We were wondering whether customer testimonials influence your decision to buy/use someones services?
Do you read (or believe!) customer testimonials on websites, and if so do they reassure you?
Our salesteam regularly collect testimonials and now we have literally hundreds. It would be useful to know if its worth putting more on our site.
All comments appreciated!
After reading so many sales pages I tend to ignore customer testimonials completely, although sometimes they are so good and well placed they're hard to ignore.
The answer is to split test - don't guess, let your website visitors tell you if they are effective or not.
How many clients will you be working for simultaniously?
It can work in your favour to go through the Ltd as long as you're outside IR35.
IR35 is a murky subject where the waters get muddies with every new case but there are 3 main issues:
1. Right of substitution (ROS) - can you send in a replacement for yourself to do the work if you can't for some reason? Not to be confused with subcontracting but can you send in another employee of YourLtdco - is this in the contract? You do want this to operate outside of IR35
2. Direction & Control (D&C)- How much of a say does the client have on how you do your work - do you follow their 'systems' or yours? You don't want this to operate outside IR35
3. Mutuality of Obligation (MOO) - Are the client obliged to provide you with 'employment', and are you obliged to provide your services? You don't want this to operate outside IR35
If you have several clients at once, don't have a fixed place of work at any client site for any long period of time I wouldn't worry.
There is alot more to IR35 but the above 3 points seem to be the main ones according to authorities on the subject such as the PCG.
It's designed to catch out 'disguised employees' who work as contractors for the same client for years on end under the same conditions as permanent employees but instead operating Ltd companies and paying themselves as directors.
I am a Ltd company contractor (also an entrepreneur) I'm not worried about IR35 that much.
*EDIT* - So in answer to your original question of:
Is it anyone's opinion that, for earnings that are typically going to be between £20k and £30k, it's at all worth it going through the company route? I know the Companies House / Corporation Tax paperwork already, but imagine it will get more onerous if i start using the company again, and more intensively than i was doing before (i.e., paying myself through it)...
I think so - if you pay yourself as a director with a minimal salary (about £5.5k) and the rest in divis you'll be better off.
Especially if you put your expenses through as well your corporation tax liabiliy (21%) be lower :cool2
You can earn £5.5k tax free - then the rest (minus expenses) is taxed at 21% CT as opposed to income tax + NI.
AWmotiongraphics, post: 6427 a écrit : Thanks for your replies on this one.
I'll sit down and have a chat with the client and explain a few things.
I've spoken to them about it and have never come to an amicable agreement.
The basis of their argument is that they have an in house guy in another office who is charged at at £100 Per Visual. where I have a daily rate of £250
(industry standard for what i do)
So they said i had to be competative with the in house guy, Which i can't do.
Perhas I'll just set an hourly rate as they seem to think that not all my work will take a whole day (I do charge a minumum half day for any job I do) wheras it normally will take at least half a day for a visual and then the rest of the day getting feedback and making changes as necccesarry.
Anyone else work this way with people?
What 'they say' you should do is effectively alter your business terms to give them a 50% discount.
Be wary of people like this because they will just keep pushing for more and more. If you give in over this what's to stop them asking you do 'favours' etc.
You're not their employee who they can try and get to do unpaid overtime and other things like that, you're a professional service provider with a business to run.
Why doesn't their in-house guy do all the work they need for their in-house rate?
Compare yourself to say a plumber who comes to fix your drains - you get charged a call out fee and an hourly rate.
The job takes 30 minutes - do you ask the plumber for a 50% discount because it didn't take the full hour?
You could even reason with him and say - "well my mate usually does these jobs for me for half of what you charge but he's not around - although you should be competitive with his rate so I only want to pay you what I pay him"
1. What do you think the plumber would say to that?
2 Would you even ask that in the first place?
This reminds me of a place I worked at years ago (as a permie) where it was expected that people put in unpaid overtime - not just every now and then but as the norm.
It got to the stage where people were staying till 7-8 PM every night and if you walked out the door at 5:30-6 you got really frowned at. Then you'd be expected to come in on the weekends as well, get phoned up out of the blue (during Sunday lunch with the family) and expected to drop everything and come in.
There are people out there who will take the Mick as far as they will take it - you're better off without them.
Are they going to give you an employment contract and guarantee you work and income?
Not too sure how it works with the self employed route – I’ve got a Ltd co and pay myself very low salary and the rest in dividends. That is what I don’t reinvest straight back into the business which is quite a lot at the moment. I also deduct things like my travel, lunch, broadband, mobile phone from my taxable income which is nice.
The flip side is that I have to deal with the ugly subject of IR35 which I could do without. Ltd co is a very tax efficient way to go – dividends rock 😃
If you more of a creative type, why not get some digital skills? The shortage of digital skills is marked and will be so for the foreseeable fututre.
Good luck whichever path you choose!
Thanks for the reply 😃 What kind of skills are digital skills?
I’m very focused on internet marketing/SEO/copywriting/testing&tracking/online business building I’m just wondering what the climate is like for that kind of work at the moment.
I think I’ll start marketing myself a bit and hopefully will get an indication when my contract is due to expire.
Is anyone noticing any effects of the credit crunch on freelancing - particularly the web development/internet marketing side of things?
I'm thinking of making the jump to freelancing full time until my own business is off the ground. My current (IT) contract expires at the end of June and if the client don't extend it would be nice to have some freelance work lined up.
I was planning to go full time internet marketing be it freelancing for other people and/or my own business supporting me full time by this summer.
But with all the doom and gloom being forecast I'm wondering whether it would be prudent to focus getting an IT exam or 2 instead :nerd
