Rachel Soothill | Resources,Technology
If you are creating your own website there are a lot of factors to consider besides the look and design. There are certain elements that are repeatedly used among successful sites which have been tried and tested. Here we give you a rundown of the major elements that you should bear in mind when planning and developing your website
With the ongoing shift towards employers using freelancers / contractors instead of employing PAYE workers and employees in the current uncertain climate, we look at how small business owners can get the best out of their relationship with freelancers, for the benefit of both parties.
Rachel Soothill | Lifestyle & Time out,Resources
Do you tend to gather more resources than you can practically use? Such as all those saved reading lists, e-books, training materials and blog posts you’ve been meaning to read for the last six months? The trouble with all this ‘really useful stuff’ is that it can clog up your workspace and also take up valuable time.
Jen Stakes Roberts | Resources,Technology
I’m noticing over here on the other side of the Atlantic that the British freelancer community seems less enamoured by Google Plus than their US counterparts. I could speculate for hours why that might be: probably some mix of American enthusiasm for anything new and shiny, British cynicism of bandwagon-leaping, and perhaps just something pessimistic in the water at the moment.
One of the keys to securing some of that lucrative repeat business is to make sure your clients remember you. If you design their website, you want them to leap from their chairs and yell “let’s call Geoff!” when it comes time to make some alterations, rather than “who was that web guy? George something?”
18 months after the fit note replaced the sick note in April 2010 we look at how they’re being used and if they have fulfilled their brief.
Sarah Evans | Getting a Job,Resources
When you work in a regular job what’s expected of you, from your working hours to your job role, is clearly laid out when you’re hired. Freelancing is completely different though as even with the best planning, you never know what you’ll be doing from one week (or even one day) to the next.
Jon Norris | Getting a Job,Resources
Scoring new clients can be tricky this time of year – most people have already mentally checked out for Christmas, making new projects hard to come by. That makes it all the more important that you’re able to hang on to those clients who do come knocking during the holiday lull. Here’s five easy ways to make sure you keep hold of any new business until January comes around.
James Leckie | Getting a Job,Resources
When times are tough, people tend to be less choosy about the type of contract or freelance assignment they take on. Those slightly dull roles you would avoid during the boom times might seem more enticing when work opportunities are less plentiful. However, in both boom and flat times, there are some jobs you are better off avoiding altogether.
Rachel Soothill | Events,Resources
Christmas can be the toughest period for freelancers despite all the joy and cheer it brings. There are many issues and concerns that arise during the festive season that affect freelancers. These dilemmas include…
As you have probably heard, mass public sector strikes are occurring today in protest of the Government’s pension reforms. Around three million public sector employees are walking out (many of them protesting in London) in an attempt to throw out reforms that would see their pension contributions rise dramatically, as well as push back their retirement age.
We’ve chronicled at length why a sole trader may choose to form a limited company. It could be to keep a little more of their earnings through increased tax efficiency, or it may be to give them financial security through limited liability.
Rachel Papworth | Resources,Working From Home
Working from home is one of the things many freelancers love about our working model. No morning or evening commute. Eating healthy, home-cooked meals instead of expensive, shop-bought lunches. Not spending Saturday mornings queueing at the sorting office for parcels that arrived while you were out.
Rachel Soothill | Getting a Job,Resources
One of the main aims when you carry out just about any project as a freelancer is to get repeat business, to ensure you have regular work coming in as time goes on. However, you will find that in a lot of cases repeat business can be hard to find.
If you were to take on board all the advice online on things you should avoid while starting a business, you’d most likely end up sat in a dark room clutching a blank piece of paper, quietly weeping. Obviously, this is a terrible business model. Sometimes it’s more helpful to focus on the positives.
Sending out B2B (that’s business-to-business) email marketing can be a key tool in helping you accumulate clients and to increase awareness. However, it is also a difficult activity to get right. Most of your recipients will be pushed for time and will undoubtedly receive an abundance of similar emails every day.
If you’re a freelancer or contractor and do the majority of your work on your own, you’ll have no doubt encountered the odd unproductive day. You know the kind of thing – you have a million projects to take care of, but the lure of daytime TV is just too much, and no matter how hard you try you just can’t get any meaningful work done.
Jen Stakes Roberts | Resources
Risk management. Sounds terrifying. It also sounds like something that only big business does, or maybe people who plan really big events, like the Olympics, wars or taking a class of 9-year-olds on a school trip. Surely it’s not something that freelancers need to worry about, is it?
