Lifestyle & Time out

Why a freelancer should embrace fear

Freelancing takes courage. No guaranteed pay cheque, no back-up team, no boss to give you guidance, no boss to take the fall.

No excuses – the buck stops with you. It took courage to take that first step into the freelance world, whether it was a bold and brazen stride with an armful of clients ready to commit, or a stomach-knotted plunge born of necessity.

Anthony Hewson gives us some inspiring advice on how to feel the fear and to use it to put some fire in your freelancing belly.

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Coworking: How Can You Live Without It?

Leif Kendall | Lifestyle & Time out

Copywriter Leif Kendall gives away his secret for happy and successful freelancing: coworking. If you haven’t tried coworking, you’re missing out on a wealth of potential. As a freelancer it’s an ideal way to get out of the house and be in an office, without all the extra baggage that comes with office life. Leif explains why co-working works for him…

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Freelance Stories – Web Designer & Developer, Jim Callender

Leif Kendall | Lifestyle & Time out,Managing Business

As part of our Freelance Stories series Leif Kendall talks with former Freelancer of the Year winner and founder of Callender Creates, Jim Callender. We find out how Jim juggles work in London and Brighton and hear how he found a work/life balance that works for him and his family.

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How to Use Twitter for Marketing and PR

Michael Rose | Editor's Blog,Lifestyle & Time out

At Freelance Advisor we’ve spent a lot of time sharing advice on how you can effectively use Twitter and social. As a tool for finding more friends, colleagues clients and work. We’ve discussed how to use it for Marketing your personal brand and for PR for your own company.

This cheeky little site has a different view…

HowtoUseTwitterforMarketing&PR

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Eight awesome ergonomic beds

Mel Dixon | Lifestyle & Time out

In a previous article, I talked about the importance of a good nights sleep for freelancers and contractors, and the most effective way to achieve that.

One important aspect I neglected to mention was the importance of a good bed. What follows is a list of the most ergonomic and practical beds currently on the market.

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Book of the week: Focus – The Power of Targeted Thinking

Michael Rose | Lifestyle & Time out,Managing Business

Freelancers need focus; without a boss to keep you in line and being outside a traditional workflow it can be hard to know where to focus your efforts. Combine this with the pace of modern life and it’s easy to get swamped and to feel that there just aren’t enough hours in the day. Not only is there a lot of work there are constant distractions, tweets, bleeps and pings pulling us away from our true goals and aspirations.

Focus: The Power of Targeted Thinking attempts to give the solution to all these feelings of confusion and distraction.

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Friday Fun – Office Gadgets

Mel Dixon | Lifestyle & Time out

Are you the contractor or freelancer who likes to be the cool, quirky guy (or girl) in the office?

Well if you feel you’re failing in your mission to stand out from the humdrum crowd, these following desktop gadgets are sure to make you the envy of your bespectacled bald-pated colleagues…

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Freelance Stories – Basecamp’s Jason Fried

Michael Rose | Lifestyle & Time out

We’re big fans of Jason Fried, creator of Basecamp and co-author of Rework. His Get Real column for Inc.com is a must-read for freelancers interested in freelancing, small business advice, for stories of struggle and success.

His first column for Inc.com, Driven to Distraction, is Fried’s fascinating tale of how he built 37Signals from his solo freelancing business.

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60-second review: Teux Deux – simple task manager

Michael Rose | Lifestyle & Time out,Technology

Teux Deux is a super-simple, sleek and stylish to-do list manager. If you like great design with a tiny pinch of minimalism then this might be for you.

Built entirely for the web you just sign up for a free account and start typing in your to-dos. To add a task you just type and hit return. That’s it.

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What are you willing to do for $5?

Michael Rose | Lifestyle & Time out

Whilst probably not the best place to find freelance work this cute new website, Fiverr.com allows you to offer the world something wonderful, as long as the price is $5.

The service works Like Twitter with short, quick posts, offering random acts of kindness — and odd jobs.

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Plugging the RSS time-sink

Mark Kirby | Lifestyle & Time out

Information overload is not a problem — we’ve been surrounded by too much information for centuries.

The real problem is ‘filter failure’.

Here Wordpress & Mobile Developer Mark Kirby outlines a very simple method for filtering website feeds and making the most of your time online.

