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Advice and Experiences

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    Advice and Experiences

    Hi all

    Hope every one is well.
    I have been a software engineer for a number of years now within a permanent role. But recently I have been told by a few friends(some contractors themselves) and family to turn to contracting.
    So I contacted an employment agency to ask for some advice and he guided me to this website and gave me some very interesting advice.

    But I wondering if I could ask for some more advice from fellow people on the site please.

    I have always been fearful of turning to contracting as the idea of not having a steady income has worried me, is this something I am worrying about too much?

    Is the flow of jobs quite good? in terms of when one contract finishes another is ready? When do you apply for your next contract?

    Is is better to have a Ltd company or just got through umbrella company. As my friends have said they have a good accountant they use that they can recommend to me too.

    Peoples experience of moving from permanent to contracting, has that been easy?

    What do people do about pension and sick pay insurance?

    Jobs, do you only look locally? If it is far from home do you work from home or stay in hotel etc?

    Sorry for the bombardment of questions, as you can tell I am letting my thoughts spiral out of control and need some advice from fellow professionals.

    Many thanks

    #2
    Welcome!

    You'll find a lot of answers to your questions within the CUK website.

    On the right you'll find CUK Navigation. >>>>>>>>>

    Look down and you'll come to the First Timers section. Have a read through there.

    Basic expenses questions answered here: Contractor Expenses - How to claim Travel and other expenses via Limited Company or Umbrella

    Then pay particular attention to IR35.

    And here are the rules when using company credit cards: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/payerti/exb/a-z/c/cards.htm

    If you go into the Accounting/Legal forum you'll discover the thread Basic advice when running your own contractor business.

    Guide to Contracts also has some good articles.

    And finally - accountant recommendations - Ta-da!

    Happy reading!
    "I can put any old tat in my sig, put quotes around it and attribute to someone of whom I've heard, to make it sound true."
    - Voltaire/Benjamin Franklin/Anne Frank...

    Comment


      #3
      Superstar

      Comment


        #4
        The thing with this site is that every question you can think about contracting has been asked before in the forums. So if you can't find anything in the guides then you should search the forums by googling it.

        In the google search box you type site:forums.contractoruk.com [your question]

        So if for example I wanted to find out about holiday pay I enter this in the google search box - site:forums.contractoruk.com holiday pay

        If you still can't find an answer post your question in business/contracts or accounting/legal NOT general. Mention in the first part of your post something like "I searched on this forum but all the information is z years out of date/not present. I want to know xxx"
        "You’re just a bad memory who doesn’t know when to go away" JR

        Comment


          #5
          An employment agency is the last place you want to go for contracting advice
          'CUK forum personality of 2011 - Winner - Yes really!!!!

          Comment


            #6
            A couple of key things you might need to realise (or remember):

            1. Your job will no longer be a (insert as applicable), it's being a freelance contractor. Learn as much as you can about it - use the guides here as Cojak has said, and get the "Guide to Freelancing" from www.ipse.co.uk

            2. You are on your own. You make the decisions, not anyone else and definitely not your accountant. You are ultimately responsible for paying everything and keeping to the rules

            3. You go where the work is. Ideally it's next door (or, like me most of the time, from home), but a two hour commute is not unusual, nor is camping out for the week in somewhere God-awful like Telford. It's a trade off between income and comfort.

            4. You're selling what you've delivered in the recent past. You aren't selling personality, prospects, team fit (although you have to be good at that anyway) or something you know a little about. You get hired as the expert to start delivering the same day, so be careful to match your experience to your job applications. And forget career progression.

            5. You will earn more take home, if you're any good, but you only work 7 months a year on average (many do more than that, but don't rely on it), your job is only as long as your notice period if you even have one and you don't get paid for holidays or sickness. Make sure you keep something back to cover the other five months.

            6. Don't know if you have a family, but they're in it too. Be very certain they're happy with your decision.

            Get it right and it's a great way to live. The trick is getting it right.
            Blog? What blog...?

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by Harvey View Post
              I have always been fearful of turning to contracting as the idea of not having a steady income has worried me, is this something I am worrying about too much?
              No

              Originally posted by Harvey View Post
              Is the flow of jobs quite good? in terms of when one contract finishes another is ready? When do you apply for your next contract?
              Depends on what you want to do, where you want to do it and how much you want to be paid for it. I apply when I am out of contract; others will look near the end of their current contract so they walk from one into the next - each to their own.

              Originally posted by Harvey View Post
              Is is better to have a Ltd company or just got through umbrella company. As my friends have said they have a good accountant they use that they can recommend to me too.
              Depends if you want to run a company or not, and if it's a long-term plan to contract or not. There are certain legal responsibilities to running a company - make sure you understand what you are taking on before you jump in.

              Originally posted by Harvey View Post
              Peoples experience of moving from permanent to contracting, has that been easy?
              Yes.

              Originally posted by Harvey View Post
              What do people do about pension and sick pay insurance?
              Company pays into a pension plan, don't bother with sick pay insurance.

              Originally posted by Harvey View Post
              Jobs, do you only look locally? If it is far from home do you work from home or stay in hotel etc?
              No - look internationally. At the moment, I work from home, but normally I find somewhere near the client to rent / stay and stay there.

              Good luck
              Best Forum Advisor 2014
              Work in the public sector? You can read my FAQ here
              Click here to get 15% off your first year's IPSE membership

              Comment


                #8
                Good reading all the guides so far thanks for all the links - very helpful.

                Just out of curiosity - when you work and get paid, if you have a business account how do you pay your wages and if so how much? Also if you use an umbrella company do you just get paid into an account of your choice?

                Sorry about the questions if they are all in the guide. If there is a link to this already that would be great.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by Harvey View Post
                  Good reading all the guides so far thanks for all the links - very helpful.

                  Just out of curiosity - when you work and get paid, if you have a business account how do you pay your wages and if so how much? Also if you use an umbrella company do you just get paid into an account of your choice?

                  Sorry about the questions if they are all in the guide. If there is a link to this already that would be great.
                  If you are asking this question you didn't read enough. If you rely on spoon feeding of basic knowledge, you will have troubles running your own business, when you have to make informed decisions all the time.

                  Besides this is basic knowledge that any of your contractor friends will be able to answer over a pint. Surely you trust them more than a bunch of strangers on the internet...
                  Last edited by sal; 16 December 2014, 12:51.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by sal View Post
                    If you are asking this question you didn't read enough. If you rely on spoon feeding of basic knowledge, you will have troubles running your own business, when you have to make informed decisions all the time.

                    Besides this is basic knowledge that any of your contractor friends will be able to answer over a pint. Surely you trust them more than a bunch of strangers on the internet...
                    Sorry for asking the question.
                    Didn't realise some people are so touchy over just asking a simple question. And yes I haven't read it all as of yet, there is a lot to take in.
                    I am sure you were in a similar position once too.

                    Its great to have all the links. But at this rate, you might as well just cancel all the posts and say "hey guys all the information is in these links"...
                    I find that very disrespectful you making a judgement on whether I can run a business just because I asked a simple question.

                    If this is the kind of response you get for trying to get information, then this is not helping newbies at all and can put you off

                    This is in not directed at anyone who has given me the advice in previous posts.

                    Comment

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