running a small business/ working while still serving?

**armr617** · 06-12-2009, 15:10

By this I mean doing it all above board, not under the table for cash etc.

If so could you either post or PM me with details of how easy it was to get permission, or in fact if you bothered!

I am hoping to start up when I get posted back very shortly, just gathering knowledge!

**BIPOLAR77** · 06-12-2009, 15:21

posted to where fella?

**hackle** · 06-12-2009, 15:40

Some of this thread may help:

Can I start a Ltd company before I leave?

**armr617** · 06-12-2009, 15:53

Posted to the warm bosom of Bordon- thats only 7mth, but seeing as the wife is posted to Pirbright for 3 yrs I am kinda hoping to stay in the Aldershot area.
My business will be photography so its not too much of a problem with moving around.

I had read that post a while back- been a few more posts since.
Guess I'll give the adjt at SEME a bell

**eodmatt** · 06-12-2009, 16:27

I started a business about 2 years before coming out of the army. I didnt ask permission, since I was coming to the end of my 22 year contract and I thought to myself wtf can they do about it? It was very hard at first as I had to keep the two lives, business and military, well apart. I made a fair amount of money during the early years after startup so didnt try to do all the accounting myself but got an accountant - be carefull, there are some real tossers about. My accountant is still with me. She is a book keeper really but her husband is a chartered accountant and they work as a team. I rapidly progressed to registering a limited company and becoming VAT registered - all done painlessly because I had a good accountant. The army pre release interview and what have you were a complete and utter farce - a bit like a comedy sketch with Ronnie Barker - and an utter waste of my time. But I got a small business management course at London uni as my pre release course and it was a very usefull course indeed. Far too short, but valuable.

So my advice, if I may be so bold as to offer it: Just get cracking and get set up as soon as you can realistically do it. Get a good book keeper and give her / him a carrier bag full of receipts and bills every month (if you are like me), or a file full in date order if you are organised, so you can concentrate on running the business.