Starting a small business - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: mcu
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: January 30, 2011, 01:22:24 am
content: Hi,I'd like to start a small business to sell my electronics products. It won't be anything major, just assembling circuits in my room and mailing them out.Do I need any sort of license to do this in the UK? Are there specific regulations that I should be aware of?Thanks.

author: Hypernova
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 30, 2011, 01:43:33 am
content: Would an ebay shop be simpler?

author: mikeselectricstuff
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 30, 2011, 10:50:18 am
content: You don't need any specific license to trade in the UK.If it's a low-volume sideline just go ahead and do it. Nobody will care unless you kill someone.If your turnover exceeds a certain amount ( I think it's about £75K PA) you need to be VAT registered. If you sell mostly to businesses it is advantageous to voluntarily register if your turnover is below this, as it means you can reclaim VAT on all purchases.You probably technically need to register as a supplier under the WEEE regulations - I think this is fairly cheap for low-turnover busnesses.If it's a serious business & you're not already self-employed you probably need to register as self-employed and pay Class 2 NI contributions. Check the HMRC website.Probably worth talking to an accountant - a good accountant will pay for himself in terms of fully using tax deductions etc.As suggested above, an Ebay shop is probably the best way to get wide visibility.

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 30, 2011, 08:59:11 pm
content: yes to stay legal on a small thing all you need to do is declaire your earnings to HMRC and pay your dues, I'm thinking of the same as soon as i get this building site of a house of mine sorted out

author: mcu
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: January 30, 2011, 11:54:54 pm
content: Hi,Thanks for your repliesRegards.

author: the_raptor
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 31, 2011, 11:05:33 am
content: I think going with an Ebay shop* would be a good idea. I am absolutely sick of finding early 90's style design pages for small electronic retailers, where you have to pay for your orders in pennies made between 1860 and 1920.For low volume it probably isn't worth the effort and head ache of rolling your own e-commerce site.* I am shortly going to buy one of thesesoftrockSDR's because all the other sites had shit house stores. It is 2011 guys, having a word document product catalogue and "please ring us for prices" isn't bloody acceptable.

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 31, 2011, 12:36:34 pm
content: The thing to consider with ebay is that you pay, you pay to list and you pay a final value fee and then you pay again to take the money with paypal. if you don't sell you still pay the listing fees.There are a number of opensource ecommerce solutions some that are addon's to things like joomla! for example the one I use onwww.sparkylabs.co.ukalthough I never did much with it in the end (again trying to find time while I refit my house). it looks good enough to me and I only have to pay the paypal charges

author: Chasm
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 31, 2011, 12:58:21 pm
content: With Paypal there is also the problem that they may decide to freeze your account at any time for any reason.Solving this is often a major problem for small businesses.So better have also other ways of payment and keep the amount in the Paypal accounts low.

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 31, 2011, 07:08:58 pm
content: I've never had any such problems. there was a time they asked me to fill in more information after i had transacted a certain amount of money. At the end of the day, pull the money out every £50 that way you don't stand to loose too much and hey, why let them have the interest, it's a money transfer service not a bank

author: the_raptor
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 01, 2011, 03:08:47 am
content: Oh I personally loathe PayPal (can't wait until some government grows balls and starts hitting them with the financial regulations all "RL" banks get hit with) but for garage production I think eBay is the best solution. Running your own e-commerce system can only be done if you are good at IT, and even then as someone who is I probably wouldn't risk it because when it gets hacked it is going to be a huge pain in the ass.

author: Mechatrommer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 01, 2011, 03:42:31 am
content: i have this plan in mind as well. planning for paypal, creditcard, local bank transfer as payment, but i'm yet to study anything. Simon, why do you think they (paypal) bother to send you a form to fill? maybe you were withdrawing quite an amount of money? so they care that they will no get interest/dividend out of money that you were withdrawing?

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 01, 2011, 06:43:31 am
content: they wanted more info due to the amount of money going in and out, it was purely down to the amount and that I was clearly a little more than an occasional buyer and seller.I personally loath ebay and paypal as well. Ebay just take the piss, for what they do they are not cheap, 10% is a lot to pay and they own paypal so by the time the day is out but before I've shipped I've already handed over 15-20% of the takings to some jerks that run an automated system.

author: Chasm
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 01, 2011, 10:01:52 am
content: Quote from: Simon on January 31, 2011, 07:08:58 pmThe problems are legion.There is a case report in the current c't issue.Someone opened a new pet shop, also selling in the Internet and on eBay. Then he bought a domain from another now closed pet shop that had a better pagerank.Paypal froze the account and demanded a heap of information ranging form ID Card copies to various business documents like invoices from suppliers, utility invoices for the shop, invoices from the post office and so on. Ignoring the question if they could demand them on the first place and sending them as requested did not reopen the account, it just lead to the request of the very same material. In the end it was the press that helped.The "problem" was that the guy bought the domain of a bankrupt store and papal decided it was fraud. That completely different persons were involved did not matter.There are many other stories like this.Use paypal to pay something banned in their TOS (this happens often in the US), account frozen.Get problems with eBay, account frozenGet a court order against paypal, get your account unfrozen and immediately refrozen.Paypalisa bank with a license from Luxembourg, and it is high time that someone hits them with a couple of rules. Not that banks in Luxembourg have to obey many in the first place.

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 01, 2011, 12:43:55 pm
content: yes that does not surprise me of paypal, although to be honest to have anything to do with a past bankrupt shop is not a good idea.I get the impression paypal run on minimum staff and like to make a lot of money and are heavy handed when cases like this arise to keep themselves in the clear.unfortunately anything simple/cheap is generally crap

author: sonicj
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 01, 2011, 06:48:37 pm
content: os commerce is free and 'easy' to setup. you get a nice choice of merchant processors supported right out of the box.http://www.oscommerce.com/partnersnot much different than accepting credit cards in the physical world, just no hardware to rent.most hosting services have oscommerce available on their servers allowing you to install it with just a few clicks in the control panel. making it look interesting/unique is the hardest part of the process.-sj