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Financial Survival Tips for The Self-Employed · A Little Bit Richer

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This series is brought to you by L& G, helping
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: you build a future that's a little bit richer.
• 0:06
  Iona Bain: Hello and welcome to A Little Bit Richer with me,
• 0:09
  Iona Bain: Iona Bain, brought to you by Legal & General. Now, being self-
• 0:13
  Iona Bain: employed can be a financial rollercoaster. Managing the ups and
• 0:17
  Iona Bain: downs definitely can be a challenge, whether it's sending invoices,
• 0:21
  Iona Bain: juggling projects, or looking for new clients, it's easy to
• 0:24
  Iona Bain: forget that actually what's most important is the freedom of
• 0:28
  Iona Bain: being your own boss, even if it can feel unpredictable
• 0:31
  Iona Bain: at times. But how can you make the self- employed
• 0:34
  Iona Bain: life work for you? Well, whether you're bossing it already
• 0:37
  Iona Bain: or dreaming of working for yourself one day, here to
• 0:40
  Iona Bain: give us some tips on managing finances is friend of
• 0:43
  Iona Bain: the show and fellow freelancer, Crystal McGillivray. Crystal is an
• 0:47
  Iona Bain: accountant, campaigner, and speaker who actually has a master's in
• 0:51
  Iona Bain: behavioral and economic science, so she's just the person we
• 0:55
  Iona Bain: need to talk to about planning ahead when you're working
• 0:58
  Iona Bain: for yourself. Welcome, Crystal.
• 1:00
  Crystal McGillivray: Hi, I'm so glad to be here.
• 1:02
  Iona Bain: Can you set the scene for us and describe the
• 1:05
  Iona Bain: kinds of challenges that the self- employed can face?
• 1:07
  Crystal McGillivray: Yeah, self- employment is such a fun thing to do,
• 1:10
  Crystal McGillivray: but income is so unpredictable. The challenge that a lot
• 1:14
  Crystal McGillivray: of self- employed people face is not having that stable
• 1:16
  Crystal McGillivray: income like you do when you are employed. You have
• 1:19
  Crystal McGillivray: your salary, it's paid every month at the same time,
• 1:21
  Crystal McGillivray: guaranteed. But when you're working for yourself, you're often chasing
• 1:25
  Crystal McGillivray: clients, you're dealing with payment terms, you're having to look
• 1:29
  Crystal McGillivray: at your bank account and think about costs, so there's
• 1:31
  Crystal McGillivray: quite a few things to manage in making sure that
• 1:34
  Crystal McGillivray: that business runs and functions nice and smoothly. Yeah, it's
• 1:37
  Crystal McGillivray: a job.
• 1:38
  Iona Bain: But how important is it for the self- employed to
• 1:41
  Iona Bain: just normalize the conversation around their finances and not fear
• 1:47
  Iona Bain: them and not kind of think that they're failing if
• 1:49
  Iona Bain: they find some aspects of this whole issue quite tricky?
• 1:53
  Crystal McGillivray: I mean, I guess what we're thinking about here is
• 1:55
  Crystal McGillivray: when you are employed, your finances are effectively sorted with
• 1:59
  Crystal McGillivray: a pension and you're contributing, you set that money aside
• 2:02
  Crystal McGillivray: for however many years, you have a retirement plan. When
• 2:05
  Crystal McGillivray: you're self- employed, if you don't do that, if you're
• 2:08
  Crystal McGillivray: living in the moment, kind of generating an income, covering
• 2:11
  Crystal McGillivray: your costs, you're living for today, and you actually don't
• 2:14
  Crystal McGillivray: have anything put away for later in life, whether that's
• 2:18
  Crystal McGillivray: saving, investing, so it's really key to do that initial
• 2:23
  Crystal McGillivray: hard work to get clear on that financial aspect and
• 2:26
  Crystal McGillivray: set something up so that later you can relax.
• 2:29
  Iona Bain: Absolutely. Like you deserve if you've worked really hard.
• 2:32
  Crystal McGillivray: Yeah.
• 2:33
  Iona Bain: What are the practical ways that people can manage their
• 2:36
  Iona Bain: money when their income isn't predictable?
