[Tom Pleasant]

I’ve (M49, married, sole earner, three-year-old child) recently changed my career and started working with a friend as a handyman. He’s (M55, partner, no kids) a lot more experienced and handles finding clients and the finances, while I work on social media and marketing.

Traditionally, he’s more a carpenter, but does a lot of other stuff. I’m just about to start a plumbing course to complement that, and am currently taking evening classes in general building skills at a local college to fill in some much-needed skill gaps.

We work well together (some teething problems, but nothing significant) and are happy to plan for the future working together. For example. we have plans to branch out into heritage building skills for listed buildings, due to interest and his experience of the hurdles renovating his own Victorian property. He’ve done some trial work on this, working at cost to learn lime plastering, as well as signing up for various courses later this year.

We currently operate as sole traders, but that means any of the administrative work is unpaid. It also means that the timetracking of jobs and invoicing can be quite challenging for both of us. He’s convinced sole traders is the best route to stay for the moment until our revenue grows. I think either a partnership or limited company might be best, especially if we have a company bank account so that we can allocate money for currently unpaid tasks or at-cost work for training.

Any advice on the best way to proceed?

• This topic was modified 2 weeks, 1 day ago by Tom Pleasant. Reason: Typo

[gregory nelson]

I personally would go the limited company route and make both directors and all make a bank account with both of you on it then poy yourselves 12k per year then the rest is dividends.

Hope this helps

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