Going Solo -- A Self Employment Guide

Health Care When Working From Home

It's worth thinking about how you will handle important issues such as health care. As an independent worker you will not be covered by your old corporate scheme.

There are a couple of options for you.

If your spouse is still employed then perhaps you can be covered through your spouse's health plan. Perhaps you can arrange to continue your old health plan independently. Or if you are a member of a group or union for your new profession then you may be able to get health coverage that way. Check any self employment guide for more advice.

I found that a visit to a certified financial planner is probably one of the best investments that you can make. When you are self employed your ability to earn an income is one of your most valuable assets that you have and a certified financial planner will discuss your options with you.

Handling Taxation

Another key issue for the newly self-employed is taxes. One thing to know is that you will probably have to make staged tax payments several times a year.

As an independent contractor you may find that many of your business expenses are deductible. You can find more information about this through this self employment guide and others. But while you're waiting, keep track of everything from utility bills to receipts for meals with clients.

I have personally found that using my bookkeeping software is one of the major time saving tools that I have, but I also got the advice of an accountant and I followed his advice as to which software to use.

Getting Freelance Work

Apart from the issues of health care and taxation, your main concern as a self-employed person is how to get clients, and that's how this website can help you. Browse through this freelance work guide website for tips and advice for freelancing your skills. You can find a full list of the pages on our website on our sitemap page.

If you are already established in your field then you may already have lots of contacts who can provide you with work. Perhaps your old firm would like to subcontract some work to you. If not then the best thing you can do is to network both online and off-line.

Get yourself a website which will serve as your virtual shop window but don't forget to promote yourself in real shop windows as well.

These three tips provide a good self employment guide for getting started.

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