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Growing your business – going full time (case study)

09 Dec

Sneak preview of the image from my new bookWhen you decide to grow your business, one of the first things you can do, if you’re not doing this already, is go full time. Sometimes this can feel a bit scary, but I can vouch for the fact that working on one job is always easier than trying to commit to two, and it can be a very liberating experience.

My fellow-proofreader/editor/transcriber, Laura Ripper, has kindly put together this guest post about her recent experience of going full time. Although we’re both in the same line of work, Laura’s experiences can be extended into other freelance careers very easily. Here she shares the process and her experiences as she went through it – a very useful piece indeed!

Why did I do it?

My main reason for going full time with my part-time business was that I knew that working for myself, and the work itself, would make me happy.

Working for myself part time was always a step towards doing the same thing full time, but that seemed a long way off when I first set up my editing and proofreading business in 2012. I’d worked as an editor at Plain English Campaign in the past, so I was confident in my ability to do the work. But I’d never worked for myself, and barely knew anyone who did, so going full time straight away was too frightening.

Once I got started, I enjoyed my two days a week on the business so much that I knew this was what I wanted to do. It was just a matter of when.

When did I do it (i.e. what stage was your business at?)

I had been working on the business part time for a year when I made the decision to go full time with it. Although I had the skills for the job when I went part time, I had no idea about what was involved in running a business. I spent that first year developing a strategy, building up a good network of colleagues, learning from others, setting up business processes and building up clients. I built a website, marketed myself, and joined professional groups and organisations like the Society for Editors and Proofreaders and ProZ. I read business books specific to my profession, like Louise Harnby’s Business Planning for Editorial Freelancers and Liz’s Going it Alone at 40. The advantage was that I could do this while still having a regular (lower) income.

By the time I went full time, the business was at the stage when I had started getting referrals through word of mouth and I had a few regular clients. I was beginning to have to turn down work because I couldn’t fit it around my other job, and I seemed to be working most weekends, too! I had quite a nice mix of clients, and also had built up good relationships with other freelancers who would pass me work when they were too busy. I had saved up enough money to bolster my income during the first few months of going full time, when I thought that I might need it most. I had the confidence that the work was out there and that my clients were happy with the service they were getting, and I had seen how work volumes changed over the course of a year.

How did you do it?

Making the decision to go full time was probably the most difficult part of the process – once I had done that, I just got on with it and did it!

I made a list of pros and cons, talked about it with people who had been there before me, spoke to my family and friends, and carefully worked out my finances to make sure that I was being realistic about whether I was ready to go full time. There is so much help out there to set up a full-time business successfully, from books and courses to forums and informal networks. I learned the most from other editors and proofreaders who were further along in their freelance careers – not only about client management and business processes, but how to deal with things when they do go wrong. This really built my confidence, and continues to do so.

I was worried about losing my regular monthly income, albeit a part-time one. I overcame this by saving everything that I earned from the business in my first year and living off my part-time income only. This gave me a ‘buffer’ that I could tap into if necessary, and made me and my partner feel more sure about the whole thing. My business planning wasn’t perfect, and gut feeling played a part in my decision to go full time, too, but I did make sure I would be able to support myself if things didn’t go the way I hoped.

Once I had decided, I told all my clients that I would soon be available to take on more work, and during my last month of employment I worked almost every day to give myself as much of a head-start as I could. I had all the processes and equipment ready, so I focused on doing more work for more clients, and made sure that I planned and organised the work well and closely monitored how much I was earning each week.
When I look back at the ‘pros and cons’ list I made just before making the leap, I can already see there are some things I got wrong (I thought I’d have more time for training – not likely!) and some that turned out not to be issues at all (I worried my first month or two would be very quiet).

Benefits gained Pitfalls / disadvantages you experienced or saw coming and managed to avoid

Benefits

The main benefit for me is that I am happier and feel more fulfilled in my life. I love my work and most of my clients, and I enjoy a lot of the business aspects I was worried about, too. I find it really satisfying to work for myself and to feel that my life and work are not such separate parts of my identity. I know this doesn’t suit everyone, but it works well for me.

I expected going full time to be more stressful, at least at first, but in some ways it’s actually less stressful than being part time in two jobs. I’m now better able to juggle several pieces of work within a particular timeframe, so I can take on more work in total and can fit in urgent bits and pieces for regular clients. I’ve also been able to take on jobs that I couldn’t have said yes to when I was part time – for example, PhD theses that need proofreading in a couple of weeks. Taking on longer jobs also means less admin time per day.

I can be more flexible about fitting in networking now, and am able to attend events that I wouldn’t have been able to when working part-time.

Pitfalls

One pitfall I saw coming was the start-up costs – time as well as money. I managed to buy most of the equipment for the business during my part-time year, and I got time-consuming things like setting up my website and templates out of the way before going full time, too.

Working for yourself full time means less financial security – at the moment, I earn less than I did when I was employed, and I work longer hours to earn it. My target for my first year is fairly low (although on the up side I am meeting it every week!), and I do want to increase my earnings in the years to come. It’s probably best not to go full time just as the mortgage is coming up for renewal, or when you know you’ll be particularly hard pushed!

Time management can sometimes be difficult, particularly fitting in work that doesn’t result in a direct payment, like admin, training and marketing. I do make time for these things, but it is easy to prioritise paid work over everything else and that isn’t always best for the future of the business. I also do end up working some evenings and weekends to fit in with clients, which means I miss out on spending as much time with my family and friends. I hope that as I develop the business further, this will happen less and less often, and I have seen others move away from this as their businesses develop.

Would you recommend it to other businesses? Why / why not?

Yes. Going full-time assumes that you are part time already, and if you’re enjoying the part-time work, it follows that at some point you’ll want to go full time.

Moving from part time to full time is a big step if you are a fairly cautious person, as suddenly what was a part-time business has to provide all your income and pay the bills, but if you can manage to save some money to cover the first few months this is a huge help. There are pitfalls to avoid, but the wealth of advice out there can help you avoid them. For me, those that I can’t avoid are worth it in exchange for the satisfaction of building up my business and doing what I love.

