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PITCH PERFECT

Singing the praises of IPSE's Freelancer of the Year 2019

MAKING A SPLASH

Paralympic medallist Mark Williams makes waves with his business

TAXING TIMES

New off-payroll rules could see higher tax bills for freelancers

EDITOR

Jyoti Rambhai

jyoti.rambhai@ipse.co.uk MEDIA CONSULTANT Jim Cassidy

DESIGN

Martin Harling-Coward

REPORTERS

Tristan Grove Christina McLean Jessica Hayden James McLarin ChloĂŠ Jepps Stuart Ulrich Zsofia Szendrei

Front cover

Rachel Mason talks songwriting and why music tastes like steak.

See page 5 for full story

CONTRIBUTORS Asa Bennett Gemma Church Jason Ward

PHOTOGRAPHY

Nisha Haq Photography Ioan Said Photography Lovegrove Photography

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Newsflash "These changes will result in the notoriously complex IR35 rules being inaccurately applied to the genuinely self-employed." Chris Bryce IPSE CEO Full story p.11

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Contents INTERVIEW Rachel Mason on songwriting and steak

RESEARCH Project economy is new the gig economy

NEWS IR35 reforms in the private sector could threaten British innovation

EVENTS National Freelancers Day round-up

INTERVIEW Mark Williams on why he set up his business to help amputees like him

BUSINESS AND FINANCE Clamping down on late payment

FROM THE LOBBY The Conservative leadership race

NEWS The UK's next Prime Minister

24 25

BUSINESS AND FINANCE Finding your next gig on social media

LIFESTYLE Bristol co-working: A hive of activity

BUSINESS AND FINANCE Career progression when you're freelancing

LIFESTYLE Revealed: Freelancer's eating habits

EVENTS The events that could benefit you

LIFESTYLE Tech review: The headset for office workers

Mark Williams designs covers for prosthetic legs, so amputees can wear trousers without them flapping. Full story p.15

It's not so quiet this silly season A word from the editor

uly and August are meant to be silly season, but right now there’s still so much going on in the political landscape. That’s why this edition covers everything from the ups and downs of the Conservative leadership contest, to the upcoming round of self-employed IR35 tax changes. But it is not all about politics. We speak to Rachel Mason, IPSE’s Freelancer of the Year 2019, about her journey from music teacher to international celebrity singing

July/ August 2019

judge, as well as what winning the award means for her. The last edition of the magazine looked at why more and more disabled people are choosing self-employment. Following that, we talk to former Paralympic swimmer, Mark Williams, about his journey from athlete to self-employed business owner. We also delve into not the ‘gig economy’, but the ever-growing ‘project economy’, how to use social media to find clients, and the eating habits of freelancers who work from home.

Jyoti Rambhai EDITOR

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Rachel Mason hits not just one, but all high the notes Rachel Mason is IPSE's Freelancer of the Year 2019

By Tristan Grove Chief correspondent

July/ August 2019

ou might have heard the term ‘slashie’; as in “I’m a designer/copywriter/ project manager.” Well, it’s a term that the 2019 IPSE Freelancer of the Year Rachel Mason takes to the extreme. What else can you say about someone who’s a songwriter/ performer/singing teacher/musical arranger/ vocal judge/charity ambassador – oh, and did I mention mum of two young children? No, Rachel hasn’t (as far as I can tell) bought a Harry Potter-style time turner: she’s just one remarkable freelancer. And she’s had huge successes right across music – and the world. Rachel’s been a judge on Sky One’s Sing: Ultimate A Cappella, a talent competition for singers without accompaniment. She’s worked with artists from Gregory Porter to The Vamps. She was the musical director of the UK’s top show choir, Euphoria. She’s judged countless international singing competitions, including The Voice Festival, Masters of Show Choir and the ICCAs (International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella). When I look back over that list, I feel enormously lucky Rachel has the time to speak to me at all (I catch her during her children’s naptime). So, where to begin? Well, how about how someone sets out on the path to becoming the ultimate music guru?

Rachel on stage with Euphoria Show Choir in New York

"When I'm songwriting and it is going well, it tastes like steak."

THE SUPERHERO BACKSTORY You might expect the obvious backstory: Rachel loved music ever since she was a little girl. Well, yes, she did. But she was also born with something of a superpower: when she hears music, she sees colours. She can even taste music. It’s called synaesthesia, which literally means ‘together sensation’. About four per cent of the UK population have some kind of synaesthesia, meaning for them, one sense automatically triggers another. It’s a condition that comes in many forms, but you find sound-related synaesthesia among many top musicians. As Rachel tells me: “Quite famous musicians like Pharrell Williams, Billy Joel and Tori Amos – a lot of them have it. “I often refer to it as my superpower. It’s not particularly useful: I can’t heal people or fly or be invisible, but I see music as colour, which can be quite useful.” It certainly must give people a different perspective on life. “As a child, I thought everybody had it, Rachel explains. "You don’t realise you’re different until you say it to someone and they look at you blankly thinking you’re a bit weird. “I told my parents about it, saying ‘well when I hear Albatross [the instrumental track by Fleetwod Mac], it’s yellow,’ and they just looked at me really strangely.” Perhaps the strangest (and most super) thing about it is the taste: “When I’m songwriting with somebody, when the song is going really well and feels really good, it tastes like steak. It’s really weird – I only ever get it with steak.” With apologies to any vegetarians out there, tasting steak again and again doesn’t sound at all bad to me. 6

IN THE BEGINNING So, back to that backstory: aside from her time turner, how did Rachel become an international music guru? Well, it all starts with Glee… After she graduated with a degree in music, Rachel said: “I hated my admin job so much that I decided to contact lots of local schools to find out if they would have a singing teacher come in and do some private lessons there. Luckily, a couple of schools said yes, so I was able to build up my client base. “I had so many teenage students, and it was back in 2009/2010 when Glee was massive. So, a professional dancer colleague of mine and I decided to set up our own Glee club. I had so many students from different schools, we thought we’d do it as a separate thing on a Saturday. That way people who were a bit older could be part of it too. Because Glee was so big then, it took off really quickly. And so, Euphoria was born, and Rachel’s career was changing fast: “Before long, we were invited to be part of the Britain’s Got Talent tour with Spellbound, the acrobats. Then we got talent-spotted to go and perform in New York. And we did the Royal Albert Hall. It just kind of snowballed. It was incredible, really.” READY FOR TAKE-OFF From there, Rachel’s career really took flight (even if she claims that isn’t one of her superpowers): “We did so many different things with the choir, performing all over the place. And from that I got in contact with a lot of other show choirs and show choir competition organisers all over the world (it’s huge in the US and Canada).

“People started asking me to mentor their choirs and come over to do things with them, which was incredible. I just thought, “Oh my goodness, I’m British – you’re the experts!” But they just seemed to love the arrangements I wrote for Euphoria. “From there, I started to do a lot more a cappella work, and before long I was invited to judge The Voice Festival and the ICCAs, which is the competition featured in Pitch Perfect. Eventually, because I was so hugely into the a cappella world, I was basically headhunted to be one of the judges on Sky One for Sing: Ultimate A Cappella. “It was the most amazing and crazy experience because I had a three-month-old baby at the time. We were all in London and they would go off for the day, while I went to the studio and was filming with the Vamps , Gregory Porter, and Cat Deeley, who hosted the show. SINGING UP A STORM That’s two or three of the strings in Rachel’s creaking bow, but there’s one big area we haven’t covered: songwriting. It’s always been one of her biggest passions in music, she tells me: “I’ve written songs for as long as I can remember. I think I was four when I wrote my first song (it probably wasn’t very good!). “Then when I was doing my music degree, I would spend evenings in a recording studio recording my own songs. I wrote a lot of things for my show choir, so we recorded an album.” modern work

Judge Rachel: At the Well Child Awards 2018 with the winning choir

Then, while leading Euphoria, Rachel (typically) decided that she wasn’t doing quite enough: “I decided I wanted to learn more about songwriting, so I very luckily got a place doing a master’s in songwriting at Bath Spa University. I did my master’s over two years, part-time, while I worked. “That gave me the confidence to feel I could really do it properly. So, I started to co-write with lots of different singers and songwriters. Now I run a songwriting academy as part of my artist management business. I write with a lot of different artists who are just being discovered, doing BBC introducing and getting lots of radio play.” Rachel is characteristically humble when talking about the many high-profile performers she has worked with, but she has, she tells me, “worked with some of the winners of The Voice UK”. She also said: “My co-writer and I have written a song for Dua Lipa too: she hasn’t used it yet, but we have written one for her.”

of her time to charity work. One of her biggest causes is campaigning against bullying. In 2013, she wrote the award-winning anti-bullying anthem Body on Mute, which she and her choir performed around the world. It was also adopted first by the charity Beat Bullying, and then by the Diana Trust. Its lyrics have even been used for an American Apparel range too. She tells me: “I was teaching a young boy at school, who was a really talented singer, but he started to get really down in his lessons. He’d just stop being himself: he was a really bubbly little kid and he just started to get more and more down and then he stopped coming to singing lessons. “I rang his mum and she said he was being really badly picked on by some boys at school, because he liked singing. She said he’d stopped everything – he’d stopped playing football – he’d just stopped doing all the things he used to. He’d basically become a ghost of himself. “It was so sad. I remember thinking out loud, ‘He’s become a ghost of himself…’ and I wrote the song based on that idea that someone could be bullied so badly that they stop being themselves. He inspired that song.” But what happened to the little boy? How did he react to the song?

