However, one thing they have often never been before is a Sales person. A lot of people forget that once you start up on your own – it’s not just your job you have to be amazing at, whether you are a specialist in IT, Chocolate Making, Hairdressing, Deep Sea Diving, Singing, Teaching, Joinery – you now have to also become great at Marketing, PR and Sales. This can be a massive shock to the system.

So what direction do we usually steer them in?

It’s a well known fact that people like doing business with people – which is great news for the friendly freelancers, as it means their services might be chosen over a faceless, larger corporation. But your face is important – get it out there.

Networking (especially if you live in a city like Aberdeen – which has a ‘everyone knows everyone’ mentality) can get your name (and face) out there and can introduce you to some essential contacts for the future. Never forget to just be yourself, don’t be afraid to engage and chat with strangers – they are simply a friend you haven’t met. Listen and talk in the correct proportions and make an effort to learn about other business people – knowing how you can help them and they can help you is a great resource. You wouldn’t go on a date with someone that spent an hour talking about their best feature – engaging in Business Networking is the same.

(Embed Links) BNI, Aberdeen Business Network, Grampian Chamber of Commerce, Business Network Scotland, and for the ladies… Scottish Women Into Business,  and Connect925 – are some of our recommended international and local networking groups.

Social Media!

Use Twitter, Linkedin, and Facebook, even the phone and email. These are all excellent resources for you to follow up with people you have met in real life, but are also avenues to great online communities of people whom you can help/can help you in real life. Following Up is essential – meet someone once and you’re likely to forget them – follow up and they could be the connection that leads you to your dream client in the future, or you could be the doorway to theirs!

All social media takes time, and it’s up to you to develop a structured plan detailing which resources work best for your business and how much time investment you can manage.

Want advice on something? Shout via social media – you’ll be amazed how willing to help the world is.

Like anything, building a good client base takes time and effort, but it’s worth it, often making the difference between a profitable, rewarding and engaging year, and a lonely penniless one!

If you meet people who need your services and you know you can help them – don’t be afraid to offer! Honesty is the best policy – tell someone if they are your dream client and that you’d love to help them, show them you are excited about their business, it’ll spread!

So what are you waiting for? Dive in, the results are lovely!

It used to be that banks & investors would look for 5 year projections! That was back in the 90’s when the business world was a little bit more predictable and a lot less disruptive than it is today. Trying to figure out what will happen in 6 months, never mind 5 years, is hard enough given today’s markets!

However, if you’re writing your plan with a bank or investor in mind they will expect you to provide forecasts for the next 3 years. The key to this, is making your assumptions very clear. They know, as well as you do, that this is crystal ball stuff, however they want to see that you’ve really thought this through and the assumptions you make are central to that.

In our experience, where people get it badly wrong, is in the forecasting of sales. And if the income is wrong then the whole thing falls apart. So take time to think through where your sales are going to come from, what the costs are (people, sales, marketing, distribution) if you will be to achieve those sales, and what (if any) the stock-holding implications are for your business.

The other thing to think about in sales forecasts is the seasonality and / or growth of your business. Too often I’ve seen a sales forecast that says we’re going to turnover £1.2m, which is then split £100k per month. Eh, no you’re not! This has never happened. Ever. In the history of the world. Your sales will build up; you’ll have peaks & troughs; December might be quiet (or incredibly busy!). Think about it, and build that into your plan.

Costs are pretty easy to predict, but remember to include everything. People tend to forget Employers National Insurance, however at 12.8% of your salary bill that’s a big number. Go through your costs in detail. Think of everything. Then do it again. I guarantee you’ll have forgotten something.

The last thing to include, if you’ve been trading for a few years, is your previous years’ accounts. And if you have them, do a comparison summary – that will help to sense-check your forecasts.

My final piece of advice is to get professional help. As accountants we’re good at doing this sort of thing. It will still be your plan, but we know how to build financial projections, and can ask you the questions, based on our experience, that need to be answered. The plan will also hold more sway with the bank or investor if they know that your accountant has helped to prepare the numbers.

The pressing need to find new and better ways to support startups and encourage entrepreneurship and community social responsibility has been answered with the global phenomenon that is crowdfunding.