Thank you for this honest and detailed set of answers, Laura! It’s always a hard decision to make when you enjoy your day job and don’t have to give it up because of redundancy, moving or being needed for family duties, as many of my Saturday Business Chat contributors have done. But there comes a point when you can’t split your commitment any more and something has to give.

The questions are based on those I asked in my call for contributors to this series. Don’t worry, you don’t have to answer in such detail: if you’ve got experiences to share with your fellow small business owners about going VAT registered, getting premises, taking on staff, etc., you can give me a few notes up to a whole article, and I’ll work with your answers from there.

Laura RipperLaura Ripper is a proofreader, editor, transcriber and Plain English writer/editor based in the North of England. She went full time with her freelance career during 2013 and is loving it. Find Laura online at www.lauraripperproofreading.com or on Facebook.

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This post is part of my series on growing your business. Read more here and read about my own business journey in my book, How I Survived My First Year of Full-Time Self-Employment.

 
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Posted by on December 9, 2013 in Business, Guest posts, Organisation

 

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Growing your business – employing staff

02 Dec

Sneak preview of the image from my new bookWhen you decide to grow your business, one popular way to do this is to employ staff. You can either take on people to do your admin, reception duties, sales, etc., or to do the actual work that you do. In this article, I’m going to talk a little about the advantages and disadvantages of taking on staff, and then we’ll hear from Duncan Brown, an expert on employment, who will talk us through the things we need to think about from a legal perspective when employing staff.

Advantages of employing people

  • Someone else can cover the admin while you concentrate on doing the job that makes the money
  • You can bring people in who have different skills to yours – in sales, for example
  • You’re not on your own; you will have an office full of people to bounce your ideas off
  • If you’re an extrovert, you can recharge by having people around you
  • Skills and positions can be covered and you might even get to take a holiday yourself!

Disadvantages of employing people

  • Someone has to manage them – will that be you?
  • You need to be aware of the rules and regulations – even if you employ an HR firm to deal with that side of things
  • You’re responsible for looking after these people physically, psychologically and financially
  • Related to the above, if things get tight, you can always not pay yourself – but if you’ve got staff, you need to make sure that you can pay them. I have seen firms founder and have to lay people off on this issue.

Key tips on employing staff

by Duncan Brown

When a person accepts a job offer from a potential employer, a contract of employment is created between the parties. An offer of employment does not have to be in writing to be valid.  However, it is best practice for offers of employment to be in writing and swiftly followed up with full written terms of the contract.

Irrespective of what form of legal entity an employer takes, i.e. Sole Trader, Partnership or Company, an employer must provide each employee with a “written statement of employment particulars” if the employee’s employment contract lasts at least a month or more. The “written statement” is not the employment contract, but is must include the main conditions of employment.  An employer must provide a “written statement” within 2 months of employment commencing.

Businesses must be aware that an employment contract places a set of obligations upon each party.  If an individual trades as a “sole trader”, that individual is the employer.  If the business is a partnership each partner is legally the “employer” of each employee, and each partner owes a duty under the contract to each employee. If the business is a Limited Company, the owners of that Company, i.e. the shareholders ultimately owe obligations to the employee.

Even if an employment contract is created verbally between the parties, the employer must still provide the employee with the “written statement”, which must include as a minimum:

  1. The name of the employer.
  2. The employee’s name, job title or a description of work, and start date.
  3. If a previous job counts towards a period of continuous employment, the date that period started.
  4. How much and how often the employee will be paid.
  5. Hours of work (and if the employee will have to work Sundays, nights or overtime).
  6. Holiday entitlement (and if that includes Public Holidays).
  7. Where the employee will be working and whether they might have to relocate.
  8. If the employee works in different places, where these will be and what the employer’s address is.

Items 1 to 8 are known as the “principal statement”.  The “written statement” must also contain information about:

  • How long a temporary job is expected to last.
  • The end date of a fixed term contract.
  • Notice periods.
  • Collective agreements.
  • Pensions.
  • Who to go to with a grievance.
  • How to complain about how a grievance is handled.
  • How to complain about a disciplinary or dismissal decision.

The “written statement” doesn’t need to contain the following information, but it must state where that information can be found, e.g. in a staff handbook:

  1. Sick pay procedures.
  2. Disciplinary/dismissal procedures.
  3. Grievance procedures.

If an employer doesn’t provide a “written statement” to an employee within 2 months of their employment commencing, that employee can commence a claim against the employer in an Employment Tribunal.  Employment Tribunals are usually expensive, time-consuming and stressful for employers (and also a potential PR ‘disaster’ because most local newspapers cover hearings at their local Tribunal!).

The Law implies certain terms into employment contracts, e.g. employees must not steal from their employer, each employee has a legal requirement to be paid at least the national minimum wage, etc.

An employment contract will be illegal if it is for an immoral or illegal act, e.g. prostitution, or if the employer pays part or all of the wages cash in hand and tax/NI contributions are not paid on the wages when they should have been, and the employee knew they were being paid cash in hand to avoid paying tax/NI contributions.

Solicitors can provide employment contracts and staff handbooks, often for fixed fees.  They can also provide employment law documentation, e.g. annual appraisal forms.

Competently drafted staff handbooks contain sufficient details on the terms and conditions of employment, to cover most eventualities.  They can also explain individual employer policies, e.g. email, fax & internet policies. Competent handbooks should contain the employer’s drugs and alcohol policy, and an equality policy.
The more detail in the written terms of the employment contract the more certainty there is for both employee and employer, hopefully resulting in fewer disputes (and thereby reducing costs, complications and possible employment tribunal claims for all parties concerned).

Businesses must bear in mind that employing staff is an onerous duty, especially for sole traders and partnerships, because sole traders and partners are personally liable for claims brought by their employee, e.g. for breaches of contract, for discrimination (e.g. sex discrimination), etc.

Duncan BrownDuncan Brown prides himself on being an approachable solicitor, who believes in providing clients with succinct, practical and commercially focused advice. His ethos is to take over the management of a dispute from clients, enabling them to concentrate on running their organisations.  He specialises in commercial disputes including employment law, landlord & tenant and building defect claims. He possesses niche experience of the Technology & Construction Court, Employment Tribunal, Property Chamber & Alternative Dispute Resolution.

