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One year in, and still going
Page 64
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Celebrating his first year in business, Rob Salter now knows why the first anniversary is called paper — the 'to do' stack is beginning to get the better of him.
It's now one whole year since I first ventured out on my own and I'm glad to say that it has gone a lot better than I expected. Of course, it hasn't all been plain sailing — in fact, there have been times when I considered jacking it all in. But overall,I'm pretty chuffed with my first year of trading and happily so too are my bank manager and accountant.
I recently went to see my bank manager for my annual review. He was pleased — and perhaps even a bit surprised — at how well I had done and we have now started to plan for the future. I have set up a business savings account to set aside money for my forthcoming income tax bill.This was something I said I would do on my original start-up plan, but had never got round to. But now,
while my bank balance is healthy, it seems to be the right time to start tucking money away for the future.
My accountant has already indicated that my income tax bill may be higher than! had anticipated, so it makes sense to have money earmarked to cushion any blow. Picking up On the work front, things have started to pick up very well. The start of the year was predictably tough, so it's nice now to have the trucks fully booked each week. I'm still getting bits and pieces of work from my cold-calling exploits, but recently a small haulage firm in Wolverhampton has started to use my vehicles regularly.This, tied in with
existing work, has improved things greatly.
With my imminent departure from the NYK Logistics depot I've started the ball rolling to take on the third truck. Staffs CV has come up trumps again with a Y-registered Midlum curtainsider and my plan is to drive one of the three vehicles myself untill am sure the business can sustain another employee. Hopefully, having the odd day when I don't drive will mean! will be able to concentrate on winning more work. I just need to plan who to target and how— the cold-calling plan clearly didn't work anywhere near as well as I'd hoped so I need to come up with something better. One thing that still continues to amaze me about running a business is the sheer volume of
paperwork involved! I spent the last weekend getting the PAYE/ NI information together for the Inland Revenue.As a result, the paperwork I would normally do at the weekend is now a week behind and I'm also a week adrift with my invoicing. Looks like I've got another busy weekend in store.
Although the bank balance is pretty healthy at the moment, now is not the time to sit back and relax. I realise that if I want things to growl must still work very hard over the next few months.! suppose the first year has been a little easier financially thanks to the work! had running the NYK Logistics depot; in effect! had the revenue of running a third vehicle without the costs. Rolling along NYK meant regular money with regular payments, and there's no doubt I'm going to miss it. So this year will be a bit tougher.The only comfort I have is that, as with last year, two vehicles will be booked every day of the week from September up to Christmas. I just need to ensure that I keep things moving along until then. is