As freelancers we often get caught in ruts, get distracted or lose focus on our goals. So for this post, I have unearthed 35 inspirational quotes that will hopefully help get you motivated and have you feeling geared up to kick ass and take the freelancing world by storm! Alternatively, it might just help bring a smile to your day!
Last week software developer Serif released a new piece of research showing that some small businesses are spending over £1,000 on developing their company websites. The motives for this survey were obviously self serving, however the press release raised some interesting questions.
Commanding higher fees and more loyalty from your clients is crucial to any freelancer. We all want people talking about our services and enough work to pick and choose. If you want to achieve this there is one thing that you should put at the heart of your relationship with your clients and that is trust.
In everyday life surprises can be a lovely thing, in business however they usually mean that you and your client have different ideas about key areas of your current project. This often leads to you needing to charge more than your quote to finish the work, or working at a loss to deliver the completed project in a way which satisfies the client.
Your brain. Resplendent in it’s awesomeness; it has many distinct advantages. Without the weird array of half remembered crap it keeps locked up in it’s squidgy folds you would be a gibbering vegetable and would almost certainly fail hard at everything you did. However there are a large number of techniques and tricks you and your business can use to make your business, tactics and marketing better.
Although some freelancers may find it more difficult to obtain a good credit card than a full-time employee, there’s a lot of disinformation flying around about freelancers and credit cards. Here we’ll bust three common myths.
With the News of the World phone-hacking scandal still in the headlines, we thought we’d look at the question of what you should do if your client or boss asks you to do something illegal as part of your job, or you know that your Employer / Client is breaking the law.
In the same way that most people will pay close attention to the way they dress, how you ‘dress up’ your business deserves just as much attention. The visual identity you apply to your business will shape external perceptions and attitudes, playing a key role in the long-term success of your business.
Outsourcing has long been used by larger firms looking to minimise the cost and impact of certain operations and procedures on their company. At a time when the UK business market is uncertain, it is a service now being explored by many smaller businesses and SMEs who are looking to offset costs or seek expansion during a high-risk period.
Lesley Furber | Legal,Resources
A recent survey by the British Chambers of Commerce of 1,000 sole traders looked into their attitudes to hiring staff. Here we disect the report and see if there are any solutions to encourage sole-traders to take on staff.
As outsourcing becomes an increasingly used solution by businesses that lack the workforce, abilities or budgets to carry out certain services themselves, more outsourcing options are becoming available. The most common of which has been offshoring, which involves using services that are based outside of the UK.
Lesley Furber | Legal,Resources
With dismissal notices being given out by Shropshire Council to all their staff earlier this month, we thought we’d take a closer look at what this means and if it could happen more frequently in the current climate.
Richard Hall | Getting a Job,Resources
Penny Hunt, one of the best advertising planners I know, said to me recently “do you think that the time we spent on marketing was actually like gift wrapping the product and at the same time concealing it?” She paused and added “would we do it like that now do you think?” A resounding “yes” to the first’; a thunderous “no” to the second.
Jon Norris | Resources,Technology
As Twitter becomes more and more widely used by businesses both large and small, more time and brainpower is being poured into finding out what makes the social service tick, as marketers everywhere try in vain to find out what it takes to make something “go viral” (hint: you can’t). Of course, the secret to success on Twitter lies in the retweet – users passing your message on to their followers.
Following on from our article on bank charges for incoming foreign payments, some of our lovely Twitter friends asked if we could take a look at outbound foreign payment charges for those who use suppliers not in the UK. An important thing to bear in mind is that, much like with incoming payments, the recipient of your transfer may also incur charges on their end for receiving a payment from abroad.
Antoinette Oglethorpe | Getting a Job,Resources
If you are thinking about going freelance, you’re not alone. Over a quarter of a million people are likely to go it alone and turn self-employed in the UK this year, according to the Federation of Small Businesses.
Sometimes freelancers will find themselves doing work for foreign companies. Although this can lead to some interesting work, and the opportunity to do some travelling, it often carries with it the drawback of being paid in a foreign currency. If possible, you should always asked to be paid in your native currency, however sometimes, for whatever reason, this is not possible.
Selina Murray | Getting a Job,Resources
It may sound like something Victorian mothers used to advise their daughters about, but these days managing your reputation – or at least your online reputation – applies to us all. Reputation management these days refers to the practice of monitoring the internet reputation or online presence of a person, brand or business.
Jon Norris | Resources,Working From Home
Now the summer is here (or so we’re led to believe), its time to escape the dusty home office and take your work out onto the patio. Nothing is better than working outside on a sunny day, lemonade in hand. To make the most of the summer months, you could do a lot worse than pick up a few accessories for your garden office.
