r/smallbusinessuk

Hi all,

I had wanted to open a tutoring business for GCSE Maths as a side hustle from my normal corporate job. I had initially thought tutoring would be a good business model I can run by hiring tutors paying them per session and keeping the profit.

However, just from a bit of research there seems to be an overwhelming amout of legal hurdles to get through first if you are not personally the person tutoring e.g. drafting agreements with the parents and tutors, ensuring that the tutors are not acting as employees to ensure I do not have to deal with their NI contritbutions, holiday, sick leave etc, insurance, drafting a KID document, deciding whether to be a sole trader or a limited company registered with CH, if a sole trader having a business address to enter into agreements, DBS checks and two references provided by the tutor, GDPR policies for safegaurding, ID verification.

Genuinely, for someone who wanted to try a tutoring business and does not want to tutor themselves, how does one go about this? Are there templates I can use? Do i need to consult a solicitor. When do I need to do all of these steps, before the first tutoring session or can it be later down the line? Whats the minimum I have to do to begin?

Apologies if the question is all over the place, currently just a brain dump after doing a bit of research.

Hey, I was a director of a ltd company along with my business partner - we took a bbl for £16k. It was used some for wages but mostly setting up business such as tools, worjshop and day to day spending etc.

I resigned in 2023, as the stress was too much for me so I went to work elsewhere. At this time outstanding balance was approx £10k.
but stupidly I agreed to sign a PAYG agreement in 2024 to help out the other director with making repayment easier for them.
At the time of me resigning we were having trouble moving all the banking details over to the current director, this went on for months.
In the end they shut the main banking account without warning which meant that a servicing account could not be opened.

I was asked by the director to do the PAYG. Being naive and a friend I agreed as I wanted to help them succeed and see the business grow. They kept trading and all seemed well

I now know they haven’t repaid anything for a while.. I don’t know how long. But it’s not what I assumed was going to happen at the time.

All assets were left with the current director.

Basically how fucked am I?

Hi, I’m looking at starting my own business and at the stage of finding a place to home this business, I’m looking at how much rent is and seeing numbers between 600pcm and 900pcm absolutely terrifies me, when starting up would you recommend paying multiple months in advance or going month by month, I personally love my idea and think I can make it work but I’m so daunted by keeping up with the businesses outgoings that it will kill the dream, if anyone can give me advice I would be so grateful.

We are a partnership running small cafe. We have quick books and dext, still paying £300 a month plus extra for tax return. We have very basic outgoings. We emailed our accountant a simple enquiry a couple of weeks back, just had a reply saying sorry for not responding sooner, they were off for whole of June, yet we still got invoiced.

I could really do with some honest advice from people running small construction businesses.

I'm clearly getting something wrong, and I'd rather ask the people who know the industry than keep making the same mistake.

I've been trying to connect with construction companies for a while now via email with virtually no response.

I completely understand you're busy, and most of you are out on site rather than sitting behind a desk, so I'm beginning to think email just isn't how people in construction connect with new businesses.

I don't want to become the person constantly cold-calling or pestering people, because I know nobody likes that.

So my question is genuinely this:

What's the best way to get in touch?

I'm asking because I feel like I'm knocking on a door nobody is opening, and I'd much rather understand how this industry actually works than keep wasting everyone's time.

I'd genuinely appreciate your advice.

So I accidentally registered for VAT despite being under the threshold, and am now facing a £4,000 assessment. Any advice?

I've been dealing with this for 3 months, and I'm really stressed about my VAT situation because it just keeps getting worse.

Last year I registered as a sole trader. I mistakenly registered for VAT even though my turnover was nowhere near the VAT registration threshold. I didn't do enough research myself, which was a huge mistake on my part. I had thought that VAT was an essential step in becoming a freelance sole trader.

For context, I work in Film & TV as an AD and Runner, also as a fashion and commercial model and part-time as a camera technician, all on a freelance basis. I only realised that I had signed up for VAT when I received the letter about my overdue VAT returns, stating that I owe around £900. I never charged VAT to any clients because I didn't realise I was supposed to.

