things to do BEFORE you start trading online

[scotserve]

business bank accounts dont need to be expensive though,
Alliance & Leicester (or santander as they are now) do a business account that charges £5 a month if you dont turnover more than £1000 a month I think it is,

Santander gives free business banking for life apparently.

Also as a member of the Federation of Small Business, you can get free business banking with the Co-operative.

As a Sole Trader you definitely don't need a business account, but my accountant advised me to get a business account. 

I haven't done it yet, but Im going to make an appointment with my local Santander now after looking on their website!

Thanks Fiona!!

I have had huge problems with Santander - they have been buying up too many companies and now got their knickers in a twist

If interested I have a personal contact at HSBC that I can pass you on to - swapped a lot of stuff to them recently and everything has been plain sailing - their online banking is top notch as well

[RB_Beads]

business bank accounts dont need to be expensive though,
Alliance & Leicester (or santander as they are now) do a business account that charges £5 a month if you dont turnover more than £1000 a month I think it is,

Santander gives free business banking for life apparently.

Also as a member of the Federation of Small Business, you can get free business banking with the Co-operative.

As a Sole Trader you definitely don't need a business account, but my accountant advised me to get a business account. 

I haven't done it yet, but Im going to make an appointment with my local Santander now after looking on their website!

Thanks Fiona!!

I have had huge problems with Santander - they have been buying up too many companies and now got their knickers in a twist

If interested I have a personal contact at HSBC that I can pass you on to - swapped a lot of stuff to them recently and everything has been plain sailing - their online banking is top notch as well

I already bank with HSBC.  Maybe I should speak to them then about transferring my account to a business one?!

[Andy c]

can I swear ....OK maybe not .. But after being with HSB so called C for 10 years & being in credit by almost £1000 for 2 of them.... went over drawn in by a few pounds around December the debt collectors called last week cos we have no automatic payment going in .... was paying in it myself ...... So told em to shove their account closing it tomorrow

[scotserve]

can I swear ....OK maybe not .. But after being with HSB so called C for 10 years & being in credit by almost £1000 for 2 of them.... went over drawn in by a few pounds around December the debt collectors called last week cos we have no automatic payment going in .... was paying in it myself ...... So told em to shove their account closing it tomorrow

:-) Similar story to mine- been with the bank of scotland for 25 years - but it changes ownership so often the bloody staff dont know what uniform to wear, a few months back they moved my payment date for my business visa card without telling me which caused me to go overdrawn, feckers charged me for going into an unauthorised overdraft, cancelled my card ( which is attached to pay a lot of services) again without telling me - first i found out was when I got an email from a data centre telling me my payment had been rejected.
Hats off to HSBC so far - they have been fantastic, got the account setup in record time, new business visa and online banking within 5 days keeping me totally informed all the time, ever bank will have horror stories though.

[Andy c]

OK  If you are like me and work DON'T APPLY FOR SOLE TRADING , rather phone the hmrc help line to find out what to do .I now have to spend ages writing letters and phoning and cancelling my applications and cancelling the NI which so far has been triple the amount I have made in 3 months
All they will do is add on the predicted amount on my ni number to cover my site

[TotalComics]

Hi guys,

Sorry if this has already been asked / answered, but regarding the business address needing to be displayed; alot of people, including myself are starting a business from home, and are wary about putting their home address on a website for everyone to see.
Would it be worth setting up a PO Box address? (£95 for 6 months, or £170 for a year).

Although my actual address would still be available to find for anyone who knows how or wants to look, it would help towards keeping my home address personal.

No this is illegal - you must use a fixed address
I have dozens of companies using me that work from home - hell I work from home myself and it has never ever been a problem

Thankyou for clearing that one up, i shall nip this idea in the bud! at least that's another £100+ i don't have to fork out each year!