How to Become a Freelance Administrator

What does a freelance administrator do?

A freelance administrator could work for a number of businesses in completely different sectors, but ultimately their duties and responsibilities revolve around ensuring a company’s operations run smoothly.

Examples include:

• Organising company records
• Bookkeeping/record-keeping into databases (such as financial, personnel or legal)
• Organising and managing meetings and appointments
• Overseeing office inventory
• Maintaining and organising company records

What skills do I need to become a freelance administrator?

Although there aren’t any specific qualifications to become an administrator, it’s most definitely worth taking some sort of course, whether this is an NVQ in business and administration or a degree within the same field.

This is especially critical when it comes to freelancing, as most of the time businesses will specifically choose self-employed professionals with the expectation that they are highly skilled in their sector.

The type of skills you will need to have include:

• Organisational and time management skills
• Being savvy with computing, particularly with spreadsheets and word processing, as well as industry-specific software
• Communication skills
• Having a good head for numbers
• Being able to work filing systems

Benefits of becoming a freelance administrator

There are so many benefits to becoming self-employed, with many freelancers citing the financial rewards and better work/life balance as being top of their list.

One of the greatest advantages of being self-employed is the fact that you can work for more than one client at a time, which means that you are able to earn more than if you were to work one job as an employee.

There’s also the fact that a freelancer can often command high rates of pay compared to their permanent counterparts, plus claiming back on expenses made for the running of your business will help to reduce your tax bill at the end of each year.

For more information on expenses, read our Limited Company Expenses Guide and Subsistence Expenses pages.

As well as these financial benefits, you’ll also have a great deal more freedom and flexibility than an employed worker – being able to choose when you work and the clients you want to take on.

For more information on what you can gain from becoming self-employed, read our Benefits of Contracting page.

Do I need an accountant?

An accountant really is a valuable asset to any business, helping you to keep on top of all your financial liabilities and deadlines and providing you with useful advice that could save you time and money in the long run.

Just make sure to choose an accountant who:

• Specialises in contractor tax
• Has qualifications
• Has a good reputation
• Offers a fixed monthly amount so you avoid any surprise bills!

For more help and information on this, read our Choosing a Contractor Accountant page.

If you need any further help, or you’d like to sign up you can either contact us via our online chat, call one of our friendly experts on 01442 795 100 or email sophie.lewis@dolanaccountancy.com.