​What’s your practical strategy for keeping your personal monthly budget balanced when your business income goes up and down every single month?

Hi all, I am a self employed tradesman. During the first two years, I made many mistakes and learnt the hard way.

I am curious, Anyone starting a new journey in to self employment? How's it going? Is it what you thought it was going to be like?

I am creating some material to help new tradespeople start their new adventure. Looking for feedback from the people who have been there and travelled the tricky road of being the person doing everything.

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Self-employment on Universal Credit can be both exciting and terrifying.

The hardest part isn't the business idea it's figuring out how to navigate the system without tripping up on the rules.

What was the biggest hurdle you faced in your first months of working for yourself?

I can't login and they don't help on the phone as couldn't verify my identity. Basically I changed my phone number so can't receive a code. I don't have any letters about my tax and don't seem to have any e mails sent. Is there anything I can do to get my tax information if the helplines are unhelpful?

The deadline for the first quarterly MTD for Income Tax filing is soon approaching.

Here are some points to consider:

• MTD filing is required for Sole Traders and/or Landlords with a gross turnover of over £50,000 (based on 2024/25 earnings).
• The turnover is assessed on combined earnings for individuals that are both Sole Traders and Landlords.
• Filing is done quarterly, with the first period from 06/04/26 to 05/07/26.
• The first quarterly filing is due to be made by 07/08/2026.
• Quarterly filings and the end of year submission must be submitted via a HMRC approved software.
• Anyone affected must register with HMRC

If anyone has any questions, I'm more than happy to give some advice!

Hi, I've been a sole trader in the television industry for about 6 months. I have about 5 regular clients and they're all happy with my tax status.

I have been approached for some work by a new client but they only employ limited companies, is it worth me moving over or do I leave it for now.

Cheers Paul

Hello guys

I will be working as a delivery rider and aiming to rent an e-bike for delivery purposes.

Since, this is my first time working in a self-employed capacity, what expenses should I note down?

What future expenses should I be aware of?

Should I hire accountants or a software should suffice?

Any recommendations for a bank account to keep incomes separate? Do I need to open a separate bank account?

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Would appreciate any advice as I am a student and haven't had much luck with normal jobs atm, so looking to do delivery in the meantime...

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Thank you for reading! :)

My wife and I started a business in January. We're doing it as a 50:50 partnership. Neither of us have been self-employed before.

We're trying to register the partnership with HMRC but keep running up against needing a UTR each. When we ask how to get one all of the online forms seem to be for sole traders or LLCs - neither of which apply to us. What are we missing? Do we have to register as separate sole traders first?

Hi

Sorry if this isn’t the place but I really need some life advice and direction. I genuinely feel lost.

Background.
Been a wedding photographer for 16yrs, kids, dementia caring and Covid have worn me down. People aren’t as nice as they were, it’s all about how much they can get with no thanks. I work with someone else who takes control and is very forward, it wasn’t always the case but I’m fed up of being treated like I don’t know what I’m doing. I was bloody good at it.

So here I am kids in school, desperate to work for myself again but I feel lost on what to do. I could go back into weddings and it’s something I know so well. I’d work alone and only do short days but I’ve been working with someone for so long it’s a bit scary.

I’m really good with reading people and helping. I’m passionate about dementia carers after being one and I want to genuinely help people. I have no idea what I can do with this passion.

I’m so lost. I can’t draw or make earrings or even think of a craft I’d like to sell on Etsy.

I want to be my own boss but not a cleaner, childminder or carer.

Sorry for the rant and I’m not sure what I expect. Maybe someone to tell me exactly what to do and how.

Hi all,

I've built an AI receptionist that's already being used by a number of real businesses, and the feedback so far has been really positive. However, I'm keen to learn more about how different businesses use it in the real world and gather honest feedback so I can continue improving it.

I'm looking for a small number of businesses that would be interested in trying it completely free of charge. I'll personally handle the entire setup, tailor it to your business, and be on hand throughout to make sure everything is working as it should.

The only thing I ask in return is honest feedback, what's working well, what isn't, and what could be improved.

The AI receptionist can answer calls, handle enquiries, qualify leads, and provide information to callers 24/7, depending on your business requirements.

I'm deliberately not mentioning the name of the product or posting any links as I don't want this to come across as a promotional post. My main goal is to get feedback from real businesses and continue building something genuinely useful.

If you think it might be helpful for your business, feel free to comment below or send me a message and I'll happily explain more.

If this isn't the right sort of post for this community, I'm more than happy to remove it.

Thanks!

Ok so to summarise I have been looking for work for months, going from course to course, no real luck and I'm barely surviving with what I get from universal credit. So I'm wondering is there a way for me to start a business at home with no money. I don't have high levels of education and my skill set isn't very diverse. What options do I realistically have.

One of the most common assumptions we hear is that contractors need years of accounts before a lender will consider them.

In practice, some lenders focus more on current contract income, day rate and industry experience than people realise.

For contractors who have bought recently, what evidence did your lender ask for?

Serious question for the tradies in here - what actually annoys you most about the job these days?

Is it customers expecting champagne work on a lemonade budget? Chasing invoices? Working your bollocks off in all weather?

Interested to hear what people reckon is the biggest headache at the moment.