• 2:39
  Crystal McGillivray: First of all, it's really getting clear on the cash
• 2:42
  Crystal McGillivray: side, so if we think about bills, things you have
• 2:44
  Crystal McGillivray: to pay for. Doing that initial bit of work of
• 2:47
  Crystal McGillivray: looking through what subscriptions do I have? What cost do
• 2:50
  Crystal McGillivray: I incur to make this business run? But then outside
• 2:53
  Crystal McGillivray: of that, what are your personal living expenses? When you're
• 2:56
  Crystal McGillivray: thinking about your income that you need to generate, you're
• 2:59
  Crystal McGillivray: clear on what that number needs to be. And then
• 3:01
  Crystal McGillivray: you're stabilizing ideally in terms of your business plans to
• 3:04
  Crystal McGillivray: generate that income. And that allows you to also factor
• 3:08
  Crystal McGillivray: in savings, investments, and set up those automations so you can
• 3:12
  Crystal McGillivray: plan for the future.
• 3:13
  Iona Bain: Are there particular budgeting techniques that might work for a self-
• 3:17
  Iona Bain: employed person who's facing that irregular income?
• 3:20
  Crystal McGillivray: Yeah, there's a few. I mean, the first point again
• 3:23
  Crystal McGillivray: is really being clear about your ins and outs, so
• 3:26
  Crystal McGillivray: having that as your foundation. And you might want to
• 3:28
  Crystal McGillivray: think ahead of, I need to pay this much to
• 3:30
  Crystal McGillivray: myself as a minimum to be okay. And one thing
• 3:34
  Crystal McGillivray: that's really topical is of course the irregularity of your
• 3:37
  Crystal McGillivray: income, so you may have months that are amazing and
• 3:40
  Crystal McGillivray: you'll pay maybe three, four times the basic.
• 3:44
  Iona Bain: And then it's very tempting to celebrate.
• 3:46
  Crystal McGillivray: Yes, of course. Yeah.
• 3:48
  Iona Bain: But perhaps that's the month when you need to make
• 3:50
  Iona Bain: sure that you're putting extra aside for the lean times.
• 3:54
  Crystal McGillivray: You're spot on. Yeah, so those months where it's amazing
• 3:57
  Crystal McGillivray: and you've been such a success, still see as, okay,
• 4:00
  Crystal McGillivray: I'm going to pay myself what I need to pay
• 4:02
  Crystal McGillivray: myself and put this extra into an emergency fund, maybe
• 4:06
  Crystal McGillivray: top up your pensions if you haven't maximized. And of
• 4:09
  Crystal McGillivray: course you can celebrate, but do it within reason and
• 4:13
  Crystal McGillivray: prepare for the future.
• 4:14
  Iona Bain: What is a good way to handle those periods when
• 4:18
  Iona Bain: you've got big invoice gaps, dry spells? How can someone
• 4:22
  Iona Bain: who is self- employed smooth their cash flow?
• 4:26
  Crystal McGillivray: We call it cashflow management. This is where you are
• 4:29
  Crystal McGillivray: paying attention to the fluctuations of your bank balance effectively,
• 4:33
  Crystal McGillivray: so you think about your bank statement and you think
• 4:35
  Crystal McGillivray: about the numbers going up and down in terms of
• 4:37
  Crystal McGillivray: your end of day balance. What you want to do
• 4:39
  Crystal McGillivray: is make sure it does not drop to a negative. That
• 4:42
  Crystal McGillivray: requires you to have maybe a buffer. It could be
• 4:44
  Crystal McGillivray: that you have separate bank accounts, so money comes into
• 4:47
  Crystal McGillivray: one account, but then is dispersed amongst different accounts for
• 4:50
  Crystal McGillivray: different things. And that helps you manage taxes in the
• 4:54
  Crystal McGillivray: future, making sure you're paying yourself a set amount.
• 4:57
  Iona Bain: Yeah, absolutely. Setting aside money for your tax is really
• 5:00
  Iona Bain: important because that can be a nasty surprise for a
• 5:03
  Iona Bain: lot of people who are new to being self- employed.
• 5:07
  Crystal McGillivray: I hear it all too often. People who've had that
• 5:09
  Crystal McGillivray: uncomfortable, unfortunate situation where they weren't aware of what their
• 5:12
  Crystal McGillivray: tax bill would be come January. When you are due
• 5:15
  Crystal McGillivray: to pay your taxes and submit your return, the deadline,
• 5:19
  Crystal McGillivray: and whether it's 3, 000 pounds or much more, but
• 5:22
  Crystal McGillivray: actually you can find out way before, and that's kind
• 5:25
  Crystal McGillivray: of part of the managing your money that I encourage.
