Finance – Page 14 – Business Plus Baby

December 17, 2010April 15, 2012

Do you know of a community project that needs a grant?

Do you know of a community project in your area that could benefit from a grant?

The Co-operative Community Fund is a grant scheme, which helps local communities throughout the UK. Thousands of clubs, community groups and local charities have benefited.

The scheme is funded by generous members of The Co-operative donating some of their share of profits, which is then given away in the form of small grants. This year The Co-operative Members have donated £1.2 million to local community groups across the country. The Co-operative Community Fund operates on a truly local level. The money each region has to give is the money that members have donated in their area.

To qualify for the grant, the project must carry out positive work in the community, although it does not have to have charitable status to apply. It must:

Address a community issue
Provide a long-term benefit to the community
Support co-operative values and principles
Ideally be innovative in its approach

Grants vary from a minimum of £100 to a maximum of £2,000.

Ann Hayes

So which project would I like to see funded in my area? Well, I’m passionate about developing enterprise knowledge and skills. If we had a culture of enterprise, we wouldn’t be so reliant on jobs and employers: we could create our own opportunities. There are so many times in our lives when a 9 to 5 job simply doesn’t fit; if we have young children, approaching retirement, when studying or if we have problems with our health. Yet so many of us are completely unprepared for life outside employment, which leaves many people under-employed, on benefits or slipping down the career ladder and then needing to climb back up it later on.

My focus at the moment is mums of young children, but I would like to see everyone have greater enterprise skills and awareness. The place it would make the greatest difference is with young people as this will help create the next generation of enterprising professionals, and business leaders, as well as making them more resilient in a rapidly changing global economy. So I would use the grant to bring enterprise education to young people in my area.

You can apply for the Cooperative Membership Fund here.

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December 13, 2010August 13, 2012

Self-Employment During Your Maternity Pay Period

Many mums get their inspiration to become self-employed whilst on maternity leave, and a large number will go on to have more children, after they have set up their business. But are you aware of the rules regarding self-employment during a maternity pay period? In follow-up to her previous article “Self-employed? Protect your right to maternity allowance” Frances Weir (left) from bigbooklittlebookcardboardbox – a green affordable children’s bookcase, designed to encourage an early love of reading – today looks at earning from self-employment during your maternity pay period. Continue reading “Self-Employment During Your Maternity Pay Period”

November 29, 2010December 5, 2010

Mumpreneur Monday Challenge: Give Yourself a Pay Rise

It’s Monday Challenge! This is going to be the last Monday Challenge for a while because let’s face it, we don’t need anything else to challenge us in December! I bet your to-do list is big enough already?

(By the way, here are the previous Monday Challenges if you missed them.)

So today’s challenge is (drum roll please…)

Give yourself a pay rise!

Here’s how you could do this…

Check to see if you’re under-charging

Is a lack of confidence keeping your prices lower than they should be? Have you kept your prices at the same level for a while and never had the courage to raise them? This week take a really honest look at what you charge.

Get a grip on your finances

Are your books less tidy than they should be? Is it hard for you to keep track of money coming in and going out of your business? If your bookkeeping and cashflow were up to date you could see where you were making the most money – and do more of that activity. You would also spend less time sorting your books out at the end of the year – time you could spend on activities that generate income.

Talk to your customers

Do a survey, ask them what they really want. Perhaps you could provide that little extra product or service that would increase your profits without too much more effort.

Think (and act) bigger

Is there one thing you could do that scares you, but that would give your business a boost? Maybe it’s sending a press release to a higher-profile magazine than you do usually. Perhaps it’s having the courage to speak at an event. Do it this week.

Plan

Decide you’re going to make more money in 2011. Sit down with a pen and paper or a spreadsheet and crunch those numbers. Set yourself a target that you want to earn in 2011 and plan out exactly how you’re going to do it.

Leave me a comment and let me know how you got on!

