The concept of independent contracting appeals to make individuals who are unhappy with the monotony of working for a single organisation, but it is important to remember that freelancing is not as straightforward as it seems.

You need to put money aside for a rainy day because you lose holiday and sick pay entitlement; and you also need to cover the cost of work related travel and purchasing of equipment.

(But note that certain rates and allowances you can claim back.)

How to Budget for Life as a Freelancer: Three Tips for Success

With this in mind, the ability to think creatively and budget is crucial if you are to make a successful transition from employee to contractor.

Consider the following ideas:

• Invest any Money that you save into your Venture: While freelancing certainly forces you to incur foxed costs, it can also enable you to make financial savings in other areas. When working at home, for example, you can save money simply by eliminating the daily commute to and from work, and this total is sure to accumulate steadily over time.

It is important that you retain this money and reinvest into newly incurred costs so that your lifestyle is not adversely affected in the short term.

• Minimise Personal Expenditure while you establish yourself: Regardless of your marketable skill or the experience that you have in any given field, you are unlikely to earn significant income immediately as a contractor.

This is especially true in the increasingly competitive technology market, where there are a huge number of contractors attempting to secure their share of clients.

With this in mind, it is wise to budget your personal finances and minimise your monthly level of expenditure while you are establishing yourself, as this will afford you time to develop a specific service.

• Seek Out Viable Professional Assistance: When it comes to managing your finances as a freelancer, it is always wise to seek the assistance of a specialist accountancy team. While this may require some form of financial investment in the short term, it can equip you with the tools to maximise your earnings and make substantial long term gains.

These professionals can also advise you on your specific tax liabilities as a contractor, which will in turn enable you to operate in a profitable and law abiding manner.

Author Bio: This article was contributed by Nixon Williams. If you are interested in establishing yourself as an independent contractor, then make contact with the team of Nixon Williams contractor accountants today. 

Bingo is an exciting game by itself, but when you win money playing Bingo it is a twice joyful time to celebrate, until you come into the account of having to claim those bingo winning for tax purposes, and the larger the amount of money won, probably the bigger your concern.

The news is that in the United Kingdom about claiming those winnings are now clearly explained in a new bingo taxation law that benefits players on the one hand, but enforces the claiming of bingo winning on the other hand. Past August 2012, Chancellor Gordon Brown announced changes to the law following a the proposal of the Bingo Association renews calls for 15% tax rate over bingo to provide offshore rivals with further advantages.

The new taxation law, however, kept in mind all bingo players offering now bigger prizes and cheaper tickets, so the government plans are taking a bigger tax slice upon bingo clubs rather than charging directly any tax over players’ winnings and stakes. With this measure, the UK government expects to reduce that tax burden on the bingo industry by near £35 million a year, although small bingo halls fear the impact makes the close their doors in the near future.

Bingo, the Most Popular Game in the UK

Although there is not an official survey on this matter, the government estimates that near three million British citizen’s play bingo more than twice a week despite there was a 10% tax applied on their stakes. However, with the new bingo law regulations, the bingo operators will pay a 15% on their gross profits, replacing by this action the tax that they applied directly to the players in their ticket prices. To find information on bingo sites in the UK check out BingoSites.com as they have a complete list with good reviews.

Players and the Gross Profits Tax (GPT)

Treasury’s Economic Secretary John Healey says that the new measure will boost the opportunity to get the bingo clubs delivering higher prizes at lower prices, an action that will benefit bingo operators and bingo players alike. In the UK, the Bingo Duty requires that bingo operators claim their profits, but as a player, you might be lost amidst all the information derived from the approval of the new Gross Profits Tax, that does not substitute nor redeem the VAT on bingo. Therefore, it is always a good idea visiting the HM Revenue and Customs website to find out how bingo tax law affects your bingo winnings, considering that in the USA the claim of bingo winning is mandatory.

Certainly, nobody likes the idea of having to share bingo winning with the Treasury, when the idea is making money, not giving part of it away. However, the United Kingdom is often infamous for having some of the most bloody tax regulations in the world, not just in gambling but also in many other aspects. However, the best way to keep your peace of mind is reading the new bingo law regulations, available at the Parliament’s documents area, or downloading the document directly from this link, www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/SN02151.pdf

In this frenetic world woman power is considered as minority in the fields of growth, development and economics. They can avail the benefits and advantages from various financial schemes and programs offered by the government and several educational institutions. There are some programs which are specially designed for woman to promote the culture and traditions. Several organizations provide financial help for women that include financial planning and funds for starting small business. It can be specialise in growing the economic education and housing. They provide education by initiating different schemes which are helpful to women. All the government institutes and the non-profitable organisations either provide education or they will provide financial help.

In this period education is the greatest weapon in everyone’s life and it is the most useful and strongest in a woman’s life. If a woman is educated she can rule the world. It sets the base for the growth and development for future decisions. Some organisations and firms are committed to provide education to women in the form of courses, suggestions and tips. If they are not educated then they face problems with illiteracy. It can be helpful and useful for those who are facing problems in daily life like divorce, widowhood and many other stages which comes in further life. For this purpose financial aid is a must and as they can use it for paying taxes, mortgages and emergency needs.

With some financial help they can achieve their goals and could set up their small business. The government has implemented several programs which are especially to help and empower those who are from below poverty line and can’t afford the education and also the ones who are not financially sound. They offer help for the individuals and their families. They might get some funds or grants or loans to pay the rents and to buy houses for the homeless. If they are educated, then they can go for the loan from different schemes provided by the government or to search the finance companies for the hard money and payday loans for arrangement of their small business or education. This should be reimbursed in short span of time with some interest rates. Various companies like the ones offering colorado hard money loans, could be contacted to get a thorough idea of their return rates and other terms and conditions.

