Time to congratulate yourself on taking that all-important first step. Next up, what obligations will you need to fulfil?
There’s the obvious one of scheduling when you will need to let the Government know about your new business. More of that in a bit.
A personal obligation is to set a pricing structure. How much is the skill you offer worth? What is the industry standard for this level of work?
Having a spreadsheet ready for when work begins to come in has proved beneficial to me. Column heads such as, ‘Date the job started’, ‘Date the job finished’, ‘Name of client’, ‘Amount agreed with client’, and ‘Total number of hours spent on the job’ have offered the administrative side of my business a good initial platform.
Including ‘Quotation number’ and ‘Invoice number’ as well will ultimately prove a wise move, and is key information that the Government may need to know (certainly the latter) when it comes to filling in that all-important self-assessment tax return.
From those I have conversed with, it seems we all know an accountant, or someone else who has already had to fill in a tax return and therefore can be of help to you. If you aren’t familiar with such people, then that is where LinkedIn can help!
Additionally, I have found the www.gov.uk/set-up-business website very useful to date. It also helps you to distinguish the parameters of your business.