Member advice on Self Employment > Reviews (11)

Its days like this that I really enjoy being self employed as the weather is naff and I can stay at home to catch up on paperwork, or whenever my daughter is off school ill, I can stay at home and look after her.
I don’t have to worry about having the day off or losing a days pay.

I have been self employed for the past 5 years and would now find it very difficult to have to go and work for someone else and not be the boss.

My title is Distribution Manager, sounds posh doesn’t it.
The work I do is contract deliveries to promote new products from companies or new businesses in my area.

At the moment I am in the middle of a contract promoting the new Nutri-Grain Elevensis Ginger Snack, you will probably see this soon advertised on T.V or on the shelves at the supermarket.
I also have a homepage (see under my picture for the address) where you can visit shopping sites to buy books, kids clothes, wines, amazon and avon products find romance or just play games to win prizes.
I get a few pennies everytime someone clicks a banner.
I also write on here and other similar site and am a member of other paid survey sites.

The first thing you need to set up as self employed is a Book Keeping Ledger, these can be bought at Stationary shops like W.H Smith.
You enter two columns in the book. One for earnings and one for expences.
Every time you earn money put the amount in the earnings column and list all your earnings in the other column.
You will be surprised at all the things which come under expences, therefore reducing your Tax bill at the end of the year.
Here are some of mine as a guide.
Diesel for work purposes.
Road Tax.
Motor Insurance.
Repairs on the car, tyres, services, parts, labour costs ect.
Mobile phone as I use this for work only.
House phone 25% of my quarterly bill is used to get contracts.
Stationary.
Postage.
Business lunches.
Advertising, this is for Internet charges, newspaper and shops.
If you have to hire premises you can also claim for the rates and rent, fortunately I work from home so don’t have these expences.
You can also ring the Tax office in your area for advice on what other things you can claim in your expences if you are not sure.

Every year you will be sent a Self assesment form to fill in and send back to the Tax office, don’t worry I often get mine filled in wrong, but they always send it back with the questions marked in red, where I have to adjust or have just missed out.
They are very helpful when you first start up.
If you haven’t worked for a full year you can then estimate your earnings and they will work your Tax out from these calculations instead.

You can also claim Working Families Tax Credit. I belive its about to change because of the budget, but this is also easy to claim for. You can ring your local D.s.s for a form to start up.
I claim every year but when I first started up I had to claim every six months. You have to send then a copy of your earnings and expences for the year, again they will estimate if you have only just started up.
There are other questions to answer, like how many children you have, people that live with you, how many hour do you work ect.

After you have sent this in you will have to wait a few weeks then they will write and let you know how much you qualify for, this amount can be paid into your bank account every two weeks or you can be sent a payment book to cash at the post office.

So there you have it, I find it all very easy to set up and love the freedom of being my own boss, if I want a holiday I can have one, as it doesn’t matter if I don’t earn for a week, my family credit will cover the running of the house bills.
The paperwork I moan about,but to be honest once I have got my head around settling down to do it, doesn't take too long and I always feel better once its out of the way.

I have also found that I can now pay other people to help me, if I get behind with any of my contracts and can put their wages through my books too.

I hope this has been of some help to you. I love being self-employed as the freedom factor is the best thing for me.