• 5:27
  Iona Bain: Yeah, absolutely. And even if you end up using an
• 5:29
  Iona Bain: accountant and lots of self- employed people do, you will
• 5:32
  Iona Bain: always feel that much more empowered if you understand the
• 5:35
  Iona Bain: numbers yourself. I know an awful lot of folks who
• 5:39
  Iona Bain: are listening to this and watching this who are self-
• 5:41
  Iona Bain: employed will face this problem. It's chasing invoices. We have
• 5:46
  Iona Bain: all been there. I know I have. Do you have
• 5:49
  Iona Bain: any advice on how you can navigate that issue?
• 5:52
  Crystal McGillivray: There's a couple of things. First of all, I encourage
• 5:54
  Crystal McGillivray: people to send invoice reminders, even before it's due, so
• 5:58
  Crystal McGillivray: you could send a polite email, " Hey, just letting you
• 6:00
  Crystal McGillivray: know your invoice is due in a week or so.
• 6:02
  Crystal McGillivray: Thanks. Great working with you." But what you're doing there
• 6:04
  Crystal McGillivray: is making sure that they have your invoice and it's
• 6:07
  Crystal McGillivray: on their radar, so it hasn't got lost in the
• 6:09
  Crystal McGillivray: emails. Also, and this is kind of before the fact,
• 6:12
  Crystal McGillivray: making sure you've got the right information, you've got the
• 6:15
  Crystal McGillivray: right email contact, you've got the right address for the
• 6:17
  Crystal McGillivray: company, that you're invoicing, et cetera.
• 6:19
  Iona Bain: Get that established straightaway when you start working with the client.
• 6:23
  Crystal McGillivray: Often if you're working with a company, they pay based
• 6:25
  Crystal McGillivray: on invoice date, so the longer you take to invoice,
• 6:28
  Crystal McGillivray: the later you'll be paid. There's also one that I
• 6:31
  Crystal McGillivray: encourage people to do, but I know also is a
• 6:33
  Crystal McGillivray: little bit uncomfortable. You can actually charge a penalty if
• 6:37
  Crystal McGillivray: your client is late to pay. And what I say
• 6:41
  Crystal McGillivray: to do is just pop a little narrative on the
• 6:43
  Crystal McGillivray: bottom of your invoice to say you will be charged
• 6:45
  Crystal McGillivray: a penalty if this is late. And often that alone
• 6:48
  Crystal McGillivray: just deters people paying you late, so it's a little
• 6:50
  Crystal McGillivray: kind of secret weapon you could have.
• 6:52
  Iona Bain: I think it's interesting that just saying that you are
• 6:55
  Iona Bain: legally entitled to charge, I think it's 8% interest on
• 7:00
  Iona Bain: the value of your invoice if it is later than
• 7:03
  Iona Bain: it should be. That alone will often do the trick
• 7:06
  Iona Bain: because it just shows that you know your rights.
• 7:08
  Crystal McGillivray: Yes.
• 7:08
  Iona Bain: And it indicates to the person who should be paying
• 7:11
  Iona Bain: you that they can't mess you about.
• 7:12
  Crystal McGillivray: And then one other point, requesting a deposit, so money
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  Crystal McGillivray: upfront before you actually start the work, especially if you
• 7:19
  Crystal McGillivray: are going to incur some costs along the way.
• 7:22
  Iona Bain: And especially if it's a longer term project, say you're
• 7:24
  Iona Bain: working on it for six months, it's more than reasonable
• 7:26
  Iona Bain: to say, how about we have one payment upfront and
• 7:29
  Iona Bain: then the other payment on completion?
• 7:31
  Crystal McGillivray: Or even break it down even further, quarters, maybe set
• 7:34
  Crystal McGillivray: milestones, but I encourage people to have those conversations early
• 7:38
  Crystal McGillivray: and see if there's room for that to happen.
• 7:40
  Iona Bain: And what's your feeling about clients that despite you following
• 7:45
  Iona Bain: all these rules and doing your best to get that
• 7:47
  Iona Bain: invoice paid on time, they just won't pay up and
• 7:50
  Iona Bain: it does happen occasionally? What are your thoughts on maybe
• 7:53
  Iona Bain: deciding not to work with those clients again? Because freelancers
• 7:56
  Iona Bain: find it difficult, don't they, to walk away from clients
• 7:59
  Iona Bain: even when they're late paying invoices.
