Your Business

Create a publishing empire from your home

Emma Jones | Managing business

 

Do you have content you would like to share with an interested audience of existing and potential customers? It’s never been so easy to package your content in a stylish way, and distribute it in a cost-effective way.

Enter the age of home publishing with Emma Jones.

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Easy Guide to End of Year Tax Planning

Paul Cleworth | Accountancy & Tax

 

While the effects of the recession on cash flow and business profitability are on the minds of most at present, the pending year end of April 5th 2010 provides an opportunity to ensure that your liability for the 2009/10 tax year is no greater than necessary.

In this year end tax guide, Paul Cleworth of Wealth Matters considers some of the ways you might act now to help you achieve a more tax efficient and secure future for you, your family and you business.

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Family friendly freelancing – tips and advice from a working mum

Linda Jones | Lifestyle & Time out

 

Agency director and mum of twins Linda Jones shares some expert tips on how to successfully balance the demands of a freelance career with those of a growing family.

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Long term investing for Freelancers

Paul Cleworth | Financial & Insurance

 

Successful long term investment is not just about buying low and selling high. Stock markets rise and fall, and share prices are vulnerable to everything from political news to the weather. Trying to find your way around – particularly during times of high volatility and uncertainty – can feel like negotiating a minefield.

So how can we make sense of such a confusing world? It is probably time to go back to basics – stock markets may rise and fall, but the rules of sensible investment remain constant. Wealth Matters’ Paul Cleworth gives us the low down.

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Top 10 tips for building trust as a freelancer

Michael Rose | Managing business

 

Steven Hearsum, change consultant and chairman for our National Freelancers Day event has written a blogpost about one of the key issues that arose during the debate: ‘How to Build Trust as a Freelancer’.

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Four tips for building confidence and marketing yourself

Dianne Bown-Wilson | Managing business

 

Isolation and winning new clients are two of the biggest problems for freelancers. Marketing consultant and freelance advisor Dianne Bown-Wilson offers some simple tips for what to do when you – and your business – need to get out more.

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Freelance Questions: “How do I set up a Limited Company?”

Michael Rose | Accountancy & Tax, Starting Out

 

Setting up a Limited Company is one of the smartest way to get paid for your work. With a Ltd you get to define your brand, own everything you do, run your business in the most tax-efficient way and pitch for work you wouldn’t be able to get as a sole-trader.

Some people, usually the folks at Umbrella companies, will tell you that setting up a company is costly and complicated but with low-cost solutions out there it’s a no-brainer.

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Freelance Advisor Event: “Be Your Own Boss”

Michael Rose | Events

 

Enterprise Thursdays are back this week with the diverse Freelancers Panel chaired by Darren Fell founder of Pure, Crunch and Freelance Adviser.

The panel includes Paul Bunkham an Internet Application Specialist, Leon Trigg a Documentary and Filmmaker, Jo Moore and Artist and Illustrator, Paul Silver a Web Development and SEO Specialist and Ellen De Vries a Writer and Creative Copywriter.

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Freelance Podcast 18: The sustainable freelancer

Andy White | Podcast

 

What would freelance sustainability look like? How can you take your personal business and brand beyond the bottom line into an ethical and sustainable business.

We talk to Carl Jeffrey, creative midwife and joiner of dots at FellowCreative, and Paul Anderson of Sustaina.

Read on for links to some of the great resources mentioned in the podcast.

 
icon for podpress  Freelance Advisor Podcast 18: The sustainable freelancer [23:41m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
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Freelance Business: The importance of planning

Alex Blyth | Managing business

 

Freelance journalist and author of ‘How to Grow Your Business For Entrepreneurs’ Alex Blyth writes about entrepreneurs and how they achieve success.

In this post Alex takes a look at a fundamental skill that all entrepreneurs need, the ability to plan and make progress towards long-term goals.

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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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Freelancing Fail: Do you make these 4 freelance mistakes?

Leif Kendall | Starting Out

 

When you’re a freelancer, stupidity can be expensive. It’s better to learn from the mistakes of others in order to avoid common pitfalls. Leif shares a few of the stupid things he’s done (or seen others do) so that you might avoid the same fate.

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How to start a health and beauty business

Emma Jones | Starting Out

 

According to retail experts, the health & beauty sector is in rude health; thriving, they say. So if you’re wondering which sectors present good options for a new business start-up, this could be the sector for you. Emma Jones offers facts & figures and some business ideas you might like to try.

