You really need to put up a website with a portfolio. I would expect that most prospective clients would want to see examples of your previous work before taking you seriously.

Smudge, post: 5537 a écrit : Hello,

Hoping someone can give me some information as BT are no use what so ever!

Basically...I am a BT customer but they have done nothing but make my life a misery! They have recently cut my broadband off for no reason and trying to re-connect it is a nightmare. My contract with BT is almost over so I am looking at changing to Virgin. I have looked on their website and I am not in a cable area so I need a BT ladline which I have.

What I cant work out though is do i still need to pay line rental to BT?? Or do you just literally need a BT line to get the Virgin through??

Im just a little confused!

Thanks

Yes you still need to pay line rental to BT.

Have you got a business account of a consumer account? I have a business BT line and haven't really had any issues. The problem with changing supplier is that if there is a problem with the line you supplier will not be able to do anything, only BT can, this can turn into a case of being passed from pillar to post while BT and your supplier argue over who is responsible with nobody actually fixing the problem.

I tend to better the devil I know...

MattMorris, post: 5383 a écrit : Firstly, apologies if this has already been asked a hundred times before!

I've just started out as a freelancer, and have had my first quote request for stationery design and print. Up until now I've been quoting for flyers and other stuff that is zero-rated for VAT, but I realise that letterheads and business cards are standard rated. I've received quotes from printers to print the job from the artwork I supply and their prices are excluding VAT. Now, when I quote the client, do I add in the VAT I'm being charged on the print, along with my design charge, to give the client a total figure?

My worry is that I am not VAT registered and therefore not allowed to charge VAT. But surely, I'm just covering the cost of the VAT I'm being charged, and not actually charging VAT to my client...?

I hope that makes sense - VAT is proving to be a bit of headache!

DO NOT CHARGE VAT IF YOU ARE NOT VAT REGISTERED!

This will be seen as fraud and the VAT man will find you and lock you up in jail. Don't mess with the VAT man, he knows his stuff and will come down on you like a ton of bricks if you don't follow the rules.

This doesn't mean that you can't pass your costs on to the customer, if your print costs are £100 + vat you can quite happily charge your customer £117.50 for printing (You could charge them £200 for printing if you wanted to), just don't put anything to do with VAT on your invoice.

Another option is co-location.

Buy your own server and then co-locate it at a data centre. You then have full control of the server and can upgrade it as required. The downside is that if it goes wrong it is up to you to get it fixed.

The main positive with co-location is flexibility, you are flexible to modify your server hardware as and when required and you can also increase/decrease the bandwidth available to the server as and when required.

If you are interested in co-location and want to discuss it just PM me.

MickeyFinn, post: 5169 a écrit : Hey GD,

Was up until 4 this morning working and have done for the last week. Is the only time I get any peace as have a two year old tot who has not yet learnt what "bugger off" means 😃

You always work from home or are you on a client's site?



So posting here instead of working? Always something else to do when a deadline is looming!

Oh they will learn soon enough, then they will start using it in public, at the nursery, etc. and you will be desperately trying to get them to stop..... :confused2

Have to be so careful about what you say around young kids :ohwell

How about some sticky posts in each forum providing ball park figures for various services?

Then when people come along they will get a rough idea of what XXX service that they want would cost.

Definitely invoice the agency and have them pay the money into your company.

Also if you are VAT registered check out the flat rate VAT system, if you get onto it you can collect VAT at 17.5% and pay it to HMRC at 13%. You won't make a huge amount of money but every extra bit helps.
If you do plan to do this make sure that it is going to be profitable, if you claim a lot of VAT back it may not be profitable to go onto the flat rate scheme because you cannot claim back VAT on anything under around about £1200 (Can't remember the exact figure, but it was around the £1200 mark).

Salary of £5000 and dividends to take out the rest after paying your 20% CT is the way to go.

Jaydis, post: 4581 a écrit : Hi all

I have a client who wants a live webcam feed on his website.

Am I correct in saying he will need a static IP address from his broadband connection? He is in Spain and i have tried to ask for a fixed IP address from Telefonica but the only reply I get is "Que?"

Also if any of you have had any experience in providing this service to a client, I would appreciate any advice. I am not charging him any extra for setting this up as as its a good learning experience for me.

