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7 Ways To Come Off As Professional & Trustworthy As A Sole Trader

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |Sole Trader|7 Ways To Come Off As Professional & Trustworthy As A Sole TraderIf you are a one-man band, it can be difficult to get clients to trust you. People are often more inclined to do business with bigger companies, as it feels a lot safer than relying on one person. It is up to you to reduce this risk in their eyes by giving off more of a professional image and making your one-man band appear bigger than it is. Read on to discover how to go about it.

1. Invest in a professional telephone system – There are companies that can install a telephone system that is right for your business. Of course, it is unlikely that you will need a substantial system, as you only have one employee. However, if you merely put your own home phone number or mobile phone number, it can look unprofessional. It is better to choose a business system that comes with a number of features; for example, you could have a pre-recorded business message that is played while customers wait for you to answer.

2. Review the content on your website – Your website copy can make a huge difference. You need to ensure it resonates with your target audience while also giving off a professional feel. Instead of using “I” you should use “we” to show that your team is growing.

3. Outsource – It is incredibly difficult to do everything in-house when you are a sole trader. Outsourcing to the likes of an IT support company can help you to have a more professional image.

4. Create separate email addresses – This is one of the easiest and most effective ways to make your business look bigger than it is. You should have different email addresses for different areas for your business. For example, you could have an email address for support, complaints, and jobs.

5. Build your brand – If you want to give off a professional image, you need to work on building your brand. You need to ensure that your online presence is consistent. Your website should align with all social media platforms you use, so make sure the wording and images are consistent.

6. Use a virtual office – Using a virtual office is another way to make your business appear a lot bigger than it is. This means that you pay for an office location, but you don’t actually use an office – you can still work from home. What it means is that you get to benefit from a prestigious office address. This can do wonders for your corporate image, and will certainly make your company look a lot bigger and more credible.

7. Buddy up – Last but not least, another way to boost your one-man band is to partner up with a bigger company for a promotional event or a new product. Not only will this make your business appear bigger, but also it will help to boost your public image and create a stronger brand.

While there is nothing wrong with running a company by yourself, it can create a hurdle when securing clients. Use the tips mentioned above to break these barriers down.

4 Things to Consider Before Becoming a Freelancer

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article | 4 Things to Consider Before Becoming a FreelancerHave you thought about going off on your own to become a freelancer? With the ability to set your own schedule and more freedom, it can be a good set-up for some people. However, being a freelancer isn’t for everyone. Read on for 5 things you should consider before deciding to start a freelance business.

How to Get Clients

The first thing you should consider before becoming a freelancer is how you are going to be able to get clients. Luckily, there are many different websites these days that you can use to find businesses looking to hire freelancers. Businesses will list both short and long term jobs they are needing freelancers to work on. It is likely that when you first start freelancing it will be hard to find a long term position right away. Taking on short term roles with clients helps to build relationships with them and could lead to them offering you a long term position. These short term jobs will also help to build your resume and credibility on these freelance websites. You may also have to take on jobs you normally wouldn’t so companies on these sites believe that you are a legitimate freelancer. Don’t get discouraged if it takes longer than expected to find the type of freelance work that you are looking for.

Finances

You will want to consider all aspects of your financial situation when deciding whether you are able to quit your job to become a freelancer. You should have enough saved up, so you will be financially stable during your initial time building up your client base. Being that this is likely to be your first time dealing with a business’s finances, you may want to consider hiring a quickbooks bookkeeper. To find a bookkeeper who’s a good fit for your business, search ‘quickbooks bookkeeping service’ along with the type of freelance work you will be doing. This way you can find a bookkeeper who has experience working in your industry. A bookkeeper who has expertise working in your field will be a great help to you when navigating through this transition period.

Time Management

Before you go off to start your own business, you should reflect on your own time management skills. When you leave a company, you will no longer have bosses to check in on you to get your work done. When you are a freelancer, how productive you can be will equal how many clients you have and what your paycheck looks like. Unlike a steady paycheck before, your income will solely depend on how successful your freelancing business has been recently. Losing a client will have a direct impact on your salary, unlike when you were working for a company.

Benefits

Along with no longer having the push and support of a company once you are a freelancer, you will also no longer have the benefits you previously had. Before leaving a company, make sure you will be set with health insurance without their benefits. It is also important to note that although you will have more flexibility working for yourself, you will no longer have access to paid time off. If a client of yours has a question about something you are working on, they will expect you to be available to answer it, since you are the only one on your team.

If you have considered all of these things and still want to become a freelancer, there is a good chance it will be a good career move for you. Although freelancing is not for everyone, it can be a great fit for those that are willing to put in the work and are ready to have more flexibility in their schedule.