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Online gaming. Disguised [Friday Fun]

Mel Dixon | Lifestyle & Time out

When your working day becomes a stultifying bore sometimes you need a form of respite. A brief sojourn can be provided by playing online games, but what if you’re working in an office with potential snitchers peering over your shoulder ready to cry wolf to their favourite boss?

Cant You See I’m Busy.com to the rescue!

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If you thought YOUR clients were bad

Michael Rose | Lifestyle & Time out

Part comedy, part tragedy, part therapy: Clients from Hell provides a little bit of light relief for those tense moments when the client is really winding you up.

Rather then venting on social media, bumming out your friends, colleagues and running the risk of the client spotting your angst why not post it annonymously, get your revenge and give the benefits of your pain back to the community.

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[Time Out] England vs USA immortalised in Lego

Michael Rose | Lifestyle & Time out

Re-live the awful, awful moment when Rob Green let the ball slip between his fingers… in full-colour LEGOVISION:

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Flexible freelancing – Have you bean to a Jelly yet?

Judy Heminsley | Lifestyle & Time out

Co-working offers freelancers both flexibility of where to work and also the chance to meet with like-minded co-workers and collaborators. Working from home expert Judy Heminsley recommends the Jelly approach.

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13 small things to simplify your workday

Leo Babauta | Lifestyle & Time out

“Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” ~Lao Tzu

One of the best things I did when I decided to simplify my life was to simplify my workday — first at my day job and later, by quitting my day job, in the work I do now as a writer and entrepreneur.

I’ve eliminated most of the routine, boring, administrative tasks with a few simple principles.

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Link list: Grand Designs, Shed-working & Receipts

Michael Rose | Lifestyle & Time out

Dribble.com – what are you working on?: Part game, part forum, part image library designers will find a lot of inspiration here and, if you’re really inspired you can bounce a piece of work to riff off the creation and join discussions about how to code the design in CSS — design geeks will LOVE it.

Shedworking.co.uk: Garden offices look set to become the next big thing in backyards this summer and with some beautiful off-the-lorry designs if you’ve got some money to throw at the problem it needn’t involve to much DIY.

Keebo promise to have your receipts online within 72 hours and offer a no quibble 90 day money back guarantee if you want to try their new service.

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Working from home — Avoiding isolation and finding motivation

Judy Heminsley | Lifestyle & Time out

When freelancing or starting a small business and looking to keep costs down working from home is the obvious solution.

There’s also a downside, though, and that’s the risk of becoming lonely and isolated, with its knock-on effect on self-confidence and motivation.

Continuing our #WorkingFromHome series Judy Heminsley shares her hard-won tips for overcoming the gloom of isolation and how to get motivated in the mid-afternoon slump…

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Procrastination – the energy leech

Judy Heminsley | Lifestyle & Time out

When I talk about home working to someone who is office-based, they reply, ‘I could never work from home. I’d spend all day in my pyjamas watching daytime TV.’ What they mean is that they’re afraid that away from the eyes of bosses and colleagues they’d never get anything done, that they would procrastinate.

The trouble with procrastination is that it drains energy from us every time we think about that dreaded task and then stuff it to the back of our minds again. Far more energy than it would take to complete.

So why do you procrastinate?

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Freelance Stories – Web Designer, Rowan Richardson

Leif Kendall | Lifestyle & Time out

In the first of Freelance Advisor’s freelancer interviews we speak to web designer Rowan Richardson, and discover how she succeeds as a freelancer.

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Freelance Coworking: Funny video with a serious message

Michael Rose | Lifestyle & Time out

A great little video with a simple message.

“Sure you can speak to me… but if I’m wearing my headphones you should come back later”

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Go Freelance! Making a living doing the things you love

Leo Babauta | Lifestyle & Time out,Starting Out

As Confucius said… “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”

As part of our new series on Making a Living Without a Job, productivity guru and professional blogger Leo Babauta explains that everyone can go freelance and earn a good living by doing the things they love to do.

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Overcoming overload: How to Avoid Feature Creep in Your Life

Leo Babauta | Lifestyle & Time out

There’s a concept in programming called “feature creep” — when a software developer continually adds one feature after another because “wouldn’t it be nice” and “why not” and “isn’t it cool” and “some users asked for it”. The end result is a bloated program that tries to do everything but ends up being not very good at any of it.

