Starting a business while employed

[landodd]

hello all, hope you're keeping well in these trying times.

I'm not a business owner yet, however, the last year has given me some time to think/reflect on life, the universe and my place in it.

I want to start a business of my own after 20 years working for local and national government - The business will likely focus on being a reseller/affiliate of sorts. It's still an idea thats taking form as i try and flesh out the fundamentals.

My hope is to continue to work full time(ish) for my current employer (digital marketing, no conflict of interest) while also setting up a business that would essentially run in the background - Are there any obvious barriers to doing so (other than the time involved)?

Would i be able to continue having a business operate in the background while continuing to work full-time? My obvious concern is the lack of money coming in while the business grows, and i can forsee this taking anywhere between 1-2 years before it starts to generate real income.

I'm a complete novice to this and ultimately want to grow the business into something that I could work on full time, for now, i'm starting with the basics. I'm not even sure whether i should be considering setting up as a sole trader or a limited company.

I suppose i'm looking for any general advice that forum members might be able to give at this very early stage.

Thanks in advance for reading and extra thanks if you can offer some direction, pointers, advice.

 

[Mr D]

Your main barrier is your employment contract. Some employers refuse to allow 2nd jobs (which this would be), some allow them but want assurance you will put them first, some don't care.
Just don't try and do it without employer knowing, always someone willing to grass you up.

Would advise in general terms getting a copy of business for dummies. Useful broad overview and can research particular elements in more detail.

Self employed or limited, plenty of information on both. Some start off as self employed and move to limited later.
There are tax elements too - a self employed person all profits are their personal income, a limited company all profits belong to the company and are taxed at the company rate - which can be handy for those who would otherwise pay higher rate tax.

Its a pretty common way of starting, running a business part time while working full time. Slower than jumping in both feet first but a lot safer and can experiment.
Not all businesses pan out, not all turn out to be as good as expected from a personal point of view.
Can be fun though.

Generally would advise start with what you like. If you like fishing then you already know many of the terms, the needs, the problems that can be experienced as a customer.

Can be useful to look around for trade fairs too - they have been mostly virtual or cancelled during pandemic but starting to come back up now. Useful to look at previous events to see which companies exhibited, gives you a bunch of names to track down for looking at.
And going in person you can chat to lots of different suppliers. Some will brush off newbies, some will give a lot of time and attention to.
Just be careful of what you are talked into buying, their job at events is to sell....
Also good to get swag at fairs too - bags, pens, hats, notebooks. Plus free samples.

 

[peppermintlover]

Aside from the amazing and well-detailed comment of Mr. D., the only thing that I could probably add the nature of the business that you are trying to build. It may seem obvious at first, but it seems like you're looking at the business from a birds-eye sort of view, an overarching expectation of how it's going to be like. Start simple first, and as a digital marketer, you can probably go ahead and ask yourself these questions:

1. Will I be providing a service or selling a product? (Or both?)
2. Will the business be completely digital or will it be mixed with a physical aspect? (Store, warehouse, etc)
3. Will the product/service I'm delivering be catered towards a specific audience? (Local, international, and other demographical data)
4. Do I know enough regarding this product/service that I can pitch it to customers without being anxious?
5. What other responsibilities do I have beyond the business and my full-time job?

A quick review of your answers to these questions will give you a far better insight into where you stand when it comes to calculating just how much time you'll be spending on the business. After that, it boils down to a subjective and personal decision–only you can tell how viable your set up will really be.

 

[landodd]

Your main barrier is your employment contract. Some employers refuse to allow 2nd jobs (which this would be), some allow them but want assurance you will put them first, some don't care.
Just don't try and do it without employer knowing, always someone willing to grass you up.

Would advise in general terms getting a copy of business for dummies. Useful broad overview and can research particular elements in more detail.

Self employed or limited, plenty of information on both. Some start off as self employed and move to limited later.
There are tax elements too - a self employed person all profits are their personal income, a limited company all profits belong to the company and are taxed at the company rate - which can be handy for those who would otherwise pay higher rate tax.