Crowdfunding is actually not a new invention, it has been around for hundreds of years, but has been propelled into the forefront by the explosion of social media. As users of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn grow, so do the opportunities to reach out for support.

The model is remarkably simple but incredibly effective, it is micro patronage, or grassroots funding; tens, 100s or 1,000s of people donate £10, £15, £50, £100 or more to ventures in return for treats, gifts, even a simple, public ‘thank you’.

There hasn’t been anything as disruptive to the funding landscape in decades, possibly even since the advent of banking.

But crowdfunding isn’t a threat to banks, angels or VCs, it’s an on-ramp for businesses who need something to get them started, before anyone else would consider supporting them. Think about the student or recent graduate, or mortgage laden inventor, someone who’s created an amazing piece of technology but their debt means the banks are reluctant to lend.

This is where crowdfunding comes to the fore.

It’s a simple process – you create an exciting online pitch, tell the story of why you need the money, and why people should be a part of your journey, you create a series of compelling rewards and then you reach out to your networks to ask them to support you. It takes time and it takes effort. You need to engage your family and friends in the first instance, create a mini campaign, and work hard.

So it’s clear that crowdfunding is shifting the paradigm away from the usual sources of finance.  But it isn’t just about the money.

With a crowdfunding project you get proof of concept, you can gauge the market appetite for your product or service, you have a database, a community of engaged customers who are actually paying you to start up. You can build an order book, pre-selling your product as rewards, so you demonstrate demand when you go for next stage funding. And importantly, there is no equity release, you retain complete control of your company which is essential to put you in a stronger position to negotiate with angels and VCs further down the line.

So, you might be thinking I’m well established, I don’t need money for my business. Well you can use crowdfunding for other worthwhile purposes too, there’s a huge social and community opportunity to be seized through crowdfunding.

Donor fatigue is a common problem in small communities, but with crowdfunding you can widen the donor pool and reach out to the Diaspora, people who have moved away from the area but who maybe still have family there or memories that keep them tied and supportive.

You can also engage with young people more easily – GenY are not only engaged in social media, they live it, breath it, dream it, can’t be without it, and as already explained, social is the catalyst for crowdfunding.

It also creates CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) opportunities.  Companies whose values show a desire to support their local community and a determination to demonstrate their CSR impact in their annual report can tap into the crowdfunding model.

Employees who are given time and small amounts of money to volunteer within the community can use Bloom to raise additional funds from a wider audience.

The reach, enhanced by social networks, is much wider than simply asking local people to support and when the target is reached – or even exceeded, as often happens – the final sum can be topped up or matched by the employer; it’s a double impact for the charity or community group and allows the company to make an even bigger gesture than perhaps they could have done before.

Crowdfunding is revolutionizing how we raise money, and will ultimately change the funding landscape permanently.

If you’d like more information about any of the crowdfunding opportunities mentioned here, please visit www.bloomvc.com or email michelle@bloomvc.com

And if you don’t have a project of your own, please make a promise and support the fantastic projects we have on Bloom.

Cost: It’s far cheaper than desktop software and uses a pay-as-you-go model

Quick Setup: You don’t have to mess around installing stuff, you’re up and running straight away.

Whilst both of these points are valid, there are so many more benefits to using online software that don’t get mentioned often enough.

Let’s have a look at some of them:

Always On

With software on your desktop, it’s only running when you use it. As soon as you click that red X, it’s dead. It doesn’t exist and it can’t do anything until the next time you double click its icon. Web-based software is always on.

So what?

Why should you care that it’s on if you’re not using it? Well, lots of reasons actually.

Firstly, it means it’s able to receive information. So via APIs and other technical jiggery pokery it can receive data from other systems such as your phone, a website, PayPal or an ecommerce system. It can keep itself up-to-date without you having to lift a finger.

It can do stuff. You might be down the pub downing tequila shots but your software has just noticed it’s the 1^st of the month and you’ve got customers to invoice. So it automatically raises  invoices and emails them to your clients. It can even take payment automatically and update the invoice to say it’s paid. Or perhaps an invoice is overdue? It can email your customer and chase them for payment. You’re going to need the money now that you’ve moved on to the cocktails

Access From Anywhere

With Sage or other traditional software packages you can only access it when you’re at your computer. With KashFlow and other online applications you can access it from anywhere with an internet connection. So you could be catching up on your accounts whilst on the train or raising an invoice before you leave your client site.

