The challenges of setting up in business

I have been technically self employed for 6 years now. I receive donations for the work that I do in Christian Ministry, therefore I declare to the Tax man what income I receive from this.

Earlier in the year I started a hobby of Jewellery making, I soon realised there is only so much you can make for yourself, so what are you going to do with the rest? Give it away? Yes but again there is only so many friends I have.

So the next obvious answer is sell it. Sounds easy isn't it? Well yes - but you are setting up a new entity. The administration is more than you may think.


I am obviously thought online selling is an option ebay. Yes but there is so many people doing that, it tends to sell for buttons , if at all. Your own shop. You can try online carts from google and attaching them onto you blog.

Hosts such as Groovycart also make setting up a free shop a simple process but there are limits to the free site and the silver and gold options cost as much as a own website a year. My shop in groovycart is Ochiltrinkets. (If paying by cheque there groovycart supplies customers with my de

So then we come to the own domain. What issues have I found with that. Under the UK registry system Nominet, you must if trading on your site appear on a WHOIS database, this means anyone can see your address. Some hosts even show phone numbers and email. Now you are a business so that may not seem a problem. However I work from home and my home telephone is ex directory.  So do I want that displayed on my site? Many customers want to see proper contact details so they can see who they are dealing with. (Which is perfectly understandable.)

I then thought about virtual office ideas. Again some people are suspect of such systems. To the sole trader however, a low budget solution would be ideal. So what do you think? Would you know a virtual office address? Would you naturally  be suspect? Or would you try a new business if you liked there stock?

Any comments welcome 

So I then thought about a phone system or alternative mail address