Amidship - It will cost you $20,569.00 to be self-employed

Help for solo-professionals is on the way to get them started quickly and affordably

TORONTO, March 21, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - The entrepreneurial spirit may be alive and well, but the steep costs and time commitment associated with setting up shop can derail even the most ambitious among us. Fortunately, a new platform is offering a turn-key solution to get freelancers going within minutes, for as little as eight dollars per month.

That's a huge contrast to the $20,569.00 it takes for the average self-employed professional to hang out a shingle. The cost, determined by the new offering Amidship, was calculated in consultation with freelancers expressing their pain points and frustrations with starting and running a business. The company looked at the costs for one year of operations.

"Those starting a business tend to vastly underestimate the associated complexity, time and cost, all of which are barriers to entry," said Rida Al Barazi, CEO and founder of Amidship. "Additionally, entrepreneurs are generally really good at one thing, but very few are adept at actually running a business. "Our goal is to serve as a partner to freelancers, eliminate the administrative headaches that bog them down, and let them focus on giving their clients amazing service."

To arrive at the cost, Amidship reviewed all of the standard, as well as less referenced, tasks needed to launch a business, and determined median rates for each via online research and in consultation with professionals in each area. The number additionally factors in the cost of the roughly five hours of administration by the user per week, time they could otherwise be spending on client work.

Necessary expenses included items like building a website ($3,000), hosting for the site ($250/year), and other less obvious, yet equally necessary costs, such as $50 per month for "coffice" fees (ie. Cost for coffee so you can work out of your local Starbucks), at-home hair colouring to cover one's prematurely graying hair (due to the stress of running a business) and glasses and new clothes to look the part.*

Amidship eliminates a huge portion of the startup and administrative expenses with its turnkey, all-encompassing platform that combines a tailored website, scheduling, invoicing, SEO, reminders, and payment into a one-stop shop, all for as little as eight dollars per month for solo-professionals. The incredibly user-friendly program gets a freelancer up and running in less than 20 minutes, and saves them countless hours in administrative work, allowing them to focus on what they do best.

* Following is a full breakdown of all factored costs:

**Miscellaneous expenses may include client entertaining, parking, clothing upgrades, glasses to look more professional, or the afore-mentioned hair colouring kits.

About Amidship

Amidship is a new, game-changing platform for businesses of all sizes, from solo professionals to enterprises. Offering everything a new business needs to get off the ground, the platform enables a personalised website, scheduling, payments, invoices, receipts, reminders and more, to enable freelancers to focus on what they do best.

SOURCE Amidship