Sole Trader or Limited Company - Which is Best?

As a freelance animator, considering whether to set up a Limited Company or become a Sole Trader can be a tricky decision. There are many things to think about when identifying which route would be right for you.  So, what is the difference, and which route is best?

Sole Trading
Becoming a Sole Trader (self-employed) is the simplest way to run a small business, especially if you’re just starting out. Many contractors and freelancers - including animators - operate as Sole Traders at the beginning of their careers. As a Sole Trader you will be operating your business as a self-employed individual.

Six Rules to Create a Great CV

CV stands for Curriculum Vitae - in Latin: "the story of your life". In the USA it is known as a résumé.  Whatever the name, its purpose is to summarise your education, life history and skills as clearly and concisely as possible, and to put the best possible gloss on your achievements. 

Employers will expect one, so it's worth spending some time on it to get it right. And yes, even animators need a CV. Your demo reel may be your main calling card, but your CV still matters.

The good news is this: once you've done it, all you need do is edit it periodically and update it.  Below are our Six Rules for creating a great CV or resume.

How Do You Get Your First Book Published?

A good animator is also a storyteller, and it's not unusual for animators to be writers, graphic novelists, or illustrators of children's books. But how do you get your work published? The good news is, it has never been easier to get into print. The bad news is, the economics of publishing have never been worse for both publishers and writers. Plus, writing a whole book is going to be a major effort, so you don't want to waste your time on something that no-one wants to read. So what is secret to success? Like so many things in media, what you need is a great pitch. Below is our simple guide to getting it right and ensuring that a good publisher will (hopefully) pick up your first book.

What Questions Should You Ask the Client on Your First Freelance Animation Job?

What questions should you ask a client when you start work on your first freelance job - or indeed any freelance job? It's your job as a professional to keep everything on track and deliver what you promised.

All projects start off full of optimism and excitement, but the scope for misunderstanding is great, and the risk of things going wrong is considerable.

So it's worth asking the right questions up front, to ensure that the job goes well and your happy client comes back for more. Below is a list of useful questions to get you started.

Surviving and Thriving as a Freelance Animator

If you work in the animation industry, the chances are that at some point you will be self-employed, either running your own small business or working as a freelancer. 

Even if you do land a good job as an employee of a company, most likely it will last at most a year or two, since jobs in our industry tend to be project-driven. 

Even well-established companies tend to expand and contract according to the size of their order book. 

So what’s an animator to do to stay afloat and pay the rent, let alone finance a mortgage and a family? The answer is, you have to be smart, and you must understand the rules of freelancing.

A Freelancer Animator's Guide to Taxes and Self-Employment

At Animation Apprentice we train digital animation artists with practical, real-world skills which are aimed squarely at a successful career in the industry. And we like to practice what we preach, by bringing in small freelance jobs to help our students get live experience on client projects.

One of the questions we often get asked by students is - do I have to pay tax on my freelance income? The answer of course is yes. The bad news is, the tax code in the UK runs to 10,000 pages, and there is no human being who knows the whole code. But every freelance artist needs to know at least the basics. Below is a short introduction to how the system works, from a self-employed artist's perspective. It is by no means complete, and it is no substitute for paying a qualified accountant to give you proper advice (which is highly recommended), but it should explain some of the basic rules of tax survival for freelancers, and get you pointed in the right direction.