Contracting and Marriage! (Don't run!)

[Old Greg]

He is a supportive Husband - he's gonna have to be when I'm sitting at home with no job!
It's not the contracting he has a problem with, it's my setting up a Ltd company to do it through.

Anyway, I just wanted to share my good news with you all today! I resigned, no job to go to but in my resignation letter I offered to extend my notice period to help them out whilst they find a replacement for me. They have not only taken me up on this offer, but have said that they will keep me on until I want to leave, on a rolling one week notice (after my 4 weeks is up)! It's going to take at least 6-8 weeks to replace me and so even if I don't get a contract in that time, I can still work there until I do! I assume there will be a point where they can't justify paying me and my replacement but they said that if I wanted to stay, they'd even keep me on to handover properly to the new guy! So it seems being nice to your employer, pays in the end! I couldn't have asked for more really.
And at least I know I'm going to get a cracking reference from them - they talked about whether they could persuade me to stay, but realised that it's a lifestyle choice I've made and an increase in my salary there wasn't going to really do it, so they've wished me well and all's good with the World!

Well done and welcome on board - I did the same in February.

As far as running the Ltd is concerned, I'm really disorganised normally but I've managed to get myself a 'business head' - just spend 20 minutes per week sorting everything out. And get a good accountant. Good luck!

[ruth11]

Thanks Old Greg - did you go limited right from the start or did you use a brolly for a couple of months to start with? I'm thinking I might use Parasol for a little while whilst I get used to the new life and then sort out my company a bit later, when I'm a bit more savvy to how things work!

I feel a bit different today - it's hit home over night what I've done and although I've been talking about it for ages, I don't think I really understood what I was doing. Don't get me wrong, I'm not regretting it - in fact completely the opposite! I find myself thinking about what technologies I should learn now to make myself more marketable and that's an exciting thing for me!

[Zorba]

I've been reading with interest up to now and just feel I should chip in on the organisational thing.

I am quite disorganised and so I was quite concerned about the unknown amount of paper shuffling I would have to do as a Ltd, especially since a lot of it is a legal duty and can get you fines if you lose it/don't do it.

I looked at the umbrella option but I finally went Ltd straight away for the following reasons:

1) Returns: umbrellas generally give you back less £££ than a Ltd.

2) I'm disorganised and I like an easy life: if I started with an umbrella, chances are I'd still be with one to avoid the hassle, and would also lose out on (1).

3) The paperwork and learning curve are not that deep at all. As has been mentioned above, 20 mins a week is enough to stay on top of it. To add to that, set up a decent filing system from the start and buy a shredder. When post comes in, shred the garbage immediately and file the business stuff. I made a file for statements, one for other banking, one for invoices, one for receipts, one for insurance, one for contracts, one for expenses, one for VAT and one for Other Tax. At the end of the first year, I put the relevant documents together into another folder marked for that year. People probably have better systems but I needed one that I could cope with. On top of that my accountacts (SJD) are a goldmine of advice - a bit like this forum but with a little less sarcasm.

4) Control: I want to keep the chain between myself and the client (or rather his cheque) as short as possible.

5) Changing payment/business details mid-contract can be awkward, and some contracts can go on for quite some time.

In the end though, I think we'd still be interested to hear what you decide to go for and why. It might inform someone else's future decision too.