Posted By peter gotch
Hi Augustine.

I'd start with a website with key words hidden on home page - same colour font as background. Then google or other search engines more likely to find you.

Good luck.

P

Posted By augustine
No i am not

Working towards that this year before i finish working in my present job.

Posted By Arran Linton - Smith
Augustine,

Have you tried this IOSH link?

http://www.iosh.co.uk/fi...%20practice%20guide1.pdf

Posted By Neil R
"Are you a chartered member? Otherwise, it would be difficult to get business"

I don't believe that to be true at all, i have friends in a very successful consultancy, one is GradIOSH, the other isn't even a memeber,

They both have masters though! As good as IOSH is its not the be all and end all.

Posted By A Campbell
I'm a little bemused...
I
f HSE & IOSH are recommending CMIOSH status to give advice to ANY type of business... What are they advocating for companies considering employing a full time H&S advisor that would carry out more or less the same functions... Are there enough CMIOSH status people available to fill all the posts.. and be paid in respect of their status and educational qualifications?

Posted By A Campbell
So for a SME type environment you would not necessarily be looking for a CMIOSH status person for H&S advice with regards to non high risk assessment activities, policy etc.. that would be more for larger engineering, manufacturing organisations.. where costs may also be higher for such advice?

Posted By randolph augustine
Hello Swis and A Campbell

Thanks for the invaluable advice and discussion regarding starting my own business.

It has certainly given me food for thought as i am moving forward with researching to see if starting this business up is viable.

I still have a lot of fact finding and researching to do, however in the meantime thanks a lot

Posted By randolph augustine
Hello Swis

Thanks for that, very helpful

Posted By Swis
Neil,

Once you become CMIOSH, you need to do CPD (Continuing Professional Development) not IPD(Initial Professional Development ) and it’s this continuing professional development which keeps you updated with the latest legislations and practices. Also not to forget that CPD is a mandatory process for CMIOSH. Person who fails to do CPD can not be hold chartered membership.

This membership is an evidence of your continual development. Yes, people can keep themselves updated with the latest in profession but how would they be able to show this to potential clients in order to get their business.

Swis

Posted By clairel
Personally I think anyone who has never been a consultant and who is thinking of setting up on their own must be mad.

Consultancy is so different from working for one company. It is a skill in it's own right and it does not suit everyone. Then you have all the problems with setting up your own business on top of that.

Personally I would say go out and find a job as a consultant for a consultancy firm. Cut your teeth there and then think about going it alone.

Posted By GrantP
Hi Augustine
I went to business link on one of their 4 day courses to start my own business in rural health and safety, they were really informative and you get a mentor for 12 months

Posted By Swis
Guys

I have never made any remark stating that if you are not a chartered member, you are not competent. All I stated was that having the chartered membership proves to the client that you are an experienced and competent person. Without it, it would be difficult to convince the potential client that you are the right person for them, especially when guides published by IOSH are stating that companies should look for a chartered member if they need external help.

If a person can't interpret a simple post on this forum, how would they interpret complicated legislations? Competency IS in question now.

No offence meant.

Swis

Posted By Swis
NS,

if you look at my post care fully, I've used the words 'may' and 'higher ranks'. These terms are different to 'will' and 'higher membership'.

Also, you need to take my posts in contrast with the original query. This was a response to one of the posts mentioned above.

Furthermore, the only thing I said on this forum is the fact that not HAVING A CHARTERED MEMBERSHIP CAN POSE DIFFICULTIES IN GETTING THE BUSINESS.

Posted By Descarte
Setting up your own business isnt that hard, banks such as HSBC will offer you a great deal of help with the banking side. Registering your company, VAT and other things also not hard. Calculating your VAT, corporation Tax etc also plenty of guidance with this and some companies of course can do this for you for a fee.

If you dont want to make the big leap quite yet there are also many recruitment agencies which advertise short term contracts requiring an immediate start, specifying day rates. If you want to go in-between consultant and normal worker try a temp job as your own Ltd. Co. Its a great and challenging experience and though the learning curve is steep the rewards are huge.