Its a pretty common way of starting, running a business part time while working full time. Slower than jumping in both feet first but a lot safer and can experiment.
Not all businesses pan out, not all turn out to be as good as expected from a personal point of view.
Can be fun though.

Generally would advise start with what you like. If you like fishing then you already know many of the terms, the needs, the problems that can be experienced as a customer.

Can be useful to look around for trade fairs too - they have been mostly virtual or cancelled during pandemic but starting to come back up now. Useful to look at previous events to see which companies exhibited, gives you a bunch of names to track down for looking at.
And going in person you can chat to lots of different suppliers. Some will brush off newbies, some will give a lot of time and attention to.
Just be careful of what you are talked into buying, their job at events is to sell....
Also good to get swag at fairs too - bags, pens, hats, notebooks. Plus free samples.

I can't thank you enough - You've given me more insight in one post than a good few hours of searching the web. Geniuinely thankful to you Mr.D

 

[landodd]

Aside from the amazing and well-detailed comment of Mr. D., the only thing that I could probably add the nature of the business that you are trying to build. It may seem obvious at first, but it seems like you're looking at the business from a birds-eye sort of view, an overarching expectation of how it's going to be like. Start simple first, and as a digital marketer, you can probably go ahead and ask yourself these questions:

1. Will I be providing a service or selling a product? (Or both?)
2. Will the business be completely digital or will it be mixed with a physical aspect? (Store, warehouse, etc)
3. Will the product/service I'm delivering be catered towards a specific audience? (Local, international, and other demographical data)
4. Do I know enough regarding this product/service that I can pitch it to customers without being anxious?
5. What other responsibilities do I have beyond the business and my full-time job?

A quick review of your answers to these questions will give you a far better insight into where you stand when it comes to calculating just how much time you'll be spending on the business. After that, it boils down to a subjective and personal decision–only you can tell how viable your set up will really be.

Thats something i needed to hear/read - Much appreciated PML, it's an important aspect and i really appreciate you taking time out to offer such excellent feedback.

 

[Socio South West]

An important aspect often overlooked is the impact of a business 'on the side' on your personal life.

I worked in a sector which is very commonly a sideline, and often made business meetings with people working in this manner in the evenings or over breakfast before their 'normal' working day started. For me it helped break up the boredom of down time when staying in hotels - but that is a digression.

It became a familiar pattern that after maybe 12-18 months that these people realised that they were actually quite comfortable on the salary they were earning 9-5 and lacked the confidence to go full time with their business which hadn't earned anything serious - in fact in the main it had been losing money and equipment/software replacement or upgrade would be seriously denting finances.

Besides that many realised that evenings and weekends had invested a lot of time in the business to the detriment of their social and leisure time and their work/life balance had gone totally out of kilter.

It's a non financial aspect many don't consider: It doesn't appear in budgets or business plans, but in my opinion is of at least equal importance to the profitability of the business for the small businessman.

 

[landodd]

An important aspect often overlooked is the impact of a business 'on the side' on your personal life.

I worked in a sector which is very commonly a sideline, and often made business meetings with people working in this manner in the evenings or over breakfast before their 'normal' working day started. For me it helped break up the boredom of down time when staying in hotels - but that is a digression.

It became a familiar pattern that after maybe 12-18 months that these people realised that they were actually quite comfortable on the salary they were earning 9-5 and lacked the confidence to go full time with their business which hadn't earned anything serious - in fact in the main it had been losing money and equipment/software replacement or upgrade would be seriously denting finances.

Besides that many realised that evenings and weekends had invested a lot of time in the business to the detriment of their social and leisure time and their work/life balance had gone totally out of kilter.

It's a non financial aspect many don't consider: It doesn't appear in budgets or business plans, but in my opinion is of at least equal importance to the profitability of the business for the small businessman.

