Gap in market paves way for self-made man
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Stephen O'Leary (26), from Cork, left his a job as a business development manager in November last year to start up his own firm, O'Leary Analytics.
A former journalist with the 'Irish Examiner', he saw a gap in the market for a media-monitoring service specialising in online media and which included a full analysis of results, and decided to go for it.
"If I was going to take the risk of setting up on my own, I had to do it before the responsibilities of a family, mortgage, etc came along," he said.
Like many new entrepreneurs, taxation is not an immediate priority, but he did anticipate the possibility of an irregular income.
"I had some savings set aside to cover my day-to-day living expenses in the short term, and I knew as a start-up sole trader, tax was something that I wouldn't have to worry about immediately."
He has not yet hired an accountant, although he has been benefiting from the advice of friends who are accountants, and he has kept detailed accounts of income and expenditure.
"As the business grows, I expect I will employ an accountant at key times during the year," he said.
The decision to establish as a sole trader hasn't been set in stone either.
"The advice I got when I was setting up the business was that operating as a sole trader . . . was less complicated in terms of tax and corporate governance," he said.
Irish Independent