"He stopped coming to singing lessons. He'd stopped playing football - he'd stopped doing all the things he used to. He'd become a ghost of himself."

GHOSTS When discussing her stellar career, Rachel is always not only humble, but effusive about all the people she has worked with. It’s the kind of near-saintly behaviour you might expect from someone who has also dedicated a huge amount July/ August 2019

“I haven’t spoken to him since then – it was a long time ago. But he told one of my other students that he’d listened to it and it made him cry. They said he realised he didn’t want to be a ghost any more – he wanted to be himself, and he’s a lot more confident now.” THE FREELANCER OF THE YEAR Rachel said she believes her anti-bullying anthem and the impact it had is one of her greatest successes. It’s easy to tell she’s also over the moon about being named Freelancer of the Year. For her, it’s “one of the most amazing things that’s ever happened to me”. “I never thought it was going to happen. I kept saying to everybody, ‘I’m off to London, I’ve got some new shoes and I’m going to get an evening with my husband, so that’ll be nice. I’m not going to win though.’ “I just wanted to go and have a nice time and see all the other finalists, and then I won and there’s a photograph of me going up on stage and I just look completely shell-shocked. I couldn’t believe it.” For Rachel: “Being self-employed means that you don’t really ever get a pat on the back – you don’t get your boss saying, ‘you’re doing really well, you’re hitting all your targets: have a pay rise’. “It’s such a career boost to think that these people think you’re that good,” she added. “As freelancers, we don’t tend to think that of ourselves: we think we’re decidedly average.” But, as I’m sure you’ve realised by now, even if she doesn’t really have superpowers, Rachel Mason, the 2019 Freelancer of the Year, is anything but average. 7

'Project' not the 'gig' economy driving productivity in the UK

By Chloé Jepps Research correspondent

ontributing around £104bn each year to the economy. Making up almost three quarters of the country's most skilled freelancers. Having a massive impact on innovation and productivity. So why haven't you heard of the 'project economy'? A big part of the problem is the interest in the ‘gig economy’. Because of the widespread (but largely untrue) narrative that automation is eroding stable jobs and driving them into insecure pseudo-self-employment, the media is almost obsessively focused on the so-called ‘gig economy’. But a new report by the Centre for Research on Self-Employment (CRSE), entitled The Freelancer Project and Gig Economies of the 21st Century, has revealed that gig work is only a small proportion of the self-employed sector. Especially among the UK’s 2.1 million highly skilled freelancers, project work is much more common. And when you look at the overall picture, the £104bn project economy is by far the bigger story. 8

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WHAT IS THE ‘PROJECT ECONOMY’? So, let’s start with the basics, shall we? What are the ‘project’ and ‘gig’ economies? Well, the report, defines gig work as freelancers being paid to repeatedly perform the same task or gig for a client. Project work, by contrast, is where freelancers are brought in to do all or part of specific projects – most often to do with new products, innovation and infrastructure. The CRSE’s report focuses on the 2.1 million highly skilled freelancers in the UK (those in the top three Standard Occupational Classifications), which includes managers, directors, professionals and associated professionals. Among these high-performing groups, it finds that instead of gig work, it’s actually project work that is most dominant. Almost three quarters (73%) of them work in the project, not the gig, economy.

a variety of different kinds of work – both gigs and projects. It is not just the amount of money the project economy contributes. The nature of the project economy also adds a huge amount of value. Professor Andrew Burke, chair of the CRSE and lead author of the report, said: “The research finds that the UK economy would be far less entrepreneurial, innovative and ultimately would be more sluggish if firms did not have access to highskilled freelancers. “It shows that freelancers add a huge amount of value to firms both through their flexibility and their specialist skills.”

"It is estimated that the project economy contributes at least £104bn to the economy every year."

A QUESTION OF IMPACT The big question, then: what difference does this major and under-reported sector make? Well, we know highly skilled freelancers contribute £140-145bn to the economy every year. And with project freelancers making up most of this group, it is estimated that the project economy contributes at least £104bn to the economy every year ( just based on highly skilled freelancers). That is more than the £100bn of the creative industries and close to the £110bn contributed by the construction sector. As a result, the ‘project economy’ plays a vital role in driving the productivity of the wider economy. Gig-based work, by contrast, makes up just 14 per cent of the highly skilled freelance sector, meaning it contributes closer to £20bn – a fifth of the extremely productive project economy. The rest is made up of ‘portfolio’ freelancers, who do July/ August 2019

THE BIG PICTURE The ‘project economy’, then, is not only hugely productive: it is a vital driver of innovation in the UK. The CRSE report pointed out that much of the economic success of developed countries in the twenty-first century has been driven by innovation. And since project freelancers are essential for innovation, their role in driving developed economies cannot be overstated. Although firms rely on employees for their day-to-day work, when they want to look beyond to innovate and expand, many turn to the flexible expertise of freelancers, according to the study. Bringing in freelancers for these projects gives them temporary specialist expertise, where otherwise they might have to risk taking on fulltime staff. Freelancers allow firms to experiment and explore the bounds of possibility. CRSE’s research highlights the government’s and industry’s obsession with the gig economy and the need for them to step back, adds Andrew. “It is time for government policy to catch up with this rapidly developing sector, and design policies that will give it the support and encouragement it needs.” 9

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British innovation at risk if IR35 reforms go ahead By Andrew Chamberlain

housands of freelancers working in the private sector could face paying billions of pounds extra in tax after the government announced it would be pushing ahead with its proposed changes to the off-payroll tax rules (IR35). The new rules, published by HM Treasury (HMT) in the draft Finance Bill, will mean from April 2020, companies that hire contractors will be responsible for determining IR35 status. Anyone deemed inside IR35 could face higher tax bills. The changes to the legislation, which was originally introduced in 2000, are designed to crack down on so-called disguised employment. However, the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed (IPSE) has warned that this could threaten British innovation and create a form of second-class employment. Research by the Centre for Research on Self-Employment (CRSE) has found that freelancers drive innovation and could improve productivity. They provide flexible and highly skilled expertise to businesses and the IR35 reforms could have a serious impact on this. In April 2017, government introduced similar changes to the off-payroll tax rules in the public sector, which is expected to bring in an additional £1.3 billion in taxes over four years. Following the reform, there was major controversy about blanket assessments, where all engagements are deemed to be ‘inside’ IR35 without a proper consideration of the facts. As a result, several projects were delayed due to contractors voting with their feet and leaving. Now, there are concerns the private sector measures could damage businesses. For example; high street banks which engage hundreds, perhaps thousands of contractors, may be tempted to carry out blanket assessments as a means of minimising the tax liability. Such an approach is likely to create major disruption and could discourage contractors from engaging with these companies. July/ August 2019

A HMT spokesperson t o l d Mo d e r n Work: “It’s right – indeed essential – that individuals working side by side in a similar role for the same employer pay the same employment taxes, and our draft legislation cements our commitment to a fair tax system. “People who are not complying with these rules are not paying their fair-share of these employment taxes. Which means our hospitals, schools and other public services are missing out on vital funding.” In response to HMT, Chris Bryce, IPSE CEO, said: “These changes will result in the notoriously complex IR35 rules being inaccurately applied to the genuinely self-employed. Independent contractors will be forced into an inappropriate tax bracket, with no effec-

tive route to appeal a wrong decision. “Heaping the burden of determining status on to clients is a cynical attempt to ensure over-compliance with the rules, which means HMRC will be collecting tax it is not legally entitled to. “Government claims that non-compliance is commonplace, but this must be called into question in light of HMRC’s abysmal recent record in court. It has lost six of the last seven IR35 tribunals that have come to light – demonstrating HMRC’s warped view of status and strongly suggesting it doesn’t understand its own rules.” In a consultation response, IPSE has called for the IR35 changes to be postponed until businesses have been given time to put proper processes in place to ensure accurate determinations are made, and a full impact assessment has been carried out on the effect of the rules in the public sector. 11

A day of networking and collaboration By Zsofia Szendrei

When you bring a community of such high-calibre and committed freelancers together, you can be sure to have a day to remember. Held at Kings Place, London, NFD was IPSE’s eleventh annual flagship event with talks, workshops, a live podcast, drop-in sessions and more. The two keynote speeches — from Pip

Jamieson, founder of the networking platform The Dots, and award-winning doctor-turned-author and comedian Adam Kay — were particular highlights of the day. Pip started the day with a talk about why she founded The Dots (on her houseboat), as well as the importance of networking and collab-

All photography by © Nisha Haq Photography

t's not every day that you find a children’s storyteller sharing lunch with an aviation services consultant, a pharmaceutical programme manager and a digital nomad. As a buzzing hub for all self-employed people, however, National Freelancers Day (NFD) brought them altogether.

