Be Your Own Boss - Self Employment - Russell Smith

Self Employment 

Notes from session on self employment:

• A person a can be on tax records as both self employed and employed.
• Tax has to be done independently when someone is self employed

3 Types of self employment:

• Freelance/ Self Employed 
• Limited Company 
• Not for profit 

A limited company is backed up against bankruptcy - also seems more official and gives commercial credibility as some companies only deal with limited co.

First £10,600 earned is tax free - So one can still register without paying tax

Number to register - 08459451515

UTR - National insurance class 2 - £2.80 a week 

Self employed people get an element of tax back -

Tax that is claimable - train, car, bus etc. to see exhibitions or clients. 

car petrol - 45p per mile

Food isn't - unless away from home 

If a business makes a loss it can be rolled forward to the next year so that they pay less tax.

or the loss can be claimed against employment for tax rebates.

If you don't account for all expenses the earnings can be artificially high, which leads to paying more tax.

Tip - save 18% of earnings for tax and most of the time will be covered when tax bill comes.

5th April - Beginning of tax period 

don't pay tax until after a year and a half. 

31st January - 10 months of tax to pay at once & 50% of next years for the first year of paying tax.

Have to submit tax return before 31st jan 

Retain for records:

• Sales Invoices / Paypal Receipts 
• Expenses / Receipts
• Bank statements
• HMRC
• Checks / Paying in books
• Grants/ Prizes / Rewards 

Sales Invoices 

Date sent 

#Number (sequential)

Customer 

Amount 

Payment terms

*There are no rules with sales invoices.

Pricing 

How much will you spend? 

- Over heads - Computers etc.

- Hourly Rate - Work this out from adding up the expenses 

Top 10 Tips 

1. The news is bad - mostly negative. Helps to ignore it and stay positive 

2. Be around positive people and make friends with good people

3. Who a customer buys from is better than what they buy. Your USP is your personality

4. Get good at sales and Marketing

5. Don't undervalue yourself - Value is what a person is willing to pay

6. Pay attention to money attributes  - Don't feel guilty about making money

7. Keep on top of cost: Maximise revenue, rise cost or limit resource cost/ sales income. More marketing.

8. Read, listen, learn as much as you can about business. 

9. Networking everywhere. Find out about people. 

10. Get a good accountant that works with creatives.