freelancing rates advice / 18 year olds in showers

date posted 16th January 2001 17:15

Daniel J Waters said something about:
>
And the begining of the film was someone buying the ... feeling and sight
of an 18 year old in the shower...


i am so THERE dude, in THAT SHOP, with my credit card ready, hoping it's an
18 year old girl, who plays netball, but not in a butch gay way, in a kind
of cheerleader with talent kind of way. In fact, my imagination just created
that very scene for free so i guess i've saved some money here....


for andrew and mulquem etc
****************
ADVICE for new freelancers regarding rates and tax. Apologies for stuff you
already knew.
If i'm wrong please let me know someone or i'm going to jail. :)
*****************

anyway, ltd company etc... I did that route but it got too much for my head
(no capacity for mental maths, or even physical maths really) so I persuaded
(duped) an unemployed friend to help me with the chores to keep accountancy
costs down. But I run a payroll too so that other semi-freelancers can be
part of my projects and get paid PAYE on an ad hoc or piecework basis.
We also registered for VAT because we get VAT back on vid cameras, PCs etc,
and most of our clients are registered too so they get the VAT back on our
services anyway
Nightmare of paperwork. Stupid government, stupid. No got computer, yet.

Basically, the treasury do not want you to do what you're doing, but they
haven't gone as far as banning it yet. They know we use it to get round tax.
But hey, f*** em i say, because if we weren't being enterprising we'd be a
burden on the system / paying less tax anyway. And we all aim to pay a lot
of tax really, because you have to if you want to be a millionnaire :)

So just keep records, pay tax (you might want to have an accountant sort out
your tax code for you - mine was mashed after 2 years of 5 jobs and no P45!)
and get ready for your head to hurt sometimes.

And you're doing the coolest thing possible, being your own boss, so stick
at it and don't let THEM take you back.

Also I agree with the text wizard, keep your rates high, it earns you more
respect than grovelling and bending over backwards. If they aint got much
money, they're a waste of your (now precious) time.

I quit a £22ph contract to set up SPLINTERPRODUCTS LTD and now we charge
£60ph basic. I kept working for some of the same clients - they didn't
complain, so go figure. Although of course there's the ultra cool
opportunities that come along that make money not so important, but don't
give in to a client because he says it's "good publicity" unless you're
really excited about the work and have a surplus of cash.

You only need worry about money if you're shy or your work sucks.

Love from
Mark "i'm an expert at this i've done it for 3 months" Harold :)