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Finally starting up the business
Got a meeting in the next few days with the Small business start up people at Gateway
Still feel kinda lost going self employed 😕 but best to start the now so I can start making some money.
I started college last night doing FlashMX and got illustrator tonight so I should be a busy boy soon
and how hard is it to come up with a comany name lol :lol1:
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37 Replies
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Becoming self employed is the bestest thing I ever did. You’ll love it.
All you’ve got to do now is find enough custom to keep you busy for the next 30 years………..
Business name? Please don’t use the word “graphics” spelled wrong, like “Graphix” etc. I hate that. 😕 What possibles have you got already?
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How about Wilsign as a company name, just a play on Wilson 😳
No ok………….right I’m off then.
Nigel
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Wilsign is good, Will Sign, John Will Sign or John Will Sign and WillSon. lol
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quote Andy Gorman:Becoming self employed is the bestest thing I ever did. You’ll love it.Yeah I hope so mate….. can’t really work for another company cos of commitments with the kids 🙁
quote Andy Gorman:All you’ve got to do now is find enough custom to keep you busy for the next 30 years………..Yeah I kinda have that already 😉 I’ve got enough mates with there own companys
quote Andy Gorman:Business name? Please don’t use the word “graphics” spelled wrong, like “Graphix” etc. I hate that. 😕 What possibles have you got already?I’m wanting to have a business name that matches an available url if that is possible (hot)
I have a url the now of http://www.jwilson.info that I use for personal info and uploading family photos.
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There is a lot of help about for new buisness start ups grants/loans etc, iv been to see Buisness Link who are going to put in 50p for every £1 i put in upto a max of £5000 from them, which is nice of them 😛 only catch is you must employ some1 full time withinin 6 months of getting the grant.
Even tho iv been self employed for years with another buisness this grant is still available 😛 .
I take it you will be going VAT registered BEFORE you start buying equipment/stock tools fitting your premises out!
This link explanes VAT etc 😉
http://www.winters.co.uk/factsheets/startingup.html -
Starting on your own is the best thing I ever did, as for a company name………ask your kids! Mine came up with mine, they were surprised I hadnt thought of it myself cos its only my initials JEM. :lol1:
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quote Alan Wharton:There is a lot of help about for new buisness start ups grants/loans etc, iv been to see Buisness Link who are going to put in 50p for every £1 i put in upto a max of £5000 from them, which is nice of them 😛 only catch is you must employ some1 full time withinin 6 months of getting the grant.
Even tho iv been self employed for years with another buisness this grant is still available 😛 .
I take it you will be going VAT registered BEFORE you start buying equipment/stock tools fitting your premises out!
This link explanes VAT etc 😉
http://www.winters.co.uk/factsheets/startingup.htmlDamm I just bought all my equipment that I need 🙁
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John you can claim VAT back up to 3 years before you actually register for VAT, I am sure. Just considering it myself.
Dave
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Don’t worryJjohn. I.ve recently gone VAT registered and I was able to claim the VAT I’d already paid back.
I don’t know 100% how it works but I think you can claim on any assets (plotters, computers etc.) bought in the last 3 years.
I don’t know if there are any ‘catches’ with this but I claimed back a small fortune – well worth doing.
Its worth bearing it in mind if thats the way you think your business will go.
Stuart
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Sorry peeps. Just saw Dave had posted at the same time as me!
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John good luck
If I’m correct I think you can claim vat back on purchases up 6 months before you registered. Check with your accountant though.
Hope everything goes well for you, it’s the best thing to be being your own boss, does take allot of discipline, and you will have to work odd hours at times but it’s all worth while.
If I could give you just two simple tips, never spend money you don’t need to and allways be honest with your customers, by this I meen never give them unrealistic delivery dates, the sign trade is littered with people who don’t deliver, don’t be one of them and you will earn a good reputation.