Duncan works for Oliver Legal. Oliver Legal have a LinkedIn page, too, and Duncan can also be found on LinkedIn.

Thank you, Duncan, for those handy pointers on UK employment practices.

Have you taken on staff to expand your business? I’d love to hear your stories and your advice to add to a linked post on this important subject. Drop me a line via the comments below, or click on my Contact page: I look forward to hearing from you!

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This post is part of my series on growing your business. Read more here and read about my own business journey in my book, Going It Alone At 40.

 
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Posted by on December 2, 2013 in Business, Guest posts, Organisation

 

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Living with the Dreaditor

05 Jun

I came across Tammy Salyer via Twitter and was so intrigued by the fact that she’s both an editor and a creative writer that I asked her to write a guest post for me about how this works for her. Read on to find out how she uses her “editor’s brain” (the ‘dreaditor’) to help her fiction writing …

We all know that voice. The one in our head that says, “My Godiva, woman, did you really just string five adjectives in a row to describe your character’s appearance?” Or, “What-what-what!? You do know that dangling modifier makes you sound like a complete goon, right?” We’ll call that voice “The Dreaditor”—the evil, amorphous being that skulks within the crevasses of our brains and tries at every turn to squash our creative voice into so much jumble-y pulp.

For a lot of writers, the inner editor is worse than having Spock after he’s downed ten cups of coffee quoting bad lines from Star Trek directly into our ears in a bid to create order out of our creative chaos. “Are you sure it isn’t time for a colourful metaphor?” ~ Spock,”The Voyage Home” Or, “Nowhere am I so desperately needed as among a shipload of illogical humans.” ~ Spock, “I, Mudd”).

When starting out, many of us have to work very hard to ignore that voice, which can be exhausting and stifling to our creative brains. However, in contrast to the common notion that writers must completely turn off the Dreaditor, especially in their first draft, and just let fly with whatever mental ejecta our brainmeats conjure, I’ve found incalculable benefits in my eight years of serious writing to merging the personalities of Dreaditor and writer. By bringing these two personas together, I’ve learned how to stop the Dreaditor from yucking my yum and keep the writer within from being lost down the rabbit hole of endless possibility. Let me share these benefits with you.

First, the Dreaditor does a wonderful job of helping me figure out what I’m really trying to say. It is a master at clarifying ideas and making sentences get right to the point before they get out of hand.

We’ve all done it; a brilliant idea flashes through our creative brain and we start rapping at the keyboard as if the poor tool were Hungry, Hungry, Hippo. Finally, 300 words later, we type in a period. Then reality hits. We’ve just summarized our protagonist’s inner struggle with his addiction to chocolate milk in the most babbling run-on sentence known to humankind. Already we’re loath to think about what we’re going to have to go through in the second draft to figure out what we were trying to say in the first place, then to tighten up that sentence so our readers can figure out what the heck we’re talking about. But having a well-developed Dreaditor act as a kind of babelfish by automatically taking those potentially long and quirky sentences and distilling them into writing that is both concise and comprehensible the first go round barely slows your stream-of-consciousness writing a whit.

Secondly, no one is more innately compelled to pursue the elegance of structure as an editor, and thinking with your editor brain as you create helps you write toward a stronger overall story structure sooner. It’s one thing to be writing a fabulous scene that’s going to blow your villain into a new dimension—literally—but if your story is a romance set in the Old West, this may not be the most productive use of your time (no matter how fun it is). Having part of your brain always focused on how your writing links to your story arc and anchor scenes, how best to develop your characters in all situations, and what elements of the world you’ve built can be tied into your plot and conflict keeps your forward momentum more consistent in the long run. It also mitigates the pain later of having to cut wonderfully fabulous scenes, which you’ve sweat blood over, because they just don’t fit.

The third and most obvious benefit to having the Dreaditor always on duty is the vast amounts of time and mental energy you will save on your rewrites and subsequent drafts. An editor generally values efficiency in both language and movement toward an end goal. Being diligent about keeping your writing as streamlined and error-free as possible from the outset comes in immensely handy when deadlines loom. Additionally, it saves having to make endless passes at a particular page or scene if you’ve approached it with the precision-targeting focus of an editor from the beginning.

What works for me is certainly not a universally better process for all writers. However, I can honestly say that my writing began to improve in leaps after I’d taken a few self-editing classes. Becoming a successful creative writer is a subjective path with a variety of different objectives, depending on each person’s desires. Yet, becoming a writer with polished self-editing skills can only serve to propel every author closer to whatever their personal writing goals are. Plus, how many of us haven’t secretly wanted to be that person at parties that snootily points out to others that they’ve erroneously used “which” when “whose” is the correct word?

What do you think? Does every fiction writer have a dreaditor? Can you edit as you go along? Can a good fiction writer be a good editor and vice versa? (I know I’m not good at true creative writing, although I can write marketing copy with the best of them, and I know plenty of writers who say they couldn’t edit someone else’s work).

Author bio:
Tammy Salyer is a professional writer and editor who believes the imagination is humankind’s sixth sense. Contract of Defiance is the first book in her military science fiction Spectras Arise trilogy and was released to acclaim in Spring 2012. The followup, Contract of Betrayal, came out in February. Stop by Inspired Ink Editing, her blog, or follow her on Twitter and say hi.

I did a return guest post on Tammy’s blog with ten top tips for fiction writers. Read it here!

 
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Posted by on June 5, 2013 in Copyediting, Reading, Skillset, Writing

 

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Paul Alborough

23 Feb

Welcome to a fab new Saturday Business Chat! Today I’m thrilled to feature my old friend, Paul Alborough, aka Professor Elemental, a rapper – but wait – in the Brit hop tradition, all Steampunk and Englishness and marvellousness.

Back in the day, we used to commute up to Barnet together. I’d be reading the latest tome from my TBR, and Paul would be scribbling lyrics on an A4 pad. One of the most memorable features of my time at that company was the off-the-cuff rap Paul did for me at my leaving tea. Since then, he’s devoted considerable time and effort to building his music career, and is now doing Professor Elemental stuff full time – well done, Paul! Let’s find out how he did it. And you HAVE to look at his videos. Remember Tone and his model dinosaurs? This stuff is just as cool. Don’t I know some excellent people!

