Trying To Start My Own Business

[hpotter]

cor blimey!! give me a chance. i aint even done any private work to start dealing with the taxman!! Wish i had never asked now, lol.

lol.

Reckon quite a few on here started your way.

[DirectFS]

Sam

As most people here have already said, there's a world of difference between doing PJ's at the weekend, and running a business. And it is the running the business bit that most fail at - not the "what the business does".

I would disagree with some of the other posters here - I think any time is a good time to start a business - so long as you have a solid plan, a brilliant idea, and the commitment to see it through. At the moment, I foresee a lot of big companies divesting work, and even whole business arms, because they are too big to make it work at a profit, and too answerable to shareholders who must see a profit - small businesses don't always have those issues, and are in prime position to capitalise on big companies failing.

The "money" can be in your own business, but only if you look after it - and often not for the first few years of trading. Can you put up with not having holidays abroad for a year or two - both for financial reasons and because you have to be around to look after your customers when their alarm activates?

The next piece of advice - keep it simple. You say your experience is in intruder - so stick to those for now, with kit you know, and in a way you can rely on. Get some experience under your belt before thinking you can take on all systems any time. Build up your core business in intruder alarms, and develop that, with maintenance contracts first. Get a good name doing them right, at the right price.

As for accreditation, you will likely need at least a year's worth of trading, a good few dozen installed (and maintained( systems, and a good indication that you are on the way to ISO9001 certification, or can implement it within a timescale. You will also need, as a minimum, a hard copy of any British Standards, or European Norms you claim to work to. You will also be required to be SSAIB or NSI approved before an ARC will connect your customers, or pass signals to police.

As for administration - it is key - this is the "running the business", as opposed to "what the business does" - so I'd suggest, before you hand out your cards, visit either a Learn Direct, or a local Business Link, and see what sort of courses you can get covering basic accounting and bookkeeping, letter writing, invoicing, reports(specifications), and so forth. They needn't be super brilliant, but they do have to be professional, and well presented. Invest, absolutely, in a spell checker if your word processor doesn't have one. Sales have been lost on misspelt words or less before now.

All that said, there is no harm in you beginning to build a business through private work, many have. Develop your business with each job, practicing writing specs, doing the readings, recording them, handover paperwork, and issuing an invoice (and recording what you charged/spent/etc). Don't forget, any income you earn should be advised to the tax man, of course.........

Another avenue is to explore the potential of sub contract work alongside your own - it may keep the wolf from the door, but again you will need to have certain things in place, such as liability insurance (in any case), efficacy cover, good idea to get yourself vetted (Disclosure Scotland) to save time with new companies, CSCS card, and a good set of tools. Nothing worse than a sub contractor asking his employer for tools - it happens, and shouldn't.

I suppose, if you're rich enough, it might be an idea either to find a consultant who would be willing to help you build up a business plan and viability test it, and who may also put an "office" system in place with you, or even a partner of some type with the experience you lack.

Bill.

Dear all.

I want to start my own business. well, get my own work as that is definatly where the money is but i want to go about it the correct way.

I have been in the security industry for 3.5 years covering all aspects but mainly intruder. i have got a business name and had some business cards made but not sure whether i have to register the name first before i hand them out.

Secondly, i would like some sort of acreditation (ssaib, nsi) but i believe that there are a lot of rules n regs to go by for that and money.

Would i be best of just handing out my cards, try and get some work, build up my capital and clientel then apply for ssaib or nsi.

Finally as i have never had to deal with office side only installation would i need to be an approved installer before getting my customers monitored via an arc??

Any answers and as much help with how others had gone about it would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks sam.

[whistle]

Sam

As most people here have already said, there's a world of difference between doing PJ's at the weekend, and running a business. And it is the running the business bit that most fail at - not the "what the business does".

I would disagree with some of the other posters here - I think any time is a good time to start a business - so long as you have a solid plan, a brilliant idea, and the commitment to see it through. At the moment, I foresee a lot of big companies divesting work, and even whole business arms, because they are too big to make it work at a profit, and too answerable to shareholders who must see a profit - small businesses don't always have those issues, and are in prime position to capitalise on big companies failing.