4 Frequently Asked Questions About Outsourcing Answered

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Outsourcing|4 Frequently Asked Questions About Outsourcing AnsweredFor those who are not yet on board with the prospect of outsourcing, this Q and A post shall help to quell your concerns. Below are four commonly asked questions that are often asked by business owners about outsourcing. And accompanying them, the answers to help you decipher whether or not outsourcing of some kind is a good choice for your business.

What is outsourcing?

Outsourcing refers to business owners finding and paying talented professionals (such as freelancers) and companies to do the work they don’t have the time or expertise to do themselves.

Depending on the scale of your business, there are usually multiple activities you (and your team) need to complete to ensure the company runs smoothly. For example, an entrepreneur who plans to launch their startup will need to work through the below;

  • Create a business plan
  • Build a website
  • Craft a brand
  • Set up and manage social media pages
  • Create a marketing plan to entice new customers
  • Hire, employ and train staff
  • Record every expense, income, and outgoing to ensure you have all the necessary information ready to complete your tax return

Everyone has a limited amount of time and resources available to complete business tasks, therefore attempting to adopt multiple jobs at once and do them well is near impossible. As a solution, outsourcing is often the answer to entrepreneurs’ who are short on time.

Providing numerous opportunities to outsource all of the tasks mentioned above and more, you can, for instance, outsource a trusted business partner to take care of everything related to human resources, such as hiring employees and managing the payroll. Or hire a freelance social media manager to take care of all the business’s social channels such as Instagram, Facebook, and Linkedin.

What services can I outsource?

Practically each and every area of your business you can think of can be outsourced. Here are a few of many examples;

  • Sales
  • Digital Marketing
  • Human Resources
  • IT services
  • Customer services

Can small businesses outsource work?

Of course, there’s no minimum amount of employees or turnover required to outsource services, but some freelancers, contractors, and services are better suited to smaller businesses than others; you just need to research and find out what works for you.

Is there a cost advantage?

Perhaps one of the most significant benefits of outsourcing is the amount of money your company can save. If your company has been affected by the pandemic, cutting costs is likely compulsory rather than a choice.

Delegating tasks to businesses outside of your own eliminates the costs associated with hiring employees to perform a specific role.

For example, hiring an in-house human resources team to take care of every aspect of interviews, employment, pensions, and healthcare is costly. Furthermore, you need to provide the same service to the human resources team you’ve hired too.

Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do. – Jessica Jackley, entrepreneur

Entrepreneurs can’t do it all. If you want to cut costs, save time, improve efficiency, and concentrate on the parts of your business, you are passionate about, delegate tasks to other professionals.

Setting Yourself Up For Success as a Freelancer

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article | Freelancer
 
Many people crave the freedom that comes from working for yourself, be this as a freelance individual or a small business owner.

The reality is that many people today, and particularly in the new year are making the transition from being employed to being self employed, but the two worlds are so disparate it can be useful to learn some of the freelancing core principles in order to set yourself up for success.

In this article, we’re going to take a look at some of the differences between employment and self-employment with a view to helping you set yourself up for success as a freelancer.

The Safety Net of Employment

The majority of people have financial commitments and a lifestyle to maintain, perhaps even a family to provide for, so starting up as a freelancer is something that should be considered carefully because whilst there are many benefits to being a freelancer, one of the greatest concerns is that you will be trading the financial security of a job that pays you regularly with the uncertainty associated with working for yourself.

Of course, with a decent plan and fantastic execution, you can secure your own future and there’s no reason why you cannot replace your full time income as an employee with freelance work; but it’s important not to “bite your nose off to spite your face” which is why many people set up a freelance business whilst remaining employed.

This way, as the freelance side of things picks up and grows over time, you can start to reduce your hours at work or even quite altogether – but it allows you the safety net of keeping a basic income whilst setting up your freelance business. In the alternative, you could consider an insurance policy that pays out if you are unable to work due to ill health – something many employees take for granted, in terms of statutory sick pay in addition to company specific policies.

With that said, freelancing can be a great way to earn money as you are more able to have your work fit around your life, rather than having to fit your life around your work – or rather, your boss’s demands!

Feast or Famine

The freelance lifestyle tends to be associated with much more freedom and flexibility, however, many freelancers work seven days a week, as there’s a touch of “feast or famine” when it comes to freelance work.

There will be periods of feast where you are overwhelmed with work and can barely keep up with demand, whilst at other times, there will be very slow periods where there’s barely any work.

There’s a saying about making hay that is appropriate for the freelance lifestyle, as akin to how a squirrel works very hard to gather nuts in autumn, you need to gather as much money as you can, when the demand is high.