What’s your business called? When did you set it up?

Professor Elemental is the name of the business and the character that I perform as. I have been working full time as the good Professor since January 2012.

What made you decide to set up your own business?

I was quite happy just rapping as a hobby to supplement my day job, then was lucky enough to enjoy a bit of success with it. As the amount of work as an emcee grew, so did my day job career (as a teacher), and I was forced to choose between the two. Inevitably, being a mad professor was more interesting than being a regular teacher.

What made you decide to go into this particular business area?

It was only as I got more into doing shows and realised that it was a possible way to make money out of rapping without being signed. I’ve always loved emceeing in it’s many different forms.

Had you run your own business before?

Nope. I have done a lot of rap workshops, but never as a full-time business.

How did you do it? Did you launch full-time, start off with a part-time or full-time job to keep you going … ?

I ran the two parallel careers for about a year. This was a very stressful in itself, but did allow me to keep the risks to a minimum when I finally made the jump into ful- time creativity. It feels a lot nicer risking everything when you have a bit of safety net either financially or in terms of other work.

What do you wish someone had told you before you started?

‘ITS LATER THAN YOU THINK! Sort your life out, you lazy sod!’ I would have liked them to have shouted that to me while shaking me by the lapels. I probably would have cried, but it would have been worth it.

What would you go back and tell your newly entrepreneurial self?

I am still pretty new I suppose- but I am definitely learning that people value you more if you value yourself. Both creatively and financially.

What do you wish you’d done differently?

Got started earlier and not been so pessimistic about my chances of doing this for a profession. I might have saved myself a few years of life wasted in call centres.

What are you glad you did?

Working with other people. Working for yourself doesn’t mean that you have to shoulder it alone and having a good accountant, amazing booking agent and brilliant folk to collaborate with makes the whole process more fun.

What’s your top business tip?

Acheiving your dreams is entirely possible. Particularly if your dreams are relatively modest.

Oh, and be nice to people at every level of your business. That really can’t be overstated.

How has it gone since you started? Have you grown, diversified or stayed the same?

I have diversified as much as possible. I’m trying to say yes to as many good things as possible and it’s leading to some brilliant, unexpected places. So far there’s been a comic, a web series and some most unexpected gigs.

Where do you see yourself and your business in a year’s time?

I’m thoroughly enjoying the freedom to take the professor character into some new and exciting places. There are a few things in the pipeline that might change my life completely. And if not, if things carry on just as they are, then I will be very happy indeed.

I don’t usually include people’s answer to the last question in the published interviews, but I had to here …

Are you happy for me to contact you in a year’s time from posting the interview, to see how you’re doing and conduct another short interview?

Yes, unless it has all gone wrong and I am destitute , living underneath Brighton pier. In which case another interview might be too depressing.

Somehow, I don’t think that will be the case! But isn’t it interesting that in the world of rap and the world of editing, we still like to do things carefully, have backup and do things nicely! Good luck to Paul / the Professor and his modest ambitions!

The Professor Elemental website can be found at www.professorelemental.com and I recommend taking a look at his rather marvellous YouTube videos. He’s on Facebook, and of course you can get in touch via email.

If you’ve enjoyed this interview, please see more freelancer chat, the index to all the interviewees, and information on how you can have your business featured.

 
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Posted by on February 23, 2013 in Business, New skills, Small Business Chat

 

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A proper author – Victoria Eveleigh and her story

18 Jul

Victoria Everleigh I am delighted to publish this guest post by author, Victoria Eveleigh. I “met” Victoria via Twitter, through a discussion I was having about pony books with a bookseller (who I’m going to feature on the Saturday Small Business Chats soon). Victoria has an interesting story to tell, as she has become a somewhat unlikely author, and has now moved from self-publishing to being published!

You can read all about Victoria’s farm, horses and books on her website. Let’s hear her story …

How I became a Proper Author by Victoria Eveleigh

Nobody was more surprised than me (with the possible exception of my old English teacher) when I became an author.

I grew up in London, but spent as many holidays as possible on my grandmother’s farm on Exmoor. From an early age, my ambition was to marry a farmer and live on Exmoor. Remarkably, I’ve managed both: Chris and I have been farming for over twenty-five years now.

At 240 acres, our farm is fairly small, so we’ve had several other enterprises: a self-catering holiday cottage, horse-drawn tours over Exmoor with Shire horses, Land Rover tours of the farm, organic farming, cream teas, renewable energy and publishing.

Starting to write

The Foot and Mouth crisis of 2001 was partially responsible for my first book. We never got Foot and Mouth on our farm, but it came far too close for comfort. For nearly half a year we closed the self-catering cottage and horse-drawn tour businesses, and our children stayed at home for the whole of the spring term. It was a nerve-wracking year, and our cash flow became a trickle, but in some ways it was a holiday from all our usual commitments. For the first time since we were married, we had time to spare. Chris took up drawing and painting, while I sat down and wrote the book that had been forming in my head for several years: the story of a girl and an Exmoor pony growing up on an Exmoor hill farm together.

Full of optimism, I purchased a copy of The Writers’ And Artists’ Yearbook and started writing to agents. After several months, I’d received polite rejections from some and no communication from others. I felt utterly disheartened, and would have given up completely if a friend hadn’t suggested publishing the story myself. She’d published her own books in the past, and said all I needed to do was register myself as a publisher (I registered as Tortoise Publishing), get someone to design the layout of the book (I asked a good friend who’s a graphic designer), get a printer to print it (our local printer who printed our holiday cottage leaflets obliged) and some people to buy it (um…).

Learning from self-publishing

It was shocking how much space 6,000 books took up when they were delivered to our house by the printers. Too late, I realised I knew nothing about selling and, being typically British, I didn’t feel comfortable promoting myself. However, the prospect of never being able to use the sitting room again spurred me on. I loaded some books and leaflets in the back of the car and went for a drive around the Exmoor area. There weren’t many bookshops but there were gift shops, tourist attractions and tack shops, so I had more outlets than I’d realised. In fact, my best customers turned out to be places which normally didn’t stock books because there was no competition. (I’ve found that the easiest way to get depressed is to go into a large bookshop and see how many different books there are, all vying for attention!)

