I AM a business

This course is part of a series of evening courses for freelance journalists to learn and improve business skills that are an increasingly important part of life as a freelancer. You can book a single evening training session or the four-week course. Details below.

A course for freelance journalists who want to start thinking like a business.

Course tutor: Steve Bustin
Date: 23 January 2013
Time: 18:00-21:00
Venue: Friends Meeting House, Euston.
Number of places: 10 max
Cost: £95 (+£19 VAT)
Four-week course: £300 (save £80) (+£60 VAT)

Many freelance journalists struggle to separate themselves from their work and in particular the challenges of thinking of themselves as a one-person business. Thinking like a business can be important, however, when selling your services (especially to other businesses), setting up your finances and also establishing a work pattern and ethic.

This course is a crash course in thinking yourself into a business space, including:

The different types of businesses and their pros and cons
Sole trader
Limited company
Partnership
Establishing your business:
Naming
Registering
Do you need to trademark?
Where to work – from under the stairs to co-working

Finances:

Bank accounts
Do I need an accountant?
Tax and other downers
Do I need to be VAT registered?
Working with others:
Associates
Staff
Other options for growing your business
Q&A

By the end of the session you will:

Understand the importance of thinking and operating like a business.
Understand the pros and cons of the different types of business and which one may be best for you
Have a basic knowledge of setting up and running the finances of your business.
Develop an action plan to set up your business entity, to take away and put into practice after the session.

This course is part of a four-week evening course for freelance journalists looking to expand their skills and services. It can be booked as an individual evening course or you can book the series - and save £80.

This series of four courses offers:

About Steve Bustin

Steve Bustin has been a freelance journalist for 10 years, following 7 years at the BBC.

Alongside his writing work, Steve runs a successful PR consultancy and training business (and keeps his editors happy) and has even performed as a stand-up comic.

Testimonials

"This was a really interesting evening. Steve Bustin is successfully pursuing a multi-stranded freelance career himself, so has great insight into what journalists are good at when in terms of additional career paths, and a great knack for conveying the essentials.

"As a journalist, it’s easy to end up feeling that writing is the only skill you have. Steve pointed out that after years in journalism, we all had a large range of skills that were in fact very transferable to other areas, and gave us a clear steer on where we could take our talents, and how to start doing just that." Alice Hart-Davis