Leo Babauta suggests a few ideas for overcoming feature-creep in your life.

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Put a fire in your belly: overcome inertia, forget fear and get things done

Leif Kendall | Lifestyle & Time out

Is something holding you back? Are you contemplating change, but struggling to make the leap? I can’t tell you how to motivate yourself. But I can write about the things that help me get going…

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Freelance Technology: How do you find co-working places?

Michael Rose | Lifestyle & Time out

If you are lucky enough to own an iPhone 3Gs and you are wandering around town trying to find a place to do a spot of co-working then this funky Augmented Reality app for iPhone looks like an awesome solution. thanks @stephenfry

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Freelance Poll: Do you use ‘I’ or ‘We’ when talking about your one-person business?

Michael Rose | Lifestyle & Time out

Web freelancer and email marketing consultant Jon Aizlewood has posed an interesting question and twitter-poll today. Click below to add to the poll and twitter a reply if you’d like to explain your reasons.

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Getting Things Done: How NOT to Multitask

Leo Babauta | Lifestyle & Time out

Single-tasking: getting more done by doing less.

Developing good, simple habits and maintaining a focused mind can not only help you stay sane but is way more efficient than multitasking.

Guest blogger and productivity-pro Leo Babauta tells why multitasking is bad and how we can avoid doing it.

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Home working: Spending your time wisely

Emma Jones | Lifestyle & Time out,Working From Home

Recent research has show that home workers and freelancers are more productive than their 9-5, desk-bound colleagues.

Freelance Advisor and Home Business expert Emma Jones takes a quick, efficient look at how you can make the most of your time in the home office.

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Freelance Productivity: ‘Making It All Work’ - Book Review

Michael Rose | Lifestyle & Time out

At Freelance Advisor we are big fans of finding smarter ways to work and many of the team have adopted David Allen’s approach to productivity and knowledge work.

Allen’s latest book, Making It All Work, helps illuminate some of the key ideas behind GTD, fleshing out some of the assumptions of his previous work and adding a new, streamlined approach to getting the core ideas across. The book works both as a primer for beginners that updates and in my opinion surpasses the original book as ‘the one to read and also a handy deeper exploration of the core princples and the sticking points that even GTD ninjas will appreciate.

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Thank God I’m Freelance – #TGIFreelance

Michael Rose | Lifestyle & Time out

Last Friday we experimented with the #TGIFreelance Twitter hashtag.

The idea is simple, just tell the world what you love most about freelancing and tag it #TGIFreelance

Remind yourself, and others, why it is you do (and love) what you do.

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TGIF: Thank God I’m Freelance!

Michael Rose | Lifestyle & Time out

Clients, in real life This video has been doing the rounds the last couple of days… it’s a very funny look at what clients can be like and shows just how ridiculous it would be in other industries. Well worth a watch.

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Freelance Productivity: Happiness is an empty inbox

Leo Babauta | Lifestyle & Time out

Email Zen: Clear Out Your Inbox

Our productivity guru Leo Babauta, pro-blogger and founder of the highly successful Zen Habits, gives us three top tips on managing email and keeping your mind, and your inbox, clean and clear.

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Freelance Productivity: Focusing on what is most important

Leo Babauta | Lifestyle & Time out

Purpose Your Day: Most Important Task (MIT)

Leo Babauta, creator of the highly successful Zen Habits blog shares a few tips on prioritising your freelance tasks and streamlining your workflow.

Getting things done… zen style.

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Freelance Life: Working away from home

Emma Jones | Lifestyle & Time out

New technology means it’s possible to work wherever you want. You’ve already decided you want to work for yourself and away from the traditional office, but now – with a few simple tips and tricks – you can enjoy unprecedented flexibility, and work almost anywhere, from your local coffee shop to the public park. Freelance Advisor and Home Working author and expert Emma Jones explains how.

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Freelance Lifestyle: Keeping fit and healthy at 50 plus

Dianne Bown-Wilson | Lifestyle & Time out

Being a freelancer is tough at any age. Ultimately you only have yourself to rely on so you can end up working long hours hunched over a desk or keyboard, taking in far more energy-boosting coffee and carbohydrates than you know is good for you. And that’s without smoking, stress, and alcohol. Over time all can be hugely punishing on the body and mind.

