Careers, Freelancing and Self-Employment – Page 2

Brain Wave, Careers, Freelancing and Self-Employment, Entrepreneurship & Business Talks

Redundancy: It’ll Be OK

August 31, 2020 No Comments

There is no denying that the pandemic has caused a lot of grief. Whilst some have revelled in lockdown and the pleasures it has brought with it; like being able to spend more time with family, getting to know your neighbours and feeling the overwhelming sense of community. The ‘we’re all in this together’ camaraderie has helped a lot of people through. But that doesn’t mean that it hasn’t been hard. The world is changing forever as the lockdown has forced many people to adapt. Remote working isn’t just a thing of dreams anymore as big bosses realise it can be done. Offices are staying closed, businesses are being forced to find alternative ways to keep on surviving. With some people being furloughed and others even facing redundancy. It’s a challenging time and if you find yourself in any of these situations then perhaps bopprelawfirm.com can help you.

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Whatever path you might find yourself going down, the first and foremost thing, is to make sure you look after yourself. Being made redundant – during the pandemic or not – can be incredibly stressful. On top of this currently is the added factor of being frightened of an invisible threat. But you have a real opportunity here to step into a life you always wanted but were maybe too scared to go after. It’s a strange time and unfortunately many businesses, through being forced to adapt, aren’t hiring new employees. So if you’re faced with uncertainty and you’re wondering where that next pay check is going to come from just remember you are not alone. The best thing you can do right now for your mental well-being is to look beyond the financial aspect, take stock and think about your long term goals. Check in with yourself and figure out what you really want.

While now may not be the best time to socialise and meet new people, always try and keep your options open by keeping communication open with people. Network virtually, you never know when or where a job opportunity might come up. Or perhaps there’s a company that you maybe didn’t have the confidence to go for in the past or maybe your qualifications didn’t quite match up perfectly. Be ballsy, you’ve got nothing to lose by going for it now. Or just use this time to polish up your CV and do any jobs around the house that needed your attention before but you didn’t have the time for.

Redundancy can lead to lots of anxiety, stress and worry about the future and things feel very uncertain right now with the pandemic. Accepting that redundancy is out of your control and that it is not your fault is the first step in moving forward. Once you accept that it is out of your control you can start to focus on things that are in your control. Take care of yourself, keep up with the latest news so you can keep yourself and your family safe and healthy. Figure out what you want to do and when the time is right approach it with a new confidence.

Brain Wave, Careers, Freelancing and Self-Employment

Thinking Of Going Freelance? Don’t Forget These Risks.

August 14, 2020 No Comments

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Freelancing has become an attractive prospect for workers across many industries in recent years. However, anybody thinking about this career path should take it in a responsible manner. Appreciating the risks and taking the necessary precautions to avoid them is vital.

Here are five of the most common obstacles that you could encounter, along with how to stop them from harming your progress.

#1. Distractions

When working as a freelancer, you have to show discipline. Otherwise, you will see a major disruption to productivity. Whether working for clients or consumers, this will severely harm your revenue generation. Creating the right home office space is particularly important. Not only does it allow you to shut yourself away from the distractions of housework or Netflix. It also allows you to maintain a positive relationship with the home. When you’re not in the office, you’re able to relax.

#2. Instability

Many freelancers work for at least one client on a continued basis, which delivers some stability. However, most contractors or self-employed workers find that their income can go up and down. Therefore, setting aside a little money to cover the troughs is vital. Crucially, you need to be prepared for a complete loss of earnings due to injuries or circumstantial changes. You should protect your income with disability insurance and other safety nets. It’s better to be safe than sorry. Not least for your sanity. Otherwise, you’ll be living in fear.

#3. Unforeseen Expenses

Going freelance often means that you’re responsible for all of your overheads. While an accountant can help you claim back the tax deductions you’re due, you need the capital to buy products. A broken laptop, vehicle breakdown, or alternative fault could cost you a significant fee. Sadly, if you do not have the capital reserves to cover those issues, your earnings will be hit hard. Once again, it’s best to be prepared for the worst at all times. You can also take proactive steps by preventing theft or unnecessary damage by protecting your home and assets.

#4. Bad Clients

Whether your freelance endeavors are B2B or B2C doesn’t matter. A percentage of your clients will try to take advantage, assuming that they can because you’re just one person. The use of non-disclosure agreements can protect your intellectual property. Meanwhile, you may want to verify who people are before doing work for them. Likewise, credit checks on purchases may be necessary for B2C connections. When working with B2B, legal action can be taken against the company if it refuses to stump up the monies owed.

