers for the bikes- they have been derogatory offers by people who knew the value of the product, were impressed by it, and just didn't want to offer me what it was truly worth, basically they tried to take advantage of the situation. They were quite well to do, and wanted some fancy toys.

I thought it would be a good idea to turn down their offer- as I am registered for income tax, it should be in the systems interests for me to maximise the profits rather than selling out for nothing just to show any old "return" at the end of the year.

I work out of a garage at the side of my parents home. These bikes are hard work, every bike is different, and that slows down work.

I don't mind going back to the man in 2 months and saying, hey, I didn't sell a lot.....I would sooner do that than make a mug of myself by selling really good stuff, unique stuff, rare stuff, to people for a pittance.

Does anyone know what I would need to do to stay on the scheme? I have receipts for everything, which demonstrate I have been working and spending all the time. I also have the finished product. Should I bring it along??

I don't mind as such if they kick me off. I just refuse to sell these things to people for nothing.

PonyXpress

Nobody???