The challenge, however, is that you can find yourself running into periods of exhaustion due to responding to high demand. You therefore need to focus on pacing yourself, and considering ways to maintain a steady flow of work. This can be challenging as most people want their project to be completed almost instantly.

Keeping Costs Down

When it comes to making money, revenue should be a secondary aim to profit – and one of the best ways to maximise your profit is to keep your costs down.

Interestingly, as a freelancer, one of the most expensive costs associated with business is the cost of marketing your services. Whilst word of mouth is one of the most effective forms of marketing, it takes some time before word of mouth starts to reach a level which can sustain your business – meaning, at some point, particularly in the early days you are going to have to pay for advertising of some description.

This is where platforms such as Freelancer and Fiverr come in. Admittedly, they charge a fee in terms of a percentage of the revenue derived from the project – but as they only charge you when you are making money, it’s cashflow positive, meaning you don’t have to shed out lots of money with a risk of getting nothing back in return.

Staying Compliant

There’s something about being a freelancer that feels a lot less formal than having a business in the conventional sense, it feels a lot more “free” in the sense of it’s free from regulations associated with having a limited company where you must publish accounts and annual return documents.

However, freelancers are still subject to stringent rules around paying tax, and laws such as contract, negligence, and misrepresentation.

If you’re used to being an employee then you won’t have had to deal with tax matters before, as this tends to be done by your company’s HR department. Yet, as a freelancer, this responsibility falls on you – and if you fail to comply with tax law, it can have very serious consequences.

That said, the benefit of being a freelancer is that it means a lot of your expenses are tax deductible which means you are likely to be paying much less tax on your income. For instance, when you consider that driving to a meeting is a tax deductible expense, but the cost of your daily commute as an employee isn’t – shows how much of a better deal freelancers tend to get.

Staying Motivated

As an employee, it can be easy to stay motivated, in the sense of staying on track – because you have someone breathing down your neck to make sure you reach targets and are accountable for your performance.

As a freelancer, however, you have more freedom, meaning you don’t have this burden… yet, in some ways with more freedom comes more responsibility – and in this context, you have the responsibility to keep yourself motivated and on top of your workload.

This is where goals, and goal planning comes into play, as this will keep you on track to perform at your optimum.

In summary, starting out as a freelancer has many benefits from time freedom to tax advantages, yet, it is a completely different world to employment and lacks some of the security and structural advantages.

Becoming Self Employed – Is It For You?

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Becoming self employed is an attractive prospect for many people. It offers a degree of flexibility and you have no boss to answer to. Being self employed can also be lucrative, any profits made are yours once you have met ongoing costs. If taking the plunge to go self employed appears tempting, it is important to take a rain check and remember that there many downsides too.

StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article | Freelance
 
One of the main cons of being self employed is that being employed on a payroll actually offers a great deal of security. When you decide to become self employed you give up many of the benefits enjoyed by employees. Employment gives a worker lots of rights including, a contract, regular pay, sickness and holiday pay as well as some legal protection. Of course as a self employed person you can still access benefits, but it will be instigated and paid for by yourself. Thankfully there are lawyers who specialise in offering support to businesses in different sectors, for example a truck labor lawyer will represent truck drivers working on a piece rate basis.

So why do so many people choose to go self employed, when there is so much security and benefits to being an employee? Read on to discover why some business owners choose to make the switch.

Earning potential

Most people working on a freelance basis earn more than if they were self employed in the same role, in fact it is estimated at around 45%. You are able to put certain expenses through “the books” which further enhances earning power. As you are working for yourself you will be able to develop your business without constraints, you will be able to pitch for work at higher prices as your reputation grows and any profit will be yours.

You are your own boss

Being self employed means that you don’t have anyone monitoring your every move. You will need to meet the requirements of your clients, but how you get there is up to you! On the flip side however, you will need a high degree of motivation and a strong work ethic. Otherwise your business will not progress as much as you envisaged.

Flexibility

If you require time off to watch the kids nativity or go to the dentist, you won’t need to grovel to your boss. You won’t be constrained to the 9-5 routine, as you can choose your own hours. This is particularly useful if you wish to become a player on a global scale in the future, as you will be accessible 24 hours a day and not just when you are in the office.

Variety

Being self employed and running your own business is a constantly evolving role. You need to stay one step ahead of your competitors in order to survive in the marketplace. You will need to adapt manufacturing processes, services and product design to meet your target audience requirements. All of which offers variety to your role.

To conclude lots of research needs to be undertaken prior to becoming self employed, but if you’re sure that being self employed is for you and your personality will allow a high level of commitment, then take the plunge and enjoy the freedom!