#5. Life Balance

When working as a freelancer, you can technically pick the jobs that suit you. In that sense, you get to choose when the work starts. In reality, though, most freelancers struggle to actually stop the work. An established balance is vital for your sanity and personal life, but can also aid your long-term workflow. The whole purpose of freelancing is presumably to enhance your quality of life, and this must extend to every facet. If you continue to skip this phase, direct success in the job will be futile.

Brain Wave, Careers, Freelancing and Self-Employment, Family and Home living

Household Jobs That Need Warm Weather

March 9, 2020 No Comments

There are plenty of tasks that you must complete in your home throughout the year, but there are only some jobs out there that need to have the warmer weather in the summer to be completed. Home maintenance needs to be done year-round, but you need to make a list. You have invested a considerable amount of money in your home, which means that you want to keep up the investment and ensure that your home stays in excellent condition.

With the warm weather approaching, check out the jobs below that you can earmark to do once the dry weather really does set in.

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Service The Air Conditioner

You know that the heat is going to really warm up the air in the house, so rather than go through an unbearable summer, get the repair guys into the house and get it service. Get them into the house and have your air conditioning system checked through. You want to ensure that you reduce the risks of breakdown and reduce the cost of running it in the first place.

Repair The Fly Screens

Your windows and doors need to be correctly fitted with fly screens to keep the bugs out. In the summer months, the bugs are more prevalent, and the worst thing to happen is that you end up with flies all over the house. The fly screens will keep the bugs out, and you’ll add a little extra value to your home when you go to sell up, too.

Install New Garage Doors

Weather can really affect your garage doors, and if you’ve had a particularly windy or stormy winter, you need to think about new overhead doors. Choose to get new garage doors entirely, and you can keep your garage as secure as possible this summer. You’ll also keep the cool air from the air conditioners in the house as there are no leaks through the garage.

Clear The Household Mould

There’s every chance that you have mould built up through the house due to dampness in the winter months. When you lock up the house for the winter, mould can develop, and it’s the root cause of most respiratory issues that occur in the home. So, use the best products for cleaning mould in the house, and you can get it cleared away.

Clean The Pool

If you have one, you need to think about calling in the maintenance guys to clean the whole pool. Any spas and pools in your home need to be cleaned, and the chemicals changed out so that you can keep them in excellent condition. Keep an eye on the level of water, too, and repair any broken pool fences.

Repaint The House

If you have peeling paint and need a touch-up, the summer is the best time to get it painted. You need to think about getting in the professionals for painting the upper floors if you don’t have a ladder. It’s the best time of year to decorate and gloss any wood on the house, and if you have a deck, it’s a great time to oil it.

Brain Wave, Careers, Freelancing and Self-Employment

Hiring For The First Time? Let Us Help!

February 20, 2020 No Comments

As a small business, it can be surreal to get to the point that you’re at, at the minute. For you to be considering hiring means that you’ve got your business to a point where it’s making enough profit to be sustainable, pay your own wages as well as whoever you might be partnered with, as well as the wage of someone you need to hire. So for a small business that has battled through everything to even make a small amount of profit, the concept of making enough to hire someone is crazy. But it’s harder than you think. There are so many steps you need to take to make sure that you’re hiring the right person, and make sure that you’re doing everything you need to do legally and ethically. So, we’re here to help you with this. This might be your greatest challenge to date, hiring the wrong person can cause much hassle for your business. So, if you keep on reading, we’ll show you how you can hire the right person, the first time around, and do it all successfully.

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What Type Of Person Do You Want

So this is the first thing that you need to be asking yourself because the right person can do wonders for your business, and the wrong person can set you back months. So you first need to think about the age and the attitude of the person. Generally, you’re either going to want to hire someone who is young, fun, and ready to learn. Or you’ll want to hire someone who is older, mature, and ready to settle down in a career. The vibe of your business and the way you wish to run it should influence your business. If you want it to be ultra-modern and fun, you’re going to have to hire people accordingly. No matter what, the work attitude they have should be absolutely on point. They should be willing to go above and beyond for your business, if not it’s time for them to go!

The Right Steps To Take Beforehand

There are some big steps that you need to take beforehand, and one of them is the interview process. It’s nerve wracking as it is, so if you want to see the candidate for who they really are, make sure it’s as relaxed as it can possibly be. The more they relax, the more they reveal their true selves. Then you need to do a background check to make sure there are no hidden cobwebs that they didn’t tell you about. Even so, it might be that you’re able to look past them for the right candidate, but you should always do a background check to make sure that the person you’re hiring is safe for your company.

Integrating Them Into Your Business

Now you need to integrate them into your business so that they become a functioning member of your team. We think this is best done by making sure that you give them full training, as well as ongoing training to support them. A lack of ongoing support is one of the many reasons why an employee decides to jump ship from a company.

