Website vs LinkedIn

[WLB2018]

Greetings,

During a recent conference I attended I had the opportunity to speak to a number of other IT consultant's, some were seasoned, some were a little green, not much like myself. One thing that was clear is not all contractors use a website, some simply use their LinkedIn page (me their own personal one or one they created to market their business/services).

I was curious to know what peoples view's were here....

Many thanks in advance.

WLB

[northernladuk]

Very very few of us have web pages. Marketing is not about having a Web page. It's a about getting it out there and getting traffic to it.

A bad Web page is gonna hurt you where a good one you don't market its pointless so I've not bothered.

[WLB2018]

Very very few of us have web pages. Marketing is not about having a Web page. It's a about getting it out there and getting traffic to it.

A bad Web page is gonna hurt you where a good one you don't market its pointless so I've not bothered.

That makes complete sense, more so given a good percentage of contracts come through agencies - which is why I was struggling with the concept of needing one - thus my post

Cheers

WLB

[Pat Phelan]

I rely on my reputation and word of mouth, don't bother with anything online.

[kaiser78]

Having a website provides a good factor against IR35 it is said, as it shows independence from a single client, counters the 'disguised employee' argument and shows that contractor is running their business not like a one man band, even though many IT contractor actually are.

[northernladuk]

Having a website provides a good factor against IR35 it is said, as it shows independence from a single client, counters the 'disguised employee' argument and shows that contractor is running their business not like a one man band, even though many IT contractor actually are.

No it's not. It's extremely minor. It's been mentioned in one case as an 'extra' which would have made no difference to the outcome would she have not had it. It also has to be maintained and up to date.

Get one for business purposes and trot it out if you need to in an investigation. Don't make one just to defend yourself against IR35.

[kaiser78]

No it's not. It's extremely minor. It's been mentioned in one case as an 'extra' which would have made no difference to the outcome would she have not had it. It also has to be maintained and up to date.

Get one for business purposes and trot it out if you need to in an investigation. Don't make one just to defend yourself against IR35.

As I say, it provides a factor, not the factor and agree it shouldn't be counted in isolation.

[ladymuck]

I have a basic website that I tinker with once in a blue moon. I tend to rely more on LinkedIn. I have a page for my company on there too, which only gets tinkered with once in a blue moon...

I could probably save myself a tenner a year by ditching the website tbh

[DeludedKitten]

It's been mentioned in one case as an 'extra' which would have made no difference to the outcome would she have not had it.

Bear in mind that only appealed decisions get published. I don't know whether it has only been mentioned in one published case or not (I suspect that it would have been mentioned in more than one in the past ten years though), but there are many cases that are heard where the judgement does not get published.

HMRC seem reluctant to appeal some of their losses though, since that would publish the judgement and help set precedents.

[northernladuk]

Bear in mind that only appealed decisions get published. I don't know whether it has only been mentioned in one published case or not (I suspect that it would have been mentioned in more than one in the past ten years though), but there are many cases that are heard where the judgement does not get published..

All I can find is the ECR Consulting case linked below. You can see reading the detail how small a flag it is. I'd say we don't see websites mentioned because so few IR35 cases come up and the chance of them investigating someone that has a website is even slimmer.

IR35 Fight Ends - Contractor Weekly

If you read the detail in there even someone with a basic understanding of IR35 could see HMRC were going to lose that one.