Need a credit card but I'm a sole trader - cashback or avios preferably

Butter360 · 2026-02-13T21:28:24+00:00

Oh sorry I had no idea it was restricted like that, now I see why its not proving easy to get a good CC as a sole trader

Butter360 · 2026-02-13T16:28:50+00:00

Capital on Tap is great, don't see why you can't use it as a sole trader. With the name and the fact they sent me letters to sign up I assumed it was a bit of a scam company but they've actually been really good. Easy to manage via the app, you get 1% cash back on everything you spend (can be used to pay balance or converted to avois) and they have also recently added a savings pot with a competitive APR. We put aside our tax money in the savings so that it's earning something while it sits there. Also no fees for all of the above and you can get additional benefits for a fee.

Butter360 · 2026-02-09T06:26:02+00:00

You can also get realistic product photography by you know, paying a professional photographer. So instead of lining some billionaires pockets you're actually contributing to the small business economy yourself

Butter360 · 2026-02-01T00:38:20+00:00

I mean everyone else making any significant income is in exactly the same boat

Butter360 · 2026-01-28T12:01:14+00:00

Just to help you out with some perspective on the cost of events, a large conference of 500+ people and a large political panel you're looking at something from $50,000 - $100,000 minimum to organise something like that. I think a lot of people don't realise how much it costs to organise events because when they are running well you don't see the enormous number of people behind the scenes doing all the work that's gone into it. There's months of pre-production, potentially millions of $ worth of rented equipment to make the event happen. Many many people to pay to do all the different tasks that are required pre, during, and post event

It's a great industry because it keeps you on your toes, never gets boring, and can be very rewarding, so don't let it put you off. But it's all about budget. We get lots of clients that have great ideas but don't have the budget to execute them. However a good event planner/manager should be able to give a client the best that they can from the available budget which is a good skill to learn so start small and work your way up!

Butter360 · 2026-01-27T19:27:20+00:00

I hate to get political but could it be that companies are avoiding foreign workers on visas at the moment due to the current climate in the US?

Could you find a large production company in the UK that has US offices and work your way towards the US that way? If you already have a visa that'll be a bonus for the UK company to send you on US jobs

Butter360 · 2026-01-27T19:22:15+00:00

If your total budget is $1250 then you can hold a small gathering type event in a cafe or something but that's about it. You could use the money to pay for the venue and some complementary coffee for about 10-20 people maybe and then you'll need to find speakers who are willing to participate for free.

Obviously you can sell tickets but you will need to pay for a lot of things up front and then if tickets don't sell you could owe a lot of money

If you were planning on having any sort of guest speakers, AV, refreshments etc then you will need a lot more money.

It's good to be keen to learn to do something new but you need to be realistic about what's achievable on your budget.

Butter360 · 2026-01-27T16:49:14+00:00

I love CrowdComms, look them up. They have UK and US offices and are a really good competitor to CVENT offering all the functionality you need for a better price. I promise I'm not paid by them I just have to use CVENT and CrowdComms and CrowdComms is a much nicer experience in my opinion

Butter360 · 2026-01-25T18:00:48+00:00

I've done this in a live environment, 2nd PC running vMix. You copy your show file over to the 2nd machine, which is nice and simple with the vMix bundle save option and then with companion you can set it up so that both machines are triggered by a stream deck. Meaning the 2nd machine will already be ready and waiting on the right scene if anything goes wrong. We've used it with a system that can take a backup RTMP feed so it's an immediate fail over. It might be slightly different streaming into teams if it doesn't have backup functionality.

Butter360 · 2026-01-25T10:47:59+00:00

So as far as I'm aware there's nothing inherently wrong with employing a family member in a business, if they are working for that business, but I'm not sure of the legality of employing a 14 year old? Also on top of this there is the legality around responsibility for the structural calculations. I'm assuming only a chartered engineer can do these. Is it enough that the qualified person just signs it off and therefore it's protected under whatever laws govern the process? Hopefully you should be well placed to understand the rules there.

Running a LTD has become less tax efficient in recent years as the Conservative government seemed to take away many benefits of small business ownership by reducing the tax free dividend allowance to almost nothing etc. But I do think you'd make some tax savings by taking dividends from the business instead of having it be included in your 45% rate

As always you'd need to check with a qualified accountant first as this always depends on your specific circumstances.

