Up close and Parasol

What do you think makes for good advice?

We think it all comes down to (in no particular order) who is giving the advice in the first place, their own personal experience, their track record in giving advice and their reputation. There is also an element of trust in there as well.

So if, for example, I wanted some advice on re-plastering my ceiling I’m going to talk to my mate Dyl. He’s been a builder and plasterer for years, he’s done work on his own house (which is very nice!), he’s always got work on so his reputation goes before him and I trust him to give me an honest and impartial opinion.

There aren’t many more pressing issues for a worker in this day and age than pay. Getting paid accurately, compliantly and on time is one of life’s biggest sources of stress for most of us, but when you are a contractor, freelancer or temp, it’s even more important to get it right. The cost of getting it wrong can be devastating to you and your family’s finances.

One of the age old debates for professional contractors is whether or not to set up their own limited company or work through an umbrella company and you’ll find thousands of forum threads, blogs, articles and ‘expert’ views if you spend a minute online looking into it. A lot of these will come from service providers who offer only one or the other option so can be a little less than impartial to say the least. Dodgy promises of inflated take home pay, guarantees from ‘leading QCs’, it all goes on and it’s pretty hard to know who to trust.

So it’s for this reason that we’ve launched our Best Advice campaign this month, offering genuine impartial advice to contractors, temps and freelancers on which business model is best for them. And this is why we know we can offer the best advice available:

We’ve got over a decade of experience in this industry, in fact Rob, our founder and leader, used to be a contractor himself! So that’s the experience box ticked.

As a Group, we currently work with over 10,000 contractors, freelancers and temps at any one time, so our reputation goes before us (tick!).

This also means that a big chunk of the UK’s flexible workforce trust us (tick!).

Within the Group we have both Parasol and ClearSky Accounting so it really makes no difference to us whether or not you decide on umbrella or limited, we can help you either way. This means that we are the only service provider that can give you a full, impartial and transparent opinion on which option is really best for you (massive tick!)

We’ll even give you an illustration of what your take home pay will be either way so you can make a truly informed decision.

So if you are a contractor, freelancer or temp and want some advice on which option to take, give us a call.

And while we are on the subject of advice, what’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Let us know by leaving a comment below.