How much will the overheads be..?

How much will the overheads be..?

I've taken some time to gather varied and some detailed info from the web and of my own.

This can be so varied i'm just going to stick to the basic details of my expenses and running costs, You'll probably end up with some others depending on your profession.

Accountants and bookkeeping
Unless your an accountant or bookkeeper, you'll need to pay someone, or a family/friend will be helping you.

From personal experience it is best to keep up with the bookkeeping and concurrently your tax and vat returns. If you don't manage this correctly you'll end up spending more than you have in the business, and go bust..lose your house and be extremely depressed.

My bookkeeping as a Limited Company in the building industry is very labour intensive, my bookkeeping is about £100 a month depending on the accounting period. This includes payroll for an employee.
And accountants fees for the year are £900 based on all the bookkeeping being done.

So that's £2100 a year.

Vehicle and Van costs.

Whether you've got a car or van, or get the train to work. You need to add this cost. 
Some may have an old vehicle and might not think that you should be charging a client for the overheads. But look at the following link for a more detailed view of running costs and be amazed!    I was..

http://media.rac.co.uk/pdf/rac-cost-of-motoring-index-2011.pdf 

My fairly new van, will cost me £7500 per year
This includes insurance, fuel, depreciation, tax, interest on a loan etc

Tools, equipment, stationary and computing.

My trade as a carpenter can be the most expensive trade. Tools can cost the Earth, furthermore they wear out and need maintenance or sharpening. Typically i would spend £100-£150 a month on tools and sharpening saw blades.

Do you have a computer for work, printer! web connection at home... the list can  endless. Lets say that a computer and all the thigs that go with it cost me approx £200 a year.

Stationary..include business cards, paper, note books, pens/pencils, envelopes, stamps....suppose it depends on your business. Mine is £40-50 a year.

Business premises and or working from home

Is your house your office, do you work on the road have to pay for accomodation.
Look at the following HMRC advise to there tax inspectors.

I'm usually in the office about 5-10 hours a week. And i charge the company £25 a month. Or £300 a year


Thats £3600 ayear

Expenses so far  £13750 a year.

Mine is not an ordinary Company and these costs could be greater or less. But the most important thing is to make sure they are included!

Weeks or days worked in one year?

Weeks or days worked in one year?

Holidays, bank holidays, weddings funerals, sick days off and lost time due to weather. Lost time on a job due to delays etc. Or just NO WORK!

Holidays. I know of a few people who in the building trade take a good 3-4 weeks holiday a year. But in reality 28 days is the goverement statue for my employee, that can and does include 8 bank hoildays.

I probably take 20 days in total per year including christams and bank holidays.

I'm never really sick enough not to work but you never know. The average is 5.6 days per year. I'm going to put a rather generous 4 days.

This year i've been to one funeral. lost 2 days due to the snow. haven't had any work for nearly 6 days now. And probably lost a few days down to delays.

That's a total of 32 days of not working and more importantly not EARNING.

Out of the year you have 52 weeks, i work 5 days per week. that's 260 days i could work. Take off the 32 and you left with  228 days of work per year.

Your time in a day or week.

Your time in a day or week.

What time do you start work and finish, do you have a lunch break or even tea break!!

Lets say i start at 8am and normally finish at 530-6pm. i don't generally have a lunch break but for arguments sake 15mins.
So in a normal working day i've physically worked 9-9.5 hours. 5 day week thats 47 hours.
But it doesn't end there..

Do you have paperwork to do, quotes in the evening or at the weekend, visiting clients at night when there home from work.

I'll probably do at least 5-6 hours in the home office per week. sometimes more. But one question you need to ask is. Am i getting paid for this, do you charge for a quote. Does the bookkeeping get added to your clients bill.
NO is the answer for me.
So you need to add this to the working weeks hours and i have

53 hours per week. whether its an average is hard to determine, but i know many people doing alot more.

Advise and discussion around the costs and some of the benefits of being Self-Employed

In the following BLOG we will try and help you list all the things that will crop up in your day to day work.

Hopefully we will make a fairer, a more even playing field for all.. 

It seems some people are not aware of these sometimes hidden expenses, and therefore are much cheaper to the end consumer. But in turn may fall into a trap of every increasing expenditure, with every decreasing income.

Please feel free to add any advise or knowledge that I have not included. 

Over the years we will add different  Industries just so we can cover all the bases. However, first and for-most we will start with the industry that has the biggest self-employed sector in the UK, that being my industry of construction.