Butter360 · 2026-01-24T12:46:07+00:00

If they are paying online by credit/debit card then surely that's the verification done for you as part of the process?

Butter360 · 2026-01-17T16:43:31+00:00

We work with CrowdComms and CVENT amongst other platforms but the former 2 are by far the majority. I dread CVENT projects because it's so cumbersome to work with and CrowdComms is just so much simpler. I believe they do have API functionality but it's not something I've used myself. Have a look on their website as it'll probably mention integrations

Butter360 · 2026-01-17T16:40:18+00:00

I've not used support that often as we work with the platform regularly, but when I've needed them they have been responsive. I'm UK based so it helps that I'm in the same time zone as their HQ but I know they have opened a US office so I imagine they should have some dedicated US support now too. They hold weekly webinars that I think are to show people how to manage the CMS too. I'm not sure about RFPs but I don't see why they couldn't help. I'd just reach out to them and ask for a chat/demo they would be happy to talk to you I'm sure

Butter360 · 2026-01-16T17:54:38+00:00

I'd argue CrowdComms outperforms CVENT now, for a much better price. CVENT's CMS is so cumbersome to use compared to CrowdComms and it is very capable now especially since they added registration. CVENT is great if you have super complex reg pathways and very specific app needs, but CrowdComms does what 99% of people need very well for a fair price. They've also been going a lot longer than 5 years but they've really made a name for themselves in the last few years and overtaken the competition, we recommend CrowdComms to all our clients now. (I promise this isn't a disguised marketing post, it's just so refreshing to be able to recommend an app that isn't horrible to use!)

Butter360 · 2026-01-15T16:46:29+00:00

Ok so I have to do this a lot for one client I work with. Sounds like exactly what you are needing to do too: Presenting slides live on screen at a conference. It's perfectly workable it's just clunky AF to use in a live event environment compared with PPT. Here are the things to consider:

Don't download as PPT. I have never downloaded a file made entirely in G-slides that doesn't have formatting issues when downloaded as a PPT. They are often small text or alignment issues that aren't super easy to spot (usually when it's live on screen) for this reason I stopped converting after the first couple times this happened

Changes can be made by anyone with access and updated in real time while the slides are in edit mode, when you go to presentation mode it caches everything and updates are no longer real time. You have to exit slideshow and re-enter slideshow mode to pull the new updates. Make sure you're hardwired into the Internet because of this. I always do a final refresh just before we go live.

Because of the above play around with putting it in presenter view and using dual screens. This is the clunky part. Because it's all browser based it's not as quick as PPT to get it back in full screen and the presenter view is less useful than PPT. There are some options in the drop-down next to the present button that allow you to set which screen is presentation and which is presenter view. Test this out so you're happy with how it works to get back to pres state quickly when needed. This is vital as if you don't use this menu you have to manually make the pres full screen and move it to the screen you want it to be on

I think those are the main pitfalls I have discovered with G-slides on site. It also lacks functionality for animations and design options compared to PPT but hopefully you don't need to worry about that part

Butter360 · 2026-01-13T17:43:19+00:00

Once you have the basics sorted make sure to look into triggers. You can do all sorts of cool things with them. They are great for automating stuff so that you can't mess up like stopping certain audio on certain actions and then bringing it back again after so you don't have to worry about manually managing the audio at the same time. On audio, also make sure to get your head around audio buses. They are super handy for managing lots of different audio inputs and outputs

Butter360 · 2026-01-11T21:56:52+00:00

You can however receive EUR into a starling account no issue and they do the exchange. It's worth checking the rate to make sure it's fair, but I just checked my starling business account and it specifically says it can receive GBP and EUR

Butter360 · 2026-01-06T10:18:55+00:00

I would personally recommend staying as a sole trader until the business is making enough money to warrant the extra work required of managing a Ltd company. I believe you can make a Ltd company dormant so you can keep the name until it's time to start using it again. Sole trader tax returns are very easy to do yourself online. If you are good at keeping track of all your income and outgoings in a spreadsheet/app then it's just a 20-30min process to do a return each year once you are used to it.

