[james higgins]

hi everyone.

Im in the early stages of setting up a small carpet and upholstery cleaning business, i have all the equipment needed as my dad used to run a business but has now retired, so i have gladed taken them  

im employed as a carpet fitter and have been for 8 years, so pretty clued up on carpets and i also used to help dad out alot, but still going to go on a course, any recommendations? 

i did think of a good name, but it appears that its taken after a search on google (so im guessing i cant use the same??)....so the search continues.

im a little confused about what mr tax man will take from me, as im employed and will be starting working early evenings and weekends. ive look on the hm revenue website but still confused.. probably best to call them.

Any advice would be great.

james

[Colin Day]

Speak to an accountant, they'll point you in the right direction....

Good luck with everything...

[Doctor Carpet (Ret'd)]

Steve Barnett is another poster on here. He was a fitter for many years but has basically switched. Obviously his knowledge of fitting gives him a certain edge over many of the rest of us in terms of putting fitting problems right or cutting & replacing problems/seaming. Perhaps you should make that a feature of your business?

With regard to trading names if the name you like isn't a limited company then there is no legal reason why you cannot also use that name. Whilst it may be "dog eat dog" if you were in the same town, if you are far enough away from each other then re-consider using it. However in the meantime you may come up with something better.

It is illegal to trade without informing the tax office (I think it needs to be done within 2 months) as you are generating a separate stream of income. That said everybody knows a "black" economy exists. I'm sure you aren't thinking of going down that route. Besides which it's a slippery route and if you go down it then it only gets harder to get boack on the straight and narrow at a later date. So so speak to HMRC and get it right form the start.

Hope this helps and good luck and welcome the the "happy nut house" aka Clean It Up.

Rog

[AshWhite]

I only just informed HMRC last week, and I started trading in May. It's difficult to find out how much time you have, but I did find this:

"It's best if you register with HMRC as soon as your circumstances change. The latest you can register is by 5 October after the end of the tax year for which you need a tax return. The tax year runs from 6 April one year to 5 April the next.

If, for example, you have tax to pay on rent from a property in the 2010-11 tax year, you need to let HMRC know by 5 October 2011."


Found that on the HMRC website.

[Kinver_Clean]

Open a savings account and put 20% of your takings in, this will cover your tax and other unexpected costs.

[james higgins]

Thanks for all the advice. think im going to think of another name, its already taken me 2 weeks to decide this one (prestige carpet care)

[Colin Day]

There's one down here simply called "The Carpet Cleaner"... Why didn't I think of that...?

[james higgins]

thats a brilliant name..no one called that near me

[Jim_77]

But what about upholstery, rugs, curtains, hard floors.......

Of course if you only want to clean carpets that's fine

Don't worry about another carpet cleaner with the same company name as long as your areas don't overlap (nothing illegal but you could lose customers to them if too close)  you just might have to get a bit more creative with your domain name.  That's if you're going to operate as a sole trader as opposed to a Ltd company, in which case you can search the list at companies house for matching business names... you'd only have a problem if in the same sector.

[Colin Day]

But what about upholstery, rugs, curtains, hard floors.......

Of course if you only want to clean carpets that's fine

Don't worry about another carpet cleaner with the same company name as long as your areas don't overlap (nothing illegal but you could lose customers to them if too close)  you just might have to get a bit more creative with your domain name.  That's if you're going to operate as a sole trader as opposed to a Ltd company, in which case you can search the list at companies house for matching business names... you'd only have a problem if in the same sector.

He drives a van, he'd need to drive a bus to get "Carpet, Upholstery, Rug,Curtain and Mattress Cleaner" on the side

Seriously though, I think the idea's so that at a glimpse, you know what he does. I think my business name's crap TBH. Days Deepclean could mean almost anything, I've had people mockingly ask "do you do colonic irrigation"... I usually reply "If you want 400psi where the sun don't shine, I have a slot next week.......

[John Kelly]

Actually the name "The Carpet Cleaner" could lead to some nice marketing touches on your literature such as;

We don't just clean carpets but also.............

[Mike Halliday]

A name should say one of three things (or all three) who you are, where you are from or what's special about you.

[Craigp]

Hi,  I have cut and pasted this written by Philip Cooper of.http://www.verymark.info/        a legal expert in this area. on the business forums


Registration of a name as a limited company at Companies House gives you no rights, it simply stops someone else registering the same name for another limited company.

Prior use of a business or company name affords a certain amount of protection under the common law against ‘passing off ‘. Legal actions for passing off require evidence of likely confusion and damage to reputation (or, in more formal terms, "goodwill").



So even as sole traders it seems we do have some protection against passing off and could take legal action against someone starting using the same or purposely similar name.

Craig

[Mike Halliday]

Just on a job now, they typed ' Henry the carpet cleaner' into goggle to find my number, this just shows we should remember that what ever name we choose the customer might forget it. so we need a name that will ( even when typed wrong or abbreviated) will  find us on google

Who would remember 'RSH services'a year later ......but call your self 'crappybum carpet cleaners' and even if they only search  'crappy carpet cleaners' they will find you on google

[John Kelly]

Who would remember 'RSH services'a year later ......but call your self 'crappybum carpet cleaners' and even if they only search  'crappy carpet cleaners' they will find you on google

Yes but it would take hours to search through them

[Jim_77]

Well they'll always find you if they search for crap carpet cleaners Mike

I just typed this: [Wouldn't a search for "henry carpet cleaner" just throw back loads of henry hoovers for sale?]

But then I googled "henry carpet cleaner hull" and you've pretty much got page 1 blanked out!!  Nice work

Even a national search for "henry carpet cleaner" puts you 9th!

[Mike Halliday]

Jim I've just searched it here and 'henry the carpet cleaner' shows me second from bottom on the 1st page but like you say the rest of the page is the neumatic henry vacuum cleaner.

[wynne jones]

Jim I've just searched it here and 'henry the carpet cleaner' shows me second from bottom on the 1st page but like you say the rest of the page is the neumatic henry vacuum cleaner.

I'd be impressed if you came up for 'carpet cleaner funny animals van'   

[garry22]

Why not optimise for both of those phrases?

There should not be too much competition.

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys

I say to my customers if you lose my number just remebmber Doug Carpet Cleaning, type it in to Google and I'm there.

Cheers

Doug