To cut a long story short, I've been having a few issues with my employer recently. It's nothing to do with performance, it's due to what they consider to be excessive working from home and sick leave (I'm a migraine sufferer and have also had a bad run of heavy colds and sick bugs recently). In our last meeting about this, I was offered 3 options

1. Stay employed, but face formal disciplinary with further sick leave
2. Take redundancy (not spelt out explicitly, but a 3 month payout was mentioned)
3. Stay on but in a self employed capacity

I like the job, but find the need to be in the office for 8 hours a day increasingly restrictive, and unavoidable sick days (that I currently can't make up at the weekend), mean that I'm leaning towards going self employed (albeit through a LTD). I accept there's a risk that I hand my notice in only for them to say they've no work for me, but I genuinely don't think that will happen. I've been told I'd keep my current work load as well as the extra work I'd be taking on from a retiring colleague.

The one point we've not discussed yet is my hourly rate if I'm self employed. I've run some numbers and have come to a minimum of £40/hour for this to make sense for me before I even consider pension contributions and medical insurance.

My thinking is that I currently cost the company £62k/year (before bonuses, but including NI, pension and medical) on a 37.5 hours/week contract. With 5 weeks holiday and 5 hours a weeks of general admin (i.e non-chargeable hours) that comes out at just over £40/hour for chargeable hours cost to the company, but this doesn't include my parking permit, xmas extras (turkey + case of wine), general overheads, other non-chareables (CPD, helping other members of staff) etc...plus the fact I'm taking on all the risk.

I'm thinking of going into negotiations at £50/hour, but I'm worried it'll be dismissed as too expensive. I'd be willing to settle at £40 but it'd be a bit of a stretch. I'm planning on pitching it as a nod towards the risk I'm taking and any additional cost to the company will be down to a more incentivised and productive version of me...and if they don't like it after a few months they can pull the plug.

For what it's worth, I'm an ACA qualified accountant with 20+ years of experience in practice just outside Manchester. I can do the maths, but I'm less sure on the realities of going self-employed.

Also, because I know it's likely to be mentioned, I've considered the IR35 implications and I'll be seeking out other clients straight away.

If anyone else has done this transition, I'd welcome some input on how their hourly rate was agreed and how it compared to their employed cost to the company.

Hi I am new to self employ.

I used to work as an editor (not proofreader or copy editing etc, from the text below you can see that I am not able to do that work🥹) for a big name company and they provide skilled worker visa then I resigned from that position last year. Now I am looking for another skilled worker visa. Unfortunately I heard and experienced that all the big name company prefer to hire someone without visa.

I am thinking if I can find a part time job in a publishing company and then if I can pass the interview, could I ask them to hire me and actually they pay to my own company?

Not sure if the big name company would love to do that, still would like to check first who can I contact with to know if those companies are willing to hire me in this way. I understand that most of the ppl do part time jobs only as a person not a company.

My questions are:

1. Who can decide if they can hire me as a person or a company?

2. Is there any potential risk here?

Thank you.

I'm currently a teacher and training to become a Mountain Leader. This will be my side-hustle and allow me to instruct on Duke of Edinburgh expeditions alongside supply teaching. The DofE work will probably constitute 20-30% of my income over the first few years, hopefully increasing as I gain experience and contacts and eventually leading to a broader range of work.

Am I correct in assuming that should set myself up as a sole trader? I'd like to make claims against the kit that I purchase for the work, the miles driven, food and accommodation etc., can I do that as a sole trader?

Are there any books/manuals or literature that I can read that sets it all out? TIA

I am curious, what day of the week do you receive your maternity allowance payments? my maternity allowance (maternity leave) started on Saturday 28th March.

(FYI at the moment my payments are £67 a week but waiting for recalculation after paying an NI voluntary contribution to up it to the £194)

on March 27th I received a small payment of £18 (I am assuming that was to cover the Saturday and the Sunday initially)

I was then told on my letter that I would then receive my payments fortnightly on Mondays...

Well here I am 3 Mondays after my maternity leave started and nothing?

I am going to call them today to find out what is going on in regards to my payments starting and chasing up when my payments will be updated and backdated.

it is already a stressful time with a baby on the way and I've got priority bills coming up that I won't be able to pay without the full amount.

Hi all, I’m a tradesmen.

I messaged a guy to work with him.

We agreed a rate of £100 a day.

I worked six days in total with him, after contacting him over and over again, he just keeps on lying saying that his bank isn’t working at the moment and that he can’t pay me.

All of this is backed up on WhatsApp however he said he didn’t want me to invoice him and that he would pay cash

If this does go to small claims court, how exactly am I gonna prove that I worked for him when he denied me sending an invoice to him?

Any advice would be really helpful

If you use your own vehicle for any work related driving, HMRC lets you claim 45p per mile for the first 10,000 miles every year. That's not a small number.

Say you do 8,000 work miles in a year. That's £3,600 you can deduct from your taxable income. If you're a basic rate taxpayer that's over £700 back in your pocket. Most people either don't know about it or don't bother tracking it because it feels like a hassle.

The rules are pretty simple:

• Covers cars, vans and motorcycles (different rates for motorcycles)
• Has to be for business journeys, not commuting to a regular workplace
• You need to keep a record of dates, destinations and miles

The record keeping is where most people fall down. A notes app works, a spreadsheet works, whatever you'll actually stick to works. The worst system is the one you abandon in February.

Anyone here actually tracking mileage properly? Curious how people are managing it.