I appreciate the feedback - It's definitely something i've considered and it's also the main reason why i want to set up a business to run in the background for the moment, as opposed to leaving the 9-5 to invest in this fully. Ideally, I want the best of both worlds, but i know that isn't always possible. Thanks again SSW

 

[fisicx]

The business will likely focus on being a reseller/affiliate of sorts.....setting up a business that would essentially run in the background

Whilst the business may run in the background the marketing won't.

Suppose you find a widget maker that offers reseller and affiliate sales. They look after all the fulfillment so all you need to do is feed them the customer details.

The problem is you aren't the only seller. They may have hundreds, all promoting the product on social media, ebay, amazon and any other tat bazaar they can find. You may want to rise above this and do email marketing, run adverts or whatever. Makes no difference, marketing will eat up all your spare time.

Someone I know sells artwork. It's a passive income because someone else does all the printing and packing but it took them over 5 years to get to the hands-off position. They now earn enough to pay someone to do all their marketing.

 

[landodd]

Whilst the business may run in the background the marketing won't.

Suppose you find a widget maker that offers reseller and affiliate sales. They look after all the fulfillment so all you need to do is feed them the customer details.

The problem is you aren't the only seller. They may have hundreds, all promoting the product on social media, ebay, amazon and any other tat bazaar they can find. You may want to rise above this and do email marketing, run adverts or whatever. Makes no difference, marketing will eat up all your spare time.

Someone I know sells artwork. It's a passive income because someone else does all the printing and packing but it took them over 5 years to get to the hands-off position. They now earn enough to pay someone to do all their marketing.

Thats another great bit of feedback, thank you - Thankfully, the business won't be reliant on any physical products, it'll be more link based so the the initial website build and time spent getting it off the ground will be the heavy lifting, so to speak. After that, it'll hopefully require a little upkeep on a monthly basis. Luckily, i have one extra day off in the week (every two weeks) which will allow me to focus on this. I'm from a web design background and spent 20 years running a sports website that i recently sold, so i'm not unfamiliar with the challenges involved ! That website took 2 hours in the morning, a few in the day and 3 at night, just to keep up to date with football news! Hopefully, this will be a little less daunting

 

[BeyondTheIllusion]

Don't put obstacles in your way.
You can spend all day doing that, worrying about how to get going.

You get out there and walk your own path

 

[landodd]

Don't put obstacles in your way.
You can spend all day doing that, worrying about how to get going.

You get out there and walk your own path

Appreciate the positivity David, Cheers!

 

[presentationgenius]

Some fantastic stuff here already so I'm going to take a bit of a different approach.

Why is it you want to 'leave'? And how much work is there for what you do with your current employer? I'm asking 'cos if you're doing something totally different from your current job (check your contract!) I've never heard of an employer actually having a problem.

On the other hand if it's to do something similar and/or complimentary you could talk to them about things like a phased withdrawal and/or point out to them that if they gave you the contract to do your old job as a freelancer (or whatever) you'd have a definite client and - assuming you do it right - they'd get to save money 'cos they'd not have to pay your overheads/NI/etc.

Do the maths first but if the stars align it's an approach I've seen work quite a lot of times.

 

[youngtrepreneur]

hello all, hope you're keeping well in these trying times.

I'm not a business owner yet, however, the last year has given me some time to think/reflect on life, the universe and my place in it.

I want to start a business of my own after 20 years working for local and national government - The business will likely focus on being a reseller/affiliate of sorts. It's still an idea thats taking form as i try and flesh out the fundamentals.

My hope is to continue to work full time(ish) for my current employer (digital marketing, no conflict of interest) while also setting up a business that would essentially run in the background - Are there any obvious barriers to doing so (other than the time involved)?

Would i be able to continue having a business operate in the background while continuing to work full-time? My obvious concern is the lack of money coming in while the business grows, and i can forsee this taking anywhere between 1-2 years before it starts to generate real income.

I'm a complete novice to this and ultimately want to grow the business into something that I could work on full time, for now, i'm starting with the basics. I'm not even sure whether i should be considering setting up as a sole trader or a limited company.

