Archive
Everything we have published, newest first — 100 articles.
August 2026
What has to exist before you can legally take money
Choosing a structure is mostly a decision about who is liable
A business name does two different jobs and they can conflict
The first sale tells you more than the first plan does
Capacity is the ceiling on a one-person business
Buying equipment before there is revenue is a bet on a customer who has not…
July 2026
Starting alongside another income, and the four constraints that decide…
What you sell is not the same as what you do
Your first clients come from people who already know you
The first year is not a smaller version of the second
Why the first price you set is nearly always too low
Hourly, fixed and retainer allocate risk to different people
Converting a salary into an hourly rate leaves out what the employer was…
Half of a self-employed week is not billable, and the rate has to know it
Scope creep is a pricing failure that arrives disguised as a scheduling one
Raising prices on people who already pay you is a different problem
A discount buys something, and most of the time nobody says what
June 2026
When a buyer cannot judge the work, they judge everything around it
Pricing from the outcome is a claim you have to be able to support
Say the number and then stop talking
A profitable business can still run out of money
Payment terms are a loan you did not decide to make
A deposit changes who is carrying the project
Staged payments turn one large risk into several small ones
Cash is forecast in weeks, because that is how it runs out
Chasing an overdue invoice without losing the client
When an invoice will not be paid at all
Set aside what is not yours on the day it arrives
A quiet month was visible three months earlier
What a business buffer is for, and how to size one
May 2026
The enquiry that never becomes a job still costs you a morning
A brief is a shared document or it is two different projects
Ending a client relationship is a business decision, not a failure
One client paying most of the bills is a concentration risk
Working for people you know changes the price and the paperwork
A difficult first week is a forecast of the whole engagement
Handling a complaint when you are the entire company
When a client goes quiet in the middle of a project
The handover is part of the work, not the end of it
Repeat work is the cheapest work and it does not arrange itself
April 2026
What records you keep, and why the reason matters more than the list
Separating business and personal money is a clarity decision first
What an accountant actually does for you
A contract for people who do not like contracts
The clauses that do most of the work in a small agreement
An invoice has one job and most of it is being easy to pay
Insurance for a one-person business is bought against outcomes
Obligations arrive on a calendar you did not set
Taking on your first help changes what you are responsible for
You are the single point of failure, and that is fixable
Where you work from is a cost, a constraint and sometimes a permission
March 2026
Selling a thing and selling your time are two different businesses
Buying a very small business means buying a set of assumptions
Two people starting one business need to write down the awkward things
The businesses you depend on are a risk you chose without noticing
Nobody sets your week now, and that is harder than it sounds
Turning something you enjoy into something you sell changes the thing
Having two things to sell is a different kind of safety
Selling to a business and selling to the public are different trades
Decide in advance when you will judge whether this is working
February 2026
Quoting for work you have never done before
A small job costs more per hour than a large one
Urgency is a service, and it can be charged for
Money you spend on a client’s behalf should not be buried in the price
Publishing your prices decides who gets in touch
Being paid in exposure is being paid in a promise
What another business’s price tells you, and what it does not
January 2026
Know the number you will not go below before the conversation starts
A packaged offer is a decision you make once instead of every time
An estimate and a quote are two different promises
Getting paid from another country adds steps, fees and time
Work in progress is money you have spent and not yet asked for
The client who pays late every time is a financing arrangement
A quiet week is capacity you have already paid for
A seasonal business has to fund its own quiet half
Paying yourself a regular amount is a decision about the business
The costs that keep arriving when the work stops
Your suppliers’ terms are the other half of the cash cycle
December 2025
Some of your work loses money and the total will not tell you which
A good month is a decision, not a reward
A proposal should answer the question the client actually asked
Saying no to work you could perfectly well do
A referral is somebody spending their own reputation on you
A portfolio shows what you made; a reputation says what you are like
When two clients want the same week
Taking time off when the business is one person
Working through an intermediary means somebody else owns the client
The person you are talking to is often not the person who decides
November 2025
How much contact a client actually wants
The work you lost will tell you why, if you ask properly
Bringing somebody in to help does not move the responsibility
Buying help is a different decision from hiring somebody
Closing a business properly is a set of tasks, not an event
Buying something to reduce a tax bill still costs more than not buying it
Information about other people is a responsibility that arrives with the…
