TomN Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 I have a little experience in blackmsithing and now I more than anything need to practice what i've learnt, to get me going. I am helping someone with a blacksmithing demonstration soon, through the Blacksmiths Guild in the UK and might be able to sell a few things. This is near the start of April. I was hoping to get some stuff made for the fair, so I could sell it. I'd love to be able to hand out a few 'cards' so people could get in touch with me and maybe commision work. I was thinking about setting up a website to get started on making things and advertising them! If I am selling stuff online, do I need to register myself as a business? I have absolutely no idea when it comes to the law with business i'm afraid. Does anyone have any experience to impart to me in the buying of a domain name and the setting up of a website? I should be able to learn how to code a website relatively easily, as I pick computer stuff up quite quickly. For a name, I was thinking of something short and simple. I also will stear clear of putting a location in the name (eg - West Oxfordshire Forge) as I don't know if I will be moving in the future. If anyone has any advice or wisdom to impart to this new boy, I would be very grateful and forever in your debt! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greenbeast Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 If you are serious, definitely get a website going and cards printed. Unfortunately my site is still in progress but i gave out dozens of cards at the first fair i did. If you have a full time job already your tax free allowance will have been 'used up', so any futher income from a second job will be liable for tax. You should keep back 25% so that you can cover this at the end of the financial year. You should register as self-employed, i will be registering my start of business as this coming April (start of British tax year). I believe it isn't terribly involved, just a case of informing HMRC that you will have a secondary income stream and to expect a tax return from you each year Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomN Posted February 29, 2012 Author Share Posted February 29, 2012 Thanks for the info. I'm glad its not too involved! The thought of filling out endless forms fills me with dread! I work full-time, but would like to get a little sideline going to see how I go and get a feel for the market out there. Just need to come up with a name and then I can start to get things set up. I think I will get a business email address set up and print that on the cards, so people can contact me if they wish. Simple, but may bring me in some work. All practice is good, so if people ask me for things that I have never tried, it will be worth having a go anyway, even if it doesn't lead to a product! For the taxes, do I have to keep receipts for everything? Am I right in thinking I can claim the VAT back on certain things, such as fuel etc? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dan_m Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 I use GoDaddy for purchasing domains, it's extremely straightforward if you go to their site. You'll end up paying for three separate things at the same time: the domain, the hosting, and an email account. It's not very expensive, and definitely worth the small investment to have a dedicated .com site as well as an info@yourbusiness.com email address. I always laugh when I see someone like a lawyer with an @yahoo email, I think it's incredibly unprofessional. I'll be setting up the site for my shop in the next few months, but for my other business I use wix.com to build the site. It's a flash template editor, and although it costs $9/month or so to have your hosting server pull the site from their server, it was worth it for me and I'll be using it for my shop site as well. After spending hours and hours teaching myself HTML, the result was still lackluster, and if you go the HTML route your site will always have a pretty standard, boring look unless you become extremely proficient. I spent about 6 hours and built our site from scratch using one of the templates, you can see it here: http://phillydogschool.com. And yes, you should keep all of your receipts. It won't matter unless you get audited, but if you do they'll want to see proof of everything. If you lose or fail to get a receipt you can still write the purchase off as an expense, but if you're audited and can't prove you bought it then it probably won't count. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tzonoqua Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 You don't have to be VAT registered unless you are turning over about 67K. Your expenses are declarable anyway, I doubt you'll be turning over that amount any time soon after first starting up doing blacksmithing alone, if you are can I come work for you! All the info you're looking for is underhttp://www.hmrc.gov.uk/selfemployed/ you need to be careful about the tax issue, as Greenbeast says, depending on what tax bracket you are in, you say you work full time - you'll need to declare your primary taxable income, whether that is your self employment or your job as I assume you are on PAYE, as you get your 7400 or so allowable, then after that 20% tax, then depending on what your income is it may bring you into the higher tax rates. I am not a tax adviser, I just have been self employed for a while, so always best just to phone up hmrc and ask them yourself. You may well want to get an accountant if you are earning well already as they are quite clever at arranging numbers to best benefit you. if you want domain hosting etc, I have a good contact who has his own server and fair prices, pm me. I do my own website and have him host it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greenbeast Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 Tom, definitely make it easy for people to contact you, you never know when it might make the difference between a sale or not. People's ideas whether or not they are likely customers are great inspiration for practice projects, i do that all the time. And yes it's always worth pushing you skills even if there's not a customer on the other end of the job. FYI i'm in a very similar position to you, just maybe a few months further along, i too have a day job and am currently getting tooled up and pulling in commissions where possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greenbeast Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 Just to add, yes you can claim tax back on purchases relating to the business so keep a record of everything and keep receipts/invoices. Personally i have spreadsheets detailing all my income and all my outgoings down to silly things like a few quid on a wire wheel on ebay and every sale i make. Come the end of the month (today for example) i use the spreadsheet to calculate 25% of my income and send that to a savings account for tax. It'll hopefully be well over what i need but i'd rather have spare come april 2013 than not enough! