Post by thread:[EE:] Starting up as a small design shop

On Sun, 7 Dec 2003 21:28:41 -0000, you wrote: >Does anyone have any learned experience they're willing to share regarding >getting started as a small design company (a one-man operation) - >particularly in the UK? I'm confident in my technical abilities, but what's >the best way to get in contact with prospective clients? This is not >something I'm planning on doing imminently, but maybe a few months from now, >and interested in hearing how others have got started. > >Thanks, Steve. Hard to suggest ways of finding work, but there is certainly plenty of it about, especially of you are good at both hardware and software. I have been extremely lucky in 'falling into' work, and getting referrals. The main thing I would say is that if you do a good job, people will come back for more, maybe not tomorrow, maybe not next month or next year, but eventually they will. Maybe by then they are working for a different company - this expands your customer base. I have 3 current customers I got by people moving between companies, and another via a brother of one of them! Deal with people the way you would wish to be dealt with. Charging for every little tweak or phone call may bring in a little cash now but will not give customers the 'feel good' feeling that creates good long-term customers. Get VAT registered, Even if you don't need to for turnover reasons (this will take a while), it means you can reclaim VAT on everything you buy and use, and as your customers are likely to all be VAT registered, it will not cost them any more (not charging VAT may also confuse the accounts dept of large companies). Get an accountant. A good one will save you more money in tax than he charges. He will know things like how much of your use of home, car etc. for business you can get away with claiming. Do VAT returns yourself though - it's not worth paying an accountant to do something that's relatively repetitive and simple like this. Don't be tempted to opt for annual returns - doing it quarterly forces you to keep things reasonably up to date and within a timespan you can usually remember (now what was that cheque for ....?). Where possible buy stuff on credit card rather than account, not so much for the credit aspect, but so you can just put all the invoices in a heap and deal with them when you do the VAT return, as you only have to remmeber to pay one bill - the one from the card company. There is no need to tell the CC company a card is for business use - you will probably get more 'perks' with a consumer card - e.g my business Goldfish card pays for my TV license outof the points earned on business use. However having credit accounts with one or two suppliers can be useful as references for when you come up against a stone-age supplier that doesn't take credit-cards (I once had to try really hard to persuade a supplier to take a cheque-with-order for £2000 worth of bits!) Talk to the accountant about whether you want to form a limited company - there are pros and cons and no 'right' answer on this. I don't know the details of trading as a Ltd company. If you start as a Sole Trader, it is very cashflow-advantageous to start your accounting year just after the end of the Tax year (5th April). It is also advantageous for cashflow to arrange that your earnings alternate between high and low in alternate years, due to the way the tax payment on account system works. Pick a trading name that does not suggest that you are a one-man band 'xyz systems' is better than 'fred bloggs consultancy' etc. when trying to get samples, support etc. from component suppliers, as they don't need to know you're a one-man band. Even if you are designing-in something that will have big production value, it may be hard to convince suppliers of this if they know you are not a big outfit. For similar reasons, register a domain-name. No-one will much give credibility to a company using an AOL email address! You don't need a fancy website, and time taken doing one will probably not be well spent, but put up at least a page telling people what you do etc. (e.g. http://www.whitewing.co.uk) You NEED paper catalogues from RS, Farnell, CPC and Rapid. RS can be hard to squeeze a paper catalogue out of but be persistent. You need a broadband, or at least unmetered internet account - high speed is not essential but the ability to downlkoad umpteen megs of datasheets, devtools etc. cheaply is. Feel free to email me if you have any other questions. -- http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList .....piclist-unsubscribe-requestKILLspam@spam@mitvma.mit.edu