Having more then one website

[stephelen]

Not sure if this is going to make much sense but I will be launching a new website soon and just wanted to ask a few questions as I noticed a number of you have more then one business.
As a sole trader can I have a number of websites but just enter my accounts altogether or would they need to be submitted seperately.
Also regarding another bank account, can I just get customers to write cheques out to my name then put them to my business account I have at the moment or would I need to open a seperate business account for each website I have.
Sorry if these are stupid questions

[Arianna]

As you'll be a soletrader you should still keep separate books for each of the businesses incase you ever want to sell one of them. But when it comes to the tax return I believe you just lump the amounts all together. You will still need to notifiy Inland Revenue that you have a second business.

If the business account is in one business name, you really should have another one in the other businesses name, but if it is a personal account that you also use for your business, you can just put them all together, though for bookkeeping/accountant purposes it's easier to have separate personal and business accounts as it's easier to keep the monies straight.

Your questions aren't stupid. Don't ever be afraid to ask any questions on here - we all try to help each other out as much as we can. :happy72:

Arianna

[sadierhianne]

Hi Helen,

I am just about to build a new website, it's not a business though so not an issue where tax is concerned - when i say not a business it could turn into one but it isn't a shop BUT we do have three businesses that my dh and i run between us - one mine, one his and one that we have which will doesn't make us any revenue now but will in 20 years when we need to retire - still we have to do books seperate tax returns for all three businesses.

Bank accounts are seperate for each business, nothing overflows into the other business - you will have noted my recent :hysterica over messing up on my finances - we don't take money out of one business to help another 'cause it leads to all sorts of problems - so if anyone fancies placing an order to the tune of £500 before Monday you'd get me out of an awful lot of bother:hysterica

It all goes onto seperate discs when we do the books for the tax man and our accountant treats all three as seperate although DH gets the tax bill for our joint business and i am pretty sure that the accountant adds those two amounts together - but up to that point everything is seperate - we are so bad, if DH needs stationary and i need stationary i won't order together, he orders all his own stock and even has his own Royal mail account and i have mine - although he won't order my stationary 'cause he knows he won't get the money for it :hysterica

It's a lot of hard work - good luck with it all though - what will you be selling? Dare i ask that? OMG how will you find time to do it all?

xx

[stephelen]

Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions.
Arianna thats exactly the information I needed,thank you.
I find it really hard asking questions but you are right everyone is so helpful on here and so full of knowledge. I am ever so grateful.

Anne, good luck with your new website, sounds like a great idea.
My new website will be selling baby clothes, nappies, slings etc I started designing the website before christmas but it never seems to look right so it seems to be taking ages20061008
Some of the items I am selling now and will be using some of my current suppliers, was hoping just to split the order but that seems to be not such a good idea.:unsure:
I have another domain which I am hoping to start using probably build some sort of directory not sure yet. I have no idea where I am going to find the time and will probably fall flat on my face but at least I would of tried. Organisation was never my strong point.:D

[Arianna]

You're welcome. I promise you that no question is stupid around here - we are all/or were at the same stage as someone else on here so we're a fountain of knowledge. :-)

If any of that made sense I'm glad - I've had my fingers glued to the laptop today working like mad.

Good luck with your new venture!

Arianna

[sadierhianne]

Hmmm i'm not sure about splitting orders, maybe if you was ultra careful you could split it - i know if we did that we'd mess up 'cause doing admin for three businesses - one that takes very little time a year - is a lot of hard work.

Thing is, you might be able to work it so that you are just classed as one business with two websites - you'd need to check that with Arianna though.

You could just add the new lines of stock to your existing website - i am going to extend to garden stuff which is completely different - was going to be this year but looks maybe unlikely now due to my lack of cash flow ;-) i was going to do cut4cloth and nappies when i launched SN so it might be easier to keep it all together as one business, would save an awful lot of problems.

Good luck with it all - i am sure you won't fall flat on your face.

And my site was another accident - i bought the domain name for a bit of a laugh then decided that i wanted to finish my existing website - can't fit it all on the shop website so am doing another one which will be hopefully fun and will hopefully save me a lot of time in the long run.