Blogging in general, Brain Wave, Careers, Freelancing and Self-Employment, Money matters

How to Make Money from Blogging

February 20, 2020 No Comments

For many people, working from home and being their own boss is the dream. But many people also think of this as an impossible idea that could never become reality. But more and more people are learning about “passive income”, which seems too good to be true and only accessible to a few very lucky people.

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Making money through blogging takes a lot of hard work, but it can be done! Anyone can do it as long as they are determined. And if you can gain a decent sized readership on your blog, it is entirely possible to start monetizing it and start gaining surprisingly high amounts of passive income.

This straightforward guide will give you practical advice on how to make money from blogging so you too can work from home, be your own boss, and spend more time doing what you love. After reading this informative guide, you will see that all it takes to become a passive income pro is hard work, determination, and a little bit of creativity.

How to Get Started in Blogging

Here are a few ways you could start blogging and growing your network:

Make Your Site
The first step to getting into the blogging game is to create your own website. There are plenty of platforms to use, such as WordPress, Blogger, Wix, Squarespace, and more. It all comes down to your personal goals and which platform can best help you reach them. WordPress has high customization abilities and makes monetization easy so this would be one of the best choices for bloggers seeking possible income.

Pick a Niche
If you want to make a blog that brings in enough traffic for monetization, that blog will need to be specific enough to draw an audience without being so specific as to alienate large groups of people. You will not gain readers, especially loyal readers, if your blog is about anything and everything.

Brain Wave, Careers, Freelancing and Self-Employment, Education & Teaching

Could A Degree Help You Reach The Top Of The Tree?

February 3, 2020 No Comments

Do you have ambitions to climb the career ladder? Do you have a dream job in mind, or are you thinking about trying something different? If you’re looking to improve your career prospects, or you’re considering a new path, have you thought about getting a degree? The infographic below highlights a series of programs, listing potential career options and expected earnings.

For those who have a desire to lead and manage a team, the Bachelor of Science in Management is an excellent option, which could open all kinds of doors. Students cover everything from employment law and quality improvement to leadership strategies, and they can land jobs, for example, a purchasing manager with a median salary of over $60,000 a year.

Information has become increasingly important and influential for organizations and businesses in recent years. We are surrounded by data, and companies can take advantage of data analysis and research techniques that enable them to improve strategies, streamline operations and connect with audiences. A degree in Information Systems is likely to be extremely valuable. With this kind of qualification, you could secure a job as a computer systems analyst with an average wage of almost $80,000. Alternatively, if you studied for a Master’s, you could earn around $120,000 working as a computer and information systems manager.

Brain Wave, Careers, Freelancing and Self-Employment, Entrepreneurship & Business Talks

Best Benefits Of Being Your Own Boss

January 15, 2020 No Comments

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Being your own boss has many benefits, and it could be the answer to all of the problems that you have currently been experiencing at work. This doesn’t mean that you aren’t going to have to work hard, it just means that instead of doing this for someone else, it is going to be all for you. In this article, we are going to be looking at some of these benefits, so if you want to know more, keep reading down below.

You Make The Decisions

The first benefit is that you make all of the decisions. Now, this is both a benefit and a curse because you have nobody to blame when things go wrong. But, at least you know that if things don’t go your way, you can do your best to fix it in whatever way possible. Making the decisions means that you have complete and total freedom to do whatever you want with your business, rather than listening to someone else who thinks that their way is the right way. In business, you are going to have to try things, see if they work, and if they don’t, then you try something else, it’s all about trial and error. You get to choose, and it all goes the way that you decide!

Accidents Are Less Likely

Another benefit is that you are less likely to get injured or be involved in a work-related accident when you are the boss. This is especially the case if you are the only one working for your business! This means that you aren’t going to have some of the worries that people working for others will, such as finding legal representation when things go wrong. It’s something that a lot of people have to face in their life, but when you are the boss, it is less likely to happen to you.

This is a good thing because cases like this can cost a lot of time and money, not to mention the emotional and physical stress you might experience. It’s just better for your peace of mind!

Flexibility

Finally, and arguably this is the best benefit of them all, you get all the flexibility you need. If you need to take a day off because you are having personal problems? You can. If you are sick, you don’t need to worry about anyone not believing you or being penalized for not coming into work that day. If you feel like getting your own best marketing agency instead of being forced to swallow what the boss deemed to be best for him, you can. You get as much flexibility as you need. Now, this is not to say that you don’t have to dedicate yourself and put in the hours to make your business a success, just that if necessary, the flexibility is there. This can take a whole load of stress off of you and make you feel much better about working in general.

We hope that you have found this article helpful, and now see some of the benefits of being your own boss. We hope your business does well, and you love being your own boss as much as most of the others do!

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