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Award winners

orating. Adam closed the day with a stand-up routine, which included a few highlights from his book This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor. Returning to NFD was Carl Reader, a business expert who explored the value of personal brand for a business. His Building Brand YOU workshop was more popular than ever, with many attendees describing it as extremely useful and engaging. Carl tweeted afterwards: “From my perspective, it’s one of the best organised conferences out there.” Attendee Sophie West, of Start up with Sophie, said that she not only met social media connections at long last, but also made valuable new contacts. She described NFD as a “great day” with an incredible “collaborative atmosphere”. Others described the day as “welcoming and friendly” and found it “tough” choosing which talk to attend as they were spoilt for choice.

This year, IPSE also introduced an event app by Socio to help guests curate their agenda and connect with participants before the big day. Clara Emanuel and Pauline Brookes, sisters and founders of The Moderna, a network of female digital nomads, were extremely excited about this new feature. They enjoyed exploring the day with an “accessible” and “intuitive” guide right at their fingertips. New to Freelancing finalist, Sean Muntaner, even managed to hold an impromptu meeting with a lead he had been wanting to connect with in the networking section. Sister Snog director, Hela Wozniak-Kay, also made full use of the event app. She said she reached out to participants and invited them to a pre-session introduction. She made the #nutellamoment possible in her workship, Lone nut to Nutella: A Guide to Collaborative Working, where solopreneurs joined forces to create new work. It was a day celebrating all things freelance.

The Freelancer Awards by IPSE are an annual event to celebrate the best of the UK’s 4.8 million freelancers and self-employed. This year’s winners are: RACHEL MASON Freelancer of the Year 2019, Winner COLIN STUART Freelancer of the Year 2019, Runner-up OLIVIER JAMIN Freelance Project of the Year 2019, Winner BREE KOTOMAH Young Freelancer of the Year 2019, Winner ELLIOTT REEVES-GIBLIN Young Freelancer of the Year, Highly Commended ADAM PEARSON New to Freelancing 2019, Winner FREELANCE HEROES Ambassador of the Year 2019, Winner GOLDSMITHS UNIVERSITY OF LONDON University Partner of the Year 2019, Winner BIRKBECK UNIVERSITY OF LONDON University Partner of the Year 2019, Runner-up DUKE STUDIOS Co-Working Space of the Year 2019, Winner INCUBYTE Co-Working Space of the Year 2019, Runner-up

July/ August 2019

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Business is going swimmingly Former Paralympic swimmer and medallist, Mark Williams, discusses why he turned to self-employment

By Christina McLean News correspondent

July/ August 2019

n his flight home from the 1989 Miami World Championships for Disabled Youth, with three gold medals in hand, Mark Williams decided to retire from competitive swimming. Following this decision, Mark entered corporate life, first working for French plant and animal food agribusiness, Groupe Roullier, for seven years. He then moved to Ecolab, where he worked for over 20 years managing sales teams across northern Europe, handling acquisitions and, latterly, managing their corporate accounts for Europe, Africa and the Middle East. But just over a year ago, there was yet anoth-

er drastic shift in Mark's career when he joined the ranks of the 4.8 million self-employed people in the UK by setting up his company Limb-art in March 2018. Limb-art Ltd design and manufacture the “world’s coolest” and most robust prosthetic leg covers, Mark tells me, with exports now to Ireland, Holland, the Czech Republic, the Canary Islands, Poland and the USA. The idea for these colourful, confidence-inducing covers was born out of Mark’s desire to solve an issue he had been experiencing for nearly his entire life: trousers flapping around his prosthetic leg. 15

All photography by © Ioan Said Photography

In 1982, at the age of 10, Mark was riding his bicycle home from school in north Wales when a car ran into him. He was rushed to hospital where his parents met the surgeon who gave them some news – both good and bad. “The good news was Princess Diana had had a baby boy [Prince William] and the bad news was they could not save my leg,” recounts Mark. “Little did I know this would be the best day of my life!” His biggest challenge was of course, learning to walk again, but as a determined 10-year-old, he managed it in just eight weeks. During that time, he met with the head coach of the Rhyl swimming club. “He said I looked like a natural swimmer and, after some months of training, the coach, Mick [Mike Jones], asked the British Sports Association for the Disabled (BSAD) [now Activity Alliance] for the qualifying times for the British championships, so I could enter. “They sent the times and after one year I had managed to beat two of the times only to find out that they hadn’t sent the qualifying times but in-

stead the current GB records, which I had broken in training.” Mark went on to compete on a global stage, winning multiple medals in the 1988 Seoul Paralympics. “It is an indescribable feeling. The best way to describe how I felt is pride when you stand on the podium and receive your medal,” he explains. Now, Mark has turned to self-employment to develop a new source of pride: raising the confidence and self-esteem of fellow prosthetic users. “The covers have been received fantastically by amputees, with many thanking us for selling one to them. Not only does the cover make the amputee’s leg look cool, it massively improves the amputee’s confidence to walk into a room and #StandOutStandProud.” Mark’s passion for his business has led to multiple awards. His proudest achievement, he says, is winning the 2018 Stelios Entrepreneur of the Year Award, which showcases the unique talents and business skills in the disabled community. By striking out on his own, Mark has

"I control my own destiny. All successes and failures are my responsibility."

modern work

joined the roughly 611,000 disabled people in self-employment (who make up 14 per cent of the self-employed workforce, according to a recent report by The Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed (IPSE) and Community). The report, Making self-employment work for disabled people, shows that in the last five years, the number of self-employed disabled people has risen by 30 per cent. The report sets out recommendations for government, the private sector and support organisations to help disabled people in, or considering self-employment, succeed in working for themselves. The report also analyses the motivations for becoming self-employed, looking particularly at whether people felt they were pushed into it or chose to work this way. For Mark, this was about, having “control of my own destiny. All successes and failures are my responsibility”.

"Don’t be afraid, take chances, fail from time to time… if you’re not getting failures, you’re not trying hard enough." It's not just Mark who chose self-employment rather than being pushed into it. According to the study, a large proportion of the disabled self-employed community see greater control over work as an important factor for choosing to work for themselves - similar to the wider freelancing population. The most common reason is better work conditions or job satisfaction, which was picked by over a fifth (21%) of all respondents. Additionally, like Mark, many disabled people feel that self-employment offered them an opportunity to pursue a personal passion or skill. They also see it as a path to get greater fulfilment from their job, giving them a personal sense of pride. Mark arguably, is also similar to the 19 per cent in the report who say they chose self-employment because of the nature of their job or career. When asked why there wasn’t something like Limb-art that already existed, he explains: “One of the main reasons almost nobody has thought of the idea is that you have to be an amputee to experience the problem (so only a small percentage of the population). “Then you need to be an entrepreneur, which is also a small percentage of people. So, you’re looking at a small percentage of an even smaller percentage.” July/ August 2019

But as emphasised in IPSE and Community’s study, not every disabled person finds themselves in the same position as Mark. According to the report, many of the factors that push disabled people into self-employment related to negative experiences of being disabled in full-time employment. For example, the report noted that “a lack of understanding in the workplace around a person’s condition or impairment including from colleagues and employers”, among other reasons often mean disabled people do not feel employment is a suitable option. However, regardless of whether they were pushed into it or chose self-employment, the report shows that many reflected on how being their own boss had a positive impact on their lifestyle and helped them to accommodate their condition or impairment. Mark’s advice for anyone considering self-employment is simple: “Make sure what you are about to do is enjoyable. There will be some great times and some low times, so if you don’t enjoy it you will not make it through the low times. “Don’t be afraid, take chances, fail from time to time… if you’re not getting failures, you’re not trying hard enough.” 17

'I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date' How government is chasing the white rabbit of late payment

By James McLarin Business correspondent 18

t’s no surprise that many welcomed the news that large businesses could be fined and their directors even prosecuted for not paying freelancers and small businesses on time. Not being paid on time has more than just financial consequences: it is also an administrative burden and it is about time things changed.

