Jury Service and the self-employed

I was summoned for Jury Service earlier this week, for three weeks in November.

Being self-employed I was concerned about the impact that would have on my earnings; i.e. if I'm not here, I don't earn anything.

So I immediately rang the Coroner's Court to ask the question. I spoke to three people before I got through to someone who knew the answer. Before I reached her, I was thinking: "Surely I'm not the first person to ask this question!" I would have thought many people would have asked this before and everybody in the coroner's office would know the answer straight away.

The answer, by the way, was a desultory £32.95 for four hours, and a vague "about £60" for a full day - plus expenses (car travel, car park) in both cases. Not much, eh?

The justice system doesn't seem to put much value on the self-employed!

How is business for you?

It has been a while since I've been on here to make a comment.

I have been busy - working!

That, of course, is a good thing, but I also like to keep up with the blogging and background articles and such like. Never mind, the work has to be done!

I can't be sure whether the extra work means that the economy is recovering. Macro figures may suggest otherwise, and my sample of one business is 'rather' small, but I can but hope that things are moving in the right direction.

I've said on here before that one good month doesn't necessarily make the next month good, and small businesses have to learn to live with the ups and downs of their particular market.

While taking on as much work as possible, it leads me to think about taking on other people - as freelancers only - to help me with the work. Now that surely would be another tick in the economic recovery box.