Andy
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good luck dude, i’m waiting for my workshop to be finished before i go properly official, i’ve been keeping books since end of april but didnt wanna go official til i moved into the lasses place,
like you i have bought all my equipment, i’m still technically out of work following redundancy in march, so it’s a real pain having to declare everything i earn every two weeks, two months back i was told i could get a grant for tools etc if it meant it got me off the job seekers pittance still have to claim, two weeks ago they told me there was nowt left in the pot,
i’m too old for any help from the princes trust and apparently the ‘new deal’ is only for long term unemployed… grrrrrr !
i hate having to go and sign on, but i dont yet earn enough to pay my rent on the flat, i don’t like to rely on it, but now i’ve got some good jobs lined up, and the flat is being given up shortly, so i’ll soon be able to tell em to stick it and be properly self employed at last, can’t wait !!
my only prob currently is cashflow, so a start up grant will put me in a position where i dont have to keep borrowing money on the lasses credit card to buy materials up front ! i don’t want much, but a grant would help me get basic things like step ladders etc, and some sensible consumable stock and stationary etc that i cant currently afford,
edit: rant deleted !!!
Re: company name, Drag-On ‘signs’ was a recent thing, many many moons ago i was going to move to wales, i planned on, and made a business proposal for the princes trust (tho i never followed it thru) for a car accessories shop, specialising in performance parts mainly, hence the name Drag-On speed and spares., dragon cos of the welsh dragon, and Drag-On cos i was into drag racing, i just happened to come across it after 12 years and decided that that was gonna be my new company name !!
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Just don’t call yourself ‘The Sign Shop’ 😀 or, as mentioned above, mispell the word graphics (graphix, grafix etc.)
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Jobes was a name to think about or willsign and son 😉
and it will be the best move you have made some days you think what in his name am I doing other days nice 😛
We have had two businesses the first one ran into the sign businesses never regreted just love it
Lynn -
John you wont look back … its the best thing we ever did …. hard work and sometimes a bit worrying but still the best thing …. the flexibility and sense of achievement is fab!!
Company name …. :lol1: yeh that can be a bit of a mind shaker!!!
😀
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Think i remember you saying you were from the south of the water in the city “Southside Signs” has a we ring to it.
All the best with the new venture.
Cheers
John
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The Sign Shop is a common name, just google how many times it will come up, I wouldn’t use it 😉
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quote John Cornfield:Think i remember you saying you were from the south of the water in the city “Southside Signs” has a we ring to it.
Nice. I really like that for a sign company. When I started my own business I went through hoops trying to come up with catchy names. I started with my influences first, such as the type of films I like. This gave me the basic concept of my company identity/image which would later be fleshed out and eventually rounded off and ultimately discarded. Colour is important too. Then I began trying to build the name of the business around the identity that I had created for it. It’s not so easy with signs though, as it all seems to have been done to death, but Southside Signs is very cool sounding. Try to visualise the logo as you flesh out your concept. This too is important because you will need stationery printed and so forth and nobody wants to do business with a firm with an ugly logo! I also ran my designs past my friends, family and business colleagues. I asked them to rate each of about a half dozen designs and to mark them in the order of preference. It all becomes a matter of natural selection after that. Sounds easy but it was a long process. I once knew a bloke who was a machine service repair man and he called his firm Entertainment Limited for a laugh. It was funny how he went broke so fast because nobody took him seriously! True. Good luck with the business. My own motto on self employment is that at least nobody can make you redundant! It’s just a state of mind. It cannot get any worse than your first day on the job because you can only go upwards from there.
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Well southside signs is already gettin used by some cowboys round the corner from me 🙁
I went with “Wilson DeSigns” and registered the url there 😀
Just a quick logo design 😀 -
cool John, but now you have decided to call your company (the above message), it now breaches the board rules on advertising! 😎
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I would stick with a name that says “Signs” such as “Wilson Signs”. Wilson Designs is too vague – you could be an interior designer or (worse still) a Graphic designer 😕 .
Say what you do is my opinion 😀
Tonight I was followed home by the driver of a van – simply because he was behind me on the road and saw my van which told him I was a signmaker (he wanted a quote from me).