Research shows that on average, freelancers lose approximately 20 days a year chasing late payment (worth more than £16.5 billion to the UK economy). This can be the difference between a freelancer staying afloat or going under. So, what has the government been trying to do about this poor payment culture? modern work

Four years ago, the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 was passed and it included the Duty to Report on Payment Practices and Performance. Duty to report, as it is commonly referred to, essentially requires large companies to publish their payment practices through a portal on gov.uk. In theory, this was meant to increase transparency and give freelancers and small businesses the necessary information to choose which clients to work with. The fear of being named and shamed was supposed to force these large companies to improve their payment practices. But the reality is that nothing much has happened. Margot James, small business minister at the time, said she wanted it to “empower small businesses and drive a real change in payment culture”. That drive clearly stalled. Two years on and there is still very little understanding of the legislation, it appears. Duty to report has loopholes that many companies have exploited and manipulated. As Rachel Reeves, chair of the Commons’ Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee, rightly said, it “undermines efforts” to tackle late payment and protect small businesses. It’s not all bad however. It seems the government is making attempts to really clamp down on this. Last month, the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), spearheaded by small business minister Kelly Tolhurst, used a consultation report to announce a raft of new measures. One thing is for sure: on the surface, these measures suggest better transparency and tougher punishment for companies who fail to pay freelancers on time. One of the proposals is to prosecute company directors under existing legislation for failing to report payment practices. BEIS has also suggested giving new powers to Paul Uppal, the small business commissioner, which would include compelling the disclosure of payment terms and practices, imposing financial penalties and binding payment plans on large businesses found to have unfair payment practices. Part of this proposal includes moving the voluntary code of best practice – the Prompt Payment Code – to the small business commissioner. According to BEIS, this will put all the tools needed to tackle late payment under one organisation, and hopefully this reform will go some way to changing payment culture and pull-

ing duty to report into effect. At the launch of the consultation report, Tolhust said: “The vast majority of businesses pay their bills on time, with the amount owed in late payments halved over the last five years. I know the huge impact a late payment can have on the ability of a small business to plan, invest and grow.” She later told Modern Work: “I ran a small business, so I am not completely ignorant about what small businesses have to put up with. “I learnt very early on in the world of work that credit control and how you got paid was key – I saw the risks of not getting paid. So, we want to be tough with these particular announcements.” Tolhurst went on to say: “Small businesses are the backbone of our economy and through our modern industrial strategy, we want to ensure the UK is the best place to start and grow a business. These measures will make sure small businesses are given the support they need and ensure that they get paid quickly – ending the unacceptable culture of late payment.” Most organisations welcomed this as progress. The Confederation of British Industry’s Josh Hardie said: “Getting this right is absolutely a board-level issue.” IPSE’s deputy director of policy, Andy Chamberlain described it as “a positive step”, but was clear afterwards that ministers must follow through, deliver, then go further. While this is a step in the right direction, let’s not get too ahead of ourselves. The new rules only cover businesses that are classified as ‘large’. This means they meet two of the following: £36 million in annual turnover, £18 million balance sheet total or 250 employees. In the grand scheme of things, this covers less than five per cent of businesses, including the larger ‘small’ businesses, which are anecdotally some of the worst offenders. Freelancers, the smallest of all businesses, are therefore sometimes treated so poorly and this can have a serious effect on their wellbeing as well as their business. So yes, this is a positive step from the government, but it is not going to stamp out late payment and certainly not right away. For freelancers, the best advice is to always state your payment terms up front, put it in your contract and don’t be afraid to remind your clients when payday is approaching.

"Small businesses are the backbone of our economy."

August/September 2019

modern work

Your monthly briefing LONDON EYE TRANSFORMED INTO A CO-WORKING SPACE FOR one day, a London Eye pod was transformed into a trendy co-working space by design guru and TV star Sophie Robinson. Fiverr, who commissioned the pod’s redesign, tasked Sophie with producing “the ultimate creative space”. To coincide with the new pod, Fiverr launched a report entitled Generation Flex, which considered the reasons Brits become freelancers. Nearly three quarters (74%) of respondents said flexible hours are the biggest draw, and 58 per cent of respondents said it was the ability to work remotely. The report also found that over two thirds of Brits have considered quitting their job to go freelance.

TALKSPORT PRESENTER WINS IR35 CASE PAUL Hawksbee, of the Hawksbee and Jacobs Show, has won his IR35 case against HMRC over a £140,000 tax bill. Part of the broadcaster’s argument was that he writes his own jokes – proving a high level of autonomy. Hawksbee said TalkSPORT is "just one string in his bow" and he is an independent comedy writer. Unusually, rather than reject HMRC’s case completely, as has happened in five of the last six IR35 cases, the tax tribunal could not reach a verdict. Instead, Judge Thomas Scott used his casting vote to declare Hawksbee successful in his appeal. MOST SOLE TRADERS DO NOT LAST FIVE YEARS ANALYSIS of HMRC tax records shows that the majority of self-employed sole traders don’t survive the first five years of business. Over 60 per cent of sole traders have closed by year five of trading. Furthermore, one-fifth of sole trader businesses do not even survive the first year. Simon McVicker, IPSE’s director of policy, said that in order to support sole traders, the government must “simplify the self-employed tax system, give freelancers the infrastructure they need and clamp down on late payment”.

LOOSE WOMEN’S KAYE ADAMS FACES NEW COURT TRIAL AFTER HMRC APPEAL HER IR35 CASE KAYE Adams is set to face another court battle after HMRC appealed her IR35 case. In April 2019, Adams was successful in a tribunal over a £125,000 tax bill, with the judge declaring that the TV star is self-employed. HMRC said: “We were disappointed with the result and have sought leave to appeal.” In response to the new trial, the TV star, who has already spent tens of thousands of pounds on the court battle, said: “It is interesting to see how they are spending taxpayer money.”

BT among 18 businesses penalised for late payment BT, BRITISH American Tobacco and Centrica are among the 18 companies that have been suspended from the Prompt Payment Code for failing to pay suppliers on time, the Chartered Institute of Credit Management (CICM) announced today. The suspension comes following a regular review by the Prompt Payment Code’s Compliance Board on the status of organisations to ensure they are upholding their commitments. The Prompt Payment Code asks businesses to pay their supplier within 60 days, 95 per cent of the time. Signatories have pledged to uphold July/ August 2019

this payment standard in a bid to clamp down on late payment. All suspended businesses have been invited to produce an action plan to the code' Board to improve payment practices substantially. 17 out of the 18 have submitted an action plan and will be reinstated as soon as they demonstrate compliance. AB World Foods are yet to submit an action plan. Andrew Chamberlain, deputy director of policy and public affairs at IPSE said: “On average, freelancers spend 20 days a year chasing

late invoices. It simply isn’t good enough. The self-employed are uniquely vulnerable to late payment, if they aren’t paid on time, they have no income.” Paul Uppal, small business commissioner, said: “Large companies who are not currently meeting the Code standards need to note their unethical payment practices will not be tolerated. The suspension of those who are failing to meet their obligations demonstrates government is committed to ensure small businesses are treated fairly.” 21

Is it an uphill fight for the UK's new PM?

By Asa Bennett Brexit commissioning editor at The Telegraph

n the face of it, Boris Johnson’s Tory leadership success should have been a surprise. After all, he did in the past famously dismiss the chance of him ever becoming Prime Minister, saying variously it was as likely as him being “decapitated by a frisbee, blinded by a champagne cork, locked in a disused fridge or reincarnated as an olive”. None of those events have come to pass, except for Johnson at last taking power. Few doubted this would happen from the moment he entered the race to succeed Theresa May. Long the frontrunner for the top job, Johnson started out ahead in the race, and his lead merely grew from there. Fears that he would struggle to win support among MPs were confounded as they piled in behind him. Sceptics were undoubtedly convinced to do so by polls showing not just how much Tory members wanted him, but also much better he 22

would be for the party's poll rating among the general public than anyone else in the race. If it was so obvious, why didn't the Tories rush through the process and crown him? Simple. They did that last time for May, and it didn't work out too well. So the party felt obliged to make sure that Johnson would be properly "tested" on his way into Downing Street. That process, his enemies hoped, would see him fall apart at the final hurdle. Boris' worst enemy, they argued, was Boris. But he proved them wrong over endless hustings. He did not make the horrendous gaffes they hoped for in TV debates and fought his corner. No matter how much of a fight Jeremy Hunt – his scrappy rival – put up, all he could do was mitigate the scale of his victory, rather than stop it outright. The looming prospect of a Johnson premiership drove some of his biggest Tory sceptics to move against him before the result had been declared. Sir Alan Duncan, who served under him at the Foreign Office for two years, quit as a junior foreign minister to push for a vote in the House of Commons before Johnson had even taken office on whether MPs had confidence in him.

