This post is provided by Jason Dirkham

2020 has seen increasing numbers of people turn to self-employed work. The job market is massively unstable right now, with countless companies collapsing and many workers being left to fend for themselves. Many people are being drawn towards self employed work as it gives them more control over their work and also provides the pretty convenient opportunity to work from home, which is ideal during a pandemic and lockdown circumstances. But getting started as a freelancer can be pretty complex. There’s all sorts to take into account and many steps are easy to miss. Here are a few of the basics to get you started off on the right foot!

Registering as Self Employed

If you’re planning on operating on a self employed, it’s absolutely essential that you register as self employed before getting started. This will help you to inform the government of your new mode of working and will ensure that you can file your tax returns at the end of each fiscal year. You can’t operate as self employed until you are officially registered.

Finding an Accountant

A good next step is finding a reliable accountant. Unless you’re a whizz with numbers, know the ins and outs of tax law and have plenty of free time on your hands around your work, an accountant really is an essential. They’ll be able to help you to understand exactly how much tax you need to be putting away as you go along so you don’t end up with a huge outstanding tax bill at the end of each fiscal year.

Creating a Productive Working Environment

When you’re an employee, your employer generally provides you with a productive working environment. This will generally be a desk in an office with all the equipment you need to hit your deadlines and meet your targets throughout the working day. But when you’re self-employed, you’re your own boss. It becomes your own responsibility to provide yourself with a productive working environment. Now, there are generally two ways to go about this. The first is to rent out your own office space. There are plenty of businesses that sell individual desks to freelancers in office spaces. But a much more popular and convenient option is to work from a home office. Now, you may have space for a home office already – perhaps a spare room. But if not, you don’t necessarily have to move into a bigger home. Instead, you can work with professional architects to create an extension or conversion that will provide you with a usable space perfect for purpose!

Finding Clients

Of course, when you’re self-employed, you entirely rely on clients to provide you with an income. So, you need to start building a client base as soon as possible. There are a number of ways to do this, but some of the most effective include:

  • Browsing job sites for appropriate projects
  • Signing up with an agency
  • Creating your own website to advertise your services

Freelancing really is an appealing option right now. But you need to make sure you do it right if this is a path that you’re considering taking! Hopefully, this article will help you to get the ball rolling!

This post is provided by Jason Dirkham