• 8:02
  Crystal McGillivray: When it comes to chasing payments, loop in who you
• 8:04
  Crystal McGillivray: need to, it kind of opens up that conversation so
• 8:06
  Crystal McGillivray: more people know about it. But in terms of somebody
• 8:09
  Crystal McGillivray: who has paid you late, I don't feel right saying
• 8:14
  Crystal McGillivray: don't work with them again. I think because it depends
• 8:16
  Crystal McGillivray: on the client, right?
• 8:18
  Iona Bain: Yeah.
• 8:18
  Crystal McGillivray: For example, me, I'm not sensitive to receiving late payment
• 8:21
  Crystal McGillivray: and that's because I have reserves and my financial situation
• 8:24
  Crystal McGillivray: makes that okay. As long as it's a good relationship,
• 8:28
  Crystal McGillivray: especially if you're working with a large organization, there's quite
• 8:31
  Crystal McGillivray: a bit of a process to go through to get
• 8:34
  Crystal McGillivray: that paid. And actually a real case, I'm working with
• 8:36
  Crystal McGillivray: someone now, they encouraged me to send the invoice a
• 8:38
  Crystal McGillivray: month before we started working together.
• 8:41
  Iona Bain: They sound like a dream client.
• 8:43
  Crystal McGillivray: Great client. It's been like a month and a half
• 8:46
  Crystal McGillivray: now. They're late paying. They're not being difficult. There's just
• 8:49
  Crystal McGillivray: lots to go through to get that settled. And then
• 8:52
  Crystal McGillivray: also you're thinking about the value of the client. Is
• 8:54
  Crystal McGillivray: it worth it? Do you still definitely get paid? What
• 8:57
  Crystal McGillivray: is it doing for your career? Is it an investment
• 9:00
  Crystal McGillivray: in that sense that actually working with them is going
• 9:03
  Crystal McGillivray: to position me quite well? If that stuff is not
• 9:05
  Crystal McGillivray: included, then yes, maybe question, should I work with them?
• 9:08
  Crystal McGillivray: If, am I wasting time that it could be spent on
• 9:11
  Crystal McGillivray: more valuable things, getting this paid?
• 9:13
  Iona Bain: That's really good advice, Crystal, because I think it's very
• 9:17
  Iona Bain: difficult to be able to make a hard and fast
• 9:19
  Iona Bain: rule about these things. But what I will say is that
• 9:22
  Iona Bain: the more that freelancers can stick up for their rights
• 9:25
  Iona Bain: and make sure that they get what they deserve, and
• 9:27
  Iona Bain: that includes having your invoices paid on time, even if
• 9:30
  Iona Bain: you do it in a polite way.
• 9:31
  Crystal McGillivray: And actually, there are some organizations that have policies where
• 9:35
  Crystal McGillivray: they pay freelancers, self- employed people immediately because they understand
• 9:40
  Crystal McGillivray: the situation when it comes to working for yourself, money
• 9:42
  Crystal McGillivray: management. I mean, if you can seek out those companies
• 9:45
  Crystal McGillivray: to work with-
• 9:45
  Iona Bain: And that's where networking with other self- employed folks-
• 9:48
  Crystal McGillivray: Yes.
• 9:48
  Iona Bain: ... can really help because they can say, " Those are
• 9:50
  Iona Bain: great clients. Those ones, not so much."
• 9:53
  Crystal McGillivray: Not so much.
• 9:55
  Iona Bain: Crystal, you already touched on this, but how can we
• 9:57
  Iona Bain: make sure that we are not neglecting longer term things
• 10:00
  Iona Bain: that are really important like our retirement savings?
• 10:03
  Crystal McGillivray: I think first of all, it's definitely roll up your
• 10:06
  Crystal McGillivray: sleeves and do your numbers, so know how much you
• 10:09
  Crystal McGillivray: have available, know how much you want to have available
• 10:12
  Crystal McGillivray: later in life, so maybe use a retirement calculator to
• 10:15
  Crystal McGillivray: see, okay, what does that look like? How much do I need to
• 10:17
  Crystal McGillivray: put away every month to get there? But in terms
• 10:20
  Crystal McGillivray: of now in the practical sense, automate is always my answer.
• 10:24
  Iona Bain: And when you talk about automation, can you give us
• 10:26
  Iona Bain: a couple of examples of what that looks like?
