Professional Studies 26/11/2013 Self Employment

Self-employment

What is self-employment, where would I choose to work what materials would I need to get? Who would I contact after I graduate some people choose to work for themselves and also work for a company, I may choose to be self-employed, I even may choose to work for a agent. Then I would be responsible for invoices to the company. If I was a designer maker I would have to sort my own tax out etc.

The types of self-employment I could look at:

·         Sole trader

·         Partnership

·         A co-operative  

·         Limited company

·         Franchise

Realities of self-employment

You have to put in a lot of hours but you can choose where ever you want to work, I could work from home, hire a studio and I could also work anywhere in the world. If I worked for myself I can do what I want and I don’t have to follow trends whereas if I worked for someone else I would have to follow their brief. I would have to brand myself and my products I would look at my business cards and marketing material I would have to tell the HMRC, to register any sale I make, I may not always have a regular income from been self-employed, whilst getting on your feet you can claim working and child tax credit. There is lots of help out there. If you work from home its important you inform the correct people, it can be lonely working from home but you could employ people to work with you. You can use some of the bills and offset it against your tax. Studios you can network and socialize with others there may be open days to sell your work, you can discuss issues with other designers. Your own shop or gallery could be a good place to work, you have to consider public insurance in case anyone has an accident, but you have a great opportunity to sell work as you make it. It will be an investment to start off with.

Where can you work?

·         From home

·         A studio

·         Your own shop or gallery

Devolving contacts

Social media is important and as a personal assistance can be useful to get your name out there both public and trade can see this word of mouth and press can be very important so you can get the word out about you so you want it to be good. Blogs can be good and using copyright to protect your work, work experience can be very useful and helps you develop contacts you could even get a job from this. 

Setting up

A business plan is a way to visualize your ideas and get some clear ideas of what you are doing you can claim job seekers allowance when setting up your business and there’s also quite a bit of free money out there to help you set up and there is lots of information on the website. You can ask banks for a loan but you have to pay it back, you could get a loan there is also national funding agencies that you can look at that will help you.