John Bercow squashed the idea, stopping him from even being able to make his request formally in the Commons chamber. Johnson allies would hope that was because the Speaker wanted modern work

the new prime minister to be given a chance to prove himself. But actually, Speaker Bercow was driven to intervene by the fact that it is meant to be the job of the Labour Party

August/September 2019

as Her Majesty’s Opposition, not individual MPs, to push such votes. It is certainly striking that the Johnson premiership is facing greater opposition from MPs on the Tory benches than those on the Labour frontbench. At least Johnson has had a few weeks to work out, over the course of the leadership contest, what he wants to do in office. He used the campaign to paper over cracks in his reputation, trying to draw a line under his notorious “f*** business” remark by vowing to be the "most pro-business Prime Minister" in history. His cabinet and actions in government will aim to make that promise a reality. Yet what will have the biggest influence on his premiership is how he handles Brexit. With 100 days to go until 31 October, the “do or die” Brexit deadline for Johnson, he has little time to waste. The biggest problem facing Johnson, amid the fanfare about what his new flamboyant premiership heralds, is that he has inherited the same parliament as Theresa May had to grapple with. The Tories’ DUP-supported majority has withered, which leaves Johnson even more vulnerable to the whims of Philip Hammond and his like-minded Tory colleagues. “There is a majority of two,” Rory Stewart observed drily, “and I have at least three friends.” Parliamentary numbers will decide how the next few months play out. Antino-deal Tories like Hammond have already shown their readiness to tie his hands by letting through amendments aimed at stopping him from proroguing parliament. Many more knife-edge votes will follow. While Stewart and his colleagues insist they would never vote down a Tory prime minister in a motion of no confidence, even if Johnson was ploughing ahead with a nodeal, they could still damage him if they fail to support him at such points. If parliament proves too tricky, Johnson may well decide he has to ask the people to elect a new one for him in a snap election. Such a move would be a gamble, as it could give him a hefty Brexit mandate, but it could equally leave him back where he started, or in an even worse position that allows Jeremy Corbyn to try and cobble together a coalition. Faced with such peril, Johnson would be forgiven for wishing to be locked in a disused fridge if it meant he could avoid the uphill fight that awaits to deliver Brexit.

Chris Bryce

Chief executive at IPSE

IR35 is turning the clocks back. Instead, we need a modern Chancellor THERE’S been a lot of talk about nostalgia and turning back the clock recently. From Jacob Rees Mogg’s “staggeringly silly” history of the Victorians, to the other no-deal Brexiteers trying to turn us back into a buccaneering eighteenth century trading nation. But there’s one antique curio we haven’t addressed enough: our tax system. Far from the modern, flexible system we need, it is designed exclusively for a narrow, nineteenth century model of employment. And with the changes to IR35, the government is set to turn back the clock even further, making freelancing into a kind of second-class employment. So much for Philip Hammond, but there is hope for the next chancellor. Sajid Javid has expressed strong and encouraging support for entrepreneurs and small businesses. Is it too much to hope that in him, we might have a modern chancellor, who will bring our tax system into the twenty-first century? At IPSE we’re calling on Mr Javid not to repeat the mistakes in the public sector and stop the changes to IR35 in the private sector in their tracks. It’s the first, most important step for building a modern tax system fit for the changing world of work. To create an environment that truly encourages and supports freelancers, we’re also calling on Mr Javid to clarify the legal status of the self-employed. For too long, confusion has marred not only the gig economy, but also the rest of the 4.8 million-strong self-employed sector. We’re also calling on the new chancellor to end the blight of late payment and address the self-employed savings crisis. It’s time government stopped trying to make freelancing second-class employment and helped to make it a sustainable way of working. If the self-employed sector is to flourish and be the productivity powerhouse it should be, we need a modern chancellor who turns away from nostalgia and brings us a tax system – and business environment – fit for the twenty-first century.

Boris Johnson: The new top dog Jim Cassidy reflects on the new Prime Minister's journey into Downing Street. Will he be behind the UK's self-employed sector?

s you climb the stairs of No 10, history looks out at you. Prime Ministers through the centuries seem to stare back at you from their

portraits. But what will the ghosts of Churchill, Macmillan, Heath or Thatcher think of Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson as he bounds up the stairs of No 10 for the first time as Prime Minister (PM)? He is the Marmite man of British politics and it is interesting that a large percentage of Conservatives have a taste for Marmite. While the great British public may be holding their breath to see how Boris performs in Downing Street the press just love him. Through the years he has been the court jester, providing headlines, laughs and tittle tattle; a lithe colourful character who could put his foot in his mouth with accomplished ease and has a brass neck you couldn’t burn with a blowtorch. But what can the UK’s growing army of the self-employed expect of PM Johnson? When we last spoke to Boris about the sector, there was a genuine respect and admiration for the men and women who believe in themselves, their talent and their future. At the time, he was Mayor of London and he was robust in his support for the new growth sector: “In an increasingly competitive global economy, a nimble-footed workforce is essential. "We are teeming with talented freelancers providing flexibility and specialist expertise. This is helping organisations remain innovative and agile, which is vital …and I’ve no doubt self-employment will be an increasingly important feature of our economy.” 24

In the recent months there has been a makeover for Boris. Gone is the Worzel Gummidge style unruly hairstyle to be replaced by a neat blonde mop. The less than satirical outfits have been replaced with outfits that nearly fit. The expanding waistband has been reduced by running, both in the parks of London and the regional hustings. We must hope his enthusiasm for the self-employed has not changed. “It is clearly the case that access to a diverse pool of freelancers is going to help businesses of all sizes remain lean and efficient, and help them grow. In addition, becoming a freelancer is obviously an attractive employment option for many people.” The answers came in nano seconds, full of confidence, full of assurance. Over the next few months we must all hope that the same confidence and assurance can translate into positive action. I said at the time that Boris bounded across Britain’s landscape like the Dulux dog; hair unkempt, knocking over all before him, but strangely endearing. But to others he is a mongrel running wild, growling, snapping, hoping one day to be top dog. Well, today he is the top dog. Let’s hope he’s not barking! Stand by for a rollercoaster. Brexit without a deal; a snap general election; political carnage as ‘friends’ find themselves discarded. Get it right and he might be seen as the nation’s saviour. Get it wrong and Churchill, Macmillan, Heath and Thatcher will catch a glimpse of him as he falls down No 10’s stairs for the last time. modern work

Review Logitech’s Zone Wireless headphones

First, this headset is aesthetically beautiful, with its simple yet elegant design. A plastic and metal mix in a shade of grey that even Christian Grey himself couldn’t turn down. I wore the Zone Wireless for almost an entire day and quickly forgot I was even wearing it. So, comfort-wise, this headset ticks all the boxes. Your head is cushioned by a smooth rubbery material containing a gel-like substance. The ear pads are equally comfortable, each filled with a spongy foam encased in smooth leatherette. The Zone Wireless is incredibly light, weighing just 0.18kg. Despite this, sturdiness doesn’t feel like an issue and that is partly due to the metal frames. Unfortunately, when it comes to the built-in, slide-down microphone, the build quality is a let down. It feels cheap and could easily break. With regards to the sound, after hours of listening to music using the headset, I came away feeling disappointed. While the sound is pleasing, it severely lacked bass. Logitech stated: “The Zone series of headsets delivers superior sound quality.” I can’t help but feel that they have fallen short of this statement. Let's move on to the Zone Wireless’s party piece, the ‘Active Noise Cancellation’ (ANC). I was sceptical at first, having used headsets that claim to be noise cancelling, but in reality, only muffled the noises around you. At a push of a button or a

