Going self-employed. Help!

[ExcitedButNervous0424]

I’m just here looking for some advice and guidance please as in a few months time I plan to start working on a self-employed basis and I’m in desperate need of direction. I have posted in various forums in order to get the most traffic as I don’t really know which forum is best suited for this thread.

Anyhow, I work in health care and for the last 8 years or so I have worked in a particular field but after finally being worn down by NHS politics and pressures I resigned from my post last year and I began studying for a qualification to enable me to work in a similar role but in the community and on a self-employed basis. The service will involve me visiting clients in their homes.

I have got my exam in 2 weeks time to get my qualification so I’m now at the point of thinking about the next steps so I am very eager to fear from people who have been through similar experiences.

I know I need to consider:

Marketing
Website set-up
Logo / brand
Uniform
Services / Packages I want to offer
Pricing
Accounting
Insurance

Is there anything else that I’m missing?

It all just seems very overwhelming and I would really appreciate advice and tips from anyone who is either going through the daunting process of starting up on their own, or someone who has been self-employed for a long time and understands the requirements well.

I don’t know anyone who is self employed so I don’t feel like I have a ‘support system’ as such, so virtual guidance would be a real help 😬

Thank you.

Freelance work should usually be charged at about twice the hourly rate of employed work. This is not greedy nor is it overpricing. It takes into account the fact that you get no holiday pay, sick pay, employer pension contributions, nor are you paid for admin hours. E.g. this morning I had a client meeting online. The meeting server failed. We tried for about twenty minutes to fix it, then moved to a different provider which took another 15 minutes to set up.

Employed people are paid for their time if there's a tech delay. I'm not. So that was 35 working minutes unpaid. And all those emails, sorting out booking times, enquiries, initial conversations etc - they add up to several hours a week and you need to be paid for them. Don't underestimate them and make sure your hourly or daily rate reflects them. You might want to charge a new client admin fee to cover emails, form-filling, initial consultations etc.

Is there a market for your services? I would try and keep costs down until you start getting some clients.

But yes, marketing and advertising, facebook page, cheap mobile and set up a separate bank account and spreadsheet to keep of expenses, then a website and register with the ICO.

Yes, there’s a big market thankfully.

Other Lactation Consultants generally charge £100-£120 an hour.

I’m dreading all the start-up costs but I guess they can’t be avoided 😬