General Advice For Freelance Work

Business
1

Hi there,

I’m a University student who is entering into the Freelance sector and I was wondering what advice you could all give me to help me along the way. At the moment I have quite a few questions, some of which relate to the UK only.

At present I do not have many “clients” but I do have an online portfolio with a range of University work and some print work and websites I have produced either for my course or for a local organisation.

I have some knowledge of business and legal issues but I was also wondering about VAT registration since I have heard that it is incredibly difficult to find work if you are not registered and it is also something I have wanted to do anyway.

  1. When looking for work, is it considered bad practice to research a number of different industries, check out the websites and contact the companies either by email or letter to offer my services to improve it?

  2. When registering for VAT, would it be better to represent myself or appoint an accountant to deal with my accounts and VAT-related issues? What are the benefits of doing this?

  3. Do I also need to register as a business as well as registering for VAT or is this one and the same thing?

  4. How do I go about protecting myself from clients who continue to ask for more work to be done without further payment? Are there any template documents I can use to draw up a list of terms or would it be adviseable to contact a solicitor to draw one up for me?

I know some of these questions are quite long-winded and complicated but since I’m just starting out I need some help :slight_smile:

Cheers,

Shoxt3r

2

I think it’s worth recommending this website: http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/

It’s not specifically for web professionals but they have a lot of really useful information in regards to freelancers / self-employment and running a business. :slight_smile:

3

1: I wouldn’t think it considered bad practice to actively chase new contracts just be professional in all your dealings.

2: Depends how well you understand the accounting side. If you are not that confident get an accountant. Save all paperwork throughout your tax year(bills reciepts etc) so they can do the best job for you.

3: Depends how you want to set yourself up;

 Sole trader - register for tax & NI within 3 months at local tax office
 LTD company - register with companys house

Both cases registering for VAT is another process - tons of info at http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/

4: As everyone has stated tie it all down as much as possible written and agreed. If for no other reason than when (and I do mean when not if) a client wants to add more to the requirements than originally stated you can show that it has not been costed and re-price the job.

4

Good questions.

Contact companies directly if you think it wil generate work but that sounds stressful and time consuming to me, depends on your situation.

I registered for VAT for two reasons, 1) makes you look more professional 2) I occasionally hire sub contractors and it’s useful to be able to recover the VAT they charge me.

Protect yourself against scope creep on a project by clearly establishing the scope of the project… I do it on an adhoc basis and rarely use contracts, I probably should though.

5

When looking for work, is it considered bad practice to research a number of different industries, check out the websites and contact the companies either by email or letter to offer my services to improve it?

There are some good resource to find the answer to your question:
http://freelancefolder.com/how-to-approach-big-clients/
http://freelancefolder.com/five-simple-tactics-to-find-new-clients/

When registering for VAT, would it be better to represent myself or appoint an accountant to deal with my accounts and VAT-related issues? What are the benefits of doing this?

http://freelancefolder.com/a-bookkeepers-tips-for-freelancers/

Do I also need to register as a business as well as registering for VAT or is this one and the same thing?

That would be the same, in order to do business, you need a VAT-number.
I assume you need to follow a course to get your certificate of business management or something like that, as we need to do in Belgium. Without the certificate, we can’t apply for a VAT-number without an accountant.
Even if you’d hire an accountant, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to take a course of that kind.

How do I go about protecting myself from clients who continue to ask for more work to be done without further payment? Are there any template documents I can use to draw up a list of terms or would it be adviseable to contact a solicitor to draw one up for me?

There are numerous examples of designer and developer contracts available on the web, just google for it.
The most important aspect of a contract is to protect yourself, and thén your client.
Working with milestones and advance payments works best, in my experience.

Freelance Folder turns out to be a great resource for this kind of questions.

6

I can’t answer your first three questions since I don’t live in the UK.

Your 4th question refers to what we call “scope creep”. The way to minimize that problem is to make sure that project requirements, time frame, milestones, and performance standards are clearly defined. I make sure that performance standards detail, not only what the client can expect from me, but also what I need from the client to get the job done to their satisfaction.