There are a number of factors you need to take into account if you are starting out as a Self Employed Consultant. You firstly need to know a lot about your specialist area of course, without a good deal of knowledge there isn’t any point becoming a Consultant because your job is to advise people who need help from a specialist.
You secondly need to have the appropriate industry qualifications depending upon what industry you are in. In many cases you would not be able to practice as a Consultant or specialist without qualifications or accreditations.
Thirdly, you will need to know who your customers are going to be and where you will find them. A marketing plan would be a good way to get clear how you are going to do this. Starting a business without knowing how you are going to get customers isn’t a good way to begin.
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Are you Self Employed? Are you just starting up in business being Self Employed?
Having Self Employed status means you are running a business. No matter how small you think it might be, you need to have insurance for it. There are always risks in business no matter what a businesses size and insurance is an important consideration.
Why might you need to have insurance?
There are many different examples of why you might need insurance. For example, let’s say you are a Self Employed Electrician working in someone’s home. You could accidentally leave some equipment lying around, someone living in the house might trip over the equipment and injure themselves.
That person could make a claim because they were injured due to your negligence. You could then be liable to pay them a large claim. If you were covered by Business Insurance and more specifically Public Liability Insurance your insurance would cover the cost of the claim.
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Business insurance is one of those things that you have to buy when you run a business. Depending on the type of business you run the cost of insurance could be quite large.
Because insurance is a necessity you will want to find the best possible cover at the best possible price. Here are a few tips to help you find the cover that is most suited to you:
Compare quotes- A great way to look at prices from various insurance providers is to look online and compare quotes. You can look at quotes from different insurance providers side by side to choose the one that’s best for your business. Not only does this approach save money but it also saves time.
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The general statistics show that health insurance premiums have been rising faster than inflation in the business sector while the extent of the cover is being more narrowly defined. It is the old “less for more” syndrome. Insurance companies are not unjustified in raising their premiums. They can point to the rising costs of drugs and medical devices, and the increasing charges levied by hospitals, clinics and professional health care providers. Since their costs are rising and their investors expect a dividend, premiums must rise. Worse, the health of the nation is deteriorating. With an epidemic of obesity, the health services are buckling under the resulting waves of cases with high blood pressure, heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
Unless there is government intervention to fund the national expansion of health care, the costs for all will rise. This gives business owners and managers a serious problem as the recession gathers pace and revenues fall. How does a business reduce costs without sacrificing the employees’ goodwill? Under normal circumstances, it would trade-off between the cost of the health plan and other benefits. But in this economic situation, it is likely that pay and benefits must be reduced if the business is to survive with full employment. Among small businesses, the number of employers providing health plans has dropped 10% in the last three years. Alternatively, a number of nonessential employees will have to leave to pay for continuing benefits for the survivors — painful downsizing.
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