Probably because of Chris’ illustrations, the first book sold so well that I had to do another print run, and I was encouraged to write a sequel. Now I had stacks of boxes and a bit of money, so we converted Chris’ work shed into a farm office where I could store both the books and the ever-increasing quantity of farm records. At last I had a warm purpose-built room where I could write and deal with the paperwork for the farm and publishing businesses.

We made the Exmoor pony story into a trilogy, wrote and illustrated a colouring book about the farming year for the Exmoor Horn Sheep Breeders’ Society and then published a story set on the island of Lundy.
The amount of effort it took to promote, sell, distribute and account for the books meant I had an ever-decreasing amount of time for writing. Furthermore, while I was trying to build up my publishing business several things happened to the book industry: the economy slowed down, then went into recession; fuel and postage prices went up, squeezing margins because books are typically delivered for free; paper and printing costs increased, and large bookshops and online stores started a price war. Simultaneously, the whole book industry was going electronic, and I couldn’t really get my head around it all.

Never give up …

I’d more or less decided to quit while I was ahead when I received an email from Louise Weir, who runs a website called Lovereading4kids. She’d read my Lundy book and wanted to make it a book of the month on her website and, to cut a long story short, through her I was taken on by Orion Children’s Books just over a year ago.

Since then my life has changed quite a bit. I have to treat writing like a proper job now, and it’s a scary, serious business with deadlines to meet, schools to visit and talks to give. However, I wouldn’t turn back the clock for anything. I love writing and I’m so glad I’ve been given this fantastic opportunity to turn it from a hobby into a whole new career. I’ve re-written my existing stories (which have been published as Katy’s Wild Foal, Katy’s Champion Pony, Katy’s Pony Surprise and A Stallion Called Midnight) and I’m writing a new trilogy for publication in 2013. It will have horses and the countryside at its heart, but it will have a boy as the main character for a change. Chris is still doing the illustrations for my books – so I’m now a proper author and he’s a proper illustrator!

I wish Victoria all the best with her new trilogy, and I’m looking forward to reading the Katy books soon. I should mention that Victoria’s publisher will be sending me a copy of “A Stallion Called Midnight” to review, but I wanted to share her story to encourage my readers who are writers: never give up!

 
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Posted by on July 18, 2012 in Guest posts, New skills, Reading, Writing

 

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Sally Evans-Darby

14 Jul

Welcome to Saturday Business chat. It’s time for another new chat today, and we’re meeting Sally Evans-Darby from Write Sense Media, a very new business, which has only been going for a few months. Sally’s had some very nice things to say about this interview series: when asked if it’s OK to contact her in a year for a catch up, she said, “Absolutely – and thanks so much for this one! Great way to encourage people to reflect on their own businesses, but more importantly, to build up an information database of lots of different people’s experiences. It’s always so useful to read about others’ experiences in something you are thinking of trying out” – which is great for me to hear.

I do meet people who read all of these interviews and find them useful – if you’re one of them, do post to let me know! In the meantime, let’s find out what Sally has learned so far …

What’s your business called? When did you set it up?

Write Sense Media – launched in February 2012. The name was a suggestion from my other half and it just stuck. Write Sense Media offers proofreading, editing and writing services.

What made you decide to set up your own business?

I’ve worked both in-house and freelance as a proofreader and writer, but mostly in-house (read: full-time, 9-5 day job with ‘living for the weekend’ mentality and everything else that lifestyle comes with!). I had thought about being purely freelance before but just didn’t think I would be able to sustain it as a living. Then came a brainwave in the early part of this year where I realised that working freelance was exactly what I needed to be doing. Looking at my life and my career as a whole, I just couldn’t see myself always working in an office for an employer. There would have to come a time where I did the work I love (i.e. editing, proofing, writing) but for myself and with my own values/strategy rather than the views of my employer. So I thought, why not now? Life is short; I decided to just go for it.

What made you decide to go into this particular business area?

I’ve always been into words, whether that’s word-play, crosswords, finding out new words, learning about language. Plus, I’ve always been a mean speller! In primary school I remember the class being asked to look at what the difference was between an old map listing a village as ‘Bishop’s Lydeard’ and a new one as ‘Bishops Lydeard’. I was the only one who noticed the missing apostrophe in the new version. I guess you could say I’ve always had a knack for looking at words, the way they’re presented, and picking them apart.

I love words. As a lot of logophiles will say, I’m terrible with numbers – figures don’t make sense to my brain, but letters do.

I should mention too that I hadn’t realised until this year that there was a genuine career path budding editors/proofreaders can take. The internet is a wonderful resource in this respect. Browsing other proofreaders’ websites, including yours, Liz, made me realise there was a whole world out there of people who read, edit and write for a living – and I wanted to be part of it.

Had you run your own business before?

No – the idea of ‘running my own business’ has always been something I’m slightly sceptical about. I don’t see myself as the particularly entrepreneurial type and I worried about practical things like sustaining this in the long-term. But making the leap and deciding to have my own business was completely the right thing for me. I just had to realise that.

How did you do it? Did you launch full-time, start off with a part-time or full-time job to keep you going … ?

I still had a full-time job when I started up Write Sense Media, because I knew it was going to take time to build things up: create and add content to a website, start a blog, start networking, start making contacts with clients. I see my business as a huge round object that started off stationary, and which took a lot of effort and work to get rolling. Once it was rolling, however, its own momentum keeps it rolling. It’s just that initial struggle into being that every business must go through that means you have to keep a job at first, unless you’ve had the foresight to build up a nest egg beforehand.

What do you wish someone had told you before you started?

That it would take some time but I just had to hang in there and things would work out.

What would you go back and tell your newly entrepreneurial self?

To devote every spare hour I could to Write Sense Media. That I was on the right track and I just had to keep going.

What do you wish you’d done differently?

I wish I’d been able to devote more time to it and of course it would have been a luxury to not have to work full time at the same time.

What are you glad you did?

