See why using outside help for some of your business needs frees up time for you to do what you do best

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As part of the process of setting up my own business, I have had reason to look in different parts of the internet for all sorts of ideas. Sometimes these internet searches are planned and sometimes a little bit of serendipity comes into play (see blog here - http://245daystogo.blogspot.com/2015/06/stumbling-across-ideas-and-answers-when.html )

I think that as the business develops, I will need outside help in some areas of what I attempt to do. For instance, I won’t try to conduct my own legal affairs – I will leave that to the expertise of a solicitor. I won’t want to spend hours of my time checking and filing my own accounts – I will make use of an accountant that knows their way around the tax rules.

And it was while looking into different professional business service providers that I came across the company Adactus - http://www.adauctus-gmbh.ch/en/

Being a well-established company that provides more than one service gives Adactus a head start when it comes to helping out startup companies such as the one I am putting together. In the early days of my estate agency business I will be trying to run the show from home but will have to spend a lot of time out on the road. And the question that this asks is “how will I be able to provide an office service for my customers?” I want them to be able to pick up the phone and speak to someone from my company but I hope to have my time filled with appointments at client’s houses. Adactus could provide an answer. They will provide a high-quality and professional telephone answering service in several languages, call acceptance and transfer, and a virtual secretary from Mondays to Fridays from 8:00 to 18:00, outside these hours – a voicemail service.

Tax is always a taxing question for any business large or small, so looking at what might be a tax beneficial status is something that many companies have looked into. You can have a discussion with Adactus about their company registration services after contacting them via their website. They can offer potential tax-related benefits for foreign companies, as they are based in Switzerland. Switzerland has one of the most beneficial tax rates in Europe along with a politically, geographically and economically stable infrastructure. That is highly attractive to foreign companies which choose to change their address to Switzerland.

As I stated at the start of the blog, Adactus are experienced in several areas that could help the average startup or the slightly more established company to get ahead in business. I try to look at business from several angles and highlight companies that I have used or would consider using to help me set up my small business. Recently I have shown how RawShorts and Fiverr could help a new or small business and I will keep on exposing good companies to my readers of this blog. If you have any questions about this then please do not hesitate to comment on the blog or get in touch with Adactus directly via their website.

It's time to get the house set for the colder weather

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It's time to get the garage-cum-office finished and all the little snagging jobs in the house find before the weather turns. Before long Autumn will turn Wintry and it will be too late to get any outside jobs done, so that's where I will start the focus.

It looks like it's list time again…

I'll have to go round the house and trek a look at all the areas that I feel need attention. From there, it's a case of setting up sons time to ensure that I can get everything done. I'll probably start the list this afternoon and from there I'll have an idea of how much time it will take me to complete.

If like the setting up if the estate agency for next year to follow a similar path but there are do many aspects of it that I have no idea about timescales. I'll just have to leave more time than I think possible and take it from there.

I'm one of these people that likes to have everything planned to the finest detail with accurate timings but it's just not possible when setting up what will be a new business. The current thinking is to finish my current job at Christmas, take a couple of weeks off and then start in earnest during January. From there I'll step up through the gears to be opening after Easter with a view to building stock levels for this time next year. I follow the cycles of the market and it appears that there are two main markets in my part of the world. The first is taking on property in January and February for sales in March and April. The second phase is taking on property through the Summer to sell after the kids go back to scho in September for people that want to move in for Christmas. I'm looking to catch the tails end if the first market and be really up and running for the second.

Wish me luck!

Taking stock as the plans form for the next 3 months

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As you can see from the ticking timeline at the top of all my posts, the intended start date for my business has been and gone, but don't be disheartened - I'm not! The new date will probably be somewhere around a year late, but because the progress in the original 245 days was slow, the build up to the new intended opening will be jam-packed with the progress I make on the mad run towards the stsrt line.

It's time for me to take a brief look back over the 261 days since I started this blog and the things that have changed.

Personal life

I started this blog in what was the 40th year of my life and it brought about a big change in how I looked at the world and my place in it. I entered the audition process for Mastermind and The Apprentice and I got quite far in both processes. I started training, entered and comets the Great North Run half marathon. I'm now looking at the next set of achievements for the time between now and next year. Of course a lot of these are related to the business, and having things in place to generate an income for me when the business is up and running.

My own business

The steps towards achieving this have been small and background so far, but the most significant is the almost completion of converting my 2nd garage into a usable home office. I'm just short of some new garage doors, a desk and a bit of home comforts to have it ready. The home comforts include getting pictures and ornaments out of my loft and into the office to make it a little more comfortable and pleasant.

I have started a blog on my local area and post to it about every 7-10 days to keep an interest in the local market and possibly appeal to any investors or buyers on what will be my patch. Content marketing is becoming more and more important and having an audience and a SEL presence on the internet will allow me to point my content in the direction of my website and services when the situation arises.

Alongside the business I will have things like these blogs (6 in total at the moment) my photography and the website (www.estateagentboost.com) to bring in some much needed money while I'm busy taking on properties. The website is up and running and I'm updating the latest news on a regular basis. The section that will have training sessions for estate agents needs writing and editing and this is on the to do list but hasn't been completed. As is the editing and final chapters of my book on how to buy a property - the second Kindle book I will publish agree the companion How To Sell Your House-

How to sell your house: What estate agents don't tell you by Steven Thompson http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00I5HOJAM/ref=cm_sw_r_udp_awd_udWGvbZCA41ZQ

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00I5HOJAM/ref=cm_sw_r_udp_awd_udWGvbZCA41ZQ

I'm looking forward, but these writing tasks and the final set up of the office need to happen soon.

I'm running out of ways to stall moving the business forward!

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The house and garden will be ready this week, the website is built and live, I'll have the office basically ready in terms of walls and flooring so I'm actually running out of ways to put off opening this estate agency! I've still got a lot to do, but as Spring arrives I can finally see the wood from the trees and start to put in place finalised plans for how I will go forward. I will admit to you, and to myself, that it won't happen in the timeframe of 245 days that I initially set out. I have booked a holiday for later this year, so the day I booked that was really the day I gave up in opening before the time of the holiday. As I will set up the agency on my own, with perhaps some help from my wife, then I will need to be present all the time for probably the first year. I have no qualms with this, in fact I'm looking forward to it, but I need to be in a position to do this. I have two young children and I currently cherish the free time I have with them and holiday are always part of this. I will probably try to get three holidays in between now and when the business opens to set myself up for that year.

My photography course finished yesterday with the exhibition of our work. It was a good night and we all enjoyed having people look over our photographs but this is now finished until September with level 2.

The office itself still needs a desk, the garage door changing, a curtain and pole putting up to keep put noise and weather and then a good sort out. The doors and subsequently the curtain will have to change later but I should get everything else done this week, with the next two days off. This will give me a chance to finalise everything that I want done to home, garden and office and put me in a position to move forward.

When I've done this, the targets are background items that I hope will generate and income for me. The blogs that I write bring in a trickle of an income and this will continue and continue to rise but it will only ever reach a modest amount. The website will be both another channel for the blog and will possibly generate another small income from advertising. I will be writing some training material for the website, which will be paid-for by users. I am also most of the way through writing my second Kindle book to sell on Amazon and this will supplement the modest income I get from the first Kindle book.

All in all, I'm looking to have a small background income to support me as I start on this venture. I will need an income to support the family and I, whilst I set about the process of starting my estate agency business and the time it takes to generate an income.