The Wholesale Forums

[Shagger73]

Please could some provide an idiots guide to starting up sellibg online. I'm at the stage where I will use Gdady for domain name and Cube Cart for my web-page.

Do I have to register for VAT?
What are the legal requirements?
How do I host my webpage - can this be done through Gdady? If so what am I looking for?
Should I be filling in any documents?

I want to ensure I am 100% covered in all these areas.

Would appreciate some comments and help here!!!

Thanks.

[Anthony]

Do I have to register for VAT?
# Not unless your turnover exceeds a certain figure, which for the UK is around 50k. If you have just started in business then the chances of you needing to register are very slim.

What are the legal requirements?
# If you intend on starting a business or undertaking some sort of trade then you are legally obliged to register with HMRC within 3 months of starting. This therefore means once you start trading you should register as a business, as a sole trader more than likely with the government so that you can be put on the register and more importantly pay tax on your income (if applicable).

How do I host my webpage - can this be done through Gdady? If so what am I looking for?
# If you are already using GoDaddy then your best bet would be to use one of their starter packages and get a feel for what you are doing. You would need a domain name and a hosting package, both of which can be acquired from GoDaddy.

Should I be filling in any documents?
# Yes you should. Keep a record of all your sales, costs and profits including raw receipts of sales and costs. You will need all these when you do your tax return towards the end of your first year in business.

Hope that helps.

[Pete]

Actually, if you spend some time here and elsewhere checking on GoDaddy's hosting, it's not very well thought of. In general what you'll find is "register with GoDaddy, but go elsewhere for everything else" is attitude. I tried them, and one of their shopping carts, for a 3 month period a while ago, just to see what they offerred. I didn't expect much, just did it as a trial, and the results were about what I expected - not much.

So while I think the world of Anthony, I must differ with his suggestion that you do anything more than register your domain with GoDaddy. And if you want to save a buck and get just as much give dynadot.com a try.

Yeah, I sell hosting and offer the free CubeCart, but so do others here on TWF. I know Lewis Sellers does and there are a couple of other guys who sell hosting. Why not check a few of us out and keep your business amongst your mates here on TWF. We're all in it together.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by pete

So while I think the world of Anthony, I must differ with his suggestion that you do anything more than register your domain with GoDaddy. And if you want to save a buck and get just as much give dynadot.com a try.

I agree but for the purpose of providing the most relevant advice to this individual member who I understand is *new* to all this it might be worth him using GoDaddys service until he is more clued up on how things work.

As I said it would be well worth him "getting a feel for what he is doing" and then move on to more greener pastures further down the road. The whole experience of adjusting nameservers, although not complex at all is arguably just a hassle newbies don't need. Especially if they are only saving a few $$ in doing so.

Having said that, Pete has now kindly offered his services so I'm sure he can help you find the best deal.

[Pete]

As I posted elsewhere, that is what I do best. I have a number of clients from here and virtually every one of them contacted me by PM asking for help and advice. Seldom was it as litt;e as a couple of days, usually at least a week of PM's and emails before anything really happened.

Virtually all of them were either newbies. And it was "hold their hand" through the process, including in some cases step by step "go here, click this" instructions to change nameservers at GD.

I'd never, ever, suggest that someone change hosts unless there was a real need. Not any from here that I can recall, but for other sources I do get a lot of users from Yahoo and other proprietary carts. They find they just don't have the freedom to do what they see others talking about doing. Or, they get buried in the pile. Believing that everyone should be a master of their own fate, and not tied to someone else's system, I do encourage those folks to make a change.

But for experienced users to move to my hosting from another to save a buck or two a month? I'd never suggest that.

It's guys like Shagger that I'm in business for. And as I mentioned, Lewis Sellers and others offer similar (I assume) services.

Of course, if someone wants Lifetime Hosting, with unlimited bandwidth, for a low, one-time fee I'll be glad to hook them up. I do sell quite a few of those accounts to folks who know what they are doing and don't want to have to worry about continuing payments. But that's not where I feel I am the most able to help others on the forum.