If you liked this challenge, take a look at my Earn What You Deserve as a Mumpreneur E-Course. Sign up for more info and you’ll be able to download my e-book: Price It Right: Five simple steps to choose a price for your product or service.

September 8, 2010July 31, 2014

Self Employed? Protect Your Right to Maternity Allowance

This post was last updated on 30 July 2014 by Claire Meredith of Zest Payroll.

Did you know the level of maternity allowance (MA) you get as a self-employed mum does not depend on how much you earn from your business?

Self-employed mums can only get the maximum rate (£123.88 a week) or the minimum rate (£27 a week) – a big difference. The rate you end up receiving depends on a decision you make regarding national insurance when you first register as self-employed. Today, self-employed mum Frances Weir explains the implications of getting that decision right.

The rules state that you must register with HMRC as self-employed within 3 months of starting trading. When you register, you will be given the choice of either:

paying Class 2 national insurance contributions (currently £2.75 per week),

completing a Small Earnings Exception Certificate (if you expect your earnings to be less than £5,885 a year), thus not pay any national insurance.

You can choose to pay Class 2 contributions regardless of how low you expect your income to be. But (if eligible) the obvious temptation for start-ups is to opt for the Small Earnings Exception Certificate – it saves you £2.75 a week at a time when you’re unlikely to be making any profit.

However, this has huge financial implications in terms of Maternity Allowance.

If you have been registered as self-employed for at least 26 weeks in your ‘test period’ (the 66 weeks before your due date), you’ll get some MA. If you have paid Class 2 contributions for at least 13 weeks in your test period, you’ll get the maximum rate (£138.18 a week for 39 weeks). But if you have held a Small Earnings Exception Certificate you’ll only get the minimum rate (£27 a week for 39 weeks); a huge £4,336.02 difference over the maternity period.

As a comparison, 13 weeks of Class 2 contributions costs £35.75 – go do the maths!

And here’s the important small print: for any week you have held a Small Earnings Exception Certificate, you’ll only ever qualify for the minimum MA, even if you have been voluntarily paying Class 2 contributions as well (this is to stop you getting pregnant and then paying Class 2 contributions in order to get maternity allowance!). If you want to work the system in this way, you must get your Small Earnings Exception Certificate cancelled first. The cancellation takes about a month to process so obviously you would want to do this soon after getting pregnant to ensure you have a clear 13 weeks of paying Class 2 contributions without holding a Small Earnings Exception Certificate, within your test period.

Not sure you will get pregnant? Opting to pay Class 2 contributions is a no-risk strategy – you’re entitled to reclaim the contributions made in a financial year if you subsequently find that your earnings fall below the £5,885 threshold of the Small Earnings Exception Certificate (if you plan to do this, look into it early on to ensure you meet the deadlines involved).

Don’t forget, Class 2 contributions also count towards other important benefits for the self-employed mum – the basic state pension, employment and support allowance and bereavement benefit.

I hope this clears up some of the confusion regarding MA. There is a great deal of mis-information on the internet – I’ve seen articles on mumpreneur websites recommending that start-up business mums opt for the Small Earnings Exception Certificate without any discussion of the impact it has on maternity benefits. Self-employed mums need to be aware of the financial implications of holding a Small Earnings Exception Certificate if there is any chance they might become pregnant in the future. And if anyone reading this is pregnant but holds a Small Earnings Exception Certificate, act fast to extinguish it!

This article is not applicable to women who are both self-employed and employed. Please check the latest advice from the Department of Work and Pensions before relying on information presented here.

Source: Department of Work and Pensions

Confused by whether you can work during your maternity pay period or not? See Frances’ post Self-employment during your maternity pay period

If you found this post helpful, you might like to join my mailing list. Sign up now and you can download your copy of my e-book Running a business around a family: 9 steps to success.

August 18, 2010August 18, 2010

Are Business Mums Earning Enough?

Are mums in business earning what they should? I wonder if many of us aren’t getting a fair return on the hard work we put in… Continue reading “Are Business Mums Earning Enough?”