Reply to: Business Banking and Loan

[elpato]

If you need a loan to get the equipment, I'd worry about the size of your war chest if the contracts don't come along quick enough.

Staying out of the "BYOD/which mac/car/watch should you show up with" debate...

[Lance]

A lot contractors would ruck up to work in GOV.UK with various BYOD machines, I saw loads of Mac Books, Asus Transformers and Surface 3 or whatever was portable and hackable on an overground train ride to London. The most important thing for security cleared (SC) projects was setting up file system encryption on the HDD for all source code and cloud container stuff. For Macs it was FIPS 2.0 and I forget what the tool was for Windows, maybe it was called BitLocker or something.

Anyway, if you don't believe me, then check out Github Alpha GOV https://github.com/alphagov

I believe you. This is what I spent a lot of time trying to convince customers was perfectly secure if done right. Plenty of large companies as well. The government isn't always backwards when it comes to technology.
And yes. Bitlocker. Although domestic PCs don't usually come with TPM installed.

[SeanT]

This is a really long thread. Stick the laptop on a credit card once you've started the contract and been there a week with whatever Cuisinart PoS you have lying around. They may even expect you to use their equipment (for security purposes or such like) - it's not a massive IR35 indicator, just make sure you also have your own modest equipment for running your business and / or remote access to theirs.

[rocktronAMP]

As someone who helps companies enable BYOD policies I have never come across any company that would allow it for access to source code. Security and intellectual property being the main reasons.

BYOD is good for general collaboration and almost always excludes access to customers' personal information and source code.

In 2013 / 2014, I used my own Mac Book Pro for a GOV.UK project in the public sector. I was around the Government Digital Service area of the woods.

A lot contractors would ruck up to work in GOV.UK with various BYOD machines, I saw loads of Mac Books, Asus Transformers and Surface 3 or whatever was portable and hackable on an overground train ride to London. The most important thing for security cleared (SC) projects was setting up file system encryption on the HDD for all source code and cloud container stuff. For Macs it was FIPS 2.0 and I forget what the tool was for Windows, maybe it was called BitLocker or something.

Anyway, if you don't believe me, then check out Github Alpha GOV https://github.com/alphagov

To OP just get a second hand MacBook Air the Intel cpu from your local CEX shop or search for them EBay. 5-6k is a load of money to waste on a start-up business.

PS: I left the public sector in 2014 long before the mess of off-payroll worker rules was flipping announced. Basically, it killed off the easy contracting for most us talented people working on thew behalf of decent consultancies and I wouldn't touch it [Cap Gemini - HMRC - funded company RTDCTwat thing] with a barge pole now.

[l35kee]

300 * 75% = £225 a day. Equivalent to about £85k a year permie salary. Assuming you have no bench and take no holidays, and assumption x and y, and blah blah.

It's not that simple of course lol.

Biggest piece of advice is get yourself a contractor accountant who lets you use FreeAgent. Setup a call and ask them all your stupid questions. Then after the call, email them a list of the even stupider questions you forgot to ask on the call.

That's what I did, helped me a hell of a lot.

Oh, and buy the macbook. I splashed out on a Surface Pro 4 prior to starting my first contract, risky but I'm happy I did that now the money is coming in instead of wasting money on something I didn't want.

(Having said that, my SP4 was only £950, and I do generally view Apple as overpriced tulip and wouldn't buy anything from them myself :P)


Edit: my first swear word! I finally understand why you all use the word "tulip" so much

[FrontEnder]

That's fine I'm mainly back-end / mySQL anyways. Probably only about 25% front-end on the "pretty side" lol.

You say £300 isn't well paid? I was looking to start off with £250 / £300 jobs and felt quite happy with that.

As others have said, "well paid" is entirely relative.

From my brief experience working with design agencies and the calls I get when I'm on the bench, I'd say £300 a day is about the norm, at least here in the north west. It's a very different sort of world to what I guess most people here work in. Probably smaller, shorter gigs, lots of repeat work for other clients, more flexibility. I'd describe it as "freelancing" rather than "contracting".

[pr1]

From memory the average contractor is on £450-550 per day.

I must admit I did a spell on £350 a few years ago, and had to run a flat, yet made a reasonable profit.

£525 according to https://www.ipse.co.uk/sites/default..._Q2_2017_0.pdf

...but...