LIke you it's going to be a while before it's launched, they take time to get the right look - i couldn't start another business though, it would send me mad. It is being downloaded as we speak though so we will see how it goes.

Anne x

[Sarah]

I kind of have more than one but one is an ebay shop so not much help sorry.

[sadierhianne]

But good point sarah - does ebay count as a business or is it just a secondary means of selling? If so would a second website count as a new business seeing as it is so close to what you are selling anyway - i think i'd be prone to selling the same stock on both sites anyway - could be twice the traffic - a bit like M&S having a shop in every town - no that's McDonalds init?

don't know hwo ti all works though so Arianna would need to advise.

Would think that would be pretty hard work on the stock levels and keeping on top of it all - hmm and finding a space for it all, your stock must take up an awful lot of space.

Anne xx

[stephelen]

Exactly what I was thinking Anne.
I have a shop on ebay but just assumed it was just an alternative place to sell my stock and to pull customers into my main website. I also sell goods on a stall locally but it is all under my main business name.
I hope thats right:crossfing

[sadierhianne]

Phew, you do a lot - well as i look at it now, it's all one business but using different avenues to sell?

It looks like your new business is pretty much the same as your old but you are simply adding new stock lines to both sites? - so the new site is just the same or similar to the old but selling a few more bits and basically designed as a new outlet?

If you sold identical stock on both sites would it not be or could it not be classed as the same business with just an extra outlet - of course you aren't going to call it UTGB and will have a new name - i would imagine it all depends on the trading as. policies.

It is beyond me - Arianna really is the best person to answer - i suppose that you need to be clear from the start what you want this new website to be - i'd maybe see what TS have to say too - thing is - if you have say 30 nappies in stock, that is my taking it for granted that you will continue to stock nappies on both websites - you are wanting to split the 30 nappies between the two sites rather than having to have 30 nappies in stock for one website and the same for the other - this meaning that you have to work really hard to keep both businesses seperate.

I am sure that you can have one business trading as more than one business name but again arianna is the person to answer this

See we have dh trading as....................
me trading as......................
and the other business which doesn't trade as anything but is seperate

all three businesses are very different so no issues but your businesses are very similar almost identical - if this is just a means to generating twice the custom - good thinking batman - i might have been tempted to wait another 12 months though just to give UTGB time to establish 'cause i am sure that UTGB will generate enough work to make you feel happy in the next 12 months without the added stress of a new site - then again my new site which isn't even a commercial site is what i want to do regardless of it being pointed out to me that i am gunna struggle. It's a "i want it, i'm gunna have it" girlie thing.

If i was to have a sister site it would have to be identcal ( with a different name) OR a completely seperate business all together - my brain is swelling up just thinking about it.

oooo good luck.

Anne xx

[littlesheep]

I think if it is part of the same business i.e. I do educational consultancy work under the banner of littlesheep learning as well as my online sales / fairs etc you only need one account / return etc

If for example I set up selling nappies or something totally unrelated I'd need to seperate it

[Arianna]

If you have a business called ABC that sells something and you open up another business that sells similar but is just a different branch - or say one site is for selling to individuals and one site is for selling to businesss - then they can all be kept under the same business - ABC, so it would all go into the same books.

If you sell on your website, in a shop and on e-bay but you're selling the same items and under the same business - they are all considered the same business and all go into the same books.

You'd only class it as a second business if the items you were selling on the new site were not in anyway connected to the original site. For example ABC company sells books, but you open a second site XYZ selling fruit - definitely not the same so separate accounting books will need to be kept. However, if ABC company sells educational books to the public and you open a second site XYZ selling educational books to teachers - you'd still be selling the same products, just to different markets you'd keep the same accounting books.

I hope that helps!

Arianna

[trogette]

I *think* the only thing I'd comment on here is that if you're a sole trader already you don't have to tell HMR&C if you start a different business *as a sole trader* and as Arianna said it gets lumped together on the tax return. Partnerships have their own tax returns and you need separate partnership sections in your return for each one.

Bank accounts... it just looks more professional if people can write the business name on a cheque, that's all :)