I will be hosting his site on my virtual server where I have a reseller account. Will this make a big diference on bandwith etc?

Regards

JD

Easiest way is a fixed IP. As for the bandwidth issue, it depends how you are streaming the feed. If you are streaming direct from the web cam you won't be using bandwidth on your hosting account, however if you are streaming images to the server, and then serving them out you will be.

All depends how you set it up really.

DTI    Danish Technological Institute
DTI    Dawe Charitable Trust (UK)
DTI    Debt to Income (ratio)
DTI    Deep Trench Isolation
DTI    Defense Technology Incorporated & Associates
DTI    Delayed Turn-In (US Navy Supply)
DTI    Delivery Ticket Invoice
DTI    Departamento Tecnico de Investigacion
DTI    Department of Trade and Industry
DTI    Desktop Item
DTI    Detective Training Institute
DTI    Detroit, Toledo, & Ironton (Railroad)
DTI    Dial Test Indicator (mechanical measuring device used in machining)
DTI    Diesel Turbo Intercooler (automobile)
DTI    Diffusion Tensor Imaging
DTI    Digital Technologies, Inc.
DTI    Digital Test Interface (Tollgrade)
DTI    Digital Trunk Interface
DTI    Digital Trunk Interface Frame (Sprint)
DTI    Direct Tension Indicator (Applied Bolting Technology Products, Inc.)
DTI    Direct Thrombin Inhibitor
DTI    Directed Technologies, Inc.
DTI    Diversified Technology, Inc.
DTI    Don't Try It
DTI    Driving Trend Identifier
DTI    Dynamic Telecommunications, Inc.
DTI    Dynamic Tomographic Imaging
DTI    Dynamics Technology, Incorporated (defense contractor in Torrance, California)

Could mean bloody anything, just ask them.

You will probably be asked why you can't do your day to day job whilst you can go on a jolly to Hungary.

That being said since these are freelancing forums you are probably asking in the wrong place, freelancers don't have a boss to explain thier sickness too 🙂

I wouldn't reccomend doing it after this financial year. They are bringing in new income splitting legislation and if your partner does not bring in a substancial amount of income into your company HMRC will class any funds paid to her as your tax liability and tax you accordingly.

I don't belive there are any plans to backdate this legislation, but they have previously passed legislation that means they can backdate any changes in tax legislation to 2004. Nu Liemore, screwing the freelancer since 1997....

Secondly from next financial year you won't need a Co Secretary any more.

Generally speaking don't bother getting her involved. If she is a bank manager she probably earns up to the higher rate cutoff anyway so there is not tax advantage. Secondly if she is not your wife it is a really bad idea to involve her in your company, if you ever split it could cause all sorts of hassle (The same could be said if she is your wife as well, but if you are married to her you'll have problems anyway if you ever split).

bebch, post: 4077 a écrit : do i create a umbrella company?

No

An umbrella company is a vehicle (mainly used by contractors) for getting paid. Your clients would pay the umbrella company any fees you charge and then the umbrella company will pay you wages in the form of PAYE and take Tax/NI from the money paid to them as well as a fee.

What sort of area are you thinking of freelancing in?

I would presume it is to do with changes HMRC have made with regards to collecting unpaid tax. If you do not pay your tax HMRC can now go after the last registered company who paid you and get the tax out of them. With this in mind many companies may prefer to deal with a LTD company because that is the last link in the chain if you do not pay your taxes and HMRC will go after your LTD company rather than the client.

Assuming that it does take off, have you any idea just how much the bandwidth is going to cost you?

Then again talking USD not GBP so maybe it's much cheaper over there....

Hmm do you think they realised that the forum name will prolly be shortened to FUK when they decided to call it Freelance UK ?

Oops... :laugh2

On a side note, this is bound to get me in trouble when I tell my wife i'm going to have a look at the FUK Forums....

glebe digital, post: 2519 a écrit : Hi guys, welcome to the other side..............got your pipe and slippers? ;)

Will leather elbow pads suffice?? 😛

To start off with, what version of word is he using?

Some of the older version (which are still out there) fall over trying to open a document that uses some of the newer functions.

Depends what you want to do to be honest. i would have thought that hosting a static site would be pretty similar wherever you are based.

The coststo set up hosting on this side of the pond are much greater than in the US so UK prices are going to be a little bit higher.