Osborne used 'tax imbalances' to meet £5bn target

Only the likes of the dividend tax hike can ensure the chancellor keeps his party's promise.

Micro-firms flouting prompt payment advice

Not even a third of small suppliers chase big clients in the first week of being unpaid.

Companies House updates limited company guidance

Registrants told what to do if forms they submit conflict with their company's record.

Osborne's dividends raid valued upwards of £6bn

The rewriting of dividend rules to pick contractors' pockets is a 'tax on success.'

Why almost all contractors will fail the 'SDC' expenses test

T&S consultation reveals that the SDC hurdle is being set unrealistically high.

5 Ways Freelancers Can Deal With Isolation

Freelancers don’t have to drop coins into the office coffee fund or attend largely pointless meetings.

Many of us can work in a library or a coffee shop, or on our backyard deck, where the only sound is chickadees or mourning doves.

But as nice as these things are, they can cause loneliness and isolation.

For some, this might mean a long day before the significant other comes home; for others, a feeling of just not being connected.

Sometimes this can mean feeling like freelancing isn’t “real” work or that one is cut off from the industry (accounting, graphic design, writing) at large.

So, here are some ways to cope if you’re feeling isolated in a bad way, rather than free in a good way.

Network

It’s not hard to find networks of freelancers, both in your field and in others. You might join discussion groups, which can lead to some online relationships that will provide you with insight into what’s going on in your field.

Doing so will also reassure you that you’re not alone in certain struggles, among other things. If you do some searching, you may also find some conferences or other in-person meet-ups — they do exist.

Read Up

Staying knowledgeable and connected can really help. Even if keeping abreast on the latest news in your field isn’t, explicitly, an interaction, it fights a feeling of just floating along on your own. It will also give you a good sense of what others are going through, which locates you in a type of universe or community.

Collaborate

Several months ago, I wrote an article on freelancers collaborating. This can mean doing guest blogging or otherwise moonlighting on someone else’s website — and vice versa — or collaborating with someone who has a different specialty on a project that has elements neither of you could do alone.

This is one of the most meaningful ways to fight isolation, since you and your collaborator will be directly impacting each other’s work lives. It very well may teach you a lot about your working style and about work in general.

Work Outside the Home

Not only should you, if you have a laptop or whatever it takes, take your show on the road a couple of times a week, but there are other ways to battle isolation.

Not long ago, I contributed a post on co-working spaces, which are big common areas where people can share resources like printers and fax machines. The benefits of these are multiple, but dealing with isolation is certainly one.

Talk About Work

Life-work balance is important, and it can involve leaving your work at work. When the work component of your life is done, shut it down and get on with your personal life. But if you’re battling a sense of alienation in terms of your work, maybe you’re not talking about it enough with family members and close friends.

Perhaps you’re partitioning it off too much. If you know that your friends are pretty up-to-date on what some of your struggles are, that makes the freelance work seem more real, vital and living. It isn’t a matter of you going into a strange, lonesome region. It couldn’t hurt to try talking about it, anyway.

—

Isolation is a real problem for many freelancers and even those who work from home. What do you do to counteract it?

(Photo by StatupStockPhotos / CC BY)

How to Think Outside the Box

“Get your head out of the clouds,” or something similar, is something many of us have heard at least once in our lives.

From a certain age we’re told and taught not to think outside of the box, and we soon find ourselves telling others the same.

This is incredibly limiting and prevents us from going all-out on what we can offer the world.

In this post, I talk about how a renowned start-up can teach us three simple, exciting and, ultimately, liberating lessons.

A couple of weeks ago I finally did it. After an entire day of setting up, coordinating and participating in a networking event, I was too tired to walk home.

Besides, my workplace had a promo code that gave me a €20 credit with the service, so I didn’t have to feel bad for spending money on a distance I could have easily walked in 20 minutes.

An Experience Worth Losing Sleep Over

I unlocked my phone, let the GPS know where I was, entered my destination and requested an UberPOP. You know, the bad kind with unlicensed drivers.

The experience was wonderful. After I had placed my order, I saw the license plate, name and picture of the driver that was going to pick me up. Plus, I could see where he was in real-time. I got all excited, because I just couldn’t believe how amazing this was.

A few minutes later, the driver drove up. I got in the car, we greeted each other, he confirmed the address and away we went.

I’m the kind of person who is able to lose sleep over the excitement that new experiences can bring. I was excited because I pretty much fell in love with Uber and also because this was something entirely new.

And I love innovating endeavors — something the world hadn’t seen before but was now possible with just a few taps on my smartphone’s touchscreen.

Uber has taught me three simple and exciting lessons from which I believe we can all benefit, regardless of if we’re solopreneurs, small business owners, freelancers or employees.

1. The Impossible Can Be Made Possible

I’m fairly sure people had already thought of a solution like this while they were daydreaming but dismissed it because it seemed impossible.

And then, somebody goes ahead and takes an idea that’s been cast aside in the impossible box, turns it around and makes it possible. Not only possible, but, in this case, so incredibly easy.

Action-point:

The next time an idea hits you, don’t immediately label it “impossible.” If you do out of habit, engage in conversation with yourself.

Why would this be impossible? If it’s because you think you don’t have the knowledge, skills or resources to pull it off, maybe you know somebody in your circles who could help you out or point you in the right direction?

2. Any Game-Changer Has Naysayers

Unfortunately, ever since its inception, Uber has been attacked, protested against and powerful people want it shut down. But they’re still in business.

This has taught me that anything that’s building on and improving a service, a product, an idea or an entire system will have to deal with predominantly unreasonable resistance.

Just like an unconditional basic income or the implementation of bitcoins.

Just like not so long ago, people gave their nays when the issue on the table was that of women’s right to vote or race equality on public transportation.

Action-point:

Get used to hearing “no.” At first, it won’t be pleasant. But it will get easier to deal with, it will strengthen you and it will be a sign that you’re onto something.

3. Anybody Can Have A Good Idea

Too often, we still credit or discredit an idea based on the background of the person behind it.

• Whether they graduated from college
• Whether they even went to school
• Whether they have any professional experience and somehow earned the right to speak on a specific topic.

I believe this experience can be useful, but a good idea is a good idea, whether it came out of the mouth of a 6-year-old or a 66-year-old.

Action-point:

Dare look past those external factors. Discover that any idea, at its core, isn’t left- or right-winged, black or white, Western or Eastern, but something somebody wants to spread out into the world, because the person behind the idea genuinely believes it would help at least one person.

The sad truth is that most of us are still conditioned to think that an idea that’s just a little bit out-there is by default a bad one and one that shouldn’t be considered seriously.

Chances are that’s you. You have an idea, but the ones closest to you have told to get your heads out of the clouds.

Break those chains off of you.

(Photo by Jacob Bøtter / CC BY)