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Freelance Coach: Personality profiling and freelancing

Daryl Close | Lifestyle & Time out

Do you know the critical personality and behavioural traits that you need to exhibit in order to be a successful freelancer? You might spend a lot of time and energy working on your freelancing business but achieve little because you are not focusing on the key performance drivers. I’ve decided to improve your chances of [...]

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TGIF: Thank God I’m Freelance!

Leif Kendall | Lifestyle & Time out

Have you ever sat in a meeting about meetings, or a meeting to discuss an agenda, or a meeting to discuss the formation of a committee, or a meeting to discuss how the sales department should complete the new business acquisition form before giving it to the marketing department, and asked your aching brain: is [...]

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Freelance Coaching: SWOT yourself to success

Dianne Bown-Wilson | Lifestyle & Time out

Part of our ongoing Freelance Coaching series, author and trainer Dianne Bown-Wilson offers a simple tool for analysing yourself as a freelancer and the opportunities and threats to you and your business.

If your decision-making could do with a bit of a tune-up or you are facing new opportunities or an uncertain future then this simple technique can offer you insight into where your strengths lie and what needs your attention.

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Freelance Hacks: 10 Benefits of Rising Early, and How to Do It

Leo Babauta | Lifestyle & Time out

Leo Babauta of Zen Habits rises at 4:30 a.m every day. And he’s clearly insane! But before we roll over and pull the covers over our heads… lets hear some of the benefits and, if it sounds good to you, how you can make it a lasting, productive habit.

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Freelance Hacks: Do less and get more done

Leo Babauta | Lifestyle & Time out

As a freelancer with multiple clients, multiple deadlines and multiple todo lists it can be hard to know what to focus on next – so rather than choose we often end up doing two, or more, things at once. As part of a series of posts on Getting Things Done for Freelancers Leo Babauta of [...]

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Home office: One size doesn’t fit all

Jo Blood | Lifestyle & Time out,Working From Home

It’s no fun being average… but at least your desk and workstation have been designed with you in mind. If you’re above-average height you will know that it’s not quite so easy. Posture professional Jo Blood gives tall guys and gals a few hints on how to make their working environment work for them. Tall [...]

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Freelancing News: Freelancers urged to take Union survey

Kasey Brunt | Lifestyle & Time out,News

Media freelancers are being urged to take a wellbeing survey from the National Union of Journalists (NUJ). The NUJ survey aims to assess the well-being of freelance journalists based in the UK. Those who take part in the online survey will be asked questions about their work, and how their job affects their social life [...]

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Freelance Advice: Portfolio Working and how to go about it

Dianne Bown-Wilson | Lifestyle & Time out

In part one of this series consultant, coach and trainer Dianne Bown-Wilson explored the advantages of portfolio working. Today she helps us identify the tools we’ll need to put it into practice. Portfolio career: How to Designing a Portfolio Career comes down to achieving an appropriate and desirable balance in your life between need and [...]

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Freelance Advice: Make the most of your office chair

Jo Blood | Lifestyle & Time out

When working in a client’s office why is it the freelancers and contractors who always get the bum deal? Are you fed up with always being allocated the worst chair in the office? Our ergonomic expert Jo Blood gives us a practical guide to promoting good posture and making the most of your office chair. [...]

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Working from home: 17 secrets for success

Leif Kendall | Lifestyle & Time out

Ah… the life of a freelancer… feet up, TV on, sitting around in your dressing gown and your clients are none the wiser. But is this really the best way to approach your freelance and contracting work? Freelance Advisor and Web Marketing Consultant Leif Kendall asked the freelancers on the Brighton New Media list what [...]

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Tools for Time boxing

Michael Rose | Lifestyle & Time out

Mark Kirby’s piece on Time-Boxing for Freelancers this week got me thinking about all the time I could waste trying to find the perfect tools for the job. The irony of this is not lost on anyone I’m sure so, rather than waste unnecessary time on “productivity p0rn”, I thought I’d take Mark’s advice to [...]