"The quarterly IPSE Confidence Index report for Q2 of 2017
was compiled from the responses of 691 IPSE members,
who replied to an online survey. In Q2 2017, the survey
composition of respondents was: 15 per cent female and 83
per cent male (2% undeclared); an average age of 50, and
an average of 11.9 years freelancing. They were also highly
educated, with 32 per cent educated up to postgraduate
level and 54 per cent with an undergraduate degree as their
highest qualification. "

so £300 for a first contract shouldn't really be compared to the "average"

[Cirrus]

You say £300 isn't well paid?.

From memory the average contractor is on £450-550 per day.

I must admit I did a spell on £350 a few years ago, and had to run a flat, yet made a reasonable profit.

[SueEllen]

That's fine I'm mainly back-end / mySQL anyways. Probably only about 25% front-end on the "pretty side" lol.

You say £300 isn't well paid? I was looking to start off with £250 / £300 jobs and felt quite happy with that.

The amount you should get out of your clients depends mainly on their location and sector plus you need to add in your expenses.

So if client A pays £280 but is happy from you to work at home 80% of the time while client B pays £300 but wants you on site 100% of the time, if your travel was £30 a day to each then you would be better of with client A.

However that's ignoring the fact that client B would allow you to use the greatest and latest technology.

[pr1]

That's fine I'm mainly back-end / mySQL anyways. Probably only about 25% front-end on the "pretty side" lol.

You say £300 isn't well paid? I was looking to start off with £250 / £300 jobs and felt quite happy with that.

If your username alludes to your birth year no doubt it is relatively well paid for your age

I think the majority of people on here are 40-50somethings who feel anyone turning over <£100k/y are 'slumming it'

[malvolio]

That's fine I'm mainly back-end / mySQL anyways. Probably only about 25% front-end on the "pretty side" lol.

You say £300 isn't well paid? I was looking to start off with £250 / £300 jobs and felt quite happy with that.

You're worth exactly as much as you can get out of the client. Worrying about rates - especially other people's - is the route to an early grave. Of course, you have to have an appreciation of the going rate for your skills with your experience in your sector in your location (London pays better than the Orkneys on average...). But there are no rules

[bb1990]

A lot of web development these days isn't making pretty looking websites though. I'd say more than half of what I've worked on have been internal web apps for large organisations. They probably won't let you BYOD.

That's fine I'm mainly back-end / mySQL anyways. Probably only about 25% front-end on the "pretty side" lol.

You say £300 isn't well paid? I was looking to start off with £250 / £300 jobs and felt quite happy with that.

[Lance]

Found a decent Macbook I can work with for £600.

That's more like it.

Good luck.

[bb1990]

Welcome BB!

I hope you're not leaving your job before you've got a signed contract.

With regards to loans, I seem to recall I got a business loan. The bank didn't seem to bother. As long as I personally guaranteed it. ( I guess my position is if you're a start-up and you're not running on loans then you're not a business; you're a hobby)

With regards to Macs. when I was at Experian my Tech Lead (contractor) had all our .NET stuff loaded virtually on his personal MAC. I don't know why. Nobody seemed to bother.

Thanks Cirrus!

I do think in the web development / programming world it's a lot more "hot swappable" if that makes sense - I do a lot of my freelance stuff currently on my work Mac because there's such a massive overlap between the 2, some of my personal projects bleed over into work and vice versa. Not to mention, if it takes hours to set up your Mac in such a way that's good for you and your development harmoniously.

I did read that about the guarantor loans. After some thinking and reading I do think a lot of people here are right in regards to running cheap to start off with. Found a decent Macbook I can work with for £600.

[FrontEnder]

Does this not depend on the type of contracting though? With most web applications people use Github and cloud servers which are not hosted internally therefore leaving it pretty normal be accessed by any device.

I don't know the percentage of people here that are web developers but I would think using client computers and equipment would be mostly directed at IT techs and programmers rather than web devs?

As you can probably guess from my username, I'm a web developer. I've been able to use my own equipment on 2 projects in the last 3 years or so I've been contracting.

One of them was a digital/web design agency, I imagine it's quite common for them to have BYOD. Problem is they don't tend to pay too well, so if you're happy slumming it on 300 a day for these you might be using your own equipment a lot more.

A lot of web development these days isn't making pretty looking websites though. I'd say more than half of what I've worked on have been internal web apps for large organisations. They probably won't let you BYOD.