The headset designed ‘exclusively’ for the office worker

By Stuart Ulrich

Tech correspondent

o you need to have a headset exclusively for the open office environment? A headset is a headset, right? It plays music and drowns out the annoying person next to you, so surely any headset will do? I have been putting Logitech’s Zone Wireless headset through its paces to find out. Priced at £199, it can seem like a large sum to splash on a headset. But what will your £199 get you? July/ August 2019

swipe on the companion app, all noise vanished. I was stunned: activating ANC was like stepping into my own impenetrable, soundproof bubble. The Zone Wireless can be charged in two ways: via a USB C cable or QI wireless charging. It has a talktime battery life of 14 hours (ANC on), 15 hours (ANC off ). It has a listening time battery life of 14 hours (ANC on), 16 hours (ANC off ). Therefore, you will certainly spend more time with them on your head than on a QI charging pad. The Zone Wireless is a Bluetooth headset but also comes with a USB dongle for easy connectivity to your computer – simply slip the USB dongle into any of your computer’s USB ports and that’s it. Connecting to your phone follows the same process as any Bluetooth device. Pair this with Logitech’s mobile companion app Logi Tune and you will be able to make small equaliser tweaks and control the microphone and ANC settings. Where the headset fell short in music quality, the Zone Wireless’s microphone really hits the mark. The microphone is muted by default; unmuting is done by rotating the microphone down in front of your mouth. Simply rotate the microphone back to its original vertical position to mute it again. The overall sound quality of the microphone is crystal clear, as you would expect for a high-end headset. For those who work in a co-working space or a client’s office and are regularly on the phone, this could be the headset for you. As long as you’re not expecting a bass-producing monster.

A hive of activity Bristol co-working space is more than just your average self-employed community

By Jessica Hayden News correspondent

estled in a small industrial back alley in Bristol sits Pollen Place – a cosy, fresh and bright industrial unit-turned-coworking space. When you think of co-working spaces, often the more hipster ideas come to mind first; a multi-coloured room with bean bags, a dog, a pool table and a fridge full of beer. That’s what I was expecting at least, as I approached the workspace. That’s partly because this trendy back alley would not look out of place in Shoreditch, but is situated in what feels like Bristol’s equivalent, Stonescroft. Neil Quinn, the manager of Pollen Place, describes Stonescroft as the “creative epicentre” in Bristol; central to the bustle of the city. In fact, the space neighbours a yoga studio and an architectural firm and feels like a hidden gem in this busy area. Pollen Place is quite refreshingly the opposite of what I was expecting, although manager Neil does tell me he keeps a supply of beer in the fridge. This space is quiet, neat and tidy, with both front doors wide open and the gentle sound of the street outside. The space is split into two. On one side is an office space with desks, and on the other a bright, multi-purpose room. This room has the technology to host a variety of events, including a green screen and a white screen, Neil tells me.

“Just last night I had a guy doing a hip-hop video in here, and last week someone else filmed a music video in here,” he says. “We have a set of lights, and tripods for all cameras, so the room can be a mini filming studio.” The co-working area in the adjoining unit has a very different atmosphere; it has more of an office vibe. This, Neil explains, is because many of the

"It’s like a community – we have even had members start small businesses together."

access. The refreshments are modest but plentiful – a bowl of fruit, a jar of chocolate digestives, tea and coffee. There is certainly a feeling that you bring your own food and drink. Pollen Place strikes me as the place to co-work if you miss being in an office, despite the small choice of snacks. “We meet potential members before we give them a set of keys,” Neil explains. “Everyone has to be the right fit for the place.” With only 16 desks, Pollen Place is a relatively small co-working space, but new members are always welcomed, I am told. The space offers each member a permanent desk, so they are free to make

freelancers work there on a full-time basis and so there is even an office-style culture where everyone goes out for after-work drinks at the local pub on Fridays. “The way the space is considered and decorated is to promote productivity – the artwork and plants contribute to making it a nice place to work,” Neil adds. You can certainly see that. The decoration is modest, subtlely trendy, and not overcrowded. Membership costs £195 per month, which includes refreshments, a key to the space, and 24-hour modern work

Greendesking: Glamping for remote workers

it their own. Members also have one-hour’s free rental of the multi-purpose room next door and can hire it for just £6 an hour after that. The space also regularly hosts meet-ups and also sponsors a digital marketing session once a month. Neil says: “It’s like a community – we've even had members start small businesses together, such as Offset.Earth.” Offset.Earth is a subscription service which helps people reduce their impact on the climate. The feeling of community is shared across the street where Pollen Place is situated. Once a year, the businesses there convert the car park at one end into a street party for everyone to attend. “They put a barbecue on for people, some ball games – it is a good chance to get together with the other businesses in the street,” Neil explains. I had no sense of that hipster, trying-toohard vibe here at all. In fact, it felt very warm and welcoming. Pollen, or the idea of bees, is a somewhat overused metaphor to describe the self-employed, with many co-working spaces calling themselves a ‘hive’. This is different, though. Pollen Place was so-named because the owners of the space are beekeepers themselves. That is the way with the whole place – everything feels genuine and with purpose: no frills necessary. July/ August 2019

Overall rating Price Location Facilities Wi-Fi Coffee

DESCRIBED by Seb Mower, co-founder of newly opened Wild.Work, as ‘glamping for remote workers’, greendesking is a co-working concept that brings desks to rural locations near metropolitan transport routes. Rural co-working isn’t a new concept: what makes greendesking different is its transport-accessible locations. Accessble greendesk locations give freelancers the chance to ditch the smog and commuter crowds and enjoy fresh air instead. The pilot Wild.Work greendesk site near Balcombe is half an hour from Brighton and 45 minutes from London on the train. The space is popular not just with locals and commuters, but also freelancers from as far afield as California and Germany. One big reason why more people are turning to greendesking is the increasing awareness of how natural surroundings improve wellbeing. Research shows that being in green space helps with mental energy and creativity, both vital for busy freelancers. In fact, Shinrin-Yoku, or forest bathing, has even been endorsed by the Duchess of Cambridge for its mental health benefits. The rollout of 4G and 5G will make more rural sites viable and break down the barriers to access, opening up opportunities for more co-working locations in the woods. The freelancers at Wild.Work regularly end the day with an evening barbecue overlooking the stunning Ouse Valley. With views like that, it’s easy to see why this way of working could be the future for many people.

Working from home: Not a walk in the park Jessica Hayden speaks to freelancers to find out about their eating habits and how healthy they really are

hat’s harder: a marathon, a triathlon, or staying away from the biscuit tin when working from home? That’s the familiar struggle of many freelancers. Two fifths of freelancers work from home, yet only 66 per cent have a dedicated workspace. This means ‘working from home’ often means working from the sofa, the dining table, or even bed. Freelancers will be all too aware of the initial introduction with somebody who works in an office: 'Oh, you work from home? It must be nice to never go to work.' In fact, when time is money, as it is for most self-employed people, taking a break can be a guilt trip. Taking a break to exercise or cook a healthy meal can feel impossible – in fact, only 21 per cent of those who work from home take a full hour for lunch. As it turns out, being your own boss means long hours and nobody to tell you when to stop. Only a quarter of those who work from home exercise every day. Pilates teacher Kerrie-Anne Bradley says: “We should try to move every 30 minutes. This doesn’t have to be leg-over-head stuff; it can be a walk to the kitchen, or squats while you wait for your coffee.” Here are the real lifestyles of freelancers who work from home. 28

Hannah Rowe, 44, freelance PR/marketer from Cheddar, Somerset I find it much easier to eat healthily and exercise as I work from home. In a large office, it’s always someone’s birthday so there is usually cake around. As a freelancer, if I don’t work, I don’t get paid, so I sometimes don’t even notice it is lunchtime. On balance though, I think employees live a healthier lifestyle, as they have colleagues to support them if they want to be healthy, and companies are setting up healthy living schemes.

