Student Business - HELP! Plz!

[Bex]

Hello,


I currently have a feeling of being confused and lost after trying to find answers to my problem online so far, so I’ve decided to stop searching sites and just ask someone here if they know.

I’m currently a full time student who will be starting my third and final year of university in September. One of the things I’m specialising in on my course is web design. To cut a long story short during this summer after looking at some portfolio examples of web sites by so called professionals I snapped, realising I could do so much better for a lot less money than these other web site designers.

So the enjoyable idea of starting my own little web design business was born about a month ago. Figured it would be more of a hobbyist type business, probably wouldn’t get much work, but it would help me earn a little extra money while I’m still a student doing what I love, rather than having to go work as a checkout girl or something. A couple of friends of mine in Graphic Design have teamed up with me to help with artwork, etc… for a small cut of profits. Sounded easy.

Things have gone a little out of control. My actual business website is not even finished yet, but I already have several clients in the last couple of weeks that have found me via word of mouth it seems due to the fact I was offering such cheap start-up design prices.

The first client is ready to pay me, since the site is being paid for by the county council they asked me to send them my invoice for the work. Panic ensued, I couldn’t tell them - invoice? What invoice? I have no idea what is supposedly meant to be on an invoice! The whole idea of invoicing hadn’t even occurred to me since I was so wrapped up in designing the site. So I bluffed it and said I’d send it out next week.

I then proceeded to downloaded a nice invoice template, made it all pretty, filled in my info, but now am confused about some details of it.

1) Since I’m a full time student and I don’t yet have to pay tax, do I have to list that whole break down VAT thing on the invoice for the clients? Can't I just list the total sum and thats it?
2) What’s a company number? I already deleted the part asking for your VAT registered number, since I’m not VAT registered, so is company number thing something else entirely?
3) Other than a cheque how do other forms of payment work? I’m a student, I have no experience with money going into my account, in only exits. The student loan gets paid into my account by the LEA, hand over the counter the occasional check, and that’s my totality of knowledge about paying money ‘into’ my own account. How on earth does an electronic transfer work, and what bank details of mine do they need?

I already know that whether I pay tax or not I’ll have to keep exact account records, which is no problem since I’m obsessive about neatness in everything, but this whole VAT/Tax thing is causing my brain to melt. No where can I find any information online about students starting up business info. . . probably coz few do, but still its stressful.

Any help or advice would be much appreciated.


:?: :!: :?:

Rebecca.

 

[Stephen]

Chill Rebecca - Don't get stressed about earning money! Congratulations on doing so well!!

As you're not registered for VAT, you won't need to charge it, and you can't claim back VAT that you pay to your suppliers (e.g. any business cards you might have printed by a printer who is VAT registered). So, forget about it until you're earning much more!

I imagine you're trading as a 'sole trader' as you haven't set up a limited company (you'd know if you had!), so you won't have a company number. Forget about that too.

Essentially you're trading as yourself, so put your own name on the invoice, and an address.

You can ask them to pay you however you want. Some companies prefer to pay electronically, others may prefer cheque. For cheques, they should be made out to you personally (so put a note to this effect on your invoice), or they could pay electronically (several methods, but that's irrelevant from your point of view!). If you wish to allow them to pay electronically (less hassle, but it might not be so obvious when you've been paid), simply put your bank account and sort code on your invoice.

As for tax, you'll need to pay tax on anything you earn over your annual tax allowances. I'm not an accountant (or a sole trader), but imagine this will simply be a case of doing a tax return at the end of the year and paying any tax then. I'd say you should keep some money to one side to pay any tax bill, but I can't imagine doing that when I was a student. Deal with that when you need to.

If you start earning a decent amount of money, you should consider your options further to make life easier. At that point, consider speaking to an accountant.

Good luck!!

 

[Bex]

Thank you. The stress bubble just popped! Yay!

:lol:

Rebecca.

 

[chris1317]

Hi Rebecca,

Just checked out your site, very original. Dont know about the sound though it got a bit annoying after a while.

ps good luck witht the sites

Chris.

 

[Bex]

Ha, you think listening to it for a few minuets is annoying? Try listing to it none stop while designing the site – would drive you insane! Trying to find a mellow low frequency fire sound effect seems to be near to impossible for me. Have about 30 different fire background sounds, that’s the ‘least’ irritating one. Eventually I’m going to make some kind of optional on/off switch for the viewer to click if they don’t want the background sound effect.

Urgh…

Back to the salt mine.


:roll:

Rebecca.

 

[Rob Holmes]

Hi Bex,

Give me a shout if you want to offer hosting along with your website design - can build a nice monthly income and we do the techie bits for you

Rob

 

[Bex]

Thanks for the offer, but I've already purchased a reseller package elsewhere.


Rebecca.

 

[DuaneJackson]

Hi Bex,

Well done on doing so well so quickly. Re your invoicing woes, you might want to take a look at www.kashflow.co.uk

If you find it suits your needs (I'm sure you will!) then let me know and I'll arrange a discount for you after the free 60 day period.

 

[SmallBizSoftware]

Bex

Well done for getting work so quick and for all of the positive feedback you have received so far (i have never had any, but then i guess i'm not a young lady).