I’m glad I made my website one of my top priorities, and that I went to my brother, Scott Darby (http://scottdarby.com/), for his invaluable help with this. I’m not the most technical person, so him helping me with this was essential! I’m proud of the result and feel it represents me and my business well, so I’m glad I took the time to make this happen.

What’s your top business tip?

Be yourself. Don’t try to be someone you’re not – whether you’re using your ‘voice’ on the internet, phone, in person, always just be yourself. People respond to people who are human. Also never act desperate, even if you are!

How has it gone since you started? Have you grown, diversified or stayed the same?

So far, in the short time since I started Write Sense Media, my overall ‘vision’ has pretty much stayed the same. I expect things to change though in the future and am open to change. I’m ready to roll with the punches, and keep my business current and alive.

Where do you see yourself and your business in a year’s time?

I truly hope to see my business flourishing and for me to feel much more in control of my life! I hope to have a diverse client base and to have built up lots of long-lasting relationships. I hope to have been to a few SfEP (Society for Editors and Proofreaders) events and to have met other people working in the same field.

I do like “never act desperate, even if you are!” and I’m glad to have been something of an inspiration. It can indeed be frustrating starting up part time and not having all the time you want to devote to your new business, but it’s also a safer way to do it for those of us who are maybe not the traditional type of entrepreneur. Good luck, Sally, and I’ll look forward to seeing how you’re getting on in a year’s time!

Read Sally’s 2013 interview.

Oh, and for anyone who is curious about why I feature people you could see as competitors in this series; I’d rather see them as colleagues! And it’s worth remembering that much of the interest I get in my own blogs and website is generated by so-called competitors, something I talked about a few weeks ago.

You can find Sally’s website at www.writesensemedia.co.uk and, of course, email her.

If you’ve enjoyed this interview, please see more freelancer chat, the index to all the interviewees, and information on how you can have your business featured.

 
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Posted by on July 14, 2012 in Business, New skills, Small Business Chat

 

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Sian Edwards

16 Jun

Welcome to Saturday Business chat. Today I have the great pleasure of introducing Sian Edwards, a friend and fellow home-worker who lives locally to me. If you do work from home, it’s great to have local people around who you can meet for a coffee and a chat when work and time permit. Sian also told me about proz.com, which is a great resource if you’re a translator or, like me, you do localisation, as it puts you in touch with customers all over the world.

It always makes me happy to see how much my interviewees love their work, and here’s another person who does! Let’s meet Sian …

What’s your business called? When did you set it up?

I trade under my own name and have been a freelance translator since 2006. I worked in various roles at three different translation agencies before taking the plunge.

What made you decide to set up your own business?

I wanted the flexibility to fit my work around my family life.

What made you decide to go into this particular business area?

I have always enjoyed translation, ever since I was a student. I enjoy it so much that it hardly feels like work! So it was an obvious step for me.

Had you run your own business before?
No.

How did you do it? Did you launch full-time, start off with a part-time or full-time job to keep you going … ?

I jumped in at the deep end. I’ve been a full-time freelancer from the start. But I did have a lot of work from my former colleagues already lined up.

What do you wish someone had told you before you started?

Don’t rely on just one or two clients. I lost my major client after a few months and, although I was able to replace them fairly quickly, I could have done without the panic!

What would you go back and tell your newly entrepreneurial self?

Get some business cards printed, go out and network! Don’t sit in front of the computer by yourself all day. It will be good for your state of mind and you might even get some work out of it.

What do you wish you’d done differently?

I wish I’d made the effort to find out more about accounting and tax when I started. Some kind of course or workshop would have been a good idea. The transition to paying six months of income tax in advance came as a particular shock.

What are you glad you did?

I’m glad I was bold. It’s not in my nature at all, as I’m quite a shy, introverted person, so approaching people I knew in the industry in the hope that they would send me work felt a bit cheeky. But it worked and gave me a much-needed boost at the start.

What’s your top business tip?

Don’t be afraid to say no. If you don’t have the time to do a good job, it’s better that you don’t do it at all.

How has it gone since you started? Have you grown, diversified or stayed the same?

The amount of work offered to me has gone up and up. At the same time the type of work I do has become more specialised.

Where do you see yourself and your business in a year’s time?

The same, but with a tidier office!

Ah, yes: the double tax thing (which I blogged about when it hit me). I found it so helpful to do my course at the beginning of my freelance life (see my post about setting up your own business for links) and don’t know how I’d have coped without it. Good luck with that tidy office, Sian!

Sian can be contacted via her profile on www.proz.com. She does German to English translation.

If you’ve enjoyed this interview, please see more freelancer chat, the index to all the interviewees, and information on how you can have your business featured.

 
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Posted by on June 16, 2012 in Business, New skills, Small Business Chat

 

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Tammy Ditmore

02 Jun

Welcome to Saturday Business chat.Today’s Freelancer is Tammy Ditmore from eDitmore Editorial Services, who I know through a network of editorial professionals we both belong to. Tammy’s one of our newer businesses, having been going for around 18 months (this time round), and is one of our freelancers based in the US – but as you can see, we all have similar issues and learning curves, wherever in the world we might be!

Tammy has some interesting things to say about the difference between being a freelancer and running a business, and also about the resources that are out there for both business people in general and editors in particular.

What’s your business called?

eDitmore Editorial Services.

When did you set it up?

January 2011.

What made you decide to set up your own business?

I had been working as the managing editor of an academic journal for more than five years, but the situation had become very stagnant and I wanted something different. I wanted to edit more and manage less. I applied for several editing and/or writing jobs in my area and got nowhere—I couldn’t even get an interview. I finally decided it was time to return to freelance editing, which I had done before I started at the journal. But when I freelanced before, I never thought of it as a business; I just took whatever work happened to come my way. This time I wanted to be more official. So I established a name, created a website, and set myself up legally as a “sole proprietorship”.

What made you decide to go into this particular business area?

I have been involved in editing in one way or another for about 30 years. I graduated from college with a journalism degree and spent more than 10 years in various editor roles at several daily newspapers. I left newspapers when my oldest son was a baby and wound up working from home as a freelance editor, proofreader and writer while my kids were young. Then I took the academic journal position, and learned more about running a business. By the time I started my business, I had editing or writing experience in a number of styles and publications.

