ACPR Blog

Remote Employment has announced the launch of the Remote Worker Awards, to highlight how remote and home working benefits the environment and everyone’s quality of work life. The Remote Worker Awards is not just another business award – it is a life changing award! You could win:

• a Penthouse Garden Office,
• your very own home based franchise worth £15k 
• and many more prizes to help your home business.

The Remote Worker Awards comes at a time when thousands of people across the UK are faced with job losses or reduced hours. The awards aims to raise awareness for remote and home working as an alternate solution to redundancy and the traditional nine to five office routine. (more…)

If you want help to start your own business, or need to give your existing business a boost, visit www.themumpreneurguide.co.uk. It is a FREE business basics e-course, ideal for every mum or dad who wants to learn about starting a business. Delivered to your desktop every few days it is a great way to learn how to start a successful enterprise and avoid pitfalls.

Galia of www.chocchick.com says, “I just wanted to tell you how  much I enjoyed reading the Mumpreneur Guide on Search Engine Optimisation. I worked in Internet marketing and thought the advice you offered was excellent. A lot of SEO is common sense and knowing your market, but many people still see it as a bit of a dark art! Your guide on SEO was very well explained, clear and easy to follow. It even reminded me of things I needed to sort out on my website (SEO, as you said, is indeed a continual process) and I found it extremely useful.”

If you want to know about SEO, business models, business finance and juggling work and family go to www.themumpreneurguide.co.uk

Andrew Wilson, head of corporate and business tax with Target in the Midlands, has some tips to help you save on tax if you are running a business from home. Read on for excellent business advice for mums, dads and every enterpreneur:

“Business owners who use their home for business purposes can claim a proportion of the costs – even if it is only for one room of the house for part of the time, as it usually is for most of them.

“HMRC has recently confirmed that businesses can claim for mortgage interest and for people who do have a large mortgage, the tax relief can be significant. Other eligible costs include:

• rental,
• council tax,
• home insurance,
• repairs
• and energy bills.”

Andrew says that the relief can be claimed whether you are a sole trader, partnership or limited company.

Companies Based At Home

For a company to achieve maximum benefit it should pay an annual rent for partial use of the premises. The company is able to claim corporation tax relief on the rental payments. While the rental income received is subject to income tax and individuals will need to report it on their personal tax return, as it can be offset by expenses attributable to the business use of the office, in practice there may be little or no tax to pay. Business owners who do use this strategy should ensure the rent charged does not exceed a commercial rent – this can be checked by having an independent rental valuation by a qualified professional or obtaining comparative charges from a local serviced office. The level of rent should be reviewed annually and invoiced to the company.

Capital Gains Tax

Andrew adds: “People are sometimes concerned about claiming relief because they fear that, if they decide to sell their home in the future, part of the proceeds may be subject to capital gains tax.

 ”This is highly unlikely but, to be on the safe side, you can put in place a rental agreement which specifies that the rooms concerned have an element of both business and personal use. In these circumstances HMRC have confirmed that full Principal Private Residence (PPR) relief should continue to apply, so no capital gains arise.

Business Rates

“Another concern that people raise is that they will become liable to pay business rates. Whether or not you claim tax relief would have no bearing on this – it would depend on an assessment by the Valuations Agency Office, which would take into account factors such as the extent and frequency of the business use and any modifications made to the property to accommodate that. However we are not aware of any instances where a claim for tax relief has led to a business rates assessment.”

According to the Guardian this weekend, women may bear the brunt of jobs losses this year as so many are employed in retail and service industries. There has been a 15% increase in new recruits in direct selling, and Avon is launching a new campaign to attract women who want to earn more money.

If you are looking for ways to earn money after redundancy or job loss, here are some tips:

1. Think about how much risk you want to take. At times like this it may be best to look at businesses with low start up costs rather than those that require all your savings. Become a virtual assitant if you have typing skills, and own your own computer. Think about dog walking, cleaning or ironing services, all of which can be started for the cost of a few publicity materials. Do remember to invest in public liability insurance, however.
2. If you want to start a business selling something, ask yourself if you are selling an everyday essential that people will need, even when times are tight. Cloth nappy sellers are reporting good business as more parents recognise the cost saving of reusable over disposable diapers. Necessities like cleaning materials may be a better bet than luxury cosmetics.
3. Finally, make a plan and get all the help you can. In times like this the Government is keen to encourage enterprise. Find your local enterprise agency: you will get free and low cost business advice and may even find out about start up funding for your area.

Don’t forget the free Family Friendly Working e-course to help you get more ideas for a new business, and The Mumpreneur Guide to help you get started.

