Questions for Self-Employed / Freelancers

Presumably, and this could just be the voice of naivety enquiring, if you do massively overpay one year then you get a rebate in the fullness of time?

you can probably request one but typically they just knock it off of next year’s bill, which is still somehow more than you expected.

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What a load of cock.

Might go into freelance ventilator manufacturing instead.

This is a pretty straightforward explanation of the payment on account stuff

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Thanks, this is really helpful and unusually illustrative for a government website!

Sound advice - it is so easy to just think that you’ll have a big payment coming through down the line when HMRC want you to pay up

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Hello.

I’m giving early thought going freelance/setting up my own company.

One of the things that worries me is that if I create a proposal for some work, then if that work comes in straight away then happy days, but in my business it’s not uncommon for there to be a delay (awaiting something else), or if I start a project but then have to put it on hold until something else is done). Not only does that use up time (and typically I’ll be working on fixed price) but it can cause scheduling issues and have to turn down or delay future work and it all becomes a bit of a nightmare.

So I guess my question is how do you avoid this being an issue? How do you set up payment plans (or interesting contracts) to avoid the impact of delays on their side from harming you? My main concern is ending up with 3 jobs all requiring intense work at the same time when I tried to spread them out. Don’t want to turn the work down as it destroys the client relationship. I guess I could then sub it out to another freelancer but not always idea.

Thanks!

hard to say without knowing the specifics but i’d say get one job lined up and then make the jump?

juggling projects and having three on at once and then having nothing for ages is just kind of part of it :grimacing: especially when starting out. can you start out by taking on smaller jobs and moonlighting?

From experience talking to friends and acquaintances who are freelance.

Learning the art of saying no is vital. Being able to professionally turn down work as you’re too busy is infinitely less damaging than doing a bad job as you don’t have time to a client relationship. And better for your own mental state too.

Definitely have at least one job lined up before jumping.

Network hard.

Speak to someone who understands contracts to make sure you get a good one sorted out to use.

Don’t he afraid to chase payment.

thanks! + @anon42112221

Some ideas, some of which I’ve used and some I haven’t, might be more or less helpful:

When you quote you can say “this quote is valid until [date]”, say two weeks, and the client has until then to accept your terms, including any time frames. If they don’t reply then they’ll need you to issue a new quote with new time frames. In my industry it’s not uncommon to be asked for a quote for a job then the client disappears for weeks/months and comes back to accept the quote, by which time you’ve taken on other work and can’t fit it in.

For most new clients, I ask for 50% to be paid upfront before I start work and the remaining 50% within a month of delivery, then at least I’ve received something if the rest goes to pot. This usually involves three-figure and very occasionally four-figure sums though, so if you’re looking at more money than that then a payment plan split into 10% or 25% portions could work.

You could also add on a surcharge for delays or some sort of “insurance” clause, so if the project is delayed or cancelled within X days of the scheduled start date then the client owes you X amount (which, if you want, could be repayable if the project goes ahead when you are available and not working on another project).

But also like eric says, feast and famine is often part of it, so it’s a good idea to have a buffer of like 3-6 months’ money to keep you going in case of dry spells. Tbh I only managed to save up this much in like my 4th year of freelancing, but if it’s there it means you don’t have to scramble for work if nothing comes in for a few weeks and means you don’t feel the need to take jobs with rubbish conditions and you can remain available for the good projects.

Seems like the right place to ask:

I was booked in for a couple of days work (remotely) today and tomorrow, but have been ghosted; can’t get hold of the client at all.

It’s not exactly a new client but a different department I haven’t worked with before. I’ve met and spoken to the contact a few times, and they can be a bit flaky, but it’s made me angry that it’s been complete silence and I am missing a day or two pay when I could have done some other work.

Can I charge a cancellation/no-show fee (I guess a % of my day rate) without them having signed anything to that effect before today? Or do I just need to suck it up?

(There’s the chance of course that it’s due to some kind of emergency/unexpected situation but I have also tried contacting one of their colleagues and no response from them either)

If you were booked in I would charge the full fee personally

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If they’ve agreed it in writing then yeah i’d just charge them for the time anyway. If not, you can try your luck but if you havent signed a deal memo or anything id say your chances are slim. Kinda depends what kinda client they are too. If theyre an ongoing source of income then kicking off over a couple of days might put you out of pocket in future. If they have form for this kinda thing then do your worst, you wont be the only one.

Didn’t realise Monzo have business accounts (the pro version you can invoice straight from the app). Just got the free version and you can make one of the pots a tax one, and if you set up Stripe through the monzo app you can then also take card payments really quickly (for the customer at least, hate stripe for holding onto your money for 3 days).

Anyway, I am not here for bank chat, I’m here for contract chat.

Don’t know where to start, have totally winged all my freelance work contractless but think I need to have one but don’t know what to put in it. It’s mostly research-based work, a bit of rebranding and that, some writing. Help.

What do you want the contract to do? Or is that what you’re wanting to figure out?

Yeah, I don’t know! At the moment, though it’s not quite the same work, I’ve only ever been annoyed over not having one when it’s come to cancelled work - wish I’d asked for a deposit, wish I had a cancellation clause (which would obviously be ignored anyway but still). But think if I’m setting up and giving the illusion of being an agency then I need to have some proper terms to send when agreeing work. Guess it just needs to be about deliverables doesn’t it, dates and that.

Yes, it’s really just being clear about a) what you’re doing for them, b) what they’re paying you, and c) what happens to (b) if (a) changes.

I’ve used some contracts off template sites in the past, but the advice is always to get an actual lawyer to look it over. M used to be a lawyer but not a contract one so she always said I should get one to do it but we only ever did when the project was big enough to make it worthwhile. And actually, iirc the client created the contract in that case so it wasn’t quite the same.

This (https://www.freelanceuk.com/documents/Freelance-Agreement.pdf) seems like a reasonable starting point (as in, I can skim it without my brain falling apart through boredom) and you could just add specific clauses to make things like deposit/cancellation terms explicit.

Having said that, simply having a clear set of policies/terms&conditions so your clients can easily see and know what they’re agreeing to will likely achieve the result of you not getting stiffed by cancellations as effectively as having an official contract would.

On a slight tangent - there is also the Late Payment of Commercial Debts Act (Late commercial payments: charging interest and debt recovery: Interest on late commercial payments - GOV.UK) which allows you to charge interest on late payers. It’s 8% above the base rate :slight_smile: And I’ve found it’s been quite handy to put a note about it on invoices as it encourages people who try to put off paying until they have to to be a little more prompt about it. The template contract above doesn’t mention it but I think it’s something to put on.

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The Enterprising You service should be able to help you with that.

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