Next E&E Session - Freelance Day:

Next E&E Session: Freelance Day 26/05/2011

Juliet Sturridge developed and delivered industry training including "Runners' Bootcamp" for people looking to get into the film and broadcast industries. She has headed various companies and is currently involved in setting up a recruitment agency for freelancers. She is a business advisor to Clear Cut Pictures.

The session covered:

To freelance or not to freelance? - that is the employment question.

Acquire some tools to help you work your way through the labyrinth of legislation, discover ways to find, impress and keep employers. Arm yourself with information to protect your position and finally make use of that Maths GCSE with payslip translation, smarter invoicing and ways to measure your true worth.

If you’re looking for a job working for an employer, you usually start at the bottom and have to work your way up. You have to always be polite, helpful and willing, be able to take orders and think how the boss would want something done rather than how you want to do it.

As a freelancer, you are self-employed but this can be as a sole trader, in a partnership, a limited liability partnership – there are pros and cons to each of the different forms of business.

A third of your income goes on tax; you need to be registered for VAT and it’s good if you can get a Lorimer letter (LP10) from the Revenue saying they accept you as self-employed because that will allow companies to pay you without first deducting tax.

You need to be professional, slick, keep up-to-date with technical and other developments in the industry and have a sensible email address. She also explained the various rights you have and how to safeguard them.