Course description

Thinking about freelancing, or just started and feeling your way? This course shows you, step by step, how to run a freelance service business in the UK: setting up properly, pricing your work, finding and winning clients, using clear terms, managing projects and, most importantly, getting paid.

It's a full course, not a list of tips. There are 10 sections and 50 written lessons, each with a practical task. You follow a fictional illustrator in Cumbria through her first six months of freelancing, with the real figures from her quotes, invoices and expenses, the mistakes she made and how she fixed them. Every section has a worksheet, model answers, a cheat sheet and ready-to-use templates and calculators.

What you'll learn

• Getting started: what freelancing really involves, employment status in plain words, whether it suits you now, and choosing what you'll offer.
• Setting up: sole trader or limited company, registering with HMRC, a business bank account, records, insurance and data protection.
• Pricing: a day rate that covers your costs, holidays and admin time, fixed prices, quotes, discounts, minimum fees and raising your rates.
• Finding and winning clients: your ideal clients, portfolio, referrals, marketplaces, pitching, first conversations, proposals and saying no to the wrong work.
• Contracts and terms: scope, revisions, payment and cancellation, copyright and licences, deposits and staged payments, and reading a client's contract.
• Managing projects: plans and deadlines, client updates, feedback, scope creep and change requests.
• Getting paid: invoices, payment terms, chasing politely and firmly, late payment interest and compensation, and cash flow.
• Tax and wellbeing: Self Assessment dates, allowable expenses, setting money aside, VAT and Making Tax Digital in outline, and avoiding burnout.

The final project

You'll write your freelance plan on a page, build your own rate card and standard terms, and learn to review your records so you know which clients and kinds of work are worth more of your time. A project brief, templates and a review workbook are included.

Who this course is for

• People in the UK who want to start freelancing, full-time or alongside a job.
• New freelancers who want to price with confidence and stop chasing late invoices.
• Anyone selling a skill as a service: design, writing, editing, photography, development, admin support, consulting and more.

How the course works

Read each lesson, then do the practical task using the templates in the practice pack. The course gives general information, not legal, tax or financial advice, and tells you when to check GOV.UK or ask an accountant or solicitor. You keep lifetime access, so you can come back whenever you need a template or a reminder.

What will I learn?

• Decide whether freelancing suits you now and plan your first month
• Set up as a sole trader, register with HMRC on time and keep simple records
• Work out a day rate that covers your costs, holidays and unpaid admin time, and write clear quotes
• Find clients through your portfolio, referrals, networking, marketplaces and polite pitches
• Win work with good first conversations and proposals, and say no to the wrong jobs
• Use written terms, licences, deposits and staged payments to protect yourself
• Manage projects, revisions and scope creep, and send invoices that get paid
• Chase late payment politely and firmly, use late payment law, and plan for tax

Frequently asked questions