Can you imagine only being able to access your emails from one computer in one location? Why should you accounts be any different?

Free and Hassle-Free Upgrades

Proper web-based software is really just one program with lots of people using it. So when the company upgrades the software to add new features or fix a bug it happens instantly for everyone at the same time. You don’t need to worry about downloading files and working out how to run them or worry about losing data. It just happens.

Stunning Service

Search for KashFlow on Twitter and as well as obscene tweets about the US rapper with the same name you’ll also see people raving about the great levels of customer support we provide.

Let me pick on Sage again. You buy their software and pay a big chunk of cash. They’ve got your money and they don’t care about you until you’re ready to buy something else.  For us, and every other online software company, it’s very different. You only pay us a small monthly fee so if you were to cancel after just a couple of months then we’ve probably lost money by dealing with you (we’ve got marketing costs too you know!). That’s why we bend over backwards to help you whenever you have any questions  – regardless of whether it’s 11pm on a Wednesday or 8am on a Sunday.

There are many more benefits to online software than just the above, but hopefully this has shown you that it’s not just about cost. No wonder freelancers all over the world are flocking to web-based software and abandoning downloads and CDs.

What do you want from your accountant?

• Opportunity to offset business expenses and increase take home pay?
• Highest Net Return?
• Fantastic value for money?
• Total control over your finances?

That’s what you get with Freelance World.

Does your current provider swamp you with spreadsheets? Do you have to check your bank account daily? With our monthly business snapshot we do it all so you don’t have to.

We will have you working so tax efficiently that our costs will be covered by the money we save you.

Many accountants offer a low fee for a very basic service that appears attractive at first but on close inspection does not offer everything a contractor needs.

Our team are experienced in the specialised needs of oil and gas contractors and can advise you on IR35, MSC and other relevant legislation. You can contact your account manager as often as you like, or you can access all your records any time via our online portal. You can also save £100s with our exclusive insurance discounts.

Compare us with the alternatives and then choose !

One thing you probably didn’t know about Twitter: 42% of users are aged between 30 and 49. Not only that, they are likely to be educated professionals.

So, even if you’re not a fan of Lady Gaga, you should almost certainly be using Twitter as part of your marketing strategy.

Twitter is a microblogging site where users broadcast their status in 140 characters. However unlikely it sounds, Twitter has transformed the way businesses communicate and is part of a larger revolution where communication has become a two-way stream and user-generated content is king.

Twitter can be used to build awareness of a brand or business, it can be used to generate sales leads, and it can be used to retain customers.

It is also crammed full of jargon such as retweets, at mentions and hashtags. Don’t let that put you off though, once you get the hang of it, it can even be fun!

To help you make the most of it, here are some tips:

1. Decide what you want out of it – set some objectives
2. Commit and use it regularly
3. Be yourself – twitter users can sniff out a fake!
4. Don’t sell or shout
5. Engage – have conversations
6. Add value – provide useful information
7. Mind your manners – always say thank you
8. Help people
9. Add some personality
10. Measure the results – are you meeting your objectives?

You’d have to be a hermit to have avoided the news about Rangers Football Club going into administration this week. It’s been all over the news, with wall to wall coverage on social media channels and the printed media.

Putting aside the emotion that football generates, and I’m writing this as a St Johnstone supporter, what are the lessons that can be learned from this debacle?

First of all, for the contractor community, there’s a very direct link. For several years now we’ve seen some accountancy providers pushing offshore EBT schemes, “guaranteeing” that they will enable contractors to take home upwards of 80% of their income. This is substantially more than would be taken home even using the most tax efficient, legal, structures in the UK. Understandably perhaps, a number of contractors have gone down this route.

However, HMRC have challenged Rangers’ use of offshore EBT’s to pay players & staff, believing this to constitute tax aviodance. HMRC have gone back over a decade and levied a claim of some £49m. By the time penalties are added Rangers are looking at a claim of around £75m, and that’s before legal costs!