Personally, I don't go a bundle on your site. Only on the basis that I have to guess where to click all of the time, there is nothing really obvious. On the landing page, I waited for an intro to start (like a lemon) before realising you were waiting for a click (never seen the point of that anyway, of course I wanna enter the site, thats why I typed in the url). Then the wiggly buttons look really cool, but nothing to lead me to whcih one I wanted.

All critiscm is meant to be constructive, not slagging off your site!

Graham

 

[SillyJokes]

It's not my cuppa either.

You might just want to keep an eye on the spelling though. You got portfolio wrong in the menu and the wrong use of there on the page.

 

[Bex]

I know I know... Believe me the list of errors I actually have noted beside me right now is far longer than yours, but I haven't had time to properly work on the site. Too much else to do.

The enter page will 'eventually' have a 3D flash introduction, but before I can get to work on that I have to actually get all the content nailed down, then give everything a good fine tooth comb through for spelling and grammar. Then work on certain usability factors. Not to mention cross browser testing, viewing on different monitors with different resolutions. Once that's all done I will create XHTML version of the site for viewers to choose from. Urgh!

Also I know that my kind of site design won't be everyone's cup of tea. In fact I know that for certain types of sites, especially e-commerce sites, it would not be fitting in the least. But there are many other website designers out there that would do that type of design. I figure I'm aiming at more of narrow range target cliental.

I know my style is kind of well - odd, might be the nicest word. I’m seriously going against the grain on certain design rules, but I haven’t come from a background in computer coding and traditional programming, etc… In fact my degree (BSc Computer Aided Visualisations) only deals with web design in a few specific modules. The rest involve 2D storyline animations, 3D environments, animated 3D character rigging, video technology, photo realistic CGI effects, etc… so I’ve come from a much more artistic end of the spectrum of web design.

Someone who is going to be a colleague with me in this is doing a BA in Graphic Design. She is an exceptional 2D artists/illustrators with a pen – ink - pencil, but has absolutely no ability with a computer. Another guy who we will eventually be working with us solely specialises in tradition photography & typography - and knows a little HTML, comes from a rather eccentric fine artist background, so all in all we make for a rather odd team. It’s actually amazing the site turned out this tame – Luke almost decapitated me when I said I would be using Arial for the main content. Typographers can become agitated very fast at the mention of standard type fonts. lol

Once I believe the site to be finished I'll give you an e-mail, so you can criticise it. I have no problem with constructive criticism, I’m hardly going to run off crying saying 'but mummy they don't like my site'. Asking someone to verbally rip down parts and explaining why they don't work 'for you' and probably for others as well is the one of the best(and fastest) ways to improve ones own work.

One good constructive criticism is worth much more than a dozen gushing praises.

Oh and that damn Portfolio misspelling I know… that little suckers been bothering me for a couple weeks since I spotted it, the action script coding for that is an array, which is buried within a specific frame within a movie clip, but I can’t find where that frame is! I’ve so many lines of action script coding in that file. UrGh….! Valuable lesson learnt, always name important things with the tag labels, helps you find things a lot faster. In fact that is exactly what I’m going to go off and do now…. That code will hide from me no more…! Fetches hunting rifle.


:twisted:

Rebecca.


P.S. Thanks DuaneJackson, I'll keep that in mind, but not really at that desprate a stage in accounting 'yet'.

 

[graham]

I could be wrong but students are like everyone else and pay tax after a certain tax free threshold.

The myth students don't pay tax is because they don't work enough to exceed the tax free threshold which on average is about 4k?

Therefore if you earn over approx 4k, you will be taxed.

 

[Bex]

Yes, I know there's a threshold - £4895, but I'm not going to be anywhere near that come April 5 unless 'a lot' of jobs come my way. If I do end up going over the threshold and have to pay, Woohoo! Means I'm earning a lot more than I thought I would, so won't complain.




Bex...

 

[Astaroth]

How have you set up your "company"?

Whilst I certainly wouldnt consider myself anywhere close to a tax expert I have somewhat personal experience on this topic.

A friend of mine at uni decided to set up his own company and to ensure that if it went belly up that his own assests werent touched he set it up as a limited company with himself as the md and another friend as the company sec. (As a limited company the company is a legal entity in its own right where as as a sole trader or a partnership there is no distinction between the owners and the owners as individuals)

Thinking himself as being very clever he later found out that as a director of a limited company he was no longer considered a full time student (in particular for council tax) and received a court summonds for them claiming the tax back.

The situation may only apply to ltd's (and may have changed as this was 6 or 7 years ago) but it may be something you want to check if you are wanting to keep everything above board.

 

[Bex]

No haven't set up a Ltd, just I'm a sole trader from what I understand of it all. I looked into the whole business of Ltd companies, being able to claim tax back on computer hardware upgrades or a new laptop which I'd use for the business would be rather nice, but for the time being its to much legal/accounting hassle for me to deal with. I plan to leave it as a sole trader while I'm still a student and next July when I'm no longer a student if I'm still doing well I'll look into becoming a Ltd then.




Bex...