It can often be confusing trying to work out which jobs are likely to be paid as self-employed, and which as PAYE. Generally speaking it’s roles where people have their own tools, or where HMRC thinks you have to show “rare skill and judgement”, a jargon phrase that always brings a wry smile. A good
READ MORE >Posted on 01 August 2023
Losing a job through no fault of your own can be hard. But redundancy isn’t the end, it’s the start of the next stage in your life. I’ve been through redundancy (twice!) and have been training people how to set up on their own for 15 years. Below are some tips and advice. We cover
READ MORE >Posted on 01 September 2020
You may have heard that the government is changing the way that organisations determine the status of people they might hire to work for them – people like freelancers and contractors. This is commonly called the IR35 or ‘intermediaries’ legislation.
READ MORE >Posted on 13 January 2020
We’ve been hearing from a number of BBC leavers asking about what’s happening to our rather well-known ‘setting up as a sole trader’ course. This is because the BBC Careerlink service, which has been buying in our courses, shut
READ MORE >Posted on 01 March 2017
When I started my business (8 years ago) I benefitted hugely from free face-to-face advice provided by Business Link, the government agency designed to help small businesses set up and grow. Business Link still exists, but now it's a website (albeit a good one) and much of the training and free individual business guidance has
READ MORE >Posted on 03 October 2012
I tweeted yesterday that the King's Speech showed the value of the experienced freelance. Within a few minutes I had enough responses to demonstrate clearly that 140 characters are sometimes just not enough. So here' goes… There's a wonderful scene towards the end of the film where the King points out that Logue has no
READ MORE >Posted on 16 February 2011
Trying to keep up with technology is never easy. Just when you thought you understood the ins and outs of the latest flash recorder or editing software something else arrives on the market. Two things happened to me this week which got me looking into equipment and software for reporting and carrying out interviews. Firstly,
READ MORE >Posted on 26 November 2010
In amongst all the talk of cuts to budgets and freezes on spending, my eye was naturally drawn to today's story (for example in the Guardian) about changes to the funding of the BBC. Many papers (like the FT) have run stories focusing on the freezing of the licence fee for the next 6 years
READ MORE >Posted on 20 October 2010
The always fascinating BBC College of Journalism blog has a couple of new posts about the recent election coverage. Much discussion by a panel of journalists and political activists about the role of new media vs old. Not many conclusions, but it seems that new media (Twitter & Facebook) furthered the conversation, but didn't start
READ MORE >Posted on 15 June 2010
At this time of year it’s customary to look back and reflect on life while gazing into the middle distance (or into the bottom of a glass of mulled wine). But today I found myself nipping back about 15 years. I was transported by a fascinating – if depressing – article in the Guardian describing
READ MORE >Posted on 19 December 2007
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