Becoming a Self Employed Wedding Planner Part 2

Obviously if you are leaving a job with a steady salary to set up in business, it is going to have a huge financial impact, especially if you are the main wage earner in the household. Continuing in paid employment can help with this.

Alongside this it is important to think about protecting yourself should you become ill and unable to work. By leaving regular paid employment it is also important to bear in mind the benefits you may lose such as pension, sick

pay, paid holidays and possibly a company car. It may be worthwhile purchasing insurance cover or investing in a private pension as self employment means being entirely reliant on personal resources for retirement plans and also having less access to state pension provision. Thisismoney.co.uk (2006) state that more than half of self employed women lack private pension provision of any sort and that the shortfall of pension provision is particularly acute amongst self employed people.

Business link (2010) advise that anyone becoming self employed should look at insuring against potential risks such as sickness, accident or loss of profits as this can help to minimise disruption to the business should an unexpected event occur.

From a legal point of view there are also many other considerations.

It is important to gain advice and find out whether you are liable for VAT and also business rates if working from home in a dedicated work space.

There are also a number of health and safety issues such as carrying out risk assessments of equipment, security of information as well as the general health of you or anyone you employ. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), (2003) stress the importance of assessing potential risks even if the business is a small business being run from home. Risks to be assessed could include the work station, any electrical equipment, VDU's, security of information and also psychological hazards such as stress and loneliness. Risk assessment templates are available to download from the HSE website although if the business is being run by a sole trader there is no requirement to have a formal written risk assessment in place (Business Link, 2010). I do think however, that it would be best practice to keep written documentation as evidence that risk assessment had been carried out.

Whilst all of the issues discussed are important, I think that first and foremost, it is paramount that it is established whether or not becoming self employed is the right option for you.

If you do not have the required commitment and motivation to establish a new business it is likely that the venture will fail.

The legal and financial considerations are of relative importance and, whilst some areas can be difficult to understand, there are a number of avenues of support available to assist through the process.