Several seminars and workshops are conducted to make woman a strong financial planner and to develop them for the economic growth. These seminars and workshops are organised by the universities and various educational institutions to spread awareness of all financial formats in the education. They provide the scholarships and the grants to the deserving women who are prepare to educate or willing to get educated. The government also provides help and funds to women in order to see them educated. Several federations and firms are continuously working to maintain this scheme.

About the Author:

This guest post is contributed by Zara,financial guest blogger. At present she is focusing on ppi claims . catch her @financeport

If you enjoy making crafts, then starting your own craft business may be in your future. Whether you plan on doing it full time, part time, or just in your spare time, the craft business can be quite lucrative if you have your business set up right. If you’re thinking about opening up your own business, here are some things you’ll want to consider:

Online, Offline, or Both?

Sites like Etsy exist because of crafty people like you. There are a number of great online places where you can sell your wares, including online auction sites or you can even do it directly over social media. You can also start your website to sell your products online. Of course, you should keep up with the SEO tricks and lookout for conversion rate optimization for business success.

If you’re thinking about having a physical location for your store, think about your budget the overhead that you’ll be paying, as well as what sort of permits or licensing you’ll require to set up shop. Alternatively, you can go to tradeshows or sell your crafts at farmer’s market events.

Planning Your Materials

Starting your own craft business means having all of the proper materials on hand. Some of these materials will be as obvious and easy to obtain as scissors and glue, and some as expensive as a printer and a laminator. You can get all of this stuff from Viking Direct (this site is a crafty person’s dream, as it has literally everything you could possibly need to make crafty things). Once you have a list of all of the materials that you’ll need to start up your new company, you’ll be able to plan a proper budget and start piecing together your business plan.

Start Networking

There’s no reason why you should have to pay full price for any of the materials that you’ll need. Get in touch with wholesalers, distributors and manufacturers of things like yarn, paint, canvas, fabrics, and more. You may need to have a business license and a sale permit in order to buy directly from wholesalers and manufacturers, but it’ll be well worth it in the end.

Think About Bookkeeping

If you’re confident in your bookkeeping abilities and feel that you’ll have the time to do it, then all you should need is to invest in a basic bookkeeping software program so that you can keep proper track of your sales and return on investment. If bookkeeping isn’t your thing, then it’s a good idea to start interviewing some accountants or bookkeepers so that you can find the right person who is familiar with your industry and niche, and who’ll be able to maintain your books.

Begin By Working Part Time

If you’re already working full time or even part time in a stable job, make sure that you stay there until you’re generating enough reliable and steady income to support yourself. It’s a good idea to also put away enough money so that you can survive for 6 months without having regular employment.

You can read a bit more about this kind of thing on Wikihow.

Doing any form of renovation work always feels like it involves a lot of money, but there are often ways you can save yourself some cash. There certainly is when you’re changing floors in your home, and I have put together a few tips that may help you cut the costs of this latest DIY project.

1. Fit it yourself

You may be worried that installing wooden floors yourself will be a long and complicated job, but it needn’t be. You can buy floors that come with instructions on how to fit them, making your job that bit simpler. It may be true that the professionals from somewhere like Shadow Wood Flooring have the necessary materials and the know-how to get the job done in a jiffy without you having to break a sweat, but sometimes, DIY can be fun.

It is obviously easier if you’re adept at DIY jobs, but the biggest things to remember are to carefully measure your room, have all the equipment you need at the ready, even the ground underneath the floor, lay down the underlay and fit the flooring on top of this. Once you have done so, you simply have to install baseboards to finish the job.

2. Enlist your friends

While installing wooden floors like those from UK Flooring Direct is a relatively straightforward job, you may still be concerned about doing it yourself. That’s why I would enlist the help of my friends. I would dress up the event as a fun, DIY venturel, and gather them together to give me assistance in measuring, sawing, carrying and finally fitting the wooden slabs on to the floor.

This can often be a lot more fun than it sounds, and having your mates round can make the whole process a lot more entertaining – and it’ll certainly help get the job done quicker. Many hands make light work, after all.

Even if your friends aren’t able to offer you their time, they might have some tools that you can borrow, such as a hammer and circular saw. They may even have extras like knee pads that you might not necessarily think you’ll need, but you’ll certainly be grateful for afterwards!

3. Choose value-for-money wooden floors

I know what it’s like when you buy redecorating products – it can be so tempting to get the cheapest option in order to save yourself a significant amount of cash. But some months on, we begin to regret our decision when that item has been damaged or not lived up to our expectations.

It is often best to avoid buying the cheapest option, and instead look for ones that offer value for money. For instance, I would look at which cheap floors come with some sort of guarantee – if you can get a warranty on a product that is slightly more expensive than a lower-cost one that doesn’t come with a guarantee, I would opt for the former. This is because if I buy wooden flooring with a guarantee, there is a chance that the product will be of acceptable quality. It means that the floor will last at least 3 years. Moreover, after a year of use, I would just need to opt for Floor Refinishing Experts in San Marcos, CA (or similar areas) to get my hardwood flooring back to its original state. However, if I purchase wooden floorings without a guarantee, there is a high probability that they will not last for two years, thereby forcing me to invest in new flooring.

That is why, you should also look at the quality of the product carefully. I would always say it is best to find a floor that offers everything you want at a price you can afford – buying the cheapest high-quality product is often far better than simply getting the budget option. The key is to look at cost-effectiveness over a long period of time – after all, you don’t want to buy another wooden flooring in a year or two, do you?

4. Measure, measure, measure

This might sound obvious – particularly if you’re installing the floor yourself – but you should make sure you are very precise in your measurements, so you don’t buy more material than you require. Even getting a foot or two extra can add to your costs, so I would double check figures to ensure I am able to keep the price down as much as I can.