Had you run your own business before?

Although I had worked as a freelance editor for a number of years, I had not thought of myself during those years as running a business. I did not have a business name; I did not market or advertise; and I never thought of myself as a businesswoman. When I decided to leave my position with the academic journal, I knew I needed to do things differently. I wanted to see my work—and I wanted other people to see this—as my business, not just something I was doing until I could get a real job.

How did you do it? Did you launch full-time, start off with a part-time or full-time job to keep you going … ?

While I was still at the journal, I made my business plans and did the preliminary work, like getting a logo and a website. By the time I left that job, I had one contract that I knew would keep me very busy for a few weeks and would provide some steady work throughout the year. I was lucky; I could take some risks because my husband’s job was very safe and I didn’t have to worry about insurance benefits since our family was insured through him. That made it less risky for me to step away from the steady paycheck.

What do you wish someone had told you before you started?

I wish I had known how many resources were available to help get me started, such as editing classes and training, list-serves and discussion groups, online invoicing, etc. I did not need to reinvent so many things—it was all out there but I didn’t know where to look for it.

What would you go back and tell your newly entrepreneurial self?

“You don’t have to go it alone,” and, “You know more than you think you do”.

What do you wish you’d done differently?

I wish I had taken more time off between finishing my journal job and really plunging into work on my own. I think it would have been good to take some editing classes and just spend some time thinking about what I wanted to do and how. I expected to have slow spells in my first few months where I could focus on such things, but I never really did.

What are you glad you did?

I’m glad that I paid to have a logo designed around my business name and that I was able to get a professional to design my website. Both turned out better than I had envisioned and are definitely memorable.

What’s your top business tip?

It’s not a very original one—I would say you should network. Join professional organizations in your field; volunteer for specific roles; and tell everyone you know about your business. Some of my best and most unexpected business has come from very unlikely places.

How has it gone since you started? Have you grown, diversified or stayed the same?

Much better than I had expected. I almost doubled the income goal I had set for myself for the first year, and I have turned away work on several occasions. Even more important to me, I have been able to work on a wide variety of publications and manuscripts for a variety of publishers, authors, and students. In a little more than a year, I have worked on books and articles about Puritan theology, international counter-terrorism tactics, Christian ethics, Facebook advertising, the original Saint Nicholas, and successful car dealers, and I have just started editing my first novel. Also, I am truly enjoying learning more about today’s rapidly changing publishing world and how to market and run my business. I have started to think more like a businesswoman in addition to thinking like an editor.

Where do you see yourself and your business in a year’s time?

I am considering some steps now to raise my business profile and visibility, so I hope that by this time next year more people will know about eDitmore Editorial Services.

I know what Tammy means about expecting a slow spell between finishing the day job and launching the business – I thought that about Jan/Feb 2012, but went straight into full-time busy-ness. Still, it’s good to be busy! And I wish Tammy all success through this next important year for her business. Read her 2013 update here.

Tammy’s website is at www.editmore.com and you can of course contact her by email. She’s based in Califormia.

If you’ve enjoyed this interview, please see more freelancer chat, the index to all the interviewees, and information on how you can have your business featured.

 
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Posted by on June 2, 2012 in Business, New skills, Small Business Chat

 

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Tone Hitchcock

05 May

Welcome to Saturday Business chat. In a first for the series, we’ve got a brother-sister combination! Last week I featured Annabelle Beckwith, and now it’s the turn of her equally talented brother, Tone Hitchcock, of Anthony Hitchcock Art & Design. I met Tone at about the time I met Anna, so he would have been 16 or so at the time. I heard about his work through Anna over the years, went to an opening night of some wonderful paintings he had exhibited, and met up with him a few months ago when he came to “visit” the fibreglass gorilla he’d made that was on display in Digbeth Coach Station. Models he’s made appear on the TV and in films, and it’s great to watch the inventive and marvellous things he produces. Let’s find out how he got started …

What’s your business called? When did you set it up?

Anthony Hitchcock Art & Design. I know, it’s not the snappiest of titles, but it does what it says on the tin. I’ve been doing this since 1997, sometimes part-time, now mostly full time. Unofficially, it’s “Purveyor of Props, Paintings and Peculiarities”.

What made you decide to set up your own business?

I decided to set up for myself as I’d spent most of my time at Uni doing artwork and playing in various bands anyway, rather than concentrating on my English degree. Pretty much the only person I could find willing to employ me when I graduated was me, so it seemed like a good idea.

What made you decide to go into this particular business area?

Art has always been my first love; I’ve been selling paintings since I was 14. I started commercially by doing illustrations and caricatures; it snowballed from there.

Had you run your own business before?

A friend of mine and I at school had run a t-shirt printing business from our study, if that counts … [Liz: yes, of course it does!]

How did you do it? Did you launch full-time, start off with a part-time or full-time job to keep you going … ?

I’ve had a couple of full-time stints at this, and, as I said, I am now pretty much full-time again, but for a long time, I had various part-time jobs as well to keep me ticking over. I’ve worked in a few different shops, done kitchen and bathroom design, worked in a warehouse, done stock control for the Roman Baths shops; whatever it took, really!

What do you wish someone had told you before you started?

I wish someone had told me to concentrate on prop and modelmaking 15 years ago!

What would you go back and tell your newly entrepreneurial self?

I would like to go back and tell myself not to lose faith; it’s never easy trying to make a living artistically, but when it does start to come together, it makes the hard times fade away, and it all becomes worthwhile.

What do you wish you’d done differently?

I took a sculpting course in late ’97, whereas before I’d mainly concentrated on 2D artwork. It felt really natural to me, but I was already committed to trying to make a go of it with paintings. I remember wondering if I should make the switch to 3D work instead, but I decided against it. I don’t generally dwell on “what if?” contemplation, but still … in this case, it might have got me further along sooner.

What are you glad you did?

To be honest, even all the rubbishy part-time roles I’ve had have given me something useful, even if it was just experience. Heck, even my wasted youth making Lightsabers out of old bits of Hoover tube has come in useful, as it gave me the perfect skillbase for making the collapsible armature for my latest commission!

What’s your top business tip?

