Mark101

Not if you keep records - you can trace where the money has come from, so I wouldn't worry - how you fund your business is up to you and your credit cards are your credit line - you will be paying for the privilege but even at 1.4% on say £5,000 is only £70 - do you really think an O/D will be cheaper 1) paying for the facility whether you use it or not 2) monthly interest and 3) would the bank even extend £5,000? Go one stage further, get two cards - draw £5,000 off the first, then balance transfer to the second on 0% for 18 months - 2 years.

Fantastic - well done, hope April follows suit

They will always want collateral - Your stock is not suitable security as you could sell it all and do one very quickly. In their eyes, if you're not prepared to secure a loan in that way, why should they take the risk. We're all the same, convinced we can make it work if only we had a spare £500k - when we are asked to back up our enthusiasm, we start to think of all the negatives - just like a funder.

Have you taken the AT package as well James or do you PAYG like me? Personally speaking, and this is in relation to the format not the number of viewers or the profile of viewers - Ebay may allow less pictures but it has limitless characters for the description whereas AT (only speaking from PAYG) is "almost" like the very old days of 27 characters or less - I haven't had to write PAS, EW, EM, RCL for years, I find that bizzare having to create acronyms nowadays.

Well, they are not having my £750, that's crazy. I can have their top ad on PAYG for about £60 3 weeks, I don't even have enough stock to reach £750. And for comparison - what about Ebay - same sort of package please.

Thank you EPV - Just looking at your website actually, looks fantastic!

Hi-jack Alert - sorry Anyone know what the minimum package AT will accept? I am advertising a couple on AT but cannot link website or put our logo on the page - I guess you need to sign up for that. Rationale: I'm thinking of continually listing 2-3 cars on AT and hopefully with a website link, some traffic will be directed to where they can find more. Particularly good when you have multiples of a particular make/model. A long shot but my fledgling business cannot carry big costs such as AT on a fixed term. Thanks, Mark

I thought it sounded too good to be true - can you tell I'm no mechanic!

Some of it is great - mainly due to the web. The ability to transfer money, bid on cars, sell cars, register online, tax online etc - all in the blink of an eye - that is a great improvement and V5's tend to arrive within a few days, not the old 2-3 weeks. What I really struggle with are the low margins. I used to have a grand in everything from £300 bangers to £7,500 decent stuff. Best ever was a Volvo Wedge (think 480 ES) paid £295 at auction, low buyers fees - washed and sold for £1,295 in a week. I miss that! Thanks for all your help justina3 - I really do appreciate it.

Excuse my inexperience - when you say it "cleared" the faults - did you need to replace the sensors or does this simply clear the fault?

You probably know a lot more than I do to be fair, our CFO saw to all HMRC matters. I keep everything up to date and above board simply because I am very aware that it can happen. The £200m company wasn't mine (unfortunately, I was a board member but still a humble employee) this is where my savings came from that I am currently living off and funding my start-up (and again, of course this was taxable income - I would be happy if I could earn what I used to pay in tax lol). The main point is that as yet, I am unregistered for VAT (it's looming but I'm not there yet). Regarding Tax in general, I haven't drawn a bean out but put plenty in - so hopefully this only becomes a problem when I start making money. Thank you for your insight, it is appreciated - I have a lot to learn about this industry and cannot believe how much has changed since my last venture. Regards, Mark

I ran a business turning over between £12m-£15m (I was only an employee but the MD). We had had an overdraft facility of £1m for 10 years or more - never reached the limit but operated within it. As a consequence of the 2008 credit crunch, banks had to call in as much of their credit lines as possible and overdrafts are generally an easy target (i.e. as soon as there is a credit balance in your account, they can switch the facility off). For example, if your bank has issued a record number of loans/credit cards/mortgages etc - they have to work on the fact that if everyone fully utilised their lines, there needs to be "enough" in the pot. Whether you use you O/D or not, banks have to ensure they have your maximum amount available. I recently had my O/D reduced from £1,000 to £400 (on my personal account) for this reason - I had never used it. In your case, credit card would be my preference.

Hi EPV - I think we have a similar sized business at the moment (albeit you present your photos far better than me, something I am addressing). If you want my simple advice (from past experience) do NOT use an overdraft - at any time the bank can call that in (they did it to me on a £1m facility and it hurts). If you really want funding, which is clearly to give you flexibility to grow - get a personal loan of say £25k over 60 months - you can dip in and out of whenever you want and ultimately, one way or another it gets paid off - meaning you'll have "accidentally" expanded your investment pot and depending on how the business is doing, you could repeat.

See for me, a home trader - my expenses are seriously limited beyond what I already pay - arguably, a little more electricity and gas used. Adverts on Fleabay cost me £15 pcpm, so that is not here or there and as far as depreciation is concerned, negligible over max 90 days on the age profile of the cars I stock. I find that if you wait long enough (within reason), someone will come along and buy the car if it is presented well and they like you. Despite the "general" public, there are still a few which will pay a little extra for added value, quality and ease. If someone wants to drive 400 miles to save £200 - go for it. If they want a car realistically priced, full MOT, freshly serviced, valeted and with a warranty - here's my details........ Having said that, I had a terrible March, so I'm probably completely wrong and you can ignore all of the above

It is so difficult to source good stock at sensible money, so with this in mind - I need to maximise my margin on the good stuff I have got rather than "give it away" only be to be back in the same place of sourcing stock to "give away." When it starts to get silly, i.e. I've had something for nearer 90 days, it's time to cut loose but If can see a good return and that takes 60 days, I'm a happy boy Or double your stock and retain the same margin over extended period = same effect

That's what I hate about these hand car washes. The last thing they do is dress the tyres and then you have to drive off immediately before the stuff has soaked in/dried. Other than that, they do an amazing job for the money.

Personally (and I am working on seriously fewer numbers) - stock churn should be 60 days. If you're turning roughly 50% of your stock every month, you are doing well and meeting my criteria - providing there aren't too many "stickers" in that mix.

Brilliant

Luckily, my partner workshop will do free diagnostics for me and they are 2 minutes away. Maybe you could come to the same arrangement with yours?

Best diagnostic tool? My ear

My all time favourite film!

Taking all this on board: 1) HMRC have never investigated me in any capacity in the past, either as a trader or as an employed board execeutive turning £200m but I do appreciate your concerns/warnings. 2) If HMRC investigated me right now, they would feel very sorry for me as my investment vs. sales is so heavily skewed in their favor. 3) There is absolutely nothing untoward going on - I keep my books impeccably up to date and correct (easy when you have 6 cars, 1 workshop, 1 body shop and 3 vendors) 4) I don't think how you fund the procurement of vehicles and remedial work has any bearing on HMRC, it is how you record the invoices in/out, VAT margin and PAYE that counts. 5) I am not drawing any salary yet (living off savings) and have just incorporated, allowing deduction for directors loans/investment - after which I will be taking min. wage + dividend.

And you're still here, so it worked - nice one - success favors the brave (or the insane)

Again, I don't have one because often you need to pay for the facility whether you utilise it or not - we as motor traders need flexibility to jump on something because a "good un" doesn't come around all that often. We don't (well I don't) have time to wait for the bank to process a credit application, so the CC's work for me as established credit lines.

Depends, I don't have a company CC but I have about £70k limit on personal spread across about 7 cards ranging from £3,500 to £12,000 each. I never turn credit away and always use some to keep me in check. One of my closest mates is a multi-millionaire and has zero credit rating - he couldn't even get a store card at Debenhams - the reason, he has never had credit beyond his original mortgage. Credit should only be used for growth/expansion not luxuries - just my opinion