Remote Employment Awards
So, as you may have seen on my website’s homepage, I’ve been shortlisted for the Remote Employment Awards in the Freelance Contractor category.
Apart from surprise and delight, my overall feeling about this is that it’s both a huge honour and a responsibility. It’s something like 1 in 7 people in the UK are now “self employed” (in the broadest sense) and whilst not all of these could be described as “freelance consultants”, freelancers make up a significant proportion of the country’s workforce. However, judging by press coverage, and more importantly political decision making, you could be forgiven for thinking that there’s only a handful of us. Whilst there have been some concessions to “small business” over the past few years (reduced Corporation Tax rates, no necessity for audited accounts, simplified company structures etc) few address the “micro-business” explicitly. Conversely, this Government seems to view anyone with the nous, determination and vision to be working for themselves as to be doing so primarily to avoid paying “fair” taxes.
Firstly, it’s apparent that there will never be any agreement on the meaning of “fair”, and to use it in political terminology at all will only ever inflame things, and can never succeed in reaching agreement with all parties. That aside, it must be equally apparent to anyone with any common sense that choosing to “go it alone” is far too big a step for anyone to take for the dubious “benefit” of paying slightly less tax. As a freelancer, working through my own limited company, I qualify for protection under the Working Time Directive (except that as a Director, I can exclude myself and, if I’m to make a decent living, have to work far more than 48 hours per week). Similarly, I qualify for sickness benefit and paternity leave. But should I be in a position where I might choose to take those benefits, I will be losing far more in lost earnings than I could stand to take in benefits, so of course I just soldier on. (As it happens I feel like death as I write this, but am here at my desk working anyway). I pay not only employees’ NI contributions, but employers’ as well (or my company does). But since these payments directly reduce my company’s profits, this is a direct cost to me personally - unlike employees of a larger company. When you try and balance all the pluses and minuses of freelancing, it quickly becomes clear that this way of working is not supported by our Government, and it’s a hugely risky step to take (if leaving paid employment to start up, anyway).
So what does this have to do with the Awards? Well, I see them as a news “hook” on which to promote not only my own business, but the situation that freelancers in general find themselves in. Coincidentally, the awards come at a fortuitous time, just a few weeks before National Freelancers’ Day which is a great opportunity to fly the flag for freelancers everywhere.
When I heard I was shortlisted, one of the first things I did was conduct a poll amongst my clients, to gather their views on both Remote Working and Freelance Consulting. Around 40% of the respondents enjoy Remote Working for at least part of the time; 100% felt that freelancers offered a more flexible, better value service than the “big name” consultancies. That perhaps was inevitable, since my sample is of people who have already chosen to work with freelancers. But all were able to give specific advantages to their own businesses of working with independent freelancers, and that alone gave me reassurance that, whether with the Government’s support or despite the lack of it, demand for freelancers will continue.