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nice idea john, but do you need the swirly things? 😕 just that the whole concept of them has been done…i must pass umpteen vans with a swilry logo everyday….most folk now would just pass them by 😀 sorry to sound so blunt but you want your ‘new image’ to be more attractive than designs done before 😀 have you thought about changing the ‘S’ in desings to a ‘z’ 😀
nik
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Niks got a thing about swooshies, I thought your logo looked more like swallows on the wing, But that’s a bit subjective.
simple complex or meaningless, a name is only as good as the company/service behind it. Just look at some of the big corporates….
peter -
lol it was just a quick 2 second logo I wont stick with the swirls
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quote Phill:I would stick with a name that says “Signs” such as “Wilson Signs”. Wilson Designs is too vague – you could be an interior designer or (worse still) a Graphic designer 😕 .
Say what you do is my opinion 😀
Tonight I was followed home by the driver of a van – simply because he was behind me on the road and saw my van which told him I was a signmaker (he wanted a quote from me).
I googled Wilson signs and found a good few already so decided against that 🙁
I would have liked that though
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willsign.com is available, be quick though,
Peter -
quick befor some other entreprenerial (yes a mis-spell ?!) sign maker buys and selsl it too you !!! i got your pm btw, but have no way to reply, info on how to contact you will be cool !
i’m another step closer now, using my dads astra at the mo and it just hauled all my vinyl to the workshop, i swear the astra was creaking under the weight !
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Before you decide on a name, consider your local Yellow Pages.
Punctuation is listed first followed by numbers then letters.
So think .007 licensed to sign
This would get you to the front of the listings.
The example given is just to show an idea for listing but crap as a name!
Dave
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lol dave, i think thats quite a catchy name !
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Yellow pages are only putting punctuation first for the next year. after that they are going to be starting on A then numbers then punctuation.
I wonder how many ‘AAA Plumbers’ will suddenly appear.
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Think I will change my name to
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAArdvark Signs 😀 -
The Yellow pages actually asked me if I wanted to pay more to have my advert on the right hand page, right hand column (apparently that’s where most people look first). I told them to sod off. Lo and behold, when the book came out there it was: right hand page, right hand column. I’m glad I didn’t pay the extra.
The YP rep wants to come and see me next week. I enjoy their visits each year. I like to make them work hard for my money. 😀
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Anbody tried the Thompson Local?
Tried it for two years and found it a total waste of time.
Every time they phone up now to ask if I want to advertise, I say no way and they always ask if I myself use the Thompson Local. I always tell them that when it arrives, I drill a hole in one corner and hang it up in the toilet and that is the best use I have for it. That seems to stop their sales pitch! 😀 -
LoL Dave thats a classic !
I have a mate who is a sales rep for Thompson, he said he could get me a great deal etc etc. . so I went with it. . paid my money and haven’t had a single call !
As for the Yellow pages. . I was told by the Rep that from next year the listings under a sub heading such as “Sign Makers” will be random / pay for position. The Idea being to make a fairer system and stop stupid company names.
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I have been told by someone from Yellow Pages the same thing re trying to stop ……………..Aardvark Trading Etc………..I can’t quite see how they can garantee positions though & charge premiums can’t see that working as they always use to have the get out clause in there terms of there not being any garanteed position.
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Hi…
This tread is a few years old, but I found it interesting..
Does anyone know if there are any Grants Available for training ??
I’ve looked at Roland’s Print Course, but it’s £275 plus Vat for 1 day.
Then there’s illustrator @ £250 for each level….I know it’s an investment & need the knowledge to be able to compete , but as a very small 2 man new business, It’s going to get a bit pricey…
Hope someone know of any funding available in the North West…
Cheers
Dave -
Doubt you will find what you are looking for as training always seems to be geared at certain industries & any courses are already in place.
Also varies greatly from area to area so your best bet would be to get in touch with someone like the local council as they should have info on anything available. FSB would be worth a call as well. My local branch seem to know about anything that is going on but sure this will vary from area to area as well. We have something called the small Business Gateway up here don’t know if you have something similar down there. They won’t do the sort of courses you are looking for I doubt but will know if anything is available, they do courses on things like book keeping which may help you but even if it doesn’t you will meet other new business people so worth taking some cards with you if you go.It’s probably easier to get on training courses if your not working so may be something you should have looked at before you started trading unfortunately.
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