All You Need to Know About Going Freelance

You’ve already made the fabulous jump into freelance PR work? 

Make sure you don’t miss out on freelancing at some of London’s most kick ass agencies. Latte don’t recruit for every man and their dog, only the best in the biz like John Doe, Fever, Nelson Bostock, Hope & Glory and Taylor Herring to name a few.

To be kept in the loop on relevant freelance PR jobs email your CV to [email protected].

New to freelancing? Here are our top points of insight:

1. The freelance PR job market is buoyant especially at Account Manager to Account Director level. This is across all sectors. If you are within these levels and you’re good, you can expect to have regular work. At the more senior end, work tends to come in ebbs and flows.

2. The day rate paid depends on the agency and their budget. If the freelance job market is quite, be flexible on your day rate and you can pick up more work. Give us a call to find out what the day rate is for your experience and level.

3. As a freelancer you get paid a higher day rate compared with your permanent equivalents. This helps to cover periods of time when you aren’t working, give you the flexibility to work some projects, have a break, and then work again.

4. From April 2020, new laws are coming into place as to how freelancers get paid. Check out the goverment website to see how it affects you. In a nutshell, the below payment options will be wiped out and you’ll only have two options left. That being, paid on the company / PR agency’s payroll or be paid through the recruitment agency’s payroll.

5. There are four ways to get paid:

• On a PR agency’s payroll: The PR agency pays your day rate directly to you. Typically this is paid in time with their payroll (i.e. monthly or fortnightly). You still accrue holiday and sick pay this way.

• Limited Company: You can set yourself up as a limited company. You will then invoice the PR agency directly and they will pay you as a supplier. You don’t accrue holiday pay or sick pay.
• Sole Trader: You can set yourself up as a sole trader however we recommend against this. The HMRC is cracking down on sole traders. The basic rule is that to be a sole trader you must be working unsupervised and using your own equipment (i.e. like a plumber). Recruitment agencies are now required to produce a report to HMRC every quarter on what sole traders they have placed into work.
• Umbrella Company: These are being used less often. Essentially they handle your pay for a fee each week. They invoice the recruitment agency or the PR agency and pay you.

Want to go freelance? Send us your CV via the form below or get in touch with Sarah Wisbey on [email protected]