Upon receiving the letter, I immediately called HMRC to see if they are willing to help me fix my issue and withdraw those returns but they only told me to deregister. So I hired a chartered accountant to help me sort this out, we drafted a letter to HMRC to request a cancellation and deregistration of VAT; for HMRC to withdraw my overdue VAT returns and remove any outstanding penalties fees.

After nearly two months of waiting, HMRC replied to my letter, but did not answer my request, only referring me on how to cancel my registration and dodged the request for the VAT returns and penalty fines. At the same time, HMRC had sent me numerous letters reminding me of the outstanding payments and also the moving the matter to BPO Debt Collection, which had mailed me and called me, I said to them that I'm disputing this claim.

So I decided to talk to my accountant and submit the figures for my VAT returns in order to deregister. However, my accountant came back to me with a figure of around £4,000, for basically a whole year of VAT returns, since July 2025.

I froze and realised that everything I had saved up for the past few years would potentially all be used towards fixing this one mistake. And to be frank, I simply cannot afford this.

In a moment of panic, I requested to cancel my registration through my online Tax portal. I was under the impression that I cannot cancel my registration without submitting the returns, yet it was approved and my VAT registration was cancelled today.

This however, did not wipe away the debt I owe and the potential £4,000 that I have to pay, I guess it just stopped it from progressing it any further.

I called HMRC again to beg them to see if there's any way I can mitigate or reduce the amount I have to pay, but they basically only said, 'Rules are rules, it was not just a wrong press of the button, and you consented to knowing the consequences by registering voluntarily.'

Is there any way I can appeal these VAT returns? tbh the penalties aren't that bad what is really killing me are those overdue VAT returns, if I go ahead and charge my clients the VAT only invoice, not only is it very likely to be ignored, it would also damage my relationships with them, and that would virtually be career suicide.

Any advice or has anyone gone through something similar?

I want to start a tutoring business in the UK. I’m interested in online tutoring and hold multiple postgraduate degrees and have extensive teaching experience. I would want it to be part-time around my main occupation.

How soon can I set up a tutoring business and make an income? If you have a tutoring business, how much do you earn?

Hi folks,

I've gone down a bit of a rabbit hole trying to decipher how to suitably expense running costs of energy intensive equipment at home as part of my business.

Accountant has mentioned the £6/week work from home allowance as easiest option, and also given me a sheet I can calculate 'true costs' but it all relies on me actually 'working' to claim anything.

But what happens if for my 2 hours of work I did that day, I have equipment that is sucking up energy and running 24 hours a day? Can I simply say equipment 1, uses 200 watts, runs 24 hours, here's my electricity unit cost rate, and basically just 'charge' this into the company?

Thanks!

Three questions:

1. Anyone gone from juggling several clients to one steady inside-IR35 gig - worth it long term, or did you end up trapped, underpaid and wishing you'd kept the pipeline warm?
2. Travel days: is the norm that the paid day starts when you leave, or do you have to be onsite by 9 on your own time? "Day rate plus travel paid" means very different things depending on the answer.
3. Is £230/day defensible for near-full-time inside-IR35 IT support/project work when my ad-hoc average across clients has been ~£400/day?

Context: Ltd founded Jan 2026, ~£22k billed since across three clients, ~£400/day when booked. Local B2B firm now offering ~5 days/week at £230/day, paid on quiet days too, work ranging basic support to proper projects. Would run it honestly inside IR35 -remaining client work would be occasional weekends only. Long-term intent, decent people, local. Downsides: rate is way under my normal quote, 3 days in office plus London site visits to sort out other contractors, and everything I've done so far has been fully remote, which I prefer.

So my partner and I run a local chip shop in a small village in Northern Ireland.

We've had the idea of expanding into the building next door to offer a sit in area, and look into the possibility of scooped ice cream for the summer, and tea/coffee, hot chocolate etc for the winter. That idea was shut down as there are currently tenants renting the building from our landlord.

We then looked into the idea of selling ice cream from our current shop floor, but this becomes expensive as it means we then need to get another sink installed beside where our freezer would be, to stay in line with health and safety hygiene regulations.

At the minute, we are planning to get 2 or 3 small sit in tables so we can offer a place to eat, instead of takeaway only, as our shop is close to a worldwide tourist point of interest.

Is there any other ideas out there that could potentially take us to that next level?