The "money" can be in your own business, but only if you look after it - and often not for the first few years of trading. Can you put up with not having holidays abroad for a year or two - both for financial reasons and because you have to be around to look after your customers when their alarm activates?

The next piece of advice - keep it simple. You say your experience is in intruder - so stick to those for now, with kit you know, and in a way you can rely on. Get some experience under your belt before thinking you can take on all systems any time. Build up your core business in intruder alarms, and develop that, with maintenance contracts first. Get a good name doing them right, at the right price.

As for accreditation, you will likely need at least a year's worth of trading, a good few dozen installed (and maintained( systems, and a good indication that you are on the way to ISO9001 certification, or can implement it within a timescale. You will also need, as a minimum, a hard copy of any British Standards, or European Norms you claim to work to. You will also be required to be SSAIB or NSI approved before an ARC will connect your customers, or pass signals to police.

As for administration - it is key - this is the "running the business", as opposed to "what the business does" - so I'd suggest, before you hand out your cards, visit either a Learn Direct, or a local Business Link, and see what sort of courses you can get covering basic accounting and bookkeeping, letter writing, invoicing, reports(specifications), and so forth. They needn't be super brilliant, but they do have to be professional, and well presented. Invest, absolutely, in a spell checker if your word processor doesn't have one. Sales have been lost on misspelt words or less before now.

All that said, there is no harm in you beginning to build a business through private work, many have. Develop your business with each job, practicing writing specs, doing the readings, recording them, handover paperwork, and issuing an invoice (and recording what you charged/spent/etc). Don't forget, any income you earn should be advised to the tax man, of course.........

Another avenue is to explore the potential of sub contract work alongside your own - it may keep the wolf from the door, but again you will need to have certain things in place, such as liability insurance (in any case), efficacy cover, good idea to get yourself vetted (Disclosure Scotland) to save time with new companies, CSCS card, and a good set of tools. Nothing worse than a sub contractor asking his employer for tools - it happens, and shouldn't.

I suppose, if you're rich enough, it might be an idea either to find a consultant who would be willing to help you build up a business plan and viability test it, and who may also put an "office" system in place with you, or even a partner of some type with the experience you lack.

Bill.

100% Agree with you on all the above.

[lawandorder]

100% Agree with you on all the above.

Me too, an informative well written post.

[Guest RJBsec]

99% - for a new sole trader ISO 9001 is neither necessary nor beneficial, IMO should only be contemplated by a well established company with a number of engineers and a good work base.

[Adi]

Same as whistle, you have got to put the hours in and trust me, it will get on your tits, Out all day then in the office all night tho things are getting better, use software to your advantage.

Adi

[blitzskymaster]

Hi guys, just reading the excelent posts!!

to confirm unless you are accredit no arc will take your work on??? is this correct??

what if you are doing pj and customer asks for arc is there any way out of this? (sorry no spell check)

[Guest RJBsec]

to confirm unless you are accredit no arc will take your work on??? is this correct??

No! But you can't get police response.

what if you are doing pj and customer asks for arc is there any way out of this? (sorry no spell check)

Stop doing pj's?

[lawandorder]

Hi guys, just reading the excelent posts!!

to confirm unless you are accredit no arc will take your work on??? is this correct??

what if you are doing pj and customer asks for arc is there any way out of this? (sorry no spell check)

I think you may be confusing ARC with police response.

When I was trading (things may have changed) we had a lot of customers, particualry domestics, using signalling for keyholder only response. They didn't want or need police response so we would often fit digital communicators and charge them monitoring fees without going to the expense of upgrading their systems or using engineer reset etc.

Speak to a few ARCs, I think you will find that most of them will be grateful of your business but you will not get police response without accreditation.

[james.wilson]

99% - for a new sole trader ISO 9001 is neither necessary nor beneficial, IMO should only be contemplated by a well established company with a number of engineers and a good work base.

those without iso would agree with you. However those with it would disagree with you.

We got BS5750 many years ago with only 2 engineers, and find the benefits to it to be huge.

However i also can see that a small company where 1 person knows everything that is happening would not see a benefit for some time

James