The Chocoholics guide to self-employment: How does childcare work if you're self-employed?

In the fourth of our series of guidelines for self-employment, we look at how you can juggle a new job with childcare.

A lot of our fabulous distributors across the UK are mothers, as the role fits in beautifully with looking after the kids. Our main work seasons are for the 10-11 weeks running up to Christmas and the 7 weeks running up to Easter, which means you get the whole summer off to spend with the children!

During the busy seasons, you'll need to get a bit of childcare in when you're out at the parties. Here are a few options you might want to consider.

• Asking a family member to help out: If you're lucky enough to have a partner who can look after the children whilst you're out, great! If not, consider whether there are any grandparents, siblings or other family members who might be able to look after for you. It's usually free too!

• Childminder: A flexible childminder can look after your kids for a couple of hours each night, particularly great if they look after children of the same age.

• Friends: Got a friend who works part-time hours? You could arrange a schedule where you take it in turns to look after each other's kids, which helps you both out!

You'll still be able to collect certain benefits, like:

• Child Benefit: £20.30 for your oldest child (under 16) and £13.40 for each child after

• Tax Credits: Check out this useful guide on tax credits for the self-employed.

Got the childcare sorted and want to apply to become a Chocoholics distributor? Then either leave us a message in the comments or give us a call on 0118 9321043.

Next post: The Chocoholics guide to self-employment: How do you promote yourself?

The Chocoholics guide to self-employment: How much time will you need?

In the third of our series of guidelines for self-employment, we look at the amount of time you'll need to dedicate to being your own boss.

Many people believe that working for themselves will give them a lot more time then working for others. The reality is, whilst you'll be able to fit it in around any childcare arrangements or commitments you have, you'll probably find yourself working a few weekends and evenings. Effectively, you're doing all the finance, admin, marketing, customer services and sales for your business.

Luckily, the support team at Chocoholics are on hand to help with a lot of these areas, and we've already covered the financial requirements which should only take a couple of hours a month. But what other things do you need to consider when it comes to how your time is spent as a Chocoholics distributor.

• Time spent promoting your business: Whether you're dropping catalogues off to neighbourhoods and schools or contact local businesses, you'll need to put aside several hours a week to promote yourself and bring in new business. Double this for your first season. We'll outlline some great promotional suggestions in a future post in the series.

• Social media: If you're a Twitter or Facebook user, half an hour each day on your accounts promoting your business can really improve your chances of getting new customers

• Parties: We suggest you do three parties a week, which usual takes several hours. These take place during the evening, so you'll have to cater for loading up your car with the display range, getting to the venue, setting everything up, holding the party, packing it all down again and going home!

• Orders: You'll need to put your order in every week, which can take a couple of hours or summing everything up and then sending it to Chocoholics HQ. We recommend using a spreadsheet to keep track of everything.

• When the orders arrives, you'll need to package up each individual order and double check it's all there. It's fantastic if you can rope a friend or family member into double-checking it all  for you too. This can take up to five hours a week, depending on the size of your order. Then you have to....

• Deliver the chocolates: Most customers prefer if you can drop the chocolates off to them, so you'll need drop each order off. Thankfully most orders can be dropped off with each party hostess, who will distribute it to her guests.

So, overall it's a busy job! It's worth bearing in mind that the Chocoholics role is seasonal, so it'll be busy during the Easter and Christmas season, but you can enjoy some time with your family and friends during the summer.

If you'd like the sound of the job, get in contact! Either leave us a message in the comments or give us a call on 0118 9321043.

Next post: The Chocoholics guide to self-employment: How does childcare work if you're self-employed?

The Chocoholics guide to self-employment: The legal bits

In the second of our series of guidelines for self-employment, we look at all the legal requirements you need to fulfil to get you on the road to being your own boss!

One of the most intimidating things about becoming self-employed can be all the legal jargon, tax and NI requirements. But it's really quite simple to set yourself up, particularly if you know a fantastic accountant who can talk you through the whole process. It's also worth adding the HM Revenue & Customs website to your bookmarks as they have some fantastic straightforward advice.

Here are the basic things you'll need to do:

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  Register as self-employed with the HM Revenue & Customs. You can do this online, over the telephone, or print off an application to post to them. Prepare for your annual tax returns. Instead of having your tax and NI deducted from your monthly salary, you'll have to pay it all in one go at the end of each tax year (April). These need to be sent back by 31 October for paper ones or 31 January for online ones. You'll be sent the following forms:
• • If you're self-employed you'll need to complete either page SA103S (if your turnover was below £68,000) or SA103F (if your turnover was £68,000 or more).
  • If you're self-employed in a business partnership you'll need to complete either page SA104S (for partnerships that only have trading income - and taxed bank and building society interest or alternative finance receipts); or page SA104F (for all other types of partnership income). These forms detail your share of the partnership's profit or loss.
  • You may need page SA102 if you also work as an employee.
• Keep track of all your expenses, and store all receipts. The expenses you have for business can be taken off your tax return later. Also print out your bank statements every month. If you tend to use your bank card a lot for non-business expenses (e.g trips to fast food joints or high street shops) it might be worth looking into opening an alternative account for your business transactions.
• Your accountant or HM Revenues should be able to talk you through setting up your NI payments, either by monthly Direct Debit or a quarterly bill.
• It's best to put away around 25-30% of your income to cover your tax return and NI.
  

So that's the scary tax and NI stuff dealt with! I'd recommend putting a couple of hours aside every month to update your records, rather than panicking at the end of the year. It's really not as scary as it looks though, and the people at HMRC are really helpful if you give them a ring.

Next post: The Chocoholics guide to self-employment: How much time will you need?

The Chocoholics guide to self-employment

Here at Chocolates for Chocoholics we're always on the lookout for talented and self-motivated people from all over the UK to become distributors. Being a self-employed distributor give you the opportunity to work for yourself, fit your work in around your childcare and earn some great money whilst being surrounded by chocolate!

Whilst there are undeniably many advantages of being self-employed, there are a few things you should think about too:

• What legal requirements do you need to complete?
• How much time can you contribute to a role?
• If you have kids, do you have someone to cover the childcare when you are working?
• Are you happy constantly seeking out new customers and opportunities?
• Do you prefer working in a team or on your own?
• How do you feel about dealing with tax, NI and savings?

If you want to work for Chocoholics, you might want to think of the following points:

• Do you have enough storage room for all the delicious chocolate orders?
• Do you live on a ground floor flat/house? Running up and down the stairs with boxes at 10pm after a party can be tricky!
• Do you have a car for getting to and from parties?
• Do you have a computer with internet access and landline?

Yes to all the above? Excellent! In the next few weeks we'll be giving you the Chocoholics guide to setting up as self-employed. If you're got any specific questions or want to know anything more, drop us an email!