Selina Murray | Lifestyle & Time out,Resources
If there’s one thing we’ve learnt from Ryan Giggs in the last few weeks, it’s how not to use Twitter for business. Love it or loathe it (probably the latter for Mr. Giggs), Twitter can be a very useful business tool. If you work alone it can be invaluable for making connections.
Jon Norris | Lifestyle & Time out,Resources
If you follow us on Twitter (and really, why don’t you?) you may have noticed us chatting with Freelance Five. This new site, set up by freelance designer Mark Bowley aims to take all it is to be a freelancer – all the lost weekends, invoice chasing, personal successes and wonderful freedom, and boil it down into five concise questions.
Making sure you have an airtight contract in place before you start work for a client is important – perhaps the most important aspect of doing work as a freelancer. Without a contract in place you are leaving yourself open for a whole world of financial and legal hurt, and most freelancers learn this the hard way. But what should you include in a contract?
Its every freelancer’s worst nightmare. You find an awesome new client, agree on a brief, sign the contract, then one day you phone up to find all the staff have been let go and the MD has fled to the Caymen Islands. What can you do?
Jon Norris | Lifestyle & Time out,Resources
While most freelancers and contractors offer personal services – consultancies and suchlike – there are still a large amount of self-employed people out there who make and sell physical things. If you’re going to be selling things, these days you’ll be nowhere without an online store!
One unfortunate side-effect of being self-employed is having to manage your own company finances. Nobody gets into freelancing to be an accountant (except, perhaps, freelance accountants), and chasing payments can be a colossal drain on time and morale. We’ve already published a straight-forward guide to getting paid on time, but what happens if your clients refuse to pay?
Jon Norris | Getting a Job,Resources
Let’s face it, you need business cards. They’re great for networking, showing off to friends or casually flicking out the car window as you drive down the street in the hope you’ll score a new client or two. But you know what sucks? Paying for business cards.
In my quest to find a work space outside the home office and where I can’t satisfy a strong desire to vacuum every three hours (classic procrastination, not mild OCD), I was invited to a ‘We Show, You Tell’ evening by brand new co-working space Central in Bloomsbury, London.
The weather is getting warmer, and the birds are starting to sing – that can only mean two things. Firstly, it’s spring! Secondly, it’s time to bust out the business cards and the messenger bag, because conference season is almost upon us! If you’re looking to do some networking and learn a thing or two from some of the biggest brains in the business it’s a good time to be alive.
After suffering a short bout of cabin fever as a home-based PR consultant and writer, I’ve been keen to join a co-working space – those hip, buzzy, networking joints full of freelancers looking hip and buzzy but really just wanting to escape the cat stepping over their keyboard every five minutes.
Around two weeks ago a cadre of UK entrepreneurs, with backing from some big corporate partners, launch the Start Up Britain campaign. The aim of the programme was to stir the UK’s entrepreneurial spirit and encourage more people to strike out on their own by offering what the organisers called a “£1,500 support package”.
If you’re travelling when doing business, you’ll probably want to claim mileage expenses. This can be done in two different ways. Firstly, if you’re operating under your own Limited Company you can claim tax-deductible mileage expenses (more information on this in our Guide to Limited Company Expenses). Alternatively, you can negotiate mileage allowances with a client as part of your contract.
Jon Norris | Resources,Technology
External hard drive? Those things are heavy. USB stick? So last year. These days the vital and thrusting freelancer uses cloud storage to keep themselves mobile and ensure their work is backed up. But which service is the best? We’re looking into the benefits, drawbacks and intricacies of the main contenders to let you know your options.
Mel Dixon | Resources,Technology
A new report by SEO specialists Clickscene, has revealed that 40 per cent of commercial businesses in the UK are ignored by search engines. Further to this, 91 per cent are not using pay per click services and a third don’t get any traffic from search engines.
Clients can be hard to please, for a gazillion reasons. Sometimes it’s your own fault, and sometimes you just know you’ve got a difficult client.
Either way, you will eventually encounter a client who is unhappy with your work. They may be reasonable about it, and give you plenty of chances to get it right, or they may react negatively, and try cancel your contract.
SPACE is a co-working space with a difference. While most of the shared offices we’ve come across are utilitarian rows of desks with power outlets (albeit usually with some trendy flourishes thrown in), SPACE is just that…a space. It is geared towards artists more than developers, and has a thriving community of creative people who use their services every day.
There are three different types of working individuals but deciding someone’s employment status can be complicated as there is no single legal definition. Our advice is updated for 2011.
Here is a quick guide to help you establish your status – if you are an Employee, Worker or Freelance.
