http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk News, Help and Advice for UK Freelancers, Contractors and the Self-Employed Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:00:00 +0000 # hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Copyright © Freelance Advisor 2011 feedback@freelanceadvisor.co.uk (Freelance Advisor) feedback@freelanceadvisor.co.uk (Freelance Advisor) 1440 http://podcast.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/artwork144.jpg http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk 144 144 News, Help and Advice for UK Freelancers, Contractors and the Self-Employed Freelance Advisor Freelance Advisor feedback@freelanceadvisor.co.uk no no http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/news/it-departments-responsible-for-12x-increase-in-ie6-usage/ http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/news/it-departments-responsible-for-12x-increase-in-ie6-usage/#comments Thu, 01 Dec 2011 10:00:00 +0000 Jon Norris http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/?p=16516 http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/news/it-departments-responsible-for-12x-increase-in-ie6-usage/feed/ 0 http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/freelance-technology/third-of-sme-closures-due-to-human-error/ http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/freelance-technology/third-of-sme-closures-due-to-human-error/#comments Fri, 04 Nov 2011 11:30:00 +0000 Jon Norris http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/?p=16172 http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/freelance-technology/third-of-sme-closures-due-to-human-error/feed/ 0 http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/news/are-local-councils-overspending-on-web-services/ http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/news/are-local-councils-overspending-on-web-services/#comments Thu, 17 Jun 2010 11:20:49 +0000 Mel Dixon http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/?p=6517 http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/news/are-local-councils-overspending-on-web-services/feed/ 0 http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/working-from-home/create-a-professional-welcome-while-working-from-home/ http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/working-from-home/create-a-professional-welcome-while-working-from-home/#comments Mon, 08 Dec 2008 08:29:05 +0000 Emma Jones http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/2008/12/08/create-a-professional-welcome-while-working-from-home/ http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/working-from-home/create-a-professional-welcome-while-working-from-home/feed/ 0 http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/freelance-technology/3-tips-for-disaster-recovery-backup-backup-backup/ http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/freelance-technology/3-tips-for-disaster-recovery-backup-backup-backup/#comments Wed, 19 Nov 2008 08:18:17 +0000 Jim Hatley http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/2008/11/19/3-tips-for-disaster-recovery-backup-backup-backup/ http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/freelance-technology/3-tips-for-disaster-recovery-backup-backup-backup/feed/ 4 http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/podcast/2-things-you-must-do-to-prepare-for-freelancing/ http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/podcast/2-things-you-must-do-to-prepare-for-freelancing/#comments Fri, 08 Feb 2008 11:17:05 +0000 Andy White http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/2008/02/08/2-things-you-must-do-to-prepare-for-freelancing/ http://www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk/podcast/2-things-you-must-do-to-prepare-for-freelancing/feed/ 0 0:12:03 Andy talks to Raju Ajiz, an IT support contractor, about some of the first things you should consider before embarking on freelancing or contracting. Andy White: I’m talking with Raju Ajiz who has been an IT Contractor, specialising, in support f[...] Andy talks to Raju Ajiz, an IT support contractor, about some of the first things you should consider before embarking on freelancing or contracting. Andy White: I’m talking with Raju Ajiz who has been an IT Contractor, specialising, in support for 12yrs. Hello Raju. Raju Ajiz: How you doing Sir. AW: Now then Raju, what would you say are the top things that you need to do to prepare for freelancing? RA: Firstly most agencies that ask you for work insist on you being a limited company so you need to register yourself with Companies House. Most accountants will do that for you but if you do want to get your hands dirty then you can actually request the forms online from Companies House and fill that out and complete that yourself and I think that the cost to generate a limited company is around about £50 plus VAT. It is not an expensive way of doing things. Once you’ve done that, most agencies again, unfortunately we are ruled by our agencies because they are our prospective employers rather than the end employer so to speak, they insist on us being VAT registered and, there again, you should be able to do that online. HMRC are the people that deal with VAT. The only one thing that I would say with the VAT is please don’t mess the VAT people around. You must pay on time and be a good boy otherwise you do get hit hard with fines etc etc. AW: You sound like you’re talking from experience Raju. RA: Oh definitely. I mean, I think most contractors would have gone through the circle of ignoring people when they need paying and then, once you get hit with a few fines whether it be from the VAT man or the tax man, you soon tow the line so to speak. In my experience, I was a few days late and I think initially you get fined 3% on the value of the VAT and if you continue to do that it can go up to about 15%-25% and then it does give you a black mark so it’s good to be quite disciplined and I think if you start off quite disciplined it will benefit you as you go along. AW: OK well talking about money, how about bank accounts? RA:Yes obviously we need to gain the hard earned money that you’ve worked for and, these are specialised bank accounts. Once you’ve been made limited and you’ve got your VAT registration, you can hop along to most banks and most banks are pretty much and much. It’s just who you prefer and you will need some identification, your certificate of corporation etc. So basically off you go to your bank manager, he will do a credit check to see if you are worthy. I think you get credit checked for everything nowadays don’t you? AW: Yeh I think so. RA: Yep and then they should open up a limited company account for you. There again, one bit of advice on accounts, I would try and put transactions through, invoices etc, try and limit your cash withdrawals because obviously, you’ve got to be able to prove what those cash withdrawals are for so there again, I’ve fallen into the pitfall of withdrawing too much cash and have not been able to identify what it was for because us, as human beings, we normally don’t write records down etc so, there again, if you can be disciplined, if you can start off on the right note, so to speak, you would normally not have any problems at the end of the year. You can go through your bank accounts and look at all your transactions, hand it over to your accountant and he should be able to sort out your tax and VAT liability. AW: RA: So it’s very important to keep records isn’t it then? RA: Oh definitely definitely and I would definitely say that you should really have a weekly expense form or transaction form just so that you can remind yourself and it just makes life a lot easier. So if you spend about half an hour for the week, just completing this on your expense form you may be travelling so you may want to put down your mileage because you can claim that. I think currently at the moment it’s 42p or 40p per mile for diesel over 2 litre. Obviously, that particular criteria, you c[...] Podcast feedback@freelanceadvisor.co.uk no no