Choosing Premises

[rafhelp]

Ok I am considerig three options, lets discuss advantages and costs of each.

Working from home - classed as Home office.
no travelling to work costs, everything you need is right there,
You got to pay rent, council tax and all bills but youre only paying utility bills and standing charges for one premises.

Working from an office:
Gotta pay home and office rent. Two sets of utility bills and standing charges. travel costs to work. but appears more professional and you have more space for business stuff. but you gotta pay council tax at home and then Rates for the office.

Finally what about combined office/flats. You know where you get an office downstairs and a flat upstairs. But in this case would you have to pay council tax, rates or both?

[figurewizard]

If you go down the route of renting an office you should look for a clause in the lease that makes you liable for any successor tenant. What this means is that if you take up the lease and at some future point give it up, any new tenant (which you probably would be required to find yourself) who subsequently defaults on the rent would become your responsibility. The landlord would then be able to sue you if necessary to recover the unpaid rent.

With the commercial property market on its knees and likely to stay so for at least the next three years or so, it should be relatively easy to have such a clause removed before you sign up.

Something else that you should try for is a 'break clause', which would give you an automatic right to give notice and walk away from the lease within a specified period; say one year.

Joe.

[katefat]

I would say that it really depends on what kind of business you are setting up, do clients/customers need to visit your work premises?
In terms of cost setting up from home is often popular for new start ups and especially with the economy as it is - cost cutting etc.
I would recommend this route to be honest, until you are more established.
The Forum of Private Business offers decent advice to small businesses and this includes start ups. I became a member when I began my business two years ago - it has been a good source of information regarding formalities and legal issues. Worth a look I think

[katefat]

other issues such as internet (broadband) access and distraction free space are also going to be factors i think - good luck

[am:pm graphics]

As has been said it really does depend on your line of work.

Will you be having clients round or can you go and visit clients or be more internet/phone based?

Home is a good starting point and if you have a space in your home that is professional for meeting clients, even better (depending on your business). Make sure you get insurance though if you are having clients round.

Pauline

[katman]

u work from home, get a virtual office which will then allow you to meet clients in a more professional environment.

My company has recently undergone a change wheree we gave up our physical office to a virtual office.

Since most of us worked form home anyway the change was logical and we are saving a bundle from over $3000 a month for rent alone(not counting utilities) to just around $100 a month.

[katman]

no. I work form home but I use a virtual office company where I pay them $100 a month.

For that I get a physical address for my office as well as a secretary that answers the phones and a meeting room whenever I need to use it.

[rafhelp]

$100 a month, thats sound reasonable. That would be good, makes you look more professional and saving on costs. Yes I would like to do that, although i do not have many clients come round, at the moment i go to clients, this can have drawbacks petrol, time etc...

so yes maybe if i could use a room as a temporary office just for meeting clients that would be good

[rossperr]

You can rent out a room to your company and claim necessary expenses but dont do more than that such as home improvements paid for by the company as this can be liable to capital gains should you sell your house