• 10:28
  Crystal McGillivray: Yeah, of course. If we're thinking about investing or putting
• 10:32
  Crystal McGillivray: money aside into an ISA or a pension pot, a
• 10:35
  Crystal McGillivray: standing order or direct debit to go to that account,
• 10:37
  Crystal McGillivray: so you are saving every single month on the back
• 10:39
  Crystal McGillivray: of the calculations you've done for how much you want
• 10:42
  Crystal McGillivray: to have in retirement. The automation is that money leaving
• 10:44
  Crystal McGillivray: your account to go towards investing, to go towards your
• 10:47
  Crystal McGillivray: saving pot. And once that's set up, you don't have
• 10:49
  Crystal McGillivray: to think about it.
• 10:51
  Iona Bain: That is a very, very good hack. I also want
• 10:53
  Iona Bain: to just touch on the different types of self- employed
• 10:56
  Iona Bain: status because that can then have an impact on how
• 11:00
  Iona Bain: you manage your finances. Can you just very briefly talk
• 11:04
  Iona Bain: us through the difference between a sole trader and someone
• 11:07
  Iona Bain: who has a limited company?
• 11:09
  Crystal McGillivray: When you're a sole trader, basically all the money you
• 11:12
  Crystal McGillivray: earn effectively is you earning that money, so everything you
• 11:15
  Crystal McGillivray: pay for comes out of that number, so income and
• 11:17
  Crystal McGillivray: costs come out. What's left is your profit, and that's
• 11:21
  Crystal McGillivray: where tax is calculated. Quite basic, quite straightforward. When you
• 11:25
  Crystal McGillivray: have a limited company, it's a separate legal entity, so
• 11:28
  Crystal McGillivray: it's almost like another person. You create this company and
• 11:33
  Crystal McGillivray: the company earns money and then you can pay yourself
• 11:36
  Crystal McGillivray: from that company. And it's a good time to mention
• 11:39
  Crystal McGillivray: that because if you think about maybe you were employed
• 11:43
  Crystal McGillivray: before and your company paid into your pension for you,
• 11:47
  Crystal McGillivray: you could set up the same thing for yourself where
• 11:49
  Crystal McGillivray: your company pays into your pension as well as you
• 11:51
  Crystal McGillivray: deducting it from your salary that you're paying yourself.
• 11:54
  Iona Bain: Ah, so it's like you have a workplace pension.
• 11:57
  Crystal McGillivray: Exactly.
• 11:58
  Iona Bain: And what advantages would that give you?
• 12:00
  Crystal McGillivray: So much. I mean, first of all, the payment to
• 12:03
  Crystal McGillivray: your pension from your company is seen as a tax-
• 12:05
  Crystal McGillivray: deductible, so when we talk about being self- employed, income,
• 12:09
  Crystal McGillivray: costs, profit, and then tax. Here, it's income, costs including
• 12:14
  Crystal McGillivray: that pension payment, then profit, and then you calculate your tax.
• 12:19
  Iona Bain: That could be a good option if you are looking
• 12:22
  Iona Bain: to really supercharge your pension saving.
• 12:25
  Crystal McGillivray: Absolutely.
• 12:25
  Iona Bain: And are there particular tax benefits to having a limited
• 12:30
  Iona Bain: company versus being a sole trader?
• 12:32
  Crystal McGillivray: Yes, there are. And it's one of the big questions
• 12:35
  Crystal McGillivray: that are put to me actually. When you earn over
• 12:39
  Crystal McGillivray: approximately 50K in terms of your income, there are tax
• 12:43
  Crystal McGillivray: benefits in terms of how you can pay yourself via
• 12:46
  Crystal McGillivray: a limited company, and eventually you start to pay less
• 12:49
  Crystal McGillivray: tax as a result. When people are deciding between self-
• 12:53
  Crystal McGillivray: employment or limited company, there are other factors to consider
• 12:57
  Crystal McGillivray: depending on who you're going to be working with, maybe
• 12:59
  Crystal McGillivray: they prefer you to have a limited company, but if
• 13:02
  Crystal McGillivray: those things don't really matter, like the legal status, liability,
• 13:05
  Crystal McGillivray: then sometimes being a sole trader is absolutely fine if
• 13:08
  Crystal McGillivray: you're not earning that much that the tax incentives are really
• 13:12
  Crystal McGillivray: going to show up for you.
