I'm posting in here because my sad bastad of a boss reads the main board to try and find something to have a pop at me about, but I could do with advice from anyone who works for themselves. I want to go for it but its a leap into the unknown for me.

How easy is it to get set up?

Who do you go to for advice first? Business Link etc?

Business Link is a good starting point, they will be able to point you in the right direction for any help they can't give you themselves. My attempt at 'self employed' didn't work out, but that was more down to my failure rather than the help that's out there for you. You'll never get rich working for someone else, so go for it!!

I know a reasonable amount about business matters, if you want to meet up I'll help where I can.

When I was self-employed I thought the best thing was the not needing to be answerable to some power-mad, pervy manager. But I found it lonely (why I spent so much time arguing with folk on the Bunker ) and I also hated the fact that so much time had to be spent on marketing rather than doing the actual job.
Good luck, though, there're many advantages.

Cheers John, I think I'll take you up on that.

We started up 5 years ago and it was the best thing we ever did although it is the wife who run the salon. The only thing I would say is if you already got a Job you'll find it hard to get any help from business link or anything, you have to be a one legged, non british, unemployed for a decade before you get anything from them people. The only thing we got was a grant from this something to do with woman setting up in business and that was for an advert in the paper only everything else we spent doing the salon up came out of our hard earned savings!!

What are you looking to do like?

Selling stuff online primarily.

I do some 'self employed' work (training social workers ) as well as doing some PAYE work for a local authority. I know it may sound a little odd but the best advice I have received has been from Inland Revenue .
They run a couple of 2 hour sessions about registering, what to claim for, advice on record keeping and how to compile on line returns. The sessions are run nationally and are free.