For an oil & gas contractor earning the industry average day rate of £540, and operating under an EBT, an HMRC claim for tax avoidance, over a ten year period, would amount to almost £150,000. Add penalties at the same rate as Rangers and you’d be looking at £225,000.

You wouldn’t be insured for this, so you’d have to foot the legal bills yourself. Lose the case and you’ll end up on the tax payers Blacklist. So as well as losing your home and most, if not all of your assets, you’d never get credit again, assuming you can work your way out of this hole.

Worth the risk?

The other interesting angle in Rangers’ demise is that the reason they went into administration this week wasn’t the EBT case, although it would have led them there anyway (it’s going through the Tax Tribunal at the moment), it was due to some £9m of unpaid taxes since new owner Craig Whyte took over last May. The £9m is made up of VAT, PAYE tax & National Insurance Rangers have deducted from their staff but not paid over to HMRC.

I’ve seen a few SME businesses go down this route over the years, and in these recessionary times when bank funding is difficult to get your hands on, I would expect more to follow. But as HMRC have shown here, it won’t be tolerated and you’ll be in court facing a winding up order before you can say Super Ally!

Our advice is that as soon as you think you may have cash flow problems, speak to your accountant. We’re trained in how to deal with these situations and can guide you through the maze. It was no surprise to hear that Rangers had been working with Administrators Duff & Phelps for several months as they trying to work their way out of the mess.

So, plenty lessons for all to take on board. I’m just hoping that with their ten point deduction we can overhaul them and get the mighty Perth St Johnstone into the Champions League next year!

Why is maintaining a good relationship important?

If a friend calls you for a chat or keeps asking you to meet them for a coffee and you continuously fail to meet up or answer your phone, you’re not going to get the best out of your relationship with them. Eventually, they’ll feel you’re not making an effort and will stop trying. The same can be said about your accountant; if your accountant is asking you for information about your records or has queries about your business and/or financial transactions and you take a long time  to answer these (or even ignore the requests!), you can’t possibly expect to get the best service they can offer.

A relationship is a two way process, and both you and your accountant should put in the effort to maintain it. If you are not in regular communication with your accountant at least once a month, you should consider switching as they are not making the effort you deserve. On the flip side, if your accountant has tried numerous times to contact you, with no reply, or is not getting answers to their queries, then I wouldn’t expect them to keep trying; they would rather focus on clients who they feel they can add value to. After all, if you tried to contact your accountant to no avail then you wouldn’t be keen to continue with them either.

What should you expect from your accountant nowadays:

It used to be the case (and actually still is for the majority of traditional accountancy firms) that your typical accountant would speak to you a handful of times a year to request your financial information and then prepare your accounts/tax returns and charge you a hefty fee without adding any real value to your business. You would pay to meet your accountant, and would usually clock watch, knowing that each minute would cost you. You would also be charged for any time they spent on the phone or emailing you (similar to an architect or lawyer).

At Freelance World, we think your accountant should be much more than a number cruncher or simply someone who minimises your tax liability. Don’t settle for a poor service. Your accountant should be:

• Understanding – The accountant should understand your business, how it works and your vision for the future.
• Flexible – available to meet at different times – including out of hours.
• Pro-active – taking an active interest in your business and offering you advice.
• Contactable – Through different communication channels such as Skype, Twitter, Facebook etc.
• Plain talking – there’s no point in paying someone to help with your business if they speak to you in a language that you can’t understand (namely Accountancy Jargon).
• Enabling – Able to help you grow your business, advise on financing, asset investment and business strategy.

What your accountant expects from you:

• Keeping good records – I wrote about this in a previous blog post. If you keep bad records, it is going to take your accountant more time to work through them, and therefore cost you more.
• Timely answers to queries – If your accountant sends you a list of queries or a request for information and you are not in regular communication (or indeed neglect to send it altogether) then don’t expect your accountant to stick around. The service they offer is only as good as the information they are given.
• Honesty – Be completely honest with regard to your transactions and your level of knowledge. If you don’t understand something then NEVER be afraid to ask. Your accountant (if they are good) should be willing to explain anything without jargon to ensure you understand it.