I suppose i'm looking for any general advice that forum members might be able to give at this very early stage.

Thanks in advance for reading and extra thanks if you can offer some direction, pointers, advice.

I would advise checking if your employment contract prohibits you from starting a business while in employment.
To be honest, it almost certainly doesn't, but do check.

If your contract does not prohibit you, then you are free to start a business of your own in your own time, regardless whether your employer wants you to or not.

And btw - starting while employed is the best way to do it because at least to start with you have an income.

 

[landodd]

I would advise checking if your employment contract prohibits you from starting a business while in employment.
To be honest, it almost certainly doesn't, but do check.

If your contract does not prohibit you, then you are free to start a business of your own in your own time, regardless whether your employer wants you to or not.

And btw - starting while employed is the best way to do it because at least to start with you have an income.

Thanks for that, it's exactly why i want to start a business while working. The extra cash is going to pay the bills in the short term

 

[landodd]

Some fantastic stuff here already so I'm going to take a bit of a different approach.

Why is it you want to 'leave'? And how much work is there for what you do with your current employer? I'm asking 'cos if you're doing something totally different from your current job (check your contract!) I've never heard of an employer actually having a problem.

On the other hand if it's to do something similar and/or complimentary you could talk to them about things like a phased withdrawal and/or point out to them that if they gave you the contract to do your old job as a freelancer (or whatever) you'd have a definite client and - assuming you do it right - they'd get to save money 'cos they'd not have to pay your overheads/NI/etc.

Do the maths first but if the stars align it's an approach I've seen work quite a lot of times.

Thanks for replying - Truth be told, i don't want to leave my job entirely. It's a job that i enjoy and i get a lot of satisfaction from it. The problem is that it's just under full time hours and doesn;t pay as much as i would get in a private sector job. The reason i don't want to leave and work in the private sector is that i'd rather be working for myself while somehow keeping this current job going as well. There's plenty of work with the current employer, but i have a lot of interests that i like to work on - I can't come home from work and just switch off, i'm always thinking about new ideas.

Ultimately, i would like to continue working in my current role while having some various projects all running under my own business - They would range from what i mentioned (affiliate marketing) as well as a football based project, similar to something i did before, what would generate revenue through advertising.

 

[fisicx]

If you want to do affiliate marketing you can earn extra cash but you have to put in the hours. Evenings, weekends and everything in between. It’s not easy but it can be rewarding.

 

[landodd]

If you want to do affiliate marketing you can earn extra cash but you have to put in the hours. Evenings, weekends and everything in between. It’s not easy but it can be rewarding.

Appreciate that feedback - Did you have any pointers or ideas on how to get started? My current idea is more link based but i'm open to other ideas as well

 

[WaveJumper]

I can not offer any better advice than that all ready given above. Only to say the added advantage of already being in employment has to be it takes the stress and heat of not having to worry about how you are going to pay the next bill thats heading your way.

I note you say you will not be giving up your full time role but if you did (and I don't know your age) you may want to look at the pension implications especially if working in local government.

 

[fisicx]

Research products. This is the hardest part. For example, you could be a software reseller/affiliate. But your research shows there are thousands of people all doing the same. Or you could sell images/photos. But again so can thousands of others. Maybe you could go niche and only promote something people need rarely. This might be easier but the customer base is much smaller.

Finding the right product or service could take you years. You might never find something.

But suppose you do find something. The creator is going to give you £1 for each download. At a 1% conversion rate you would need 10,000 views to earn £100. Take off tax an NI and you are left with £70. If it took 20 hours of work to get those 10,000 views you have earned £3.50/hour. You can get more than that filling shelves in Tesco.

 

[landodd]

I can not offer any better advice than that all ready given above. Only to say the added advantage of already being in employment has to be it takes the stress and heat of not having to worry about how you are going to pay the next bill thats heading your way.

I note you say you will not be giving up your full time role but if you did (and I don't know your age) you may want to look at the pension implications especially if working in local government.

Much appreciated and very good point - i will need to look into that at some point