Hi,
I am 14 years old and I would like to start a reseller company (please try and avoid the usual age comments ;))
I was wondering if any British citizens or people who know about British law could advise me about whether I need a business license or not? Or any other legal requirements.
I do not plan to grow into a huge business and I'm doing this more out of enjoyment rather than profit.
I will be the only person running the company (at the beginning of the company anyway).

Thanks in advance.
Tom

Hi Tom,

I am from the UK and although I am now 19 I started at 15 and did not need any lisence. As long as you have a good business mind, offer a good service, support your customers, put in the time and act professionally then there will be no problems.

The only think you need to consider is TAX I believe it is £8.000 for sold traders. I would advise visiting your CAB and just checking that.

Aslo try and build a good relationship with your bank manager. I did and once he realised I was not wasting his time he took me serious and now rings me once a month to see how we are going so it will do you no harm.

I hope I have managed to help you.

Hiya, I am 18 and run a hosting company in the UK, i didnt need a business licence but as the other person above said u need to sort out your tax with the inland revenue. Banks seem pretty cool i wanted to start out at 17 and to be fair i did have a partner over 18 but they manager thought it was a good idea and altho all liabilities would have been with my partner the bank were prepared to give me a cheque book, company credit card etc. This was Lloyds TSB i think the different banks have different attitudes.

Its looking like your getting some good sound advice here :-).

Another thing to consider is time to spend running the company.

At 14 I assume you are at School have you made arrangements to support your customers during the day.

Anyone can act as a 'sole Trader' no business experience or legal requirements are required.

The Tax threshold is over 50k so I wouldn't worry about it, and definently dont register unless you income is about to peak above the tax limit, overwise all you become is a 'tax collector.

Some important points to note are that you can claim tax allowances (without being registered) i.e. computer equipment is 100% refundable if you go about it correctly ;)

Best thing to do is to visit your local business centre, they have tons of leaflets and will give advice on all aspects - free training / grants that are available in you area, well worth a visit:)

Oh and that tax thing - you can even claim for items purchased a couple of years prior to starting up - again take a visit for proper advice.

Hope this helps :)

You dont need to get someone to support your customers during the day. You dont need to offer 24/7 support. Just answer e-mails when you get up, and try to get to a computer during your lunch break and you will be fine. If your not running a dedicated server you dont need to worry about it crashing when your in a class, thats for you reseller company to take care of.

Hi Tom,

I think one small problem you will have is the support aspect as you are still in School, you will probably need somebody to help out.

Have you looked at reseller plans yet? I can highly recommend Splashhosts.com, Alan is a sound guy and you will find his support invaluble when starting out.

Good luck with your venture, others have done it so there is no reason why you can't! (just don't broadcast your age on your site
;) )

Infact... I got a account with Splashhost 2 days ago ;)
He may notice the exact same question on the Splashhost forums :P (Probally should delete that now ;))
Thanks for all the advice and I hope I can carry out most of it :)

As for support I could do what Alan recommended... as for the lunch break I could just use my IT room at school... The school owes me one after designing the school website ;)
Anyway thats another story.

Thanks a lot everyone!
Tom

The Tax threshold is over 50k so I wouldn't worry about it, and definently dont register unless you income is about to peak above the tax limit, overwise all you become is a 'tax collector


Completely wrong, thats the VAT limit you thinking of. You start paying tax once you make about £4300/year. You also have to register with the inland revenue within 3 months of starting your business or you can be fined for at least £100.

I think the rules would probably be different if you are under 16, although i dont know.

If i was you i wouldnt worry about the tax side at all. If it looks like you are going to make a reasonable amount of money then you can go register with the inland revenue. You didnt hear this from me though ok :)

SplashHost is right here I belive.
Im 17 and run my own hosting business (well actually ther are 3 of us but I am the oldest).
I have had advice from my father and brother who are both chartered accountants - the tax threshold is £43k or £53k if I remember correctly.

