Thursday, March 27, 2014

'Interweave Consulting' closed down

Today I completed the online form to HMRC to close down my consulting company Interweave Consulting. Date of closure: 26 March 2014.  Here's the reply.
Thank you for email to tell us you have stopped your self-employment.

This message confirms that we have successfully received your form and we will now confirm your information to ensure the security of your personal details.

We will look at your National Insurance account and if needed we will issue a bill for any NICs that are due up to the date your self-employment has stopped. The period covered by the bill will be clearly shown please check the dates carefully.

If you have overpaid Class 2 National Insurance contributions, we will send you a refund claim form which you should sign and return to us by post.

If for any reason we are unable to deal with your request, we will email you or send a letter to let you know.

Please do not reply to this email; this address does not accept incoming mail.
My work has mainly focused on the design of public telecom networks, usually for new or alternate operators who don't maintain in-house network design specialists. The 2008 economic crunch closed down most of the big capital programmes and new projects have been slow to emerge, so business has been poor the last few years.

Once one is past sixty it's fair to say that many aspects of telecoms consultancy somewhat lose their attraction - I am especially delighted to say goodbye to getting up at unearthly hours, driving vast distances to meet with clients, and lengthy commutes standing in crowded trains and squashed in the London tube.

As a busy person it's possible I could stumble upon a future revenue-generating activity: writing and software are somewhat remote possibilities. It's easy to set up as a sole trader, however.