Start your 2018 in the right way…

If we haven’t said it already, Happy New Year to you all! We hope you’ve come back refreshed from the Christmas break raring to go, and ready for what 2018 can bring you! Lots of exciting things are in the pipeline for iContract, and we’ll be sure to let you know about these when they happen.

Now as for the New Year, we’ve all heard the typical cliched phrases like “2018 is going to be my year” and “New Year, New Me”, and as aspiring as they are, they of course require a lot of effort and determination from the person quoting them for them to be realised. The month of January is always an important month in respect to this, and what you do in it can ensure your year kicks off in the right way and puts you on the path to achieving what you want. Here are some tips to follow to give your New Year the start it needs.

Prepare

These first couple of weeks of January can always be very quiet work wise so it presents the perfect time to look ahead and prepare for what is about to come. Preparation can be whatever you want it to be – maybe it’s getting back into a routine, getting fit, sprucing up your CV or portfolio, or putting the feelers out there amongst your peers to what contracts might be on the horizon.

It pays to have an action plan of some sort, so when things start kicking off, you can launch yourself into action rather than playing catch-up.

Set goals

We all need to aspire to something and to work towards it in order to make it happen. That’s why setting goals can be so important in ensuring you achieve what you want to. Goals can give you structure and purpose, and they can be anything – short-term or long-term goals, small goals that are weekly, or bigger goals that are monthly or every couple of months. Setting these goals will put you on the right course to fullfilling your achievements.

Get out

It can be rather bleak and chilly out which makes it all the less appealing to go outside, but it’s important not to become a hermit in these cold winter months and get out amongst your peers and community. Search online for offline meet-ups and networking events, you never know what contacts you could make or what you could learn – it’s important to reach out to others and share knowledge with each other and create new relationships and opportunities. Whether it’s a CV workshop night, a contractor meet up about IR35 or a general social meet up with peers, getting out and about can always help you in this slow month.

Find that new contract!

With the Christmas break now over, and the New Year here, we all suffer those January blues and are just looking forward to warmer climates reaching us sooner rather than later. Now is the time to knuckle down and find that next contract of yours to take you into the spring, or maybe its just for a few weeks to keep you tied over till things start to get busier. iContract has so far had over 1,000 live contracts posted to the platform for its growing contractor community. Find that next contract with iContract, that fits not just your skills and experience, but your own personal requirements.

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A Happy New Year from all of us at iContract! Keep posted for more updates on the iContract platform, including future crowdfunding and investment opportunities, more offline events and more employers registering to the platform and posting contracts. If you haven’t already, register for free now at www.icontract.co.uk and find your first contract of 2018!