I work for HSBC Bank, and we sponser Young Enterprise so I better plug this:
http://www.young-enterprise.org.uk/

We got started via this, speak to your business studies teacher (assuming your school runs this subject @ GCSE / A-Level) - might be a good way to go :)

Your thinking of VAT, very big mistake. You pay income tax when you go over £4300 + Ni contributions at £10/month

Hey, yeah i think tax is around the 4.300 mark but it all depends on your tax code and i think there are alos different limits for students and most probably under 18's.
I am 18 and running my company, I am at school still but in the 6th form so i have more free time, i check mails in the morning, any free time at school and at home and i have had no complaints as of yet (even tho i am using donhost LOL) If your tech support did get to much you could always out source it to another company, I have had an offer from another hosting company who have staff their all the time.
It is hard work tho and i am learning that the hard way, i am having trouble getting my site listed on search engines etc and i have no idea why i havent had as much trouble with any of my other sites. You also have to be realistic, i have a friend whos business took off like a rocket but he had bank loans to finance marketing etc.
I guess there is also the trap of pricing, if its too high you may not get many customers similarily if its too low you may not get any because customers think it is too cheap.
Sorry if this has gone slightly off topic of british laws but i have found out a lot of stuff the hard way already and my new site has only been up a month (i did have a company before tho).........Godd Luck

SplashHost.com: Your right, Got got it the wrong way round - Miss read it, Duh :(

Hey Eladesor,

I'm very interested in the getting money back for computing equiptment bought that you mentioned earlier. I am just setting up too but I don't know of a Local Business Center that I have.

Any pointers as to who I am meant to deal with to claim money back?

Hope this post helps others too,

Thanks

Kieran

For reducing your tax bill you are best off speaking to an Accountant, they would handle this for you.

Hello
You can't really reduce your tax bill but you can reduce your NI bill which ammount sto the same thing.
Make yourself a company director, pay yourself £4000 PA and make the rest of the money you draw dividends.
That way you only pay NI on the 4000 salary.
However you have to 18 (I think) to be a company director.
Its all academic for me baeacuse I am 35 (and I fee l very old contributing to this thread......)

Gordon

You can reduce your tax bill in a way, you pay tax on anything over your tax allowance. Any business expenses will help reduce this bill i.e. hosting costs, advertising costs, cost of computer hardware etc...

Originally posted by SplashHost.com
You dont need to get someone to support your customers during the day. You dont need to offer 24/7 support. Just answer e-mails when you get up, and try to get to a computer during your lunch break and you will be fine. If your not running a dedicated server you dont need to worry about it crashing when your in a class, thats for you reseller company to take care of.

I disagree, but then I'm looking from the customers side rather than the hosts. :)

There is *no* way I would use a host who only checked mail morning and lunchtime and left the time-consuming stuff to later. Consider there is a problem at 9.00am - am I supposed to wait until lunchtime until someone actually *reads* my email, never mind doing something about it? It would soon become evident that the host wasn't on the ball.

As for being a reseller and not running a dedicated server, *you* are the point of contact for your customers and it is up to *you* to respond. If there's a minor problem with the server and its not picked up, your customers will want you to sort it out. Meanwhile you are oblivious to this? :(

Alan, considering the high level of service you offer, I'm surprised at you suggesting that others offering a much, much inferior service will be "fine".

3iron

Originally posted by SplashHost.com
Your thinking of VAT, very big mistake. You pay income tax when you go over £4300 + Ni contributions at £10/month

Sorry was thinking of VAT, wrote tax, I'll go slap myself now :)

What you call an inferior service would still be superior to a LOT of hosts who claim to have 24/7 support

Originally posted by SplashHost.com
What you call an inferior service would still be superior to a LOT of hosts who claim to have 24/7 support

I don't doubt that for one second but you suggesting that it would be 'fine' for Tom to offer a hosting service (not 24/7) on the basis of checking emails a couple of times during the day (if he is lucky) and is, IMHO, wrong.

This may have been how you started out but you have built your good reputation on the service you offer over the last 6 months, not a few years ago. :)

3iron

3iron, i dont just mean he should just check a couple of times a day.

If he checks his mail when he gets up, at lunch and of course works from when he gets back in from school until when he goes to bed he will basicallt be available during the american working hours and will be able to offer a reasonable level of support

Originally posted by SplashHost.com
3iron, i dont just mean he should just check a couple of times a day.

If he checks his mail when he gets up, at lunch and of course works from when he gets back in from school until when he goes to bed he will basicallt be available during the american working hours and will be able to offer a reasonable level of support

I know what you meant - that's why I said 'a couple of times during the day' as opposed to 'a couple of times a day' - I did say that he would have to leave "the time-consuming stuff to later." :)

I understand with your point about working during 'American' hours and this is valid if that is where Tom is targetting his customers but, to be fair to him, he never said he was. Any UK based customers would soon see through his lack of support based on occasional responses to emails received invariably after they had gone home!

3iron

Hello
Not sure about that "gone home" bit.

Our peak period for UK sales and support is 11pm to 3am UK time.
With US customers the peaks are at 2pm - 7pm UK time (i.e. US morning) and 9pm to 11pm UK time (late afternoon US time)

This may just reflect that more of our US customers are businesses rather than private individuals.

Gordon