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomN Posted February 29, 2012 Author Share Posted February 29, 2012 Thanks a lot for the great advice guys. This is gold dust for me! Dan - Thanks for the hosting ideas. I certainly do consider it important to have a proffesional looking setup and email address. Nobody wants to contact someone via a hotmail account for work! I will try the HTML approach on the website first, as firstly i'm cheap :P and secondly it would be good for me to learn! I will say that your dog site looks excellent though and a very worthy cause. Colleen - I will PM you shortly. Thanks for helping! And 67K is a very long way off right now. haha. Greenbeast - That is some very sensible advice and I will certainly be following it. I will make myself up an excel spreadsheet and then a physical archive for all my receipts etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacques Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 My brother-in-law is a Englishman and he was very surprised by all the advice he got from the government, including help from some sort of agency for small business. Talk to the people who administer the laws. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomN Posted March 14, 2012 Author Share Posted March 14, 2012 Still can't think of a good name! Does anyone have any tips for useful off the shelf software, for building a website? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greenbeast Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 I was averse to using the location of my first premises (a pig farm) in the business name in case i moved, then i realised it would not matter, it would be a good story if/when i do move off the farm. Where is your forge located? It looked like it was in a garden with a shed, is that right or am i mis-remembering/interpreting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 Tom as far as a business name goes: "N.......Forge" , "N.......Hot Iron", "N.......Forging Studio", "N.......Artist in Forged Metals", using whatever your last name is. I doubt you'll move away from your name and it's the best way for someone to find you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomN Posted March 15, 2012 Author Share Posted March 15, 2012 Randy the 'N' bit is the problem! Can't think of anything good! Greenbeast - I am currently set up in a friends garden, as I live in rented accomodation, and he has a large garden, where i'm unlikely to bother any neighbours with the noise. In fact the old boy that lives next door had a lean over the fence and watched me for a while, the first time I was there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy Posted March 15, 2012 Share Posted March 15, 2012 I just meant for you to use your last name and then whatever you do for your business name. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomN Posted March 15, 2012 Author Share Posted March 15, 2012 Ah I see. Yes that is certainly a possability.....hmmmmm.......not sure why I idn't think of that before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greenbeast Posted March 15, 2012 Share Posted March 15, 2012 Yes, your name is definitely an option. i quite like interesting names as opposed to just a person's name. How about Garden's End Forge? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tzonoqua Posted March 15, 2012 Share Posted March 15, 2012 N = Nowhere Forge :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomN Posted March 16, 2012 Author Share Posted March 16, 2012 Middle of nowhere forge might be appropriate. We are currently looking to buy a house. I'm trying to find one with a large enough garden that I could build a shed in and set up my forge. Might have a better idea for a name then. AmateurForge.co.uk? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greenbeast Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 obviously you must be aware of the noise by now, it's certainly a big consideration when it comes to location and neighbours. I felt i couldn't carry on long at home, it seemed it wouldn't be long before i got complaints. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomN Posted March 16, 2012 Author Share Posted March 16, 2012 That is indeed the major concern! I was hoping that I could find somewhere which is more secluded. I may just have to find a place which is cheap to rent in the future. A gargae out of the way somewhere would be good, as I need somewhere to set up my home gym as well. All a pipe dream at the moment. Can't wait to get to the forge tomorrow and Sunday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomN Posted April 18, 2012 Author Share Posted April 18, 2012 Been making a few bits of slow progress. Looking at doing the next show in the middle of May. Would like to have a wesbite up and some business cards made by then! Still trying to settle on a name. Nichollsforge.co.uk > sounds a little boring, but is my surname. Ideally i'd like something more catchy and memorable. Other options are blackironforge.co.uk ironfireforge.co.uk (there is a ironandfire.co.uk - so not sure about that) Redironforge.co.uk Ferrousfireforge.co.uk (or various permeatations of that name) Ferrousityforge.co.uk............. Will look at getting a software package to help me develop my own website soon as well.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John B Posted April 18, 2012 Share Posted April 18, 2012 Been making a few bits of slow progress. Looking at doing the next show in the middle of May. Would like to have a wesbite up and some business cards made by then! Still trying to settle on a name. Nichollsforge.co.uk > sounds a little boring, but is my surname. Ideally i'd like something more catchy and memorable. Other options are blackironforge.co.uk ironfireforge.co.uk (there is a ironandfire.co.uk - so not sure about that) Redironforge.co.uk Ferrousfireforge.co.uk (or various permeatations of that name) Ferrousityforge.co.uk............. Will look at getting a software package to help me develop my own website soon as well.... Hi Tom, what about Ox Forge or Ox Forge Blacksmith(s)? You can make Ox heads as a trademark article (also make a neat touchmark if you look at the Oxfordshire logo) Also is the county you are based in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomN Posted April 19, 2012 Author Share Posted April 19, 2012 I did thnk about this John, but i'm not sure if I will be living in Oxfordshire for the rest of my life. I wouldnt mind moving away, but the wife isn't keen as she want's to be near her family. Annoying as the house prices here are pretty high. Sounds like a good idea though and I take your point about the touchmark. Would look quite smart. Will have to have a think about this one! EDIT - There is already an oxforge.com i'm afraid! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John B Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 But not an oxforge.co.uk The Ox also implies strength, the other .com is in Florida so should not cause too much confusion as UK would place it for you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beth Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 i like that idea too tom, the logo/touchmark could be great - and if you move, like john said it just relates to ox like strength and the logo, you'll be so famous by then that it wont matter, and you wont care!! ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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