Blogs for Contractors & Freelancers

If one thing our years and experience of contracting and freelancing has taught us, it’s this: nothing stays the same for very long.

Whether it’s the BoE changing the base interest rate (they will one day, promise), rafts of new constitutions being implemented by a new government and/or budget or simply day-to-day changes in interest rates and tax law, it all affects the small business owner.

Moreover, we appreciate that running a limited company is an arduous task in itself. The last thing you need after a hard day’s graft is to have to scour the web for the latest commerce and taxation news. That detail makes the difference between running a business and running a successful contractor business.

There are four main topics that we’ll be following closely, all of which critical to the contractor lifestyle (or at least keeping it a lifestyle “choice”):

• Mortgages;
• Protection Insurance;
• Financial Advice;
• Contracting Matters;

By monitoring these four broad topics, we aspire to keep you in the loop with brief, regular news updates that will give you the competitive advantage in your business and beyond.

Why do freelancers and contractors need a blog?

It’s no secret, we specialise in mortgages for contractors and freelancers. However, what we’ve found is that, as keen as our clients are to ask for our help in funding their home purchase, they’re not so keen to take out related protection. It all stems from the assumption that they’re covered, due to being so after working for an employer.

When you’re a permanent employee, death in service, sick pay and pensions are all catered for. When you begin running your own business, that burden of responsibility falls squarely on your shoulders.

We predominantly see this trait in those newest to contracting. When you’re young, fit and agile, the thought of being struck critically ill or not being able to work through long term sickness does not occur to you.

Ironically, this is the ideal time to sign up for mortgage and sickness protection. When you’re young, you’ll fly through any medical. And don’t forget, you only have to take that medical once, if at all if you’re below a certain age.

Try getting the same protection for as low a premium when you reach your forties and you’ll wish you’d started as you meant to go on.

Even more of a reason to protect your livelihood through Freelancer Financials is that most of the premiums, if paid through a Limited Company, contribute towards relief on your tax bill. That’s right: they can save you money on your tax bill!

As such, the Freelancer Financials blog is intended as a resource for the whole UK Contractor Community. Think of it as your own one-stop shop for self-employed industry updates.

From budget reports to interest rate changes, from HMRC guidelines to decisions taken in Brussels that have direct consequences for Britain’s legions of self-employed, if it’s relevant to the contracting industry, we’ll be amongst the first to break the news here.

We know that checking in with us may not top of your priorities, so do yourself a favour and sign up for monthly newsletter, delivered straight to your inbox.

If, on the other hand, you’re extremely conscientious and would like to receive breaking news as it happens, you have two options:

• sign up to receive blog updates by e-mail to get the latest contractor news delivered straight to your inbox as soon as we hit publish.
• If you’d like to get the breaking news as soon as it happens, either plug our RSS feed into your favourite news reader or sign up by e-mail to get the latest contractor news delivered straight to your inbox. We’ll see you there.

We’ll see you there.