If you have something that you are passionate about and want to set up your own business, then you will need to decide if you are going to go self employed – as a sole trader or if you are going to set up a limited company.

There are pros and cons to both, but most people start off self employed and if their business grows, then they will switch to a limited company. If you are going to be having employees then you will need to be a registered company.

You need to think very carefully before setting up your own business as it can be risky. You may need to invest a lot of your own time and money in to your venture and be prepared to wait a while before you can start to take a decent salary out of it. If you take too much out of the business you may find that you do not have enough to pay suppliers and keep your business afloat.

You need to have a sound business plan with cash flow forecasts so you can see how much you need to be taking in order to keep the business up and running.

Applying for jobs can be time consuming and sometimes it can end up leaving you feeling deflated and worried. You may have to apply for a number of jobs before you get offered an interview. You need to make sure that you come across well in your interview and have the opportunity to discuss everything you want to.

Preparation is vital when planning for an interview. You need to put aside some time to go through the company’s website and / or social media accounts to ensure that you can find out some background information about them.

Try and find out about the ethos of the company and also how it is structured. Find out about the products and/or services they sell and rough pricing. This will help you when it comes to the interview as you will not only feel more confident but if they ask you questions to find out how much you know about the company, it looks good if you can show that you have used your own time in order to research them.

Allow plenty of time to get to your interview as arriving late, is never a good start.

It is thought that on average it can cost a business around four to five thousand pounds to fill a vacancy they have. This price can include advertising costs and the time taken by other members of staff or business owners to go through CV’s carry out interviews etc.

When advertising a job you may be inundated with CV’s which someone will need to go through in order to shortlist applicants that you want to invite in for interviews. You may have to do more than one round of interviews to find the right candidate and this can all take up a lot of time. If you decide to use an agency, they can take a lot of the hassle away from you by doing all the advertising for the position, filtering through CV’s that are sent in and then pre assessing people that you wish to attend an interview to find out if they are really suitable.

Obviously agencies will charge a fee for their service which is usually based on a percentage of the annual salary being offered to the successful applicant. This is often why it is a good idea to employ more than one agency to find you candidates as you will only pay the one who supplied the applicant that you employ but you have a good chance of finding people who are suitable. Also shop around for the best rate and do not be scared to try and haggle.

Many of us make New Year’s resolutions and sometimes these may be linked to jobs. If you have not been happy in your job for a while or simply fancy a change then you may consider looking for new employment. Most people cannot afford to be months without work so it is always a good idea to line up another job to start before quitting your old one. Most employers will understand that you have to give a certain amount of notice, so be sure to check exactly what notice you need to give.

It can be hard trying to fit in interviews etc. when you are supposed to be at work, so if at all possible, book the day off as holiday so you do not have to lie about why you need the time off.

Looking to move jobs can be nerve wrecking, but try and look at it as a positive step forward and take some time to consider what it is you really want to do. You may want to leave your job to return to education or possibly to go travelling. It may be that there comes a time when you cannot do this as you have too many responsibilities, so it is best to grab the opportunities with both hands when they arise.

If you own your own business then there may come a time when you need help with the work load. You may not feel ready to take on an employee or maybe you have employees but just need extra help for a short time. If this is the case then using a freelancer may be perfect for what you need.

Finding a freelancer can be hard work as you need to be sure that they are capable and also reliable. It may be that you need to trust them with client information or personnel files and so you need to be sure that they are trustworthy.

Ideally you want to try and obtain references and proof of previous works to make sure that they can do what they say they can. Never pay a freelancer in full upfront if you have not used them before, it is always best to set up payments based on work they have completed. You will also need to be in regular contact with them to ensure any deadlines that you have given them will be met. It may be that you ask the freelancer if they want to come and work in your office while they are working on your projects, this can make communication a lot easier and often improves productivity.

Often people need to find a job that offers part time working hours or change their current working hours to part time within their current role. This can be for a number of reasons such as other commitments e.g. taking a child to and from school, looking after a relative or for health reasons. Sometimes it can be hard to progress up the ladder in a part time job as you may feel that you simply do not have enough time to put in to the job and that the employer will not want to give you too much responsibility if you can only work part time. If you have tasks assigned to you that need to be completed on a daily or weekly basis in a part time role, then it is vital that you plan ahead and manage your time well.

If you are already in a part time role and know that your circumstances will be changing soon, which will allow you to work more hours, then speak to your current employer. Advise them of your situation and ask if there is the possibility of extending your hours or moving in to another role.

Jobs are something that most of us have to have in order to pay the mortgage or rent and to feed our families. Some people have been stuck in a job which they do not enjoy for years, worried about leaving it for the unknown.

Job satisfaction is important for not only your own health and well being but also for that of your colleagues and the company that you work for. If you are in a job where you do not believe in the products or services you are selling then this can have a detrimental effect on all. Many people that work in call centres say that they do not like the way they are trained to speak to customers, often trying to persuade them or pressurise them in to buying something. This can leave you feeling deflated at the end of the day and can have a massive knock on effect on your home life.

If you are in a job that gives you very little or no satisfaction, why not start to explore other avenues of jobs that you may be able to apply for, you never know, it could be the best move you have ever made.

If you are in the web design industry then you will probably know that to create a comprehensive jobs board website requires a lot of programming and complex functionality and all of this costs time and money. If you are considering setting up a jobs boards you will need to take some time to carefully consider how you are going to make money from it. Are you going to charge the employers a fee to list the jobs, or the candidates a fee to apply for a position or maybe you are going to try and make your revenue from putting adverts on the site.

Ideally a jobs board should let employers and recruitment agencies register on the site and upload any job vacancies they have. If you are charging for this service you will need to add in a payment gateway system and possibly some sort of recurring payment system too.

For the candidates you will need to build in the functionality to ensure that the jobs are able to be searched and filter often on location, job type / role and salary. You may want to build in a system to allow candidates to upload their CV and apply for multiple jobs in a short period of time.

Sometimes a business will grow over time and it will become obvious to the owner that they need to take on more staff. This can happen gradually or suddenly there may be a need for more people. Some businesses need to have more than one member of staff to even start trading and this can often be quite risky for start up businesses that do not know how well they will succeed. If you have a business that requires additional staff you need to consider carefully not only who you employ but how you are going to manage them. If you are quite hands on in the business then you will probably have a good idea of what turnover and importantly profit you are making. From this you can work out how much you can afford to pay an employee leaving still enough profit within the company and also allowing for cash flow.

As a business owner you may be used to having to alter your wage each month depending on how well the business has done, but many employers offer their staff a salary so regardless of the profit the company has made, they will get paid the same. Some companies will offer a lower salary to staff with the opportunity to earn commission.

If you are self employed or have a small business then you may struggle to keep up with the costs of renting a business premises. On top of the rent you may also be responsible for business rates and internet / phone charges and this can very quickly add up to an extortionate amount a month.

Often people rent offices and only use a small proportion of the space available and essentially this is wasted. If you are looking to rent an office but feel that you don’t need a whole room then why not look at renting out part of the office to someone else. You will need to check what the terms of the contract is to ensure that you are allowed to do this but many owners are happy to do this as long as you guarantee the rent is paid even if the person you are leasing part of it out to doesn’t pay you.

If the thought of taking on the responsibility of renting out an office is a little bit too much for you then you could look in to renting a desk within an existing office. This is getting more and more popular and often you will pay a set amount a day or month which will include everything.