Health & Safety rules for mobile business?

[room one]

HM Customs & Excise is the VAT MAN Rose, as Room One says though, you don't have to worry about this until you have £60k turnover on your books. With regard to bookeeping/accounting, ther is a book called Vacount Account Book available from phone no.01723 892499 which will allow you to do your own bookeeping very easily as long as you do it monthly when your bank statements arrive, fill it in for a year and then hand it over to your accountant with all the receipts and they shouldn't charge you too much as you have already done most of the work (easily)...it will also allow you to do your VAT returns when you get over the threshold of 60k. HTH.

Ola again...

Correct I was referring to the VAT Man but this has just reminded me. Your staff member will have to pay tax and national insurance, especially if this will be a second job. She might not have to if she is a student as well ,or has children. For this you need a payroll system and need to issue her with weekly / monthly payslips. I used to do my own payroll manually but have now moved on to a computer software package that is just quicker, but while you have only one employee it would take you know time at all. However it is a lot of info to learn if you are not particularly interested in that side of business. Book keepers or accountants usually only charge a few pounds for each payslip they produce. The Inland Revenue run free business workshops to teach you how to operate payroll and provide free telephone and internet support so it didn't cost me a penny to learn how to do it myself. I can give you a rough iddea of what sort of tax she will be paying if you let me know her personal circumstances i.e age, status, children, second job/only job, student etc...

 

[Rose143]

Thank you fiona and room one again

Room one, you know loads about this!

I do have an accounting package which I use to record all my income and expenditure, it also works out my tax for me. I do have the option to activate the payroll part which I will be doing as I prefer to know everything about my business be it boring or not and I wouldn't be comfortable with an accountant handling that side of things.

With regards to the lady I'm taking on, she's 20, she's not having babies any time soon only after they get married in 2007 (thank God), this will be a part time position first where she will work 1 full day a week and two evenings a week to build up her mobile clientele and then she will be full time from January. How would I work her national insurance and tax if she's part time?

xxxx

 

[Sassy Hassy]

Her tax is calculated the same as if she's full time hun. Main thing you need is the correct tax code - she may have to go on a week one/ month one emergency code of BR for a while. This means that she won't get her tax allowance for a while and will get taxed 25% on everything she earns. Your Local Office does a great course on tax for employers. You can get software to calculte their tax and NI automatically, but it really helped for me to see exactly how it was calculated. There is also a course that covers Statutory Sick Pay. I would really recommend these to you even you take on an accountant so you understand how it all works ... AND THEY ARE FREE!

 

[Rose143]

I'm in Australia so, obviously, there are different requirements but I'll give you my outcome anyway as I've recently gone through this process.

Safety Requirements
Like you, I became qualified via accredited courses and it was through my courses I learned what State dictated safety requirements were. I also learned that various departments have various requirements. When setting up, I also checked with the local Council with their requirements as I was working within their zone.

Employee Situation
Firstly, good for you. You've recognised a need, listened to your clientele and you've expanded your business accordingly. To protect this, as some others suggested, get a solicitor in to draw up an agreement between you two that will not only set out employment conditions but also protect your intellectual and business property. Businesses can and do prevent employees from taking on clients after they depart their employ. If this woman is as easygoing as you say she is, then she won't have a problem with that.

Future Expansion
You say you want to eventually have everything under one roof. Why not start now? Doesn't mean you have to whip out and find a premises but perhaps consider joining a business network or taking on a mentor in order to slowly and carefully flesh out ideas you obviously have within you. Like my ma used to say: better out than in!

I am delighted for you.
Best wishes for your endeavour.

Hi Little Tree,

Thank you so much for that advice, I know what you mean, if I could do it now I would trust me!!! My problem is I still want to offer mobile because it is a unique service but then when I open my salon I will have people working in the salon while I am out doing my mobile clients, I can't trust anyone enough to take over from me in that department, they'll steal my clients! I also want to have enough money to set up the salon beautifully, I don't do half jobs and also have enough to cover my rent. I was looking at prices of shops in my area and they are quite pricey which is also the other reason I am starting to employ someone, just to make that little bit extra or lots extra, Lol whatever

xxxxx

 

[Rose143]

Her tax is calculated the same as if she's full time hun. Main thing you need is the correct tax code - she may have to go on a week one/ month one emergency code of BR for a while. This means that she won't get her tax allowance for a while and will get taxed 25% on everything she earns. Your Local Office does a great course on tax for employers. You can get software to calculte their tax and NI automatically, but it really helped for me to see exactly how it was calculated. There is also a course that covers Statutory Sick Pay. I would really recommend these to you even you take on an accountant so you understand how it all works ... AND THEY ARE FREE!

Hi Sass,

Thanks for that, I did do one of these free courses about 2 months ago as you kindly suggested to me before but I didn't find it very useful because the people I was in the class with were more concerned about what they could claim for within the own companies and of course just being plain selfish so it did kind of put me off. I'll try again and book another one anyway.

I do have the software that works out her national insurance and all that I just need to set it up I think, I'll have a read through my user guide to see what I can do and can't do.

xxxx

 

[Little Tree]

salon while I am out doing my mobile clients, I can't trust anyone enough to take over from me in that department, they'll steal my clients! I also want to have enough money to set up the salon beautifully, I don't do half jobs and also have enough to cover my rent. I was looking at prices of shops in my area and they are quite pricey which is also the other reason I am starting to employ someone, just to make that little bit extra

The theft of client and ideas is why you have an employment agreement :wink2: You can place clauses in the agreement which will address intellectual property and other business concerns. As for allowing people to take over from you, well cross that bridge when you come to it. I'm dealing with exactly the same issue at the moment as my business has grown far quicker than I had expected. But yes, I agree with you re the fitout ~ first impressions are soooo important and if you're a Half Pants Harry in fitting out the workspace unfortunately people will equate this to your workmanship.

Have you thought of approaching landlords directly? Real estate agents and/or signs tend to get in the way and often I find that a landlord is willing to negotiate a good deal with a good tenant as the protection of his/her property is paramount. Just a thought.

Good luck with the extra set of hands and your accounting issues. I'm sure you'll be fine. I like your site too by the way - very friendly and uncluttered.

 

[Cathie!]

Don't know if this will be of any use at all, but mobile nail technicians don't come under their local council so far as H&S goes.......so you won't get a visit from them....trying to remember who they do come under...I know I wrote it in a post after my H&S visit....found it, it's the Health & Safety Executive which I think is a central government department rather than local government.

HABIA are very helpful, the contracts the girls at the salon have were written in conjunction with HABIA and they are well tight...as we have found out just recently....