This blog has never really been updated as often as I would have liked it to have been. I am determined to put that right going forward! After talking about it for years I have finally left the safety of full-time employment and have set up my own business: SPT Development Ltd. This is part of the reason why I am more determined than ever to start blogging more regularly. From the limited amount of blogging I have done up untill now I have already discovered that it is a fantastic way of marketing yourself. I have also been inspired by Scott Hanselman's recent series on start-up's and as well as blogging about technical subjects, I also thought it would be good to document the experiences I have as a start-up. I make no promises but I have set myself a target of blogging about something every week and I will probably try to blog about my start-up experiences once a month.

I am currently contracting but the plan is not to still be contracting in 10 years time. Ideally I would like to be retired by then , but failing that I would like to have grown SPT Development Ltd into something more than just a one man show. I have a number of product ideas that I am planning on working on and would like the contracting work to turn into a consultancy at some point down the road. Finally, I keep saying to myself things like "I will have to learn from that experience..." and "In the future I will..." then before I know it I have forgotten what those lesson's were, so to remind myself and help others I hope to document those things here as well - where they are things I can talk openly about anyway 

First Diary Entry

I have been contracting now for two months and so far I am happy that I have made the right decision. Fortunately, I stayed on very good terms with my two previous employers and am currently contracting part-time for my previous employer and full-time for the employer before that. The main lesson I have learnt so far is not to burn any bridges  Next week I start a new three month contract which came through another previous aquaintance. I am learning that as a contractor and presumably as an entrepreneur in general, it is important to tell as many people as possible what you are doing as you never know where that next opportunity may come from.

Although it is early days and I am enjoying contracting I am still attempting to put things in place to grow my business. As already mentioned, I have a number of product ideas, but they are fairly fuzzy still and I really need to spend the time making those ideas more concrete and choosing one that I can really get my teeth into. Some of my ideas could make really good open source projects and if I go with one of them, I will definitely be talking about them more on here. The one problem I have in this area is that I have a young family that I won't neglect so finding the time to work on products outside of normal business hours when I'm contracting, is proving difficult. I would like to earn enough money contracting to be able to take some time off and work on my products, but even if this does happen I think I really need to have made a start on them outside of normal office hours. I'm not adverse to working long hours but there are more important things in life than making money.

Finally, I have also done some quotes for some project work. So far this has not exactly been successful! The first one I did although the prospective client was initially positive, the lead went cold and despite chasing I haven't heard anything since. The second one was effectively freelance work for an ex-colleague who has set up his own successful consultancy. Unfortunately my quote was more than twice what they were expecting to pay. Maybe I could shaved some time off my estimates and I added contingency on, but since they insisted on a fixed price this seems only sensible to me - I have seen the opposite in action. Ultimately, I think their time-estimates were unrealistic and I would be interested to learn what happened on that project. Although it was dissapointing not to win the quote I am happy that I didn't under sell myself and that I fully expect that if someone undertakes the work with a quote closer to what they were hoping for, they will either be quoting based on a rate lower than I would be prepared to work for or they will be working very long hours! I was told I would be kept in mind for future projects, so fingers crossed I will be.

Hope This Helps

One thing I have found starting out in contracting is that other contractors play their cards pretty close to their chests. It is sometimes difficult to know where to start with contracting and certainly how to go about setting up your own business. Here's a few things that I can think of that I have done or needed to do to get started in contracting.

• Decide on the type of business you wish to set up - Ltd company (in the UK), sole trader etc. I took no advice and went with a Ltd company. As I understood it and I have since had this confirmed by an accountant, this is in many ways the most tax efficient way of running a company. I believe accountants do however charge more for doing your annual returns etc however.
• Come up with a company name. This is easier said than done!
• Check that the domain for your company exists. Embarrasingly I didn't do this before I registered my first company with companies house. When I did check I found that it was in use and somebody was already (presumably illegally) trading with the company name I had just registered. I was therefore forced to wind that company up and register a new one - enter SPT Development Ltd.
• Register the company with companies house (in the UK).
• Buy the domain. I am the proud owner of www.spt-development.com - I am yet to set up a site however. I have had negative comments about the '-' in the domain. Ultimately I'm happy with it though as in my opinion sptdevelopment looks a mess!
• Decide on a rate. This was something else I found a little difficult not least because other contractors (me included) don't want to tell you what they are charging. In the end I found a few national averages and looked at postings on job websites and went from there. Nobody has tried to haggle with me on my price so far, so that may suggest I'm selling myself short, but I'm earning enough to feed and clothe myself and my family, so I'm fairly happy with that 
• Get a contract. Generally speaking you won't be able to get a contract unless you can tell prospective clients that you are available straight away. I was lucky and found one before I had finished in my full-time position. I've been lucky with my second one as well, that was sorted a couple of weeks before the end of my first contract. Ultimately, what I think I have done well is to tell anyone who will listen that I am contracting. Hopefully, my luck will continue!
• At this point you may need to give your clients a contract to sign. So far I haven't needed to do that as the clients have provided the contract. If I do need to do that in the future I will probably just use one of the ones I have been asked to sign.
• Get an accountant. Somebody once told me that the best way to find a solicitor is to go on recommendations. Rightly or wrongly I put accountants in the same bracket - hopefully that doesn't offend accountants or solicitors  I spoke to a few friends who gave me some recommendations and I went with one of those recomendations. In the UK at least, it is only chartered accountants who can submit your annual return - certainly for a limited company anyway. The hope though is that although this service will cost around a £1000 they will save me at least that in tax savings. From the advice I have been given so far even if my business turns over what I was earning in a full-time position, I will be better off due to the tax breaks I will get.
• If you believe your turnover will exceed the current VAT threshold then get VAT registered (in the UK) as soon as possible. Although you aren't required to do this until you reach that threshold, personally, I think it looks more professional to clients if you charge VAT and ultimately as businesses themselves (in most cases), it isn't really costing them anything extra. It also allows you to claim back the VAT on that new laptop you bought . The easiest way to do this is online.
• One of the least obvious things that you will need to do and your accountant can do this for you is register for PAYE (in the UK). To be able to do this however, you need to register as an employer - even if you are the only employee, as a director you are an employee and your business is the employer. The easiest way to do this is online as well.

I am trying to be helpful with this list so if anything is inaccurate, I apologise but accept no responsibility for the consequences. If you see anything that is inaccurate or can think of anything that is missing however, then please let me know and I will add or change it.