Getting away from it all to find time to plan and work

[daverix]

Hey,
A thought occurred to me today that I need to find some serious thinking time to work on one of my projects away from the drudgeries of life.

I've heard of authors and script-writers taking themselves away to a retreat somewhere in order to work on the next novel or screenplay, and I was wondering if this is something I can do as a small business to work on planning and building a project that I've been working on for over a year now.

The ideal place would be somewhere warm, in an all-inclusive hotel so I wouldn't even have to worry about cooking / finding food, and can just concentrate on the project.

Has anyone done this before, and if so, how did you go about it / how did you get it past the accountant!

Here's hoping...
Dave

[vetran]

I normally find my best ideas come when I am doing menial tasks between work. Driving is normally best.

[scooterscot]

I have a but n ben in the northern most peninsula in the Isle of Skye, a fire and nothing but the sound of the weather. If I must get away from it all, that's where you'll find me.

[northernladuk]

3....

[NotAllThere]

... how did you get it past the accountant!

"Hey, accountant, this is what I'm going to do".

Easy.

The trick is getting HMRC to agree. On the face of it, off-site workshops are something many companies do for the reasons you outline. It seems not unreasonable to me, but you'd need to be able to demonstrate, if investigated, that you didn't spend the time off your face in the hotel bar!

[PhiltheGreek]

I have a but n ben in the northern most peninsula in the Isle of Skye, a fire and nothing but the sound of the weather. If I must get away from it all, that's where you'll find me.

One has a similar arrangement in the Cairngorms.

[MrMarkyMark]

Sounds good I do a similar thing each year.

The projects never seem to work out unfortunately, but I have a fantastic time

[b0redom]

It's easy, just say to your accountant. "I'm off to an all inclusive resort in the Maldives. I'm taking a laptop to write my Hai-ku. I was also planning on taking the wife and kids/girlfriend to check my spelling/proofread."

That should be fine I can't see why either HMRC or your accountant should have a problem with it, after all it is solely and exclusively for the purposes of the business.

[WTFH]

Hey,
A thought occurred to me today that I need to find some serious thinking time to work on one of my projects away from the drudgeries of life.

I've heard of authors and script-writers taking themselves away to a retreat somewhere in order to work on the next novel or screenplay, and I was wondering if this is something I can do as a small business to work on planning and building a project that I've been working on for over a year now.

The ideal place would be somewhere warm, in an all-inclusive hotel so I wouldn't even have to worry about cooking / finding food, and can just concentrate on the project.

Has anyone done this before, and if so, how did you go about it / how did you get it past the accountant!

Here's hoping...
Dave

Would you be doing this alone, or were you planning on taking any family members with you? (e.g. wife/partner)
Would you be billing any of your clients for this work while you are doing it?
Have you asked your accountant?

The question is not "how do I get it past the accountant?", but "how do I get it past HMRC?"

[BrilloPad]

I am a real writer. I have permanent writers block....