Jen Stakes Roberts | Resources,Training
With the gloomy economic outlook in the UK, there’s been a lot of talk recently about Freelancers rescuing the economy with their flexible working practices, ability to tap into global markets and the safe bet to employers of short-term contracts.
Jon Norris | Getting a Job,Resources
A perennial problem for the UK freelancer is finding jobs online. There are a million jobs boards out there, however most of them are US-centric, and UK freelancers can lose out be being paid in puny US Dollars. There are a few good national UK jobs boards out there, and literally hundreds of local boards.
Jon Norris | Resources,Technology
If there’s one thing the internet is good at its democratisation. Whether it be Wikipedia, file sharing, or blogging, the web has put a great deal of power back in the hands of the people. Now that same ethos is starting to filter down into services that would traditionally have been from one huge, faceless, costly provider.
The reason I ask is due to a recent study carried out by Harvard which has apparently discovered that if you sit in a ‘power pose,’ not only will it have a positive effect on others, it will also benefit you directly. You will be rewarded physiologically, mentally and emotionally. Apparently.
I guess at this point you will be asking: what is this ‘power pose’? And how can I perform it?
Next week we’ve got a very, shall we say, impassioned piece from Tim the office curmudgeon who has been saddled with the task of reviewing CVs from recent applicants. Poor old Tim has been having such a horrid time with the applications he’s been getting that we decided to remind everyone that when pitching for a position or new client, a paper CV isn’t your only option.
In a nutshell this is a book about communication and how not to do it. As a particularly blunt and tactless individual I thought this might help me temper my natural desire to be right all the time…. but it has not (apparently). Persuasion is a generally interesting book but it is purely for those people who like the self help genre and does not stray from the core readership market or attempt to engage the business reader.
Isn’t the internet wonderful? You can go shopping without ever leaving your house, you can speak to people the other side of the world, and, most importantly, you can get loads of useful stuff for free!
We love co-working – it’s the perfect asset for freelancers and contractors, and you get to keep your freedom while also having a nice, professional office setup.
Michael Rose | Getting a Job,Resources
The Design Council has uploaded a couple of very interesting expert advice videos.
Part of their excellent resources section the videos feature interviews with top UK design talent and their advice on starting up a design business and how to deal with client relationships. Mostly relevant to newbie designers but a lot of the advice is relevant to anyone creative thinking of starting up in business.
Lesley Furber | Guides,Resources
The new Equality Act came into force on 1st October 2010 and replaces all previous equality legislation. The Equality Act covers the same groups that are protected by existing equality legislation, however, these groups will now be called “protected characteristics” (PCs). The new Act also extends protections to some other characteristics and introduces other changes. Updated for 2011.
Michael Rose | Getting a Job,Resources
From organising and getting prepared to polishing your product and your pitch, here is a list of tools that will help you make your move to freelancing as as efficient and seamless as possible.
Jon Norris | Guides,Resources,Technology
Software comes in many different flavours these days. The majority, from Microsoft, Apple and the like, is closed source – meaning the developers don’t release the source code their software is based on, which helps them protect both their intellectual property and bottom line. A growing percentage of software, however, is Open Source, meaning the developer releases the source code for anybody to poke around in and change as they see fit, and, most importantly for you and I, the software is almost always free.
Michael Rose | Resources,Technology
I can’t count the number of times I’ve needed to know the exact dimensions of a piece of A4 paper. It’s not something I need all the time, so it’s not in long-term memory, and it’s certainly not worth printing out and keeping by my monitor.
If I’m at my laptop I usually Google for the answer it but its always frustrated me that I can’t just have everything I need in one place.
International Paper Sizes is an ideal resource for looking up a variety of paper standards. It’s ideal for anyone working in graphic design, illustration, printing, export and packaging. And me.
As a freelance writer, I often browse the internet for useful websites which relate to the art of putting one letter in front of another.
One of my favourites is Explore Writing which is aimed at aspiring writers whilst also being useful for any writer at any level.
Ian Ozsvald | Guides,Resources
Monetising your knowledge is a core skill for freelancers – making money whilst you sleep is a necessary step forwards as you build your freelancing career.
Professional Screencaster Ian Ozsvald shows us ways of making money by screencasting. This post follows the earlier tutorials on Communicating more effectively and raising your profile through screencasts.
Ian Ozsvald | Resources,Training
Building a visible profile is essential if you want to receive a steady stream of readers and referred clients. Demonstrating your knowledge with screencasts is easy and is a very effective way of showing visitors that you’re on top of your game.
