Find out what we've been up to in recent months at CBC.

INSIDE THIS EDITION

CAROLINE BOARDMAN CONSULTING business news and current offers.

CLIENT FOCUS: Michelle Long talking about Little Ollie Handmade Crafts, juggling employment, self-employment and motherhood.

SPRING Tax tip, FreeAgent tip and Money Saving tip.

CBC business news and current offers

Finally Summer 2021 is here. We have actually slowed things down here at CBC since the end of April and I've decided to just have 2 new client intakes each year (in March and September). The CBC support team is growing around me. I now have support from 2 freelance bookkeepers, Sabrina and Sarah as well as working closely with Helen, Sam and Mel from the Clear Day team. And as always Emily's admin support has been invaluable! 

What's been happening?

• We did a lot of tax planning for clients and networking in March before the end of another tax year. 

• We've been working on and filing company accounts and corporation tax returns. If you have a Limited Company, your year-end will be different to the April to April tax year and so will the deadlines, so as a practice, we are always keeping on top of this for clients too.
• We signed up a small number of new clients (before we closed the books to new clients), and I ran a workshop for a group of "Side Hustlers" which included an article I wrote based on the FAQs 9 Things that Catch out the Newly Self-employed
• 3 of my clients have reached the £85,000 turnover VAT threshold, so their VAT registrations have gone in. If you think you may reach this milestone soon, or if this is your goal, have a read of this one 5 Things to Consider if You’re Approaching the VAT Threshold. | LinkedIn and don't let it worry you or slow you down... the sky is the limit for these 3 clients now. 
  
• Chris (my husband) has been updating the website and helping me with operations, as well as being much needed tech support! 
• I finished the Enterprising You Scheme this quarter but I'm hooked on coaching, so as well as a headspace session with Clear Day's Helen Calvert, I have also been doing walking coaching with Gill Parton. We've discussed "saying No", work/life balance, boundaries, tracking your cycle, passive income and life in general!
• I've been reading a lot of personal development books and have shared a few of my thoughts on Instagram if you want to see more but the main focus has been "Profit First" I also did a Live in the OEC group on this subject and have 5 lovely volunteers to attend my workshop next month.

9 things that catch out the newly self-employed

And finally, we've started to create some workshops which will be available to buy. More on this next quarter.

Current CBC offers

• I'm still offering the annual FreeAgent accounting software licence to all clients for £150 per year for sole traders and £210 per year for Limited Companies. Let me know if you are interested. 
• Tax investigation insurance renewal invoices have all been sent out but this is still available at £100 per year. If you would like more details of this, please let me know.
• If you are on Facebook, I really encourage you to join us in the OEC Facebook group where we have regular posts every weekday, including a Friday afternoon social (which will be an in-person meet up in July, watch out for details). You can participate in all, some or none of the discussions, as you find useful. We want this group to make your life easier, as is our aim with all our business services. It is an exclusive group, and as such members can only be invited or added by Caroline and Helen. We have some ideas for adding even more value to the group in the future but if you have any ideas for how else this group can help our entrepreneurs with their organisation and businesses, please do let us know.

CLIENT FOCUS

This month it's the very talented creative, Michelle Long of Little Ollie Handmade Crafts.

Michelle sells handmade, hand-painted personalised wooden signs, plaques, home décor, clothing and gifts for any occasion.

I asked Michelle a few questions about her business and how she manages to balance her work and life with 2 little ones...

1. What is your business? What do you do and how long have you been in business?

Little Ollie Handmade Crafts started just over a year ago, at the end of my maternity leave with my little boy Oliver. He is now almost 2 and now has a baby sister who was born in May.

2. Which is your favourite social media platform as a creative?

I have found Facebook has been better for my business reach and following. Although, personally I prefer Instagram. As an image based platform it is a great way to get my items seen.

