Month: November 2022

Introduction

From the very outset you need to ensure that fiscal responsibility is at the top of your list. Sure setting up a new business can be exciting. Being your own boss, investing in something you love, can be an absolute whirlwind. However, ultimately it is a business and you do need to follow everything through.

If you can then make use of an accountant/accountancy. They are worth their weight in gold. If, like me, finance was not your chosen profession, then you are likely to want all the help you can get.

From the beginning

From the very beginning you need to keep track of all your expenditure. Keep all your receipts, and ensure you know what everything is for. In the beginning, at least, try to remain focused on what you have to have for the business to succeed, and not what you just want to get as a new business owner. Challenge yourself, and never be afraid to put off that fancy purchase because is is not essential. As your business grows and you have more free money then is the time to enjoy the fruits of your labour!

Over and over

Time and again I find myself looking at things that may be “handy” or “useful” but really are not actually necessary. As a new business owner you need to make sure that any available funds are channelled into the key areas of your business to increase your chances of success. Think about whether you can make do without that tool, implement, or thingymahjig. Ultimately you want your business to bring in a return on your investment, to put food on the table, or meet whatever goals you have in mind. That end goal is what you need to remind yourself of when you get distracted by non essentials.

Conclusion

Plan out as much as you can before hand, with respect to your finances. Don’t over reach and don’t get anything you don’t need. You want to be in it for the long haul and not burnout bright. Ultimately try and enjoy the experience as much as you can!

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Setting up a new business can be fun, challenging, tiring, and ultimately rewarding. One of the things I never realised was that I was going to end up with data everywhere!

So when setting up an online business there are a lot of things you are going to need to work out, and to track.

Postage

One of the first things I started to put together was all my information around postage. How much various vendors charged. What the cost would be to me. What the VAT I would have to charge was! However I then needed to drill down further to get a clearer picture. I also had to track how much an individual box would cost, packing materials, tape, paper, printing, and those funky little clear sticky bags that can hold your documents on the outside of the box.

Eventually this then moves on to when you actually post out purchases to customers. I needed to keep track of how much I charged, and how much of that was VAT etc.

Stock I want

I also discovered I needed to keep track of the various items of stock that I have put in orders for, but am waiting for the supplier to provide. With the business I am in (model kits with a specific focus on the Bandai Gunpla models) the manufacture and distribution is still massively outpaced by demand. Keeping track of this lets me update people on what may be coming in, and what I will be able to provide in the future.

Stock I have coming in

This covers stock I have coming from the distributor, and also stock I already have. I need to account for all those items, what I paid for them, and what I will be charging for them. I also need to know the width, height, length, and weight of all the items so that I can feed in to the postage. This stock information is kept in both a google sheets page, and in the main store.

Sale Information

I also need to keep track of all the sale information. Interestingly as woocommerce take their fee prior to the releasing of funds to the business account. I have to adjust the bookkeeping value for VAT to reflect the actual VAT taken at the point of sale.

Conclusion

Ultimately there will, undoubtedly be more data / information than you were likely expecting. But it is all part of the learning curve. I would still do it all again, maybe with a little more pre-planning, and with a lot more knowledge. However, it is still something well worth the time and investment.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. If you haven’t already done so please like and follow us on our social media platforms and checkout our website!

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Website: https://modelkitsltd.co.uk

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Introduction

Starting a new business there are many challenges you face. First you have to work out all the details; like, do you need to register for VAT, what sort of company do you want to setup. Then you have your initial setup and configuration. Businesses need to look at setting up a website, how they structure it that site, a domain and hosting, as well as security and other issues.

Once all those are out of the way there are relationships that need to be built with suppliers. Remember they are people too and need to be treated with respect and integrity.

What caught me out?

However, what has really got me, once I got started, were the small things. Sure I had covered off all the big items. Stock, VAT, the Website etc.. However, it was the smaller items that caused a lot of the initial challenges.

For example sorting out the relevant postage. You need to charge VAT on postage as it is a service that you are providing to your customer. You also need to bear in mind the various weight limits or bands, as the heavier an item becomes the more costly it is to post. For example with Yodel 0 – 1kg has one charge, whereas 1kg – 2kg has a slightly different cost. You need to ensure you account for all this when configuring your site, and working out how much to charge.

The second item that caught me off guard was storage. It should have been a given, but I underestimated the total amount of storage I would need. I have ended up having to secure external storage close to where I am. However, it was another initial/startup cost that I hadn’t factored for.

If you get the opportunity to work with a business coach I highly recommend it.

Christmas roundup is a summary of previous posts. You have decided to purchase a kit for a loved one for Christmas. This is, I would say, is a rather wonderful gift. It will transport them back to younger and simpler times. They can sit, and build, and at the end of it have a fantastic model.

However, you do want to make sure that the building process is as smooth as possible. Barring some Entry Grade (EG) models there are some bits and pieces you will want to pickup. Maybe even use them as stocking fillers!

In summary for our Christmas roundup they are likely to need nippers (to cut the pieces from the runners). Sanding sticks to smooth them down, and potentially tweezers to position stickers or transfers if they have any.

Nippers and sanding sticks will be getting added to our store in the near future. However while waiting for that, why not have a browse and select the perfect model for a loved one! You can find the shop here.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. If you haven’t already done so please like and follow us on our social media platforms and checkout our website!

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Website: https://modelkitsltd.co.uk/

#gundam #gundammodel #model #kit #gunpla

Welcome back to this mini Christmas Kit series of posts! Yesterday we were discussing how Christmas is getting closer and buying a model for someone who hasn’t built one before. Essentially you will want to pickup a couple of essentials to make the build process more enjoyable! Yesterdays item was nippers. Today we are going to say the next item on the list should be tweezers.

Now you may have some around the house, and that would be fine. However I tend to find that hobbyists like to keep their hobby tools separate from their normal everyday items.

So what do you need the tweezers for? Well many of the kits come with stickers, or transfers. You can often find this out by googling the specific kit for more information. Trying to apply these stickers or transfers can be a nightmare, especially given the small nature of many of them. It is definitely easier to use a pair of tweezers to align the stickers or transfers and then smooth them into place.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. If you haven’t already done so please like and follow us on our social media platforms and checkout our website!

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#gundam #gundammodel #model #kit #gunpla