For anyone thinking of becoming a freelancer, my advice is to plan, plan, and plan some more. This applies double for mums and dads. If you have children you may have more financial pressures and more need to make a success of freelancing. You are also likely to have less time to work in, and no time to go back and make up for mistakes that you made when starting in business.

To make sure your freelance business is set up correctly, go on a start up course at your local enterprise agency. You will find out about whether you are best starting off as a sole trader or a limited company. You may get the chance to speak one-to-one to a business adviser about your plans: make sure you ask for an appointment if not. And chat to the Inland Revenue, who have a team of friendly and helpful advisers for people embarking on self employment. You’ll make a better start armed with all these facts.

As a parent, the other thing you need to plan is childcare. Some parents manage to work without it, but you will find yourself working evenings and weekends to make the most of time when your partner is available for childcare. This can lead to a fairly joyless relationship. Try to set up some regular childcare: if you want to avoid costly care while starting up do a regular playdate swap with a friend or get grannie to commit to a time to help out each week.  At the very least this gives you a chance to make vital calls without little voices in the background. As your career takes off you may want to find a childminder or nursery, or just take things slowly until you get a whole six hours a day when your child starts school.

Working freelance as a parent is an amazing experience: you will find that you can cram more in than you ever did as an employee and still be there when your child needs you.

Antonia Chitty is author of Family Friendly Working(www.familyfriendlyworking.co.uk), A guide to Promoting Your Business (www.prbasics.co.uk) and a number of other parenting and health books. She has a book on earning a living from writing, The Commercial Writing Guide coming out in July 2009. You can find out more about her own freelance writing career at www.antoniachitty.co.uk and her PR business at www.acpr.co.uk

One of the great upsides of freelancing is that you can drop everything if you need. Sick children, neighbours who have locked themselves out – everyone will think that you can drop what you are doing and help. Trouble is, you then end up working into the small hours to catch up. It can be hard to set aside time for holidays too, when a break from work equals no income. With practice you will work out a way to be around for the family without letting your work slip too far: after all, that is one of the benefits of freelancing.

Antonia Chitty is author of Family Friendly Working (www.familyfriendlyworking.co.uk), A guide to Promoting Your Business (www.prbasics.co.uk) and a number of parenting and health books. She has a book on earning a living from writing, The Commercial Writing Guide coming out in July 2009. You can find out more about her own freelance writing career at www.antoniachitty.co.uk and her PR business at www.acpr.co.uk.

It was all so different when you were employed. Now you’re master of your own time, time management is key. One of the big ups of freelancing in the chance to take time off during the week, to go for a swim when the pool is at its emptiest or meet a mate for a long lunch. However in order to do this AND have money to pay for the treats you need to plan ahead. Work out how much you need to earn each month to pay your bills and have spending money. Allow for tax and National Insurance too. You might wonder what this has to do with time management….but time is money. Your income will depend on the hours you put in. It may take a while to work out how much work you need to do to earn the amount you need to live, and it can take time to build up enough good contacts to have a ready flow of commissions too. You may spend more time pitching or generating business in the early stages so try to have some cash in reserve.

Antonia Chitty is author of Family Friendly Working (www.familyfriendlyworking.co.uk), A guide to Promoting Your Business (www.prbasics.co.uk) and a number of parenting and health books. She has a book on earning a living from writing, The Commercial Writing Guide coming out in July 2009 . You can find out more about her own freelance writing career at www.antoniachitty.co.uk and her PR business at www.acpr.co.uk.

If you’re considering renting an office, think about the pros and cons. It is lovely to have a clear office space, but can make a great difference to your business finances. Your earnings now have to cover rent every month.

If you find working from home an isolating experience a shared office is ideal. You get the buzz round the watercooler and the chance to chat to others. Do visit a few times to see the office in full swing, though, to find out whether you desk would be next to a loud sales person. And if freelancing is just the start of grand business ideas, you should incorporate the cost of an office, business rates, insurance etc into your plans.

It is ideal if you can have a separate workspace. Depending on how noise resistant you are you may need a desk in the corner, a separate room or even a garden office. Make sure you have space for record and filing. I like to have a bookshelf for work books too. Because my children are younger I actually do a lot of work in the centre of the home, and I’m used to punching out quick replies to emails and writing in short bursts. This doesn’t work for every project so I save in depth research for when the kids are out. I do have an office, though, where I can leave papers and ongoing projects out.

Direct selling gives you the chance to run a small business that is set up for you with low start up costs. Antonia Chitty of Family Friendly Working offers some advice on how to make your direct selling business a success:

1.       Talk to your manager about ways to sell your products. This will vary for each company. Think about who will use your products and where you might find them. According to the Direct Selling Association, about 85 per cent of sales are made in people’s homes.

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