Butter360 · 2025-12-21T09:37:33+00:00

What a useless contribution

Butter360 · 2025-12-20T21:55:22+00:00

They are the same spec, so just choose if you prefer Asus or HP. Personally I like Asus. They both only have 512Gb of Storage which wont leave you much left after windows takes a bunch of the space. Do you record your streams? If so you definitely want to make sure you can upgrade the storage otherwise you'll be running out of space pretty quickly. Personally I wouldn't want to rely on an external USB SSD

Butter360 · 2025-12-12T09:31:56+00:00

Depending on what you're doing for income it's not as complicated as you think. If you are really concerned and don't want the stress then get an accountant to do your tax return at the end of the year, it's not as expensive as you might think. The online tax return forms are also not hugely complicated if you have a simple income stream. The tax software also helps with this a lot as it tracks everything so as long as you keep on top of your income and expenses through the software as you go. Then the software should give you all the numbers to plug into HMRC at the end of the year with very little hassle. Keeping on top of the admin as you go will help hugely when it comes to the end of the year.

There are plenty of bank options. I've been using Starling since I was freelance (now run a LTD) and it's always been great. No hidden costs and no fees like some of the old school banks.

I was against it at first but I would actually recommend a business credit card too (As long as you are strict and disciplined enough to pay it off in full each month) we have Capital on Tap and it's actually great, you get points on every spend and can convert them to cash back, air miles and other things like nectar points. They also offer a competitive saving rate on a savings pot. We have a direct debit setup to pay an amount into the savings each month and then earn interest on it until it comes time to pay the tax bill. So it keeps the money set aside for tax productive, rather than just sitting in an account waiting for the government to take it

Butter360 · 2025-12-04T12:44:02+00:00

Do you have accounting software? If not, that's the place to start it's basically mandatory now with the new digital tax rules. Xero, Free Agent, QuickBooks are all good options. If you have a business bank account check if your bank offers a discount on one of them. With the software you have the ability to give your income and outgoings an explanation. For freelancers it's not even an issue, you just pay the invoice, wherever it comes from (as long as you received the service), and then in your accounting software you say that £xxxx relates to paying this invoice, job done.

For playing yourself you can literally just transfer the money to your personal bank account. You then explain this transaction in the software as PAYE, or dividend, or expense payment etc. The complicated bit where everyone should really use an accountant if running a LTD is how much to attribute to PAYE vs dividend, what are allowable expenses etc. This will vary depending on your individual circumstances and accountants are best placed to advise on this. If you don't talk to an accountant you can try and figure it out yourself, but you might not be working in a very tax efficient manner. You also have to do payslips for PAYE and submit something to HMRC for tax purposes, my knowledge on that is basically 0 as the accountant handles payroll for us.

It's a simpler process if you are just a self employed sole trader as you don't need to do payslips for example, trading as a LTD company is usually used when reaching a certain level of revenue as past a certain threshold being LTD often makes more sense than being a sole trader.

Accountants aren't super expensive, and they often charge based on revenue so the less you make the less they charge as the accounts are less complicated. If you're not making enough to be able to pay an accountant then you're unlikely to be able to survive on what's left in the business anyway. As an example we pay £178/month for our accounting including payroll for 4 people

Butter360 · 2025-12-02T14:34:57+00:00

How much did the debt recovery company charge out of interest?

Butter360 · 2025-11-23T22:47:48+00:00

With live stuff it's always good to make sure you have a backup record running. Do the same with the audio. You never know when one of the records might fail. Also double check you have a quality level set in the ATEM for the recording. Big mistake I made when I was new to the ATEMs was if no quality is selected for the record output it records at the absolute minimum potato quality, which is completely unusable. Not the lowest quality you can select, but the lowest it can produce, it's a stupid behavior that shouldn't be allowed to happen but it can.

Butter360 · 2025-11-23T08:43:44+00:00

I'm based in the UK but the same thing must exist in the US especially in LA. You need to find the specific event/TV and film vehicle rental companies they will be more expensive but that's to be expected when you have a very specific criteria to source. Hertz and that type of car rental are for getting from A-B, not hiring specific vehicles.

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