Seen the adverts on Facebook?  Been preached to by an evangelist on social media telling you how solar and a heat pump is the end to all your energy worries?  Not worried about the environment but would love cheaper bills?  There is a lot of information and mis-information regarding solar panels but luckily for you we have first hand experience, having just paid out a small fortune for a solar plus battery setup on the Isle of Man here is our first hand experience to date.

If you’re looking for the short answer of how much an Isle of Man company costs then the short answer is very little in the grand scheme of things!  For example a”1931″ company costs £100 to incorporate within 48 hours, £250 for 2 hour incorporation and £500 for a whilst you wait service.  If you want a “2006” company then guess what, the fees are the same!  Amazing.  Who would have thought that you could have your Isle of Man company for so little?  The truth is though there is a little bit more to it than that.

Now that the analogue signal has been switched off we are left with the all singing, all dancing, Digital TV. Digital comes in several guises on the Isle of Man, Sky (Paid Subscription), Freesat and FreeView. If you don’t fancy paying Sky a stupid mount of money each month then that leaves you with the options of Freesat and Freeview. Freesat requires that you have a dish and wiring in place although you can use your old Sky dish for this. However a lot of people are moving more and more towards just using Freeview because part of the deal of how it was sold was all the extra channels. This would be great except if you’re on the Isle of Man you can’t get a full freeview service…. or can you?

Let me come straight out and say this up-front, no matter how much you may hear Manx people whinging about Public Transport on the island, we do have excellent services compared to just about any other part of Great Britain. However whether or not you need to hire a car will depend on the type of holiday you are planning on having because at the end of the day public transport isn’t going to get you to everywhere you may want to see. Also keep in mind that if you have a bad back the combination of really bad roads (away from the TT course) and buses is not a good one. If you are in anyway delicate it might be better to avoid the buses.

Do you know what the average property price on the Isle of Man is? As of now (July 2011) the average cost of an Isle of Man property is around £270,000! Don’t panic though because if you’re a first time buyer then you can pick up a bargain for between £180,000 and £240,000 – that’s right, property up to £240,000 is advertised as for first time buyers when the average salary on the island is around £25,000. Or to put it another way more than 9 times annual salary. So why is Isle of Man property so expensive?

In a word, yes. Next question. I’m guessing you would probably like a slightly more complete answer though as to what cruises visit the Isle of Man.

If there is one thing I find strange about the various cruise lines around the world it’s that so few even think about stopping in the Isle of Man. I’ve been fortunate enough to have been on several cruises in various places and to see people getting so excited about visiting ruins which, to be quite frank, are not a patch on what I can find within 20 minutes of our house. This may sound tongue in cheek but I’m being serious, the Isle of Man is a stunning destination for a cruise visit.

The Isle of Man has become a world renowned finance centre with a large number of support services in place. It is no wonder then that Isle of Man Company Formation is a hot topic, the Isle of Man offers a very friendly environment in which to do business which can result in large savings. For companies looking to expand their horizons into the middle east and even further afield then an Isle of Man company offers a very tax efficient way of doing this.

The Isle of Man is blessed with an abundance of naturally stunning coastline as well as some great sea life. As well as being a world renowned location for watching the second biggest fish in the sea, the Basking Shark, Manx waters are also frequently visited by many species of marine mammal. Perhaps most excitingly there has been an increase in Killer Whale sightings in recent years. It’s no surprise then that a lot of people would like to own a boat on the island. Buying a boat should be a very simple task, well you’d hope so anyway, however there are a couple of things to look out for.

Not a lot of people know this, well I guess if you live on the Isle of Man then you do actually, but our electricity is some of the most expensive you will find ANYWHERE. I really mean that, I’ve checked unit costs across lots of countries and it’s difficult to find anywhere that beats the Isle of Man in terms of consumer electricity costs. The current price of electricity on the Isle of Man is 14.62 pence per unit + 5% VAT – With a further 7% rise already agreed to come in to place in 2010 (that’s before we even get started with fuel prices)

In a word, yes. There are shops in each town that sell National Lottery tickets. To date there have been several large’ish wins from punters playing from the IOM. The Isle of Man can also benefit from National Lottery funding initiatives.

Due To Further Pressure On The UK Government A New RHA Between The Isle of Man And The UK Will Be Tested For 6 Months From April 2010, This Means No Change For Residents For At Least 6 Months

If you visit the Isle of Man and you live outside the UK then you should have travel insurance anyway. Most travel insurance includes medical expenses. Up until April 2010 if you lived within the UK and visited the Isle of Man then there would have been no need for any form of private medical insurance as the Isle of Man and the UK had a recipricol health agreement.

As more people turn to the internet for their shopping requirements it’s a question that gets asked over and over again. Does anybody do free delivery to the Isle of Man? The answer is yes. Several online shops do provide a free delivery service to the Isle of Man. Several more also only charge a standard delivery charge to the island and don’t take the opportunity to add on large amounts of extra postage. To keep things simple we’ll list online retailers who deliver for free and those who deliver at their standard rate seperately:-

I thought that it may be of some use to explain about self employment as a sole trader on the Isle of Man first, just in case anybody is considering going solo. I was very lucky to have a close group of well educated and experienced friends who have been down this road before. Without them I wouldn’t of had a clue as to how to go about working for myself. The Isle of Man government does very little to help those who are looking to become self employed as a sole trader, they are fine if you want to form a Limited Company but being a sole trader is a whole different subject. So here is my small guide to starting self employment on the Isle of Man:-