As with any relationship in life, it requires that both parties work together. Make sure your accountant is working for you –  and you’re providing work for them…

…and you will be a match made in heaven!

First of all, E&Y stressed that MSC had not gone away, and although there have been very few cases under the legislation, HMRC are still keeping an eye on the sector. For the moment their focus is on the umbrella sector. However, contractors should ensure that they are compliant – something that all Freelance World clients can take comfort from due to the work we have done with KPMG and E&Y over the years.

There is also a very strong rumour that HMRC is planning to abolish the Flat Rate Vat Scheme, which most of our contractor clients benefit from. E&Y believe that they will not be able to do this due to some obscure law, however if that is the case then E&Y suspect HMRC will simply adjust the FRVS percentages to remove the profit opportunity.

Finally, E&Y spoke about offshore schemes. We’ve seen a couple of accountants hawking these around Aberdeen recently – they typically promise that you’ll be able to keep up to 82% of your income via these complex arrangements. HMRC are increasing their activity in this area, and unless you are genuinely a non-UK resident then expect to hear from HMRC if you’re using one of these schemes. With heavy fines & penalties being applied, the old adage that if it looks to good to be true, it usually is, seems apt here.

Non-payment for work for many of these self employed people can mean no food on the table, and a disheartening feeling that they have slogged their guts out for, literally, nothing in return. Not to mention that, with the current economic climate, businesses can go bust due to lack of payment from debtors.

Would these same customers go for a delicious meal at a top restaurant but then scoot away without paying – goodness me! No! That is against the law! Then why, you ask, is not paying for services or products created for these clients any different?

Often freelancers want to know what their rights are in this situation, and it usually boils down to a legally binding contract. Without both you and your client signing a contract, there is nothing to stop them not bothering to pay you – as frustrating as that is.

Our in-house Compliance Advisor, Nosheen Bashir, MBA, knows the importance of a compliant contract, being in charge of administering contract reviews for our clients, and states the following:

‘The importance of having a contract in place between all entities within the contractual chain protects you and the relationship with your clients.  More important is to ensure that as freelancers you are paid!  A recent study by the Freelance Union found that 40% of freelancers polled went unpaid when their clients refused to pay them fully for work performed. See full study here.

A written contract sets out the framework for a contractor’s working arrangements and defines the terms of your relationship.  It provides legal protection and, where there are disputes, for example with regard to non-payment of services, a written contract will expedite matters, as the agreement would normally clearly set out what the client’s obligations are.

Not having a contract in place could severely delay any disputes being settled and it is much more likely that a contractor would need the professional services of a solicitor in order to settle such disputes.

In terms of IR35 legislation (relevant for Contractors) it would make it very difficult for the contractor to assess their level of risk with the absence of a written contract and business operations will be more intensely inspected by HMRC and is less likely to go in your favour.’

Thanks Nosheen J. As a side note, it’s a good idea to have clauses in the contract to ensure that either half money is paid before work begins or that there is a clause to ensure that if money is not paid work will not begin/continue.

So, where on earth do you get this legally binding contract to use –well, we highly recommend discussing this with a lawyer who specialises in contracts.  It might sound expensive – but one meeting with a lawyer could provide you with a contract that lasts you for years – and saves you large amount of money in unpaid work. If you already have contracts in place, and the client still refuses to honour them, think nothing of phoning, emailing and writing numerous times to this client and even visiting them in person to ensure that you obtain payment. Ensure that you have given them definitive deadline dates for payments, so that you are acting reasonably and fairly.

I hope not to offend you with a swear word – but it is a truly emotive topic that people are passionate about – and I think this smart video by American Designer, Mike Monteiro, of Mule Design Studio (muledesign.com) really tackles the issue of non payment for services, specifically for the Design Professional. Click here to watch the video: ‘F*ck You, Pay me’ – the morals of the story are ‘don’t leave money on the table’ and ‘know your rights’.

To finish here’s a guide from FreelancerFolder on 5 reasons a Freelancer should have a contract:

http://freelancefolder.com/do-you-need-a-contract-for-freelance-work/