Hi there, yes I have a business from home as well as my main job. HMRC do lots of great courses on tax and how to get started https://www.hmrc.gov.uk/startingup/help-support.htm, some of these are via email but the half day courses are well worth doing. If you have a paid job as well you'll often find the losses you make in the first year mean you get a big chunk of tax back. You need to be committed, getting your name out there is the hard part. I've found facebook is a better sales platform than etsy or ebay, etsy is just so full and most people want things from the states as the postage is cheaper, and ebay everyone wants things for pennies. It is however worth exploring all of them for your own needs as you may have a different experience. You need to be putting an equal ammount of time into the networking side, posting on forums, etsy boards, facebook, tweeting etc as you do actually making the products. Set aside a certain budget into a seperate bank account and use that solely for your business. Track religiously everything you spend on the business, every penny that comes in, also things like car use as you can claim a % of all car expenses if used for the business. Don't be disheartened if it takes a while to get going, as you build up a customer base suddenly you'll find things take off. Your own business is a LOT more time and effort than a waged job, but it's also a lot more rewarding doing it for yourself.
