Go freelance and invoice your first client
A friend has invited you to do this with them.
One client and one invoice is enough to find out whether working for yourself suits you. You choose the work, set the terms and see directly what your skills are worth to someone.
ModerateFreeMonthsIndoors or outAlone or with othersUK
How to start
- Read the GOV.UK guide to becoming a sole trader, including records and registration.
- Describe one service you could offer and tell five former colleagues about it.
- Agree the work and fee in writing, deliver it and send your invoice.
Where to go
We opened this link on 6 October 2026 and found it to be what we say. Dates, places and prices are on the official page, where they stay up to date.
This is general information, not financial or business advice for your own circumstances.
Plan this
Pick a day, or a month, and we will set out how to get ready, step by step, with a date and a reason for each. Projects run over months and stall without a rhythm, so the plan sets milestones you can see.
From the site
Turning thirty years of experience into consulting or freelance work
How to turn a long career into paid consulting or freelance work: packaging your expertise into a specific offer, the principles of pricing, finding your first three clients through your existing network, and the basics of contracts, invoicing and platforms.
Read next
Work on your terms: the complete guide to second careers, side incomes and going it alone
A start-here guide to working later in your career in the UK and US: staying or pivoting in employment, part-time, consulting, a small business, portfolio and seasonal work. It covers age discrimination law and how pensions and Social Security interact with earnings, and ends with a way to choose.