• 13:14
  Iona Bain: I guess it's one of those things where if you're
• 13:16
  Iona Bain: not sure, maybe having a conversation with an accountant would
• 13:19
  Iona Bain: make sense.
• 13:19
  Crystal McGillivray: Absolutely. Absolutely.
• 13:20
  Iona Bain: What are some of the ways that self- employed folks
• 13:23
  Iona Bain: can feel a bit more in control of their income and
• 13:26
  Iona Bain: therefore their finances?
• 13:28
  Crystal McGillivray: The first thought that comes to mind is diversifying your
• 13:31
  Crystal McGillivray: income type. Often you may be a freelancer and you
• 13:35
  Crystal McGillivray: do the odd job and you do the old project,
• 13:37
  Crystal McGillivray: but actually thinking about having a retainer with clients where
• 13:40
  Crystal McGillivray: you're earning the same money from this particular client every
• 13:43
  Crystal McGillivray: month or recurring income and that would help provide kind
• 13:48
  Crystal McGillivray: of like a base level income and you can build
• 13:50
  Crystal McGillivray: on top of that.
• 13:51
  Iona Bain: I have to say that I've had a lot more
• 13:53
  Iona Bain: peace of mind ever since getting certain regular clients on
• 13:57
  Iona Bain: my books as a freelancer, but also a lot of
• 14:01
  Iona Bain: this is about the service that you offer and making
• 14:03
  Iona Bain: it as unique as possible. And what are your thoughts on that?
• 14:06
  Crystal McGillivray: This is around the relationship building side and actually what
• 14:10
  Crystal McGillivray: are you selling and how are you communicating that and
• 14:13
  Crystal McGillivray: really targeting what these organizations need. And the other point
• 14:16
  Crystal McGillivray: I wanted to mention actually was income protection. Income protection
• 14:20
  Crystal McGillivray: is there to protect your income if say you were
• 14:23
  Crystal McGillivray: to get sick, so when we're talking about income uncertainty
• 14:27
  Crystal McGillivray: and not knowing how much you're going to earn next
• 14:29
  Crystal McGillivray: month or you possibly being ill because that does happen,
• 14:32
  Crystal McGillivray: you could have a policy in place that will pay
• 14:35
  Crystal McGillivray: your salary up to a certain percentage every month to
• 14:38
  Crystal McGillivray: see you through that period.
• 14:40
  Iona Bain: And we're talking about an insurance policy here.
• 14:42
  Crystal McGillivray: An insurance policy.
• 14:43
  Iona Bain: And people might be thinking, " I feel pretty healthy. And
• 14:47
  Iona Bain: if I can't work, well, I'll just dip into my
• 14:49
  Iona Bain: savings." But why might that be a little bit shortsighted?
• 14:53
  Crystal McGillivray: I mean, it's the hardest thing about insurance, isn't it? It's
• 14:56
  Crystal McGillivray: you don't know what's going to happen. And I'm sure
• 14:58
  Crystal McGillivray: we have all come across stories where something has happened
• 15:00
  Crystal McGillivray: unexpected and it just throws everything out of whack, but
• 15:04
  Crystal McGillivray: that insurance policy is there to help you. And when
• 15:07
  Crystal McGillivray: we're thinking about how much it costs, it's not a
• 15:09
  Crystal McGillivray: lot of money in the grand scheme of things for
• 15:11
  Crystal McGillivray: that peace of mind later.
• 15:13
  Iona Bain: And I also just wanted to touch on an issue
• 15:15
  Iona Bain: that is definitely a danger for the self- employed, which
• 15:19
  Iona Bain: is that you can end up feeling like your self-
• 15:22
  Iona Bain: worth is wrapped up with how much you earn and
• 15:25
  Iona Bain: how well you're doing as a self- employed person. And
• 15:29
  Iona Bain: as a recovering goalaholic, perfectionist, someone who used to really
• 15:34
  Iona Bain: think that the career that I have was central to
• 15:36
  Iona Bain: my identity is still very important to me, but I
• 15:38
  Iona Bain: have learned to just take more of a step back
• 15:40
  Iona Bain: from it in recent years. But it's hard, isn't it?