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Small Business: Five steps to making a sale

Emma Jones | Managing business, Training

 

Without a sale we’re not in business and ongoing sales will spur the business to grow.

Emma Jones offers five steps on how to make a sale and keep the cash flowing.

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Working with clients: understanding briefs

Leif Kendall | Managing business

 

Are You Giving Your Clients Squid Eyes? (The Second Secret of an Awesomitised Freelance Life)

Bad-ass kung-fu copywriter Leif Kendall continues to reveal the secrets of an awesomitised freelance career.. Awesomitisation Part 2 explores the importance of understanding clients’ briefs.

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Freelance Coach: Still a sole trader? When is a good time to switch to Limited Company?

Daryl Close | Accountancy & Tax, Legal advice

 

Freelancing and contracting is becoming a normal work practice within our society but many people continue to work as a sole trader rather than through a limited company. Freelance Coach Daryl Close takes a look at how a limited company setup can help you

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Awesomitise: Discover the Radical Alternative to Searching for Clients

Leif Kendall | Starting Out

 

Finding freelance work and getting more clients is vital for your success as a freelancer. Killer copywriter Leif Kendall outlines his bold new marketing method.

Join the revolution!

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Freelance Technology: Computer security

Jim Hatley | Technology

 

If Hollywood sensationalism is to be believed, then every man and his dog are advanced cyber-terrorists who want nothing more than to drain your bank account, max your credit card, and maybe initiate nuclear war with an unspecified superpower. The truth is that the world of computers isn’t actually as dangerous as many people think, as long as you take a few simple precautions against potential threats.

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Going freelance: Four ways to get your family to support your freelancing career

Dianne Bown-Wilson | Starting Out

 

Choosing to switch from full-time to freelancing can be a tough decision and the change will go a lot smoother if you have the help and support of those closest to you. Freelance Advisor, Coach and Consultant Dianne Bown-Wilson continues her series of articles on freelance career development issues for freelancers and contractors. Nearest and Dearest [...]

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Freelancing FUBARs: 8 common mistakes

Laura Spencer | Starting Out

 

Freelance writer, editor and blogger, Laura Spencer shares her experience of going into freelancing and some of the mistakes and failures she’s seen along the way.

Freelance FAIL: 8 common mistakes

As someone who has worked as a freelance writer for nearly six years now, I’ve observed (and sadly made) many freelance failures. Mistakes can cost you [...]

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Five sites for monitoring your brand online

Rosie Sherry | Managing business

 

Look who’s talking: Monitoring buzz on the web As a freelance community builder and co-director of TheWerks web-socialite Rosie Sherry offers advice on monitoring your brand and filtering out the noise. Five sites for monitoring your brand online There’s no denying that the web holds huge amount of information. Most of it irrelevant to you or I, however [...]

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Additional information for Employers part 2

Lesley Furber | Employment Advice

 

In Part 2 of the ‘Information for Employers’ read about – What Employment Policies you need; Trade Unions and Consulting your staff; Problems at work including handling Disciplinaries, Dismissals and Grievances, Sickness Management; Giving References to previous Employees; Your Insurance needs and obligations.

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Additional information for Employers part 1

Lesley Furber | Employment Advice

 

In these two ‘Employers Information’ sections we give you additional information to help you run your small business, as of course employing staff can be complicated! In Section 1 we give you information about Employing different types of staff; Making a Job offer and Employment checks; The Employment Forms you need to use and Personnel records to keep; your Pay and Pension obligations.

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Pitch Yourself into the Freelance Market – Part 2

Bill Faust | Resources

 

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 is partly [...]

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Personal Branding for freelancers

Andy White | Managing business

 

What’s personal branding all about? Is it important? What does it mean? Where do I start? Do I really need a strong identity or even a logo for my freelancing business? Is it really necessary to make ME stand out from the competition?

Expert, Al Welsh, has had years of experience within some of London’s top [...]

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How to build a credible website

Kath Burke | Starting Out

 

You can think of your website as the modern-day equivalent of the Victorian calling card. Before your prospective client decides whether you’re worth talking to, they’ll have a good nose around your site.

And they might be asking themselves:

How professional is this organisation?

Do they have the products [...]

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