Tim Latham, 59, founder of Unretired LLP from Caythorpe, Lincolnshire My business is very much concerned with healthy habits. We help people in their fifties and sixties with their health and wellbeing. However, I have to try really hard to be good myself. Working from home can sound like an ideal situation, whereby exercise can be slotted into the working day, but any driven business owner will be tempted to keep working rather than take breaks for exercise. Working predominantly from home also presents more temptation with food. I suspect setbacks for someone working at home might lead to comfort eating, whereas if working alongside colleagues, it may just be a quick chat with them. modern work

Catherine Ross, 38, copywriter and internal communications specialist from West Sussex When I work from home, I always achieve my 10,000 steps a day goal, go to the gym three times a week, and eat proper meals. In a client’s office, I tend to eat unhealthily – often eating cookies and cake – and I only do around 300 steps. I’ve been freelancing for almost a decade, so I have learned not to have too many treats around the house. One of the benefits of working from home for me is that I can make time to do household chores, which gets me moving. I think it can be easier to live a healthier lifestyle when you’re self-employed. Employees are too often tied to their desks, not feeling they can justify a lunchtime walk. At home, I do have to be disciplined to make good choices, but the increased flexibility I get from setting my own timetable does make it easier to exercise. July/ August 2019

Jas Shah, 33, freelance fintech consultant, from London For me, working from home means my diet is a lot more volatile, whereas when I was working full-time it was a lot more regimented because I couldn’t cook my own healthy food. That being said, on busier days I often forget about lunch and just snack, then get to about 5pm, realise I haven’t eaten and order a takeaway. I order a takeaway about twice a week, which equates to around £50 a week. I usually get a ‘cheeky Nando’s’ because it’s ‘healthier’ than pizza. I do exercise regularly, though. I go to the gym three times a week and cycle on my lunches, which means I get out of the house and get some fresh air. It also gives me an endorphin boost to get through the afternoon.

Faith Young, 48 and three quarters, freelance copywriter and PR support from Scarborough There are days I don’t venture outside the door at all. To keep healthy, I run, as I can do this at any time, although I tend to run in the mornings, sometimes as early as 5.30am. I think being self-employed makes you healthier. I am much more organised with my time so I can fit everything in, including site visits, travel time, exercise and eating healthy food. An advantage of working from home is I can prepare meals from scratch – a spaghetti bolognese can cook on the stove while I’m working!

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MERLIE CALVERT, FOUNDER OF FARILLIO

ortune favours the bold” is a phrase we hear a lot in business. As a start-up committed to producing resources to empower the freelance community, we’re all too aware of the challenges you face as a business of one – uncertainty, isolation, and seeking new ways to stand-out. By definition, freelancing requires risk – you need to be brave to take that leap into the unknown. Whether you’re taking your first step into freelancing, or launching a new proposition, here’s how you can be brave. STAY FOCUSED ON YOUR MISSION It’s easy to get distracted – especially as freelancers tend to be creative and curious by nature. A shiny new project or a collaboration can mean freelancers quickly wander off-course and end up trying to juggle too much. This can lead to becoming overwhelmed and burning-out. By being focused on your business mission, you can be strategic about your decisions. It also makes it easy to say ‘no’ to things that take you away from your end-goal. You should commit your business plan to paper so you have a clear framework to work within and check in on your progress regularly to ensure you stay on track. NOT BEING PERFECT IS OKAY – EXPLORERS OFTEN FAIL BEFORE THEY SUCCEED Most of us want to get things right first time and for outcomes to be perfect every time. At Farillio we passionately believe that if you’re not failing at all, you’re not being creative enough. It’s a principle we’ve worked to ourselves,

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right from when it was just a business of one. It’s liberating knowing that you have permission to push boundaries and experiment. Playing it safe isn’t a successful competitive strategy in today’s fast-moving market-place. We all need to be prepared to step outside of our comfort zone and blaze a trail with what we do. This could be developing a new package, or launching an e-course, or even accepting a speaking gig. If it doesn’t work out, take what you’ve learned and tweak it, refine it, and try again. As Nike’s 2012 ‘Find your greatness’ ad says: “Luck is the last dying wish of those who want to believe that winning happens by accident. Sweat, on the other hand, is for those who know it’s a choice.” BACK YOURSELF Make sure you invest in training for yourself, commit to setting aside time to work on your business, and make sure you have the right contracts in place to protect your creative ideas and partnerships. These are the less glossy aspects of freelance life, but it is vital to have sustainable foundations in place. Start developing positive habits to support this balance too – get away from your desk at lunchtime, create clear boundaries around the workday, and build exercise into your day. These habits are investments in you and lead to longer term success. BE A COMMUNITY BUILDER A business of one requires a whole team around you. Your most powerful endorsements will often come from those in your own network. So, build the best network on and offline that you can. It’s also a good idea to open up your network

to trusted partners. By contributing and giving to your network, support is instant and freely offered when needed, not ignored and resented. Being brave also means being supportive to others. Pay it forward so that others who are just starting out on their journey, or maybe struggling with a particular challenge that you know about and have successfully navigated already, can draw on your support. In the start-up world we call it the “founders code” but it applies to freelancers too. STAY RESILIENT In the world of Instagram and vanity metrics, it’s hard to stay positive and comparison-free. We feel like we’re behind if we’re not hustling hard every waking moment of the day. Patience is a much under-valued virtue and again, it’s one we adhere to ourselves as a team as we look to build something valuable for our small business audience and our partners. There are always days when it feels like nothing’s going right. Tech glitches, client challenges and demanding paperwork (did someone say tax returns?) can often collide. We try to see each day as a new page and there are no rules about what you need to have done by the end of each one. By staying connected to your business plan and everything that it stands for, you’ll already be ahead of the game and ever closer to feeling on top of the world and brave. For more information on resources to build your freelance business, covering all the above in more detail visit: farill.io

How to use social media to get your next gig By Gemma Church Freelance writer specialising in tech

ow do you find work as a freelancer? It’s one of the most important questions in our community, and one of the toughest to answer. While referrals, networking and traditional job boards are all solid options, social media is rapidly becoming the go-to tool for many freelancers to find their next gig. So, where should you start? CLEAN UP YOUR ACT This should go without saying, but make sure any public online information about you is squeaky clean before you start using social media for your freelance business. As a freelancer, the lines between your personal and professional life can easily blur – and personal branding is a powerful tool to stand out from the crowd – just make sure your accounts don’t damage your professional reputation. Also, you don’t need to open an account on every platform available. Work out which platforms are best to boost your business. If you’re a photographer, for example, Instagram is a must to showcase your portfolio. If you’re a writer, LinkedIn and Medium both provide you with alternative means to market your work. Let’s focus on some of the most prominent (and useful) social media platforms to help you find work. LINKING IN First, go over your LinkedIn profile. Your headline will be used to make snap judgements on your abilities – so make sure you stand out (in the right way). You can announce the fact you’re looking for work here too. For example, ‘specialist

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freelance writer seeking tech businesses in need of a friendly copywriter’ might catch a potential client’s attention. Also, include work samples with your experience on your profile. It will make it easier for potential clients to see the quality of your work. And make sure you ask current clients for recommendations and endorsements to further boost your profile. Next, find out who has been looking at your account and keep an eye on this information. For example, if a specific person keeps looking at your account, reach out with a message and ask if they are in need of some freelance support. LinkedIn groups are also a much-underused resource where you can connect with new professionals by playing an active part in industry-specific discussions. Finally, did you know LinkedIn has its own freelance marketplace? You’ll find LinkedIn ProFinder under the work tab. To use ProFinder, you need to apply to become a service provider. You can then submit your first 10 proposals for free but (and here’s the catch) after that, you’ll need to pay $59.99 per month. DON’T BE A TWITTER TWIT Twitter is a great space to engage with influencers in your field. It’s a less formal platform but make sure you maintain your professional persona – and don’t come on too strong. It’s fine to follow, reply to, favourite and share tweets, just don’t do that for every tweet a person posts. And don’t join conversations just to promote yourself.

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Add value in everything you tweet – this social media space is already pretty crowded, and you want to entertain, not annoy people. Twitter is a really useful tool to find gigs – you just need to know how to search. If, for example, you’re a graphic designer, go to the Twitter search bar and type in ‘graphic designer wanted’. Within all those tweets, you should find some job requests popping up. Try to be specific and try as many word combinations as possible to widen your search. The Twitter advanced search feature can help you home in on relevant roles by location or for specific skill sets. When you do find a relevant role, reply to the tweet or (if you both follow one another) you can direct message (DM) the account. Twitter Lists are another useful tool to help you cut through the noise. You may want to create a list called ‘companies I want to work for’ or something specific, like ‘AI companies in Cambridge’. This can help you keep an eye on your industry and any potential leads. As with LinkedIn, make sure you have a strong summary sentence describing what you do on your profile page. You may also want to throw

in a few hashtags to help people find your account based on your skills and experience. A FINAL WORD ON FACEBOOK Potential clients may use Facebook to search for you online. So, you could make some of your profile public if you’re searching for work. While your photos, wall posts, likes and other personal information should be restricted to friends and family, you may want to keep your employment and educational information public. You could also keep professional updates public too. For example, if you publish an article on an industry blog or speak at an industry event, you could make that information public. In summary, remember to use social networks regularly, responsibly and intelligently to help you find your next gig and widen your reach in our increasingly prominent online world.