Des

Posted By www.hsepeople.com
[reference removed] is a new website designed exclusively for people working or recruiting in the area of Health and Safety. The site is 100% Free to join and offers members the ability to exchange information and network in a way that has not been possible until now. [reference removed] combines the best features of Social Networking, Job Sites and Training resources all in one place.

Members can build a profile advertising their availability, services they offer and any company information they wish including contact details and web links. Other members can browse profiles and search using key words or location. It is easy to send a message to a member’s inbox or to leave a comment on their profile. Members can upload pictures, safety videos or even music to their profile and can easily add other friends also on the site.

It is easy to view who is online and rather than send a message or email, members can chat quickly through the sites instant messenger or using the sites forums where discussions can range from requests for information, exchanging general chit chat or talking about job leads. The forums offer freedom of speech and are not over moderated like other forums on the Net.

One of the main features of [reference removed] is the free jobs pages and RSS Jobs Feeds. The first allows any Recruiters / Companies on the site to list HSE Positions on the forums for FREE. The jobs pages are proving very popular with already over fifty agencies posting jobs in the first six weeks and many success stories starting to emerge of successfully placed candidates. The second is the RSS job feeds which are pulling jobs in from lots of other job sites all over the Web. These are broken down into categories and update as soon as jobs are listed on the relevant sites. This means that we are very confident you can find more HSE jobs on [reference removed] than any other site on the Net! The best part is it’s FREE to list, browse, search and apply for Jobs.

More ways of exchanging information is also available to any member on the site. Any member can create a blog to their own profile. If the content is relevant to other [reference removed] then that blog can be posted to the site magazine with moderator approval. Everything can be done from the control panel at the left hand side on every main page on the site.

[reference removed] is a community site and in looking for ways to fund the site, keeping the content relevant to Health and Safety and not plastering the site in banner advertising we have came up with a few ideas that may work well with your business. Firstly, the Events page, this page allows Trainers or Course providers to upload details on training events they are holding in the near future. Members of the site can then enlist for the event. [reference removed] will only charge 10% of the course cost per delegate signing up through the site. It is free to upload an event so you have nothing to lose by giving it a go.

Secondly, is the addition of a links page that will be coming very soon. This page will be broken down into three categories: Recruiters, Trainers & Consultants. Here you can place a link on a main page of [reference removed] and advertise your business to our members. As the site is new we are offering the first 25 links for only £150. If you would like to show your support for [reference removed] and promote your business to our ever growing number of members please contact Kevin@hsepeople.com



Thirdly, we will in the future be offering a product review page. This will be a great way of getting your product out into the market and visible to our members. We particularly want to hear from PPE Companies or Safety Equipment manufacturers who would like us to review their products. This service may eventually expand to course providers.

Lastly, [reference removed] is hoping to soon be able to offer a Document Library that any member will be able to add documents too. Other members will then be able to browse, search and then download any document they need. We think this will prove to be a very valuable and popular page. How many times have you been required to write a new procedure or produce a risk assessment or training presentation on a subject that you know other [reference removed] have probably covered thousands of times? No longer will you need to reinvent the wheel… Power points, Presentations, Forums, Posters, Regulations, Procedures, Formats and much more will all be able to be uploaded. This page is proving expensive to make and it would be great to hear from companies interested in sponsoring it. We are sure it will be the most popular page on the site and we could offer your company some fantastic exposure.

[reference removed] is only six weeks old but already proving hugely popular with almost 1000 members, the site has so far grown mostly on word of mouth. Only now are we starting to appear in search results and directories. I think this demonstrates how much of a hit the site is. We hope [reference removed] becomes the one place recruiters go when looking for candidates, Candidates when looking for jobs, Companies when looking for Consultants and [reference removed] when looking for information or training courses.

The site is currently receiving over 2500 hits a week and that is increasing with every new member that signs up. We are working hard to appear at the top of Search Engine Results and even though it takes time and a lot of effort we are committed to making [reference removed] a Success.

I would like to take this opportunity to invite you to create a profile on [reference removed], Advertise your company or business and have a feel round see what you think. If you see the potential in the site and wish to support it by any of the above mentioned methods then please do drop us a line. Your support will make the site a success and hopefully the one stop shop for everything HSE.

Hope to see you there.

Kevin Forbes
www.hsepeople.com