New Year changes to business

[mrmoose]

Hi Folks,Happy New year :ho2
I have been running my business relatively successfully for 15 years now as a domestic carpenter (as opposed to site work) I have mainly worked on my own but have used subbys now and again . I have been having a few small health issues recently and have decided that I need a new change of direction this year, so I could run the business side more, and manage other people to do more of the physical work.
I would be really interested to hear from anyone who has successfully turned their one man band into a slightly larger business, and how they have got round the problems of employing verses contracting out, and whether it has been worth the extra headache.

 

[tomatwark]

I set my current business up in 2005 making furniture and kitchens.

I have been in the trade since I left school and in 2014 after nearly 30 years of standing on hard floors and lifting things around I was starting to struggle.

Also at that point my lease was due to be renewed, so I was at a cross roads, do I pack up get a lighter job with someone else or expand taking staff on and also larger premises, the ones I was in were to small to take on staff.

I decided that I would do the latter, partly as I would struggle being told what to do by a boss now. :lol:

So in August I took on a guy who had been made redundant.

We found larger premises and finally moved into them at the start of 2015.

Taking on staff is not dificult, HMRC have free pay role software for up to 9 employees, so you need to sort out employers liability insursnce, register with HMRC and away you go.

BUT

You will need to find work for them and earn enough that you can pay yourself and them at the end of the week/month, they need to be paid first.

Sooner or later you will need to start a workplace pension, the date is sent to you once you have set your self up as an employer, it won't be straight away, we start ours in 2017.

You need to keep the work coming in and also you will spend more time running around sorting problems and seeing customers.

And remember that as self employed you take Holidays as and when you can afford them, staff take them to certain extend when they want and need to be paid so effectively only work 46 weeks of the year but need to be paid for 52.

I am sure others will put their points in as well.

All that said I had to take the building next door towards the end of 2015 and now have 6 full time trades and apprentices, as well as my wife a couple of days a week.

Finally, I had to go back into the workshop for few weeks before Christmas as a job got put back by the customer and ran into our other planned work, I had been off the tools fully for about 6 months and now realise just how bad my back etc had become having spent the the last week in pain again.

So if you have the work and think you can make it work go for it, but there will stress and struggles along the way.

Being hard about it you can always lay off the person if there is not enough work, the biggest problem you are going the face is finding the right person at the start.

For me it has been the right thing to do and in the New Year I am finally at the point I can drive the business in the direction I want it to go, as after a couple of years of fast growth have the team and equipment to tackle a lot of stuff I would not have done on my own.

 

[beech1948]

Tomatoes message is spot on. I would add that you need to put in place some training time even if you employ an experienced person and you need to record the training even to the point of getting them to sign for it at the end.

Record keeping will treble

Machinery safety will need to be reviewed and kept up to date and each change to kit will require a safety review. Keep records for each bit of kit.

Bordering but necessary in today's world

 

[Lons]

What the others said but take into account that you might well encounter sickness days off which in a very small company is extremely difficult to cover especially if you're struggling to meet deadlines and if a youngish guy starting a family, there's paternity leave to contend with as well these days.

Not saying anything wrong with that, people get sick and become parents but to a small company it's difficult to handle.

Bob

 

[tomatwark]

Sickness is a pain but you just have to work around it, make sure however you don't pay your employee for sick days, you are not the public sector.

They will be entitled to statutory sick pay anyway after 3 days, the big problem is that you can not longer claim this back so comes out of your pocket.

So do make sure that you don't pay them for the odd day.

Paternity leave is the one I am not looking forward to but again will have to find a way of making it work and not putting to much strain on the cash flow, but hopefully that will not happen any time soon with my staff.

I some how think that insisting on all male staff having the snip would not go down well though :lol:

Other firms have cope so it must be possible.