ÂŠ Madeleine Stuart

Stuck in a freelancing rut? Taking time off to reassess your career goals can help you move forward By Jason Ward

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hen it’s not smothering you, conformity can be tremendously reassuring. First, you go to school and that gives you a structure for your entire adolescence; then perhaps you enter into some kind of further education and that’s another few years dealt with; eventually you manage (let’s hope) to find a job in an area that you’re passionate about, and even in an unstable economic climate, there are some opportunities to move upwards or sideways. What happens to progression, though, if you’ve decided to strike out on your own, and you’re essentially making your career up as you go along? Stagnation happens in all fields, but outside of the framework of promotions and external job applications, it can be hard to discern a path forward. After you’ve survived a challenging few years transitioning into sustainable self-employment, you may find yourself stuck in a rut: I am saying this because I’ve transitioned into sustainable self-employment and have found myself in it. Sometimes the ‘good problems to have’ are more like bad ones, because you feel that it’s not okay to be dissatisfied. After years of time-draining jobs that didn’t mean anything to me, I am working as a full-time writer. If you’d told me as a child that I’d be in this position, I’d be thrilled, albeit somewhat disappointed that I didn’t end up as a time traveller.

"I have pulled the pinbones out of salmon for a living. I'm aware that self-employment is a privilege." I have pulled the pinbones out of salmon for a living; I’m aware that self-employment is a privilege. The ‘good problem’ I have is that I’ve made myself too busy to seek new opportunities or take risks: the thing draining my time isn’t another admin job but the profession I always dreamed of doing. Thanks to the relationships I’ve built with a range of dependable clients, I usually have the next few months plotted out and don’t have to look for work, but that also prohibits me from making new contacts that could lead to meaningful developments, and ultimately from pushing myself as a writer. Everyone has different circumstances – for many, beyond the narrowness of writing, a focus on upskilling and searching for new collaborators would constitute positive movement – but here July/ August 2019

are the steps I’ve been taking to escape my cursed stability and reliable employment. The most crucial one was to allow myself a working break, where I could genuinely focus on long-term planning instead of racing to meet the next deadline. As a freelancer, you end up taking much less time off, so I worked out what would be a reasonable period to not accept any paid work at all, and resolved to resist the temptation to do otherwise. For me, that temptation is about 15-feet tall: it has taken me years – many actual years – to feel confident that turning down jobs from certain clients wouldn’t set off an elaborate Rube Goldberg machine that would result in my complete destitution. Early in my freelancing life, I found it very useful to say yes to almost everything – now I am finally learning the value of (politely) saying no. There’s a difference between loyalty and timidity. During this period of enforced freelancing abstinence, I undertook an honest assessment of my own progress and expectations. Beyond paying my rent, what are my actual priorities, and what gets in the way of them? Am I in the position where I’d like to be? What does that position look like, anyway? It was important to do this without beating myself up, a difficult thing to avoid when you’re a click away from scores of people more successful than you. Instead of feeling dismay at the distance left to travel, I tried to work backwards from my goals. The line that everyone quotes from Batman is that the night is darkest just before the dawn, but I’ve always preferred the one about how when you’re freezing you should rub your chest and your arms will take care of themselves. I realised that my focus needed to be on the work itself, not the career. It became evident that the central objective of my break was to remind myself what I love about writing, and to determine where I could give myself opportunities to pursue more of that. If I feel secure that I’m able make a living from all this, then maybe the bulk of my writing should be a joy to do. For me, that means carving out space for more self-directed projects, even when they don’t have an obvious path to remuneration. By definition, this will mean less financial stability, and turning down paid work in favour of non-paid work for myself is absolutely a risk, but then I’m a freelancer: it’s not my first leap of faith. A day in which I’ve enjoyed writing never feels like a failure, and a day in which I’ve enjoyed writing always feels like I’m moving forward. 35

Ask the expert

When starting out as a freelancer, what insurance should you consider getting?

Chris Mallet, Broking Manager at Aon Affinity

ith work becoming ever more flexible, more and more people are deciding to go it alone and become self-employed freelancers. When you do decide to make the leap, chances are your first thoughts will revolve around building your work pipeline, and you can be forgiven for not putting insurance at the top of your to-do list. Arranging effective insurance coverage is critical to protecting your fledgling business. All freelancers should arrange Professional Indemnity Insurance as soon as they begin operating. This protects you against compensation and legal costs in the event of any alleged error that could occur in the work that you complete for a client. Increasingly, clients will require you to hold Professional Indemnity Insurance. Beyond Professional Indemnity Insurance, freelancers should consider arranging the following cover: • Public Liability Insurance – protecting you if your negligence results in injury to a third party, or damage to property • Property Insurance – covering your business equipment, which is typically excluded by home contents policies • Income Protection – protecting your earnings if you’re unable to work due to injury, illness or call up for jury service

Why is it important for freelancers, particularly when you first start out, to attend different types of events? Claire Barrance Events Co-ordinator at IPSE

uilding networks and exploring potential opportunities for collaboration are so important in the world of freelancing, especially when launching your career in self-employment, no matter what your industry. As a freelancer you are in charge of every aspect of your business including marketing, and events offer a great space to promote your work and build personal relationships face-to-face. Freelancing can be a lonely way of working and there is often a mix of highs and lows— networking with others in the same situation can help reduce those feelings of isolation. It is also a great way to build up a support network of like-minded individuals who you can not only share your problems with, but learn from too. Speaker events, panel sessions and workshops inspire and offer new insights that you may not have even considered. To succeed, you need to stay motivated, up-to-date and clued in with the latest information Events offer the chance to get yourself out there, learn something new, share best practice and build relationships. There are so many different events out there that will really add value to you and your business: make sure you explore and get involved.

Getting in touch with an insurance broker who specialises in protecting freelancers is usually the best way to ensure you’re effectively protected.

Do you have a question for our experts? 36

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0208 897 9970 37

Networking, seminars & events provides a basic introduction to patents, trademarks, registered designs, copyright, know-how and trade secrets. During this workshop you will have the opportunity to ask your questions regarding the topic. It will be followed by networking and refreshments. Details: Monday 12 August, 2pm to 5pm, The British Library Business & IP Centre, London WEBINAR: INTRODUCTION TO COPYRIGHT FOR BUSINESS NETWORKING: INTERIM & INDEPENDENT PROFESSIONALS NETWORKING NIGHT JOIN the Interim & Independent Professionals Network for a night of informal networking, catching up on current market trends and swapping leads for potential contracts with other freelancers & micro-business owners. This event is focused on peer-to-peer networking, covering topics from running your own business to attracting the right clients and working in the current political climate. Details: Wednesday 7 August, Slug and Lettuce, Wood St Aldermanbury, London, EC2V 7JQ. RSVP to attend via: bit.ly/IIPNnetworking

WORKSHOP: HOW DO I PROTECT A BUSINESS IDEA? AN UNDERSTANDING of intellectual property and its protection is vital for anyone with an idea, whether itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a business, an invention, a brand name or a song. This complimentary two-hour long session will introduce the various areas of intellectual property and help you understand which ones may apply to you and your business. The session

LEARN the basics behind copyright and receive an introduction to protecting and managing your copyright as well as using the work of others. Almost every business has intellectual property of some sort â&#x20AC;&#x201C; this series of online webinars, hosted by The British Library Business & IP Centre, helps businesses to understand and protect it. Copyright protects different types of work, from music to marketing materials. The webinar will explain the basics behind copyright, including eligible works, duration of protection, and an introduction to protecting and managing your copyright as well as using the work of others. Details: Friday 16 August, 11am to 12pm

NETWORKING: FREELANCE FRIDAY NETWORKING EVENT This informal event is open to all freelancers, contractors and anyone who runs a micro-business. The event is a relaxed networking and support group that offers the chance to find out about possible contract opportunities and to discuss business issues over a glass of wine. Details: Friday 30 August, 5pm to 9pm, Citizen M, Glasgow

WEBINAR: HOW TO CREATE CONTENT FOR SOCIAL MEDIA SUCCESS IN THIS session, chartered marketer and independent consultant Luan Wise will share her top tips for creating content for social media success. This was a popular workshop at National Freelancers Day 2019 and now, Luan is bringing it online. The webinar will explore different platforms, how to create engaging and consistent content, managing client and stakeholder relationships as well as ways to use your chosen platform to its full potential. The presentation will last for 30 minutes, with the opportunity for a Q&A at the end. Details: Friday 9 September, 12.30pm to 1.20pm

For more information or to book your spot at an event, visit modernworkmag.co.uk/events

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