Go Umbrella?

[scartface]

Your comment about a websites look, rather than the services they provide, makes me nervous.... I would suggest for your first contract go through Giant, or Parasol, effictively on a PAYE basis, and see if the lifestyle is for you... it can be quite sobering when you realise you might have to look for work 3 or 4 times a year....
Just please, think about it before you jump.....

Thanks for the advice mcquiggd, I think I did actually look at Giant but I couldn't quite get my head round the way they pay, which I think was via dividends or something, but don't quote me on that :s. A couple of friends and the agency had said to look for a standard umbrella company, rather than using my own company. I think I went through about 5 pages of searching for "umbrella company" on msn and saw many contract management companies offering services, of which Prosperity4 and Go Umbrella stood out as having some kind of Professionalism when it came to the structure of their websites. I read some quite disturbing comments about Prosperity4 online, but as I had not found anything about Go Umbrella decided to join this forum to ask if anyone had any experience of them as I must say the fee was rather attractive in comparison.

Like I said previously to Spartacus, the look and feel of a site has a large contributing factor to my desicion, but its not the sole factor. I'm not totally naive :P

The other and main contributing factor being achieved through other customer experiences, thats why I'm here for advice before I commit myself

[mcquiggd]

I have never heard a good word about Prosperity4 - they are hard sell merchants, do a search for 'prosperity' on here.

Be very careful about *your* legal obligations regarding expenses - umbrellas often sell themselves as 'saving you money' - based on calculations of expenses claimed, which in practice, you might not be able to legally claim.

[malvolio]

Scartface - I'd love to jump in with my usual helpful comments about people who don;t know what they're doing, but just for once I'll restrain myself...

[BillHicksRIP]

Objective advice:-

Prosperity4 - not in a million years.
Parasol - Nearly 2 years with them now. Faultless.
Go - Never heard of them.

[The Master]

My advice: screw paying somebody for the priviledge of looking after your own money for you (and bunking off with it when they go bust) and get your own Ltd. That way how and when you pay yourself is all up to you.

[ChimpMaster]

Go Umbrella? Isn't that one of Inspector Gadget's gadgets?

I didn't realise he'd diversified, must make a pretty boring cartoon doing IT contractor's paycheques ....

[Mordac]

>I would suggest for your first contract go through Giant, or Parasol

Giant? Have you taken leave of your senses man?
Parasol are excellent, no dodgy expenses so you won't get a nasty knock on the door.
If you're in for the long haul as a contractor, think seriously about going ltd.

[Epiphone]

Your comment about a websites look, rather than the services they provide, makes me nervous.... I would suggest for your first contract go through Giant, or Parasol, effictively on a PAYE basis, and see if the lifestyle is for you... it can be quite sobering when you realise you might have to look for work 3 or 4 times a year....

At first, Id say dont take on the *responsibilities* of a Limited Company... learn the job in stages... get 6 months contracting in the bank then look at alternatives - concentrate on the job, learning how to deal with clients and agents, and find your 'sea legs' as such...

See how confident you are in your abilities in a different working environment... sometimes you wil work amongst people who will look on you as simply a highly paid code monkey, sometimes they will expect you to make the company more profitable in a month....

Just please, think about it before you jump.....

Excellent advice.

[scartface]

A couple of people have mentioned Giant and Parasol on this thread.

I have been doing some research into those companies and tbh I think I'll steer well clear of Parasol.

You might want to check out this link to understand why I will be avoiding Parasol:

http://www.blagger.com/db4/company_i...Parasolit.html

Giant also has a poor rating on this site, but the comments are not half as worrying as those made about Parasol, so not so sure about Giant at the moment.

[planetit]

Never ever have anything to do with Giant.