There are over 2 million actively trading limited companies in the UK, and over half of those are one-man-band businesses.  Increasingly, subcontractors in the construction industry are “turning themselves into” limited companies. 

The advantages of being a limited company can be found in many places.  These include, for example, a much better tax regime, and limited liability. A more detailed list can be found on our website.  One key advantage, however, is rarely mentioned. And that’s to do with the positive change in how you will feel, think and act.  In short, the change in your mindset.

That’s why the term “turning yourself into” a limited company is misleading.  You are in fact “setting up” a limited company.  The company and you are two separate legal entities.

Let’s expand this.  Look, in reality most sole traders in the construction industry, though technically self-employed, really just have a job. The legal distinction between employment versus self-employment is not relevant here. You go to work, you do your job, and you come home. That’s it.

However, when you start trading through a limited company, you are running your own business, a business owned by your company. You may be a carpenter by trade, but you are now a man running a carpentry business. You may be a plumber, but you are now running a plumbing business. You are a businessman. 

Your company may only have one director (you), and one employee (you) and one owner (you) but your company has a separate and distinct identity, both practically and legally.  So how does this change your mindset? Well, think about it.  It changes everything.

You will start thinking about how to expand your business, how to develop it, how to make it grow. You don’t do this for the job. A job is a job. A business is an adventure.

Your work will become more interesting.  You may start to think about how you would instruct a member of your own staff to do the tasks you are undertaking: how could it be done quicker, better, more efficiently, more profitably. You will start noticing other business opportunities. Thomas Edison, the great inventor and businessman, once said “Most people miss Opportunity because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”

Now, obviously there is a lot of paperwork involved in running a business: including registering with Companies House and HMRC, keeping the books, doing the payroll, filing the relevant statutory documents, preparing the accounts, computing the tax, dealing with general correspondence and the like.  At Maximoor, we do all of that for you. We have three packages, starting from as little as £99 per month (which as a subcontractors is all you should need).

Leave all the drudgery to us.  After all, we are the accountants.  You are the businessman.