Professional Screencaster Ian Ozsvald shows us how short online tutorial and demonstration videos are a powerful way to raise your profile. This post follows the earlier tutorial on (Communicating more effectively with screencasts)
Ian Ozsvald | Resources,Training
Getting your message across to customers and clients is vital and, as a freelancer, communicating clearly and effectively with can make a big difference to the success or failure of a project or product.
Professional Screencaster Ian Ozsvald shows us how short online videos are a powerful way to get communicate clearly.
If you’re a razor-sharp freelancing PR professional then you may want to take advantage of a recent partnership between the Professional Contractors Group (the ‘Voice of Freelancing’) and the Public Relations Consultants Association.
In our continuing quest to offer a helping hand to freelancers and contractors, we’re offering you the chance to get a special discount on membership to the PCG (the Professional Contractors Group) thanks to an exclusive promotional code.
As a freelancer or contractor, it can often feel like you have to do everything alone in terms of running your company and finding new clients. If you are working full-time for a company, you have your colleagues and all the support departments and resources available to help you do your job. When you are working on your own, it seems like there is no one out there.
However, there are many resources for freelancers — some paid and some free, which can help you both to run your freelance business as well as with business development and finding new clients. Rahul Nag investigates some of the best freelance resources.
HMRC Start Up Diaries
The latest installment of HMRC’s [Start Up Diaries][] is now available to view online, offering freelancers, contractors and small business owners a unique insider’s view into setting up and running a new business.
Build Better Business Cards, with 25% off from Moo.com.
Starting today we’re looking for the most impressive, creative or cunning uses for business cards.
Got a great idea, or a card you’re already particularly proud of? Show us what you’ve got and the best will win a complete set of cards.
Darren Fell | Guides,Resources
A must read for Freelancers and Contractors. Rarely do you pick up a book that answers all the questions. Not only does the new Contractors’ Handbook answer them in detail, it goes into areas I hadn’t even thought about – despite creating and running several successful businesses.
Starting out in business can be scary. Not only are there new procedures and systems to get used to but also are rules and regulations that are now your responsibility to understand and observe.
This concise guide gives you an overview of what you need to do to protect you, your business, your employees, your intellectual property and your customers data.
Michael Rose | Money,Resources
If you’ve read the tax overview and know what to expect this guide gives you a simple to understand guide to Self Assessment, National Insurance contributions, VAT, employing others (PAYE) as well as some of the help you can get in the form of Allowances, reliefs, incentives and Tax credits.
Essential reading if you’re starting out and struggling to understand tax and self-employment.
Michael Rose | Money,Resources
To help launch our new Resources section we’ve teamed up with Business Link and the HMRC: Over the next few months we’ll be offering the latest advice, guidance and short videos from the people who know.
If you’ve recently gone self-employed or are thinking about working for yourself this first PDF guide will give you an overview of initial questions you might be asking yourself when planning on starting a business.
The number of freelancers is steadily increasing across the UK and I have no doubt that freelancing is going to continue growing at a strong rate. If you work as a freelancer or are considering going freelance then you need to know where freelancing is heading. Unless you live on another planet it is impossible [...]
Whatever you decide to call them, having someone to act as a commercial reality check in your business is invaluable. Finding someone with business experience who is prepared to meet and make you accountable could make the difference between meeting or missing your targets. Benefits So how can a commercial coach/Non-Exec type person help your [...]
Lesley Furber | Guides,Resources
Did you know that part-time employees and workers have the same employment rights as full-time employees (and workers)? You do not have to work a minimum number of hours to qualify.
Lesley Furber | Guides,Resources
Up to date information about Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) and your entitlement to it. New information in 2010 on Sick notes and ‘Fit’ Notes and our advice is updated for 2011.
Lesley Furber | Guides,Resources
All Employers are required to have a grievance procedure for employees to use, in case you are unhappy with any of your working conditions. This article explains how the procedure should work and is updated for 2011.
In part one and part two we looked at the marketing process and what you are actually employed for, e.g. the way you think respectively. Today we look at how to identify the unique features of product, you. Understanding the product – You, Your Abilities, Competencies & Transferable Assets Many of us realise that every [...]
In Part One of this series, Bill Faust talks about how important it is to understand basic marketing principles in learning how to Pitch Yourself. The question he asks now is do we know why we are employed? Deciphering the needs of the buyer Most of us think it is because of our experience, this [...]
In this series, Bill Faust, author of Pitch Yourself, shares insights gained from over 30-years of industry experience. He discusses key factors for effective self-marketing, understanding what self-marketing means, reading your future employers’ desires and defining clearly what you, the product, have to offer.
