Depending on what type of business you chose, your journey will vary.
The main types of businesses in the UK are:
Sole traders – people that are self-employed and personally responsible for business debts and accounts
Limited companies – business finances are separate from your personal finances. You are not personally responsible for business debts but have reporting and management responsibilities
Partnerships – a simple way to have two or more people running a business together. All partners share responsibility for business debts and have accounting responsibilities
Depending on the type of your business you may also have other responsibilities such as licences, permits and insurance. Other rules that you must follow apply to businesses that sell goods online, buy or sell goods abroad or store and use personal information.
You can usually run your business from home but depending on your trade, you may be better off leasing a property. If you chose to run your limited company from home, your address will be visible to the public on the Companies House register.
If you chose to have people working for you, you will have other responsibilities including the workers’ Health and Safety.
Employing people
You will have to become an employer if you want to employ staff.
You’ll have more responsibilities:
– Running payroll – you’ll have to issue payslips to your employees. This is usually done weekly or monthly
– Paying for National Insurance of your employees – you may be able to claim an allowance to reduce the bill
– Workplace pension – you’ll have to enrol eligible staff
You may choose not to have any employees in your limited company.
If you need help from other sole traders, they will issue invoices to you which you’ll account as your business cost. You can also produce invoices that the limited company pays without employing you.
You can find more information about working for yourself and setting up Self-employment here.