Know your ‘pitch’ practise telling the story of what it is you offer and how it’s different from competitors.
Price your work or hourly rate: Work out how much you will charge for your products (wholesle and retail) or services on an hourly/daily basis.
Promote your products or services: Create a website and social media accounts to promote yourself. Set up a spreadsheet and client contact list.
Manage your accounts: Set up a new bank account to keep your work and personal finances separate. Find accounting software too.
Inform HMRC and pay national insurance: As Self-employed you are required to submit an annual tax return to Her Majesties Revenue and Customs (HMRC) stating how much income you have made and what your expenses are. You should also pay National Insurance.
Get insurance: You may need to get public liability or professional indemnity insurance to cover yourself in case anything goes wrong.
Manage your IP: Owning and managing your Intelletual Property can be an inportant part of a creative business.
DO your research: Some research to figure out what it’s really like being self-employed before you start out.
Define your offering: Work out exactly what it is you have to offer and if there is likely to be any demand for it.
Get friendly feedback: Pitch your idea to critical friends who can give you feed-back and help you overcome initial challenges.
Build our brand: Work out what your business identity will be, your own name or something different.
Get a great domain name: Buy the best domain name you can get, .com, .co.uk etc • Work out what is realistic in terms of initial finance investment to get your business off the ground.
Scope your competition: Research other similar businesses and learn how they do things and how you might do it differently and better.
Test the waters: Test out your idea as early as possible to get a sense of how viable it really is.
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