I’ve done my research on how to carpet clean and what equipment I’d need, but would like advice on how to advertise and scale a carpet cleaning business especially. I’ve never owned or run a business before this, so this is all new to me. I’ve given myself a budget of £2k to begin not including a car.

Where would I begin to advertise my business? Is Facebook or google ads better? How would I go about designing websites and marketing/brand materials? Should I use AI to design it to start off?

Is it hard to scale a carpet cleaning business as well? Long term goal would be have multiple vans and employees doing multiple jobs a day, but am aware it’s only aspirational.

Any advice is appreciated!

A few years ago I was doing my own studio work in branding, brand identity, and brand strategy.

I loved it, but I put it on pause to go do a postgrad in a very academic field, very different world from client work.

Now I’m done, and I keep coming back to the same realisation: branding is where my heart actually is. I want to restart my studio and go all in.

The problem is the landscape has shifted since I stepped away, and honestly, so have I. I’ve lost touch with most of the designers I used to know. It feels like starting over, not picking back up.

For anyone who’s relaunched a creative business after time away - how did you rebuild your network? How did you find your first few clients again? Did you niche down (because I worked with a very particular niche of brands like beauty, wellness, interior design etc), or cast a wide net to see what stuck?

Would love to hear how others approached this, especially if you also took a non-linear path back into the field.

Hi all! We've recently gotten a quote for our business to get an AC fit out because it sits at above 30° some days and we have basically no ventilation. It's come up to just over £8k for 2 cassettes (I'll be getting another couple of quotes).

I've been looking at good old gov UK and it seems like we can offset the cost using the Annual Investment Allowance part of a capital allowance claim. However, I'm not sure if this would be upfront (ideal) or over time (less so). Any ideas?

Hi

Business founded Jan 2026.

I had three clients, average £400 a day when worked, 22k made.

IT consulting but I just did all work related to IT what I was offered. I enjoyed it.

Today I got in talks with a business who would provide me 5 days a week, average at £230 a day. But it’s always business. They pay even if day is quite but I would do very basic things up to projects.

Now it would be IR35 as other clients would be done during weekends and very randomly so I wouldn’t need to rely on selling myself or the business but the money seems low.

With my experience I could ask for about 500 a day realistically but not for the job they are offering.

Anyone who had similar approach , did you take the role instead of hunting for sales?

I don’t want to take it just for the fact to cover it, they really looking for long term, seems nice, local to me .

Adding, my jobs were all remote and I prefer that. This involves in office 3 days and also going to London to fix other contractors.

It’s B2B business.

They pay travel and food too at business visits. Unsure about the time it takes to get there though, like I get the day paid but do I have to be in London by 9 or I leave the office at 9. Big difference.

Thoughts?

So confused by this and my Royal Mail account manager is telling me all sorts of nonsense.

Assumed i'd be printing DE4 and MP7 parcels like before, only this time the customer would be charged €3 by the marketplace (amazon, ebay, etc)

But now if i print a DE4 label it no longer says IOSS but PDDP like the USA ones

I shouldn't be pre-paying any duty out of my account as the buyer has paid their fees on ebay/etsy/amazon surely?

Hello everyone, sadly I will be giving my landlord his 3 months notice. I had a partnership with my dad at our family shop, he just passed from a long illness, I can’t carry on on my own can’t afford to hire help so I’ll be closing down.

We bought a van in 2019 and obviously I want to sell it before I close up. My dad claimed the VAT back when he bought it. It was bought with the business money and is registered to our shop, not in either of our names.

How do I go about selling the van? Do i need to buy it from the business or sell it on behalf of the business? Do i need to do any of this or can i just sell the van and pay the vat due? We aren’t a limited company.

I have an appointment with the accountant next week but in the mean time I thought id ask here.

Many thanks.

Hiya, been with Santander Corporate for 15/20 years with preferential rates for cash deposits. Had an email this week informing me that come September deposits at the post office will be at £1.00 per £100. Have approached my bank business advisor and there is no room for negotiation so far. Regularly deposit £10k a week and this is going to hurt. Have had a quick look at different options out there but most seem to be geared to smaller deposits or even worse cash handling fees. Anything I’m missing out there? Thanks.