Join in if you are self-employed and work from home

Horace

Sorry for having a little whinge:rolleyes:

blue_monkey_2

Hey horace, whinge away - it makes us all feel better and we can do it, LOL. Feels better getting it off your chest.

I've not been around much today, hubby is away on a course and while it is lovely the kids have been playing up as their routine is out of whack, my son lot his bedtime cup (he is ASD - it is a HUGE big deal) and I am just exhausted. I have found time for a nice long hot bath and for half an hour on Guitar Hero. I am SO bad at it. I can manage to do it on Beginner so thought I would give 'easy' a go. The shame....... I was kicked off stage twice!! In 3 rounds!! LOL!!

I was just loking at the stats on my website and someone that has been on my site has been browsing for 'secondhand bras'. Ewwwwwwwwww.

Apparently my weekly promotion is going onto a fashion website tomorrow. I'll let you know when it goes on - fingers crossed. And they said I can send them all of my promotions.

Now off to bed. Shattered!

cheekymonkey20

KK having an extremley bad day today! started off really well, until i got home.
OH started getting really ratty with me and ended up bickering and he told me he'd had enough, was moving out and we would talk bout finances and how we are going to deal with them tomorrow night.
Feel like absolute sh*t now just dont know what to do.
Sorry about the post just really needed to vent cant bring myself to speak to friends or family yet.

starxtrouble

Im sorry to hear you're having difficulties cheeky monkey. I hope you can work things out with your OH. Cant offer much constructive advice thou sorry.

On a more positive note, im having a productive morning so far. Going to try the 30 minute method that everyone else seems to be doing ok with. Ive finally set up my spreadsheet for expenses and income (only a few entries on it so far, hopefully more to come) and I'm off to the post office to pick up a parcel for my flat mate. Later I will do the 3 translation tests I have to do and do some housework.

See you all later

Star

Lois_and_CK

Great thread. I've been reading since wordsmith opened it but not yet posted

Following on from the discussion about tax returns, I found out last year that HMRC run free courses to help with them. I went on two last October - one was about record keeping, where I discovered I was keeping far too many records for my little one-woman operation, so it freed up loads of excessive paperwork (and time) for me.

The other course was filling out tax returns and was aimed at sole traders like us. I was pretty apprehensive, thinking everyone else would be running high-flying businesses, but everyone else was clueless like me :T.

They run these courses throughout the country every year, just in time for the paper self assessment deadline - I highly recommend them; plus they give out free tea and biscuits - bonus

I also have a major problem with getting paid on time. I have 30 day payment terms from date of invoice, and very rarely get paid on time. I posted this moan on another forum, and got told basically that I should put up with it, and that I should have a back-up fund (well yes, in an ideal world). I got given the following scenario on this forum: invoice lands on the desk of the person I work for, it sits in their in-tray for a bit, then they send it off to accounts dept, it sits in their in-tray for a bit, then they get to it and they've missed their monthly date for cheque or BACS runs... and so it goes on.

Well that's all well and good, and I knew that was probably what was happening anyway, but I'm with the person on here who said their bills have to be paid monthly! Waiting six to eight weeks after I've invoiced to get paid is a pain. I hate chasing up money - I agonise for ages over wording the email and always end up sounding really apologetic for daring to ask them to chase up my money. I also worry that they won't give me work again if I 'hassle' them.

I'd be interested to hear how other people word their chase-ups? Here's mine:

Dear cow who isn't paying me

I hope you’re well and not too busy!

Please could you check with your finance department when/if they have issued payment for blah blah project? A copy of the invoice is attached.

Many thanks and best wishes (creep creep, please give me some money)

Lois_and_CK

cheekymonkey20 wrote: »

KK having an extremley bad day today! started off really well, until i got home.
OH started getting really ratty with me and ended up bickering and he told me he'd had enough, was moving out and we would talk bout finances and how we are going to deal with them tomorrow night.
Feel like absolute sh*t now just dont know what to do.
Sorry about the post just really needed to vent cant bring myself to speak to friends or family yet.

Sorry to hear this cheekymonkey. Do you think he means it about moving out or was something he said in the heat of an argument? We do sometimes say things we don't mean when we're angry. I know you say you don't want to talk to friends/family, but it might do you some good to get it out. Is there a trusted friend who you can vent to?

Darth_Trader

Lois_and_CK wrote: »

Following on from the discussion about tax returns, I found out last year that HMRC run free courses to help with them. I went on two last October - one was about record keeping, where I discovered I was keeping far too many records for my little one-woman operation, so it freed up loads of excessive paperwork (and time) for me.

Thanks L&CK - this might be useful as I might be on the other end of the record-keeping scale. I keep all my business-related receipts (numbered in chronological order) and printouts of all statements relating to my incomes, and then just write this in a book with totals in and out, and a final number for the year (at year end) so I know whether I made a profit or loss and how much. Not sure if I need to be doing more than this. So I'll keep an eye out for the Revenue's course.

Darth_Trader

The 'payment on time' thing is a tough one. It depends how big you are as a company, and how many other customers you have. If you have loads of customers, then losing a few by getting medieval with them for non-payment shouldn't be too concerning. Your immediate priority (especially in these recession-stricken times) is cashflow, and if a customer is waving their hand and saying, 'oh, we'll pay you next month', you probably don't need the hassle - or the customer.

Of course, if it's your only client, or the biggest one, things will be more difficult. Personally, I'd be seriously canvassing for new customers with a potential future view to ditching any non-payer (or at least to provide you with absolute confidence that you can firmly but politely demand payment for goods, and threats of lawsuits, without worrying about the non-payer not using your services again!)

Lois_and_CK

Darth_Trader wrote: »

Thanks L&CK - this might be useful as I might be on the other end of the record-keeping scale. I keep all my business-related receipts (numbered in chronological order) and printouts of all statements relating to my incomes, and then just write this in a book with totals in and out, and a final number for the year (at year end) so I know whether I made a profit or loss and how much. Not sure if I need to be doing more than this. So I'll keep an eye out for the Revenue's course.

That's pretty much all you need to do! I was amazed at how little I needed to do - I was keeping this huge records book thing that I'd bought with millions (ok maybe that's an exageration) of boxes to fill in by hand, then was also keeping spreadsheets on the computer. I was also printing out every quote and invoice I sent. For small businesses like mine, I got told it was fine to keep my invoices on the computer (no need to print out, so long as they're backed up), and just to record totals in and out somewhere. One girl scribbled her totals in a diary and got told that was ok too. If your expenses are over a certain amount (I can't remember the figure now - will go on the courses again this year) then you need to separate these out rather than just entering in a single figure, but otherwise that was it.

I also found out handy things like claiming loads of expenses to reduce my tax bill, things I didn't know like claiming a proportion of my mortgage and utilities bills because I work at home.

Found a thread about the courses elsewhere: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1105747

Purpleroses

Hi all. today is a day of tidying. My first visitors to the shop the other day spurred me on as I like the shop being tidy and in good order. When people come in to us it's very one on one so want to make a good impression lol.

How are the assigments coming on Horace.....