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Thinking inside the box: A method for focusing on freelance tasks

Mark Kirby | Lifestyle & Time out

Getting things done throughout the day is what keeps the contracts and cash coming in. But how do we know which tasks we should be working on? And for how long? Freelance Advisor’s life-hacks guru Mark Kirby offers a smart solution to planning freelance work. In this post I’m going to focus on a simple [...]

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Freelance co-working, USA style

Darren Fell | Lifestyle & Time out

In this second article from the USA, Freelance Advisor founder and serial entrepreneur Darren Fell gets the low-down on the American co-working scene and some advice about the pitfalls of freelancer café culture. Wanting to continue the debate on the merits of co-working, I descend on one of the very first co-working establishments – the [...]

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Adding exercise to your daily routine

Helen Wilkinson | Lifestyle & Time out

Professional Personal Trainer and Massage Therapist Helen Wilkinson is on a mission to get us work-from-home types up off our butts and out there exercising. If the thought of getting out of your comfy swivel chair fills you with dread then read on… she’s got a few ides that might inspire you. Kick start your [...]

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Where’s your creative space?

Rosie Sherry | Lifestyle & Time out,Starting Out

Think freelance. Think freedom. Think about the 1 minute commute from your bed. Think working in your pyjamas. Think it’s perfect? Freelancing is often related to an improved lifestyle and work-life balance. Though the opposite often occurs. In today’s 24/7, always-connected world it’s all too easy to lock yourself away and lose track of what [...]

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Setting a real-life goal – 10 Top Training Tips for a successful Marathon!

Helen Wilkinson | Lifestyle & Time out

Fancy setting a real-life goal? Something that you will be so pleased about for years to come if you actually go and do it. Could it be as daring as climbing Mount Everest or possibly building a school in Africa? How about something a little closer to home that so many people enter into, do [...]

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A stress free way to manage all your chores

Mark Kirby | Lifestyle & Time out

In my last post I explained how to use the management tool Remember the Milk and how its important to write down everything you need to do. In this post I’m going to explain how you can take things further, and programme into your routine regular tasks which ensure mundane but essential stuff like cleaning [...]

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23+ ways to overcome insomnia

Michael Rose | Lifestyle & Time out

Us freelancers are prone to work overload! I have phases when my mind is like the inside of a very full washing machine on at full tilt. Or I have a worry that won’t go away and I fret at it like a dog with a bone. Result? Insomnia! That maelstrom of tossing and turning, [...]

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A holiday for your stressed mind?

Darren Fell | Lifestyle & Time out

Stressed, clients permanently on your case and a to-do list as long as the M1? It can happen to all of us, but it’s all too easy to get to the point where you literally do not know which task to do next, as each and every one is screaming “I’m a critical important task….Do [...]

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Life / Work Balance? The new lifestyle section launches…

Darren Fell | Lifestyle & Time out

Ok, so you’ve got your freedom and work for yourself but are you starting to find it’s all work and no play? Increasingly and particularly for freelancers and contractors projects often exceed initial expectations, or the drought of the early years has instilled a ‘grab it while you can’ mentality and there is simply too [...]

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How to remember everything you need to do with Remember The Milk

Mark Kirby | Lifestyle & Time out

In my first post I introduced you to the web application remember the milk (RTM) and to David Allen’s GTD methodology. In this post I will explain the most basic principle of GTD – write everything down so you don’t forget stuff – and how to do that efficiently using Remember the Milk. I will [...]

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Podcast #5: Five things you always wanted to ask your accountant – part 1

Andy White | Lifestyle & Time out,Podcast

Part one of an interview with Steve Crouch of SRC Chartered Accountants. Steve answers questions on such things as salaries, dividends, section 660, IR35 and VAT. Topics covered: Limited company verses sole trader; Taking a small salary with big dividends; Section 660 – profit share between spouses; Consideration to IR35; When to register for VAT; [...]

#5: Five things you always wanted to ask your accountant - part 1 [19:08m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Managing your Time

Mark Kirby | Lifestyle & Time out

Our resident time-management guru Mark Kirby starts the first of his regular columns with hints and tips on ways to better manage your time. The techniques Mark uses have enabled him to achieve far more in the week than he ever thought possible, and enabled him to feel more relaxed when not working… If your [...]

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