DON’T GIVE UP! And also, tailor what you do to the market. As an artist, it is quite tempting to throw a bit of a hissy fit, and go “But this is my muse! People must appreciate it and buy my work!”

Well, I love melancholy landscapes and bleak atmospheres, but apparently the general art-buying public isn’t keen enough on them to pay for my living. Talent doesn’t guarantee you a career – the old adage about success coming from 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration is true.

How has it gone since you started? Have you grown, diversified or stayed the same?

Following on nicely from the last question, my success rate increased exponentially as soon as I started being less precious about what I do, and started listening more to what other people advised (particularly my wife, but don’t tell her that or she’ll become insufferable).

I’ve always made models as a bit of a sideline, hence the lightsabers, but I’d never really taken it seriously. Three years ago, I made a Wookiee mask for a friend’s birthday, and everyone that saw it asked why I wasn’t doing prop and modelwork all the time. As the only answer I could come up with was a rather sheepish “errr…”, I started scouting around for that kind of work, which lead me on to freelancing at Codsteaks Prop and Model Workshop in Bristol. It’s gone on from there.

Where do you see yourself and your business in a year’s time?

This time next year, Rodders, we’ll be miwionaires … or at least, doing model and prop work more consistently so that Bryony, my wife, can lessen the amount of hours she works.

What a talented pair of siblings Anna and Tone are. And what a lot of different areas of inspiration they offer to other freelancers and entrepreneurs. Never give up, learn from your mistakes, do what you have to in order to sustain your business idea … things we can all learn, whether we train people or make eels for a living! Oh, look – I’ve interviewed their cousin, Sam, too!

Tone’s 2013 update is here!

This is one website that you MUST go and look at, for all sorts of weird and wonderful creatures and beautiful paintings: find Anthony Hitchcock Art & Design at www.tonyhitchcock.co.uk. You can, of course, email Tone or call him on 07929 272 513, especially if you’d like to commission a painting or sculpture. Or an eel.

If you’ve enjoyed this interview, please see more freelancer chat, the index to all the interviewees, and information on how you can have your business featured.

 
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Posted by on May 5, 2012 in Business, New skills, Small Business Chat

 

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Income tax payment on account

05 Apr

Special guest Emily Coltman

Business is booming for me and Libro – and my friends and family are probably expecting me to start splashing around some of that hard-earned cash now I’m full time and earning well, after those lean start-up years. But wait! No – just when you’d think I’ll be booking that round-the-world cruise (we can only dream), in fact I’ll be giving the tax man over half of my income from Libro over the coming year. Edited to add: this is what actually happened when I submitted this year’s tax return.

It’s something called “Payment on Account”. I’m lucky: I already knew about it and so I have been saving up so I have enough money to live on. But if your business is doing well (and you only have to have a tax bill of £1000 to get into this situation, so not even THAT well), you need to be aware of this issue and make sure you have the money to hand.

I thought I’d better get someone official to explain all this, and the lovely Emily Coltman has obliged. Emily is Chief Accountant to award-winning software provider FreeAgent.com. Read on to find out all about tax payment on account.

Payments on account

Did you know that if you’re a sole trader, or in partnership, you sometimes have to pay one and a half year’s worth of income tax and class 4 National Insurance all at once?

This is because if your tax and NI bill is more than £1,000, and less than 80% of your income is taxed at source (like employment income, where tax is taken off before the money is paid to you), you have to make “payments on account” to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).

Calculating payments on account

Maria is a self-employed beauty therapist.  Her tax and NI bill for the year to 5th April 2012 (the tax year 2011/12) is £1,200.  This was her first year in business.

That £1,200 will be payable to HMRC by 31st January 2013.

But that’s not the end of the story.  Because Maria’s tax and NI bill is over £1,000 and none of her income was taxed at source, she must make payments on account for the tax year 2012/13.  These each amount to half of her bill for 2011/12, and will be payable by 31st January 2013 and 31st July 2013.

So by 31st January 2013, Maria must pay £1,200 for her 2011/12 tax bill, and £600 on account for 2012/13.  That means she has a whopping £1,800 to pay in total – one and a half times her tax bill for 2011/12.

Maria must also pay another £600 by 31st July 2013.

When the actual tax and NI due is known

What happens when Maria works out her actual tax bill for 2012/13?

If she’s overpaid, HMRC will give her a refund, but if she’s not paid enough yet, she must make a balancing payment.

Let’s look at that.

Refund

If Maria’s tax and NI bill for 2012/13 was actually £1,100, she’s already paid £1,200 on account towards that, £600 in January 2013 and £600 in July 2013.  That means she’s overpaid £100 which HMRC will refund her.

She must then make her payments on account for 2013/14, which will be £550 each (half of £1,100) and will be due by 31st January 2014 and 31st July 2014.

Balancing payment

But if Maria’s tax and NI bill for 2012/13 turned out to be £1,500, she’s already paid £1,200 towards that but still has another £300 to pay.  This is called the balancing payment and is due by 31st January 2014.

That means that on 31st January 2014 she must pay £1,050 (£300 balancing payment, plus her first payment on account for 2013/14, which is £1,500 / 2 = £750).

Can payments on account be reduced?

If you’re reasonably certain that your tax and NI bill for the following year will be less than the payments on account you’d make, you can apply to HMRC to reduce your payments on account.

Be warned, though, that if you reduce them too far, HMRC can charge you interest for late payment of tax.

HMRC should send you a statement of account explaining what you have to pay and when, but if you’re not sure whether this is correct, always check with them or with your accountant.

Emily Coltman, Chief Accountant to award-winning online accounting software provider FreeAgent, is a very unusual Chartered Accountant – she is fluent in plain English! Emily has been working with small business owners for twelve years and is passionate about helping them to escape their fear of “the numbers”.  She believes that equipped with the right tools anyone can learn to look after the finances of a small business. She is also a keen advocate of tax simplification, especially in the case of VAT.
Emily is author of two e-books, Finance for Small Business and Micro Multinationals. Web: www.freeagent.com
Twitter: @dialm4accounts
Mobile: 07857 162104
Office: 0131 447 0011
 
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Posted by on April 5, 2012 in Business, Guest posts, New skills, Organisation

 

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