• 15:43
  Crystal McGillivray: It is hard. I think it's also hard to understand
• 15:46
  Crystal McGillivray: that the work you're doing, it's meeting a need of
• 15:49
  Crystal McGillivray: the person you're selling to. You're having a value exchange
• 15:52
  Crystal McGillivray: and that money you're being paid is off the back
• 15:54
  Crystal McGillivray: of how much of a need is it for that
• 15:56
  Crystal McGillivray: client or individual, less so you and your worth as
• 16:01
  Crystal McGillivray: a human. Making this a bit more practical, when you're
• 16:04
  Crystal McGillivray: having those conversations and you're maybe looking to price up
• 16:06
  Crystal McGillivray: your services, focus on what they're looking for, where their
• 16:09
  Crystal McGillivray: challenge lies, what they're trying to get sorted and focus
• 16:13
  Crystal McGillivray: the conversation on that because that's what they're paying you
• 16:16
  Crystal McGillivray: for, to address that issue.
• 16:18
  Iona Bain: Yeah, absolutely. And it's striking that balance, isn't it, between
• 16:21
  Iona Bain: not undervaluing yourself and then not taking your work home
• 16:25
  Iona Bain: with you too much. And it's especially hard if you
• 16:28
  Iona Bain: do work from home as a self- employed person. Having
• 16:31
  Iona Bain: that separation between your work life and your personal life
• 16:35
  Iona Bain: is more important than ever as you go along because
• 16:37
  Iona Bain: actually that is what's going to allow you to come
• 16:40
  Iona Bain: to work, bring your best self, do your best work,
• 16:43
  Iona Bain: and show up for the client.
• 16:44
  Crystal McGillivray: Absolutely. And I think there's something around creating that separation, so if you
• 16:48
  Crystal McGillivray: do work at home, maybe trying to be as rigid
• 16:50
  Crystal McGillivray: as you can in terms of your working hours, you
• 16:52
  Crystal McGillivray: cut off at a certain point. Understandably, there are times
• 16:55
  Crystal McGillivray: where you have to work later, but trying to create
• 16:58
  Crystal McGillivray: something that draws a line between the two, so it's
• 17:00
  Crystal McGillivray: in and out.
• 17:02
  Iona Bain: I have my home office and when I close the door on it, that's the
• 17:06
  Iona Bain: signal to myself to leave it behind and to relax.
• 17:09
  Crystal McGillivray: Absolutely.
• 17:10
  Iona Bain: There's been some great advice here, Crystal, but if there
• 17:13
  Iona Bain: is just one thing that you would like viewers and
• 17:16
  Iona Bain: listeners to take away from this episode, what would it be?
• 17:19
  Crystal McGillivray: I would encourage people to really understand where they are
• 17:22
  Crystal McGillivray: financially. And what that means is, do you have savings?
• 17:26
  Crystal McGillivray: Have you got a buffer? And understanding, well, how much
• 17:29
  Crystal McGillivray: do I need to have coming in every month to
• 17:32
  Crystal McGillivray: be okay? And I guess the follow- up would be
• 17:34
  Crystal McGillivray: around the insurance piece maybe if that's needed for you.
• 17:38
  Crystal McGillivray: But that cash piece is the biggest bit because if
• 17:40
  Crystal McGillivray: you think about it, if you don't have that sorted
• 17:42
  Crystal McGillivray: and you've got bills to pay, you end up having
• 17:44
  Crystal McGillivray: to borrow and that can send you in the wrong direction.
• 17:47
  Iona Bain: Build up your buffer. Brilliant advice. Thank you, Crystal.
• 17:50
  Crystal McGillivray: Thank you.
• 17:52
  Iona Bain: That's it for today's conversation. I really hope that you're
• 17:55
  Iona Bain: walking away from it with a bit more clarity and
• 17:58
  Iona Bain: importantly, a few practical ideas to put in place so
• 18:01
  Iona Bain: you can enjoy all the perks of being your own
• 18:03
  Iona Bain: boss. If you found this episode helpful, please do share
• 18:06
  Iona Bain: it with someone else who's self- employed and might be
• 18:09
  Iona Bain: struggling with the same challenges and help them get a
• 18:12
  Iona Bain: little bit richer too. This podcast is brought to you
• 18:14
  Iona Bain: by L& G. You can keep up with the show
• 18:16
  Iona Bain: on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram @ legalandgeneral. And if you've got
• 18:21
  Iona Bain: a question or a topic that you'd like answered on
• 18:23
  Iona Bain: the show, you can get in touch on our socials.
• 18:26
  Iona Bain: Until next time, see you soon and thanks for listening.