As the business grows and you have staff to pay, they then can trigger the vat so the margins decrease rapidly which has taken me time to accept. The main reason for me is if I get ill or something goes wrong and I can't work I dont want the busines to grind to a halt. That's motivated me to go multivan more than anything
VAT is a challenge but not insurmountable. In the UK there's not VAT unless you turnover plus £90k.. You're spot on about sickness it can bring everything to a grinding halt when you're self employed
Solid points chris, its a challange running a business. You need to be a salesman, manager, worker this that the other while being the backbone of a business. Its a challange and im constantly struggling im open about it if my customers ask me how tbings are going ill tell them im struggling at the moment theyre all good with me ive got a great set of customers especially because im so young theyre all very very understanding. My plan is to get a few months expenses covered hire then go to a full time salesman because thats what i do best. Hope your doing well mate👍
The big problem in expanding is VAT, having 2 vans full time and you should hit the threshold. Plus if you are flat out and have very little slack it just takes 1 person to be sick and you can't keep up. You need a bit of slack in the system.
VAT should not be a problem. If you're scared to add the 20% to your customers prices talk to them, you will be very surprised by the feedback. Word it along the lines of “Without this VAT increase I cannot continue to grow and offer well-paid jobs locally” As for slack in the system, put systems in place and you won't need slack. My round manager Paul hasn't taken a day off sick since he joined us 3 years ago. There are many things you can do to keep on track, stop the slack and grow like mad. Chris will tell you this.…I have grown by business by 400% in the last 3 years. Put the systems in place and run with it, mate.
Good points as ever, I’ll definitely be looking to outsource as much as possible when I get there. Iv not been going long in this iteration of business but apart from anything else it makes the business more saleable at some point, even if I choose not to sell, and it’s the only way to ‘scale’ really. Personally I don’t understand or enjoy the marketing of my business, yet, I might add so I’ll certainly be looking at getting someone who both understands and enjoys that to do it for me at some point. I don’t mind the numbers side of it so I feel I can manage myself for now, but again I am aware that people who do it for a living know more than me and can work out efficiencies I never even thought of.