3. Tell us how you manage to juggle employment, self-employment and motherhood?

I cut down my hours in my "real life job" when Oliver was born, so I work part time 3 days a week. I am lucky too that my employed job is a term time role so I have a week or two off roughly every 6 weeks or so. This will obviously get harder as the kids get older and they will be off school with me, but for now this is my time to catch up on orders. When I first started I would panic that I needed to get an order out within a week of it coming in as I assumed people wouldn't want to wait. But this just didn't work, I was getting really stressed and as I got more orders I realised that adding a turnaround time helped manage my time more effectively.

4. Tell us about your experience with Enterprising You?

I started Enterprising You very recently and I found it was great to take some time to step back and look at what was working well and what needed work. As I was late into my pregnancy, I have put it on hold while we welcomed our little girl into the world but hope to start up again soon and get some training in.

5. What's the future plan for Little Ollie Handmade Crafts? Do you think you will ever do it full time or will this always be a "side-hustle"?

My reason for starting Little Ollie Handmade Crafts was so I could bring visions to life and offer bespoke and personalised items that couldn't be found elsewhere, so this will continue as my focus. However I am currently expanding my items on sale to "set designs" so I have a range of gifts and home décor ready to go. Of course I would love this to be my full time/main job in the future, but for now while my children are small, I love my little side-hustle! The main feedback I get from my customers is that they love that fact I give a personal experience to each customer, and I wouldn't want to lose this as I grow.

CBC's SUMMER TIPS

TAX TIP

Imogen was 3 in February so since April we have been getting the benefit of this one so I thought I'd share it with you all.

30 HOURS FREE CHILDCARE

You may be able to get 30 hours free childcare if you live in England and your child is 3 to 4 years old

NB. There are different schemes in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

9 things that catch out the newly self-employed

The childcare must be with an approved childcare provider and stops when your child starts in reception class (or reaches compulsory school age, if later). You may have to pay for extra costs like meals, nappies or trips. You can apply online for a childcare account to get a code for 30 hours to give to your provider. 30 free hours

You can get 30 hours of free childcare per week for 38 weeks of the year (during school term time). You may be able to get free childcare for 52 weeks if you use fewer than 30 hours per week. Check with your childcare provider to find out if this is something they offer.

Your eligibility depends on all the same factors as Tax-Free Childcare as per point 1.

You can apply from when your child is 2 ¾ years old. You are entitled to 30 hours free childcare the term after your child turns 3. Check with your childcare provider to find out the exact date your 30 hours free childcare starts.

You have to reconfirm your eligibility every 3 months. If you apply more than 3 months before the term starts, you’ll have to reconfirm your eligibility in your account in order to keep your code valid.

If you are applying for 30 hours and someone else already claims Tax-Free Childcare for that child, your application will be unsuccessful.

Once your application has been approved, you’ll get a code for 30 hours free childcare to give to your childcare provider.

I have recently discovered first hand that you CAN get 30 free hours childcare at the same time as getting Tax-Free Childcare which is a double bonus :-)

See my full family friendly tax tips article here:- My 5 family friendly tax tips | LinkedIn

FREEAGENT TIP

Do you use "Capture for Later" in FreeAgent? If not, you should. It is SUCH a time saver.

Try it by opening the FreeAgent mobile app on your iOS or Android device and log in using your FreeAgent login details Tap the green ‘+’ at the bottom of the screen to access the ‘Add new...’ menu and select ‘Capture for later’.

The camera on your device will open automatically within the FreeAgent mobile app. If you haven’t used FreeAgent to access the camera before, you will be prompted to give FreeAgent permission to access your camera and photos.

Next, take a photo of the receipt or bill that you want to capture. You will then be prompted to add a ‘File name’; you should choose something that will make the file easy to identify. Then select ‘Save to Files’.

The image will then be saved to the ‘Files’ area in FreeAgent.

If you do this, let us know and we will then do the rest in FreeAgent and attach each receipt to the relevant transaction.
At the moment you have to enter all the details from the receipt in manually but a new feature (which I’ve been asked to be part of the testing for FreeAgent) is coming that will “auto-extract” the data so keep an eye out for that. Thank you to those of you who volunteered to help with this testing.