 

[Lons]

I some how think that insisting on all male staff having the snip would not go down well though :lol:

:lol: :lol: :lol: You could take on a female employee as "verification officer"

 

[mikefab]

Post deleted

 

[mrmoose]

Tomatwark and other contributors so far.
Thank you so much for your informative analyses of your own path to growing your business It is really inspirational to hear =D> .

Tomatwark I suspect that your own business has had from the start a larger income potential than my own, ( I earnt around 20k in the last tax year which is a pretty good year for me ) and in my own line of work, ( Decking, Sash window restoration etc in the summer, kitchen fitting, cupboards and shelves etc winter) I am up against monkeys charging peanuts.

I have kept costs down by using my own small garage as a work shop , which I know would have to change. It seems like a large step up to employ someone and rent a work shop all in one go , so the plan I am developing in my mind at the moment is:
1. Get a "subby" in for the time being (with a view to future employment if things work out) to help me while I get over my temporary injury /condition.
2. Employ the said subby and then take on a 2nd subby to assist the new employee.
3. Find suitable premises
4. Get off the tools in the longer term with a view to taking on more staff
5, World domination :mrgreen:

The main draw backs in my plans as I see it is that I am quite stress averse, and dislike deadlines and timetables, that's why I became self employed! #-o .
I guess I do feel afraid of feeling tied down to the business :| .
Also the investment and "officialdom" ltd company's, training , health and safety is horrifyingly daunting :deer (Deer stuck in headlights seems appropriate!)

 

[RogerS]

Mrmoose...where is your business going to come from? What is your market? Your target audience to feed two and then three mouths ?

I'll be blunt. Unless you know where that is coming from then you are doomed.

 

[RobinBHM]

Tomatwark and other contributors so far.
Thank you so much for your informative analyses of your own path to growing your business It is really inspirational to hear =D> .

Tomatwark I suspect that your own business has had from the start a larger income potential than my own, ( I earnt around 20k in the last tax year which is a pretty good year for me ) and in my own line of work, ( Decking, Sash window restoration etc in the summer, kitchen fitting, cupboards and shelves etc winter) I am up against monkeys charging peanuts.

I have kept costs down by using my own small garage as a work shop , which I know would have to change. It seems like a large step up to employ someone and rent a work shop all in one go , so the plan I am developing in my mind at the moment is:
1. Get a "subby" in for the time being (with a view to future employment if things work out) to help me while I get over my temporary injury /condition.
2. Employ the said subby and then take on a 2nd subby to assist the new employee.
3. Find suitable premises
4. Get off the tools in the longer term with a view to taking on more staff
5, World domination :mrgreen:

The main draw backs in my plans as I see it is that I am quite stress averse, and dislike deadlines and timetables, that's why I became self employed! #-o .
I guess I do feel afraid of feeling tied down to the business :| .
Also the investment and "officialdom" ltd company's, training , health and safety is horrifyingly daunting :deer (Deer stuck in headlights seems appropriate!)

I would think very carefully before expansion with a workshop, your overheads will spiral and you will find you will be under a lot of pressure to create sufficient work to keep staff busy. Also the requirement for legislation, h&s etc etc will rise exponentially from working on your own, if you would like more info on this Im happy to make a list.

Could you reduce your manufacturing, ie buy in built in furniture to fit or at least buy in carcase components for wardrobes etc with hinges holes, shelf pins pre drilled, ready for assembly and train a guy to fit, that way you may be able to become more of a designer, perhaps standardising construction for easy to create cutting lists and assembly.

 

[Lons]

I am quite stress averse, and dislike deadlines and timetables, that's why I became self employed! #-o .

Hmm Not sure how that will work. #-o

Deadlines timetables and planning along with the stress of making a living, unpaid sick, holidays and no company pension put paid to that.
If you grow the business add difficulties of managing employees and covering their associated cost and the complications and responsibilities of the dreaded VAT, Generating business, getting money in, advertising, banks, suppliers...the list goes on and on.

Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed having my own business rather than managing for others but went into it with my eyes open and expecting those factors - I wasn't disappointed, at least in the early years.

Bob