rules and regulations come at a price

[samhusky]

Hi folks I am new to this forum and have found a lot of helpful tips on this site.
My name is Samantha and I am 30 years old. For the past 10 years i have been at home looking after my son who has disablities. I am ofcourse on benefits and depend totally on the state.
However.... for the past 7 years I have been devoting time to several business ideas (most of which, I have had to abbandon due to lack of financing).
As soon as I establish a very good idea for business and carry out any market research I hit a brick wall!
What is my brick wall??? Apart from lack of funds my biggest wall with all ideas i have encountered is RED TAPE.
You get an idea... you shape it to something marketable... you find ways of producing your service or product and then BAM.... in comes LEGISLATION, RULES AND REGULATIONS that make it near impossible for me to ever get anywhere in business as these all come at a price.
It goes without saying all you guys here will know all this already, I just want to get it off my chest.
Im so affraid of my future ...when my son becomes 16 and I start to look for work... am i going to end up working in tescos as a bitter old checkout girl? No offence to checkout staff but thats not what i want from my life.
I am not in a position to go to college at the moment. as I stand to lose £212 of my monthly income if I got to college.
I cant work for an employer because my son has lots of days off school due to ill health and hospital appiontments (which wouldnt please employers).
I cant seem to get a business off the ground without having to pay to pay out a large some of money. For the products NO! the idea and product are never as expensive as having to make sure im... correctly licenced, properly insured and fully protected for any evnetuallity that my business might incurr.
If there are any succesfull business men and women out there that could shed some really good sugestions my way that would be mush appreciated.
Im trying to stay positive but after 7 years of persistance im starting to get a little despondant.

[Rob Holmes]

As someone who detests red tape I advise ..

Starting small and keeping it simple
Automate as much as you possibly can
Get an accountant
Pick a product that does not require alot of licenses etc

That will reduce alot of paperwork - they'll always be some though!

Rob

[Joyous]

Hi Sam

Reading your mail just reminded me again how easy it is to get caught in the benefits trap. Don't give up though 'cos the one thing for sure is that if you stop trying things won't get any better.

If red tape has been hindering you in business for the past seven years then the obvious answer is try something that has little or no red tape.

As Matrixx suggests below start small and keep it simple. That doesn't mean you have to stay small, just that you have a firmer foothold to move onto bigger and better things.

If you stay as a sole trader then the red tape in terms of tax is minimal. Other than informing the Revenue that you're trading and then doing your self assessment return at the end of the tax year, there's not much else. If you expect your profits to be small you can even exempt yourself from paying NI.

You can obviously use a computer so take advantage of the wealth of information that's available on the web with regard to starting and running a business.

No other words of wisdon I'm afraid so all I'll say is stay strong and good luck.

Regards

Joy

[emubill]

welcome to the forums sam

Have pm you

Nige