Ltd branching out in different industries

[xchaotic]

In these uncertain times I think it is a wise strategy to diversify, so to hedge my bets, I get some of the income from IT consulting, some from rental income some from more exotic financial instruments (hedging against silver short-term etc) and possibly even some IT recruitment.
As far as I can tell, at least in UK there are very different classes of companies and among other things they seem to fall under different rates for Flat Rate VAT, for example.

I wonder, if I really wanted to be doing all these things, should I really have to have 5 different Ltds, seems like a huge overhead? Any other options (I can probably do rental as a private person, maybe do a little of share dealing as well..) but if I had it all under one roof, I could offset losses from a bad property market by doing more consulting or vice versa.

What is the consensus round here, how do you and your friends go about it?

[pmeswani]

In these uncertain times I think it is a wise strategy to diversify, so to hedge my bets, I get some of the income from IT consulting, some from rental income some from more exotic financial instruments (hedging against silver short-term etc) and possibly even some IT recruitment.
As far as I can tell, at least in UK there are very different classes of companies and among other things they seem to fall under different rates for Flat Rate VAT, for example.

I wonder, if I really wanted to be doing all these things, should I really have to have 5 different Ltds, seems like a huge overhead? Any other options (I can probably do rental as a private person, maybe do a little of share dealing as well..) but if I had it all under one roof, I could offset losses from a bad property market by doing more consulting or vice versa.

What is the consensus round here, how do you and your friends go about it?

Once I have completed my Digital Photography Course, as long as I have achieved something, I am hoping to branch out into doing some Photography work through my Ltd company as an occasional thing.

I would be interested in knowing what peoples views are of having multiple business ideas going through one Ltd Co. I'm also concerned about the Flat Rate thing.

[SueEllen]

I would be interested in knowing what peoples views are of having multiple business ideas going through one Ltd Co. I'm also concerned about the Flat Rate thing.

Flat rate is for the main business activity your company has i.e. the one where you earn the most income.

If you are finding that the VAT flat rate is costing you too much then you can come off it.

Doing that would be much cheaper than paying two lots of accountants fees, doing two lots of papers work etc for two limited companies.

One issue you will have with doing something like photography is making sure your various insurances cover you for that activity as dealing with members of the general public is more expensive then doing IT work.