Being self-employed is a tricky one to balance.

Trying to juggle many different hats within the business, being your HR, finance and marketing department all in one makes it difficult to ever switch off (at some point) and take some time for you.

Sometimes you need that little bit of extra support from your fellow self-employed community, from tax tips to Netflix recommendations.

Here are our favourite self-employed and freelancer communities, for tips, socialising and everything in between.

IPSE

IPSE is the UK’s only not-for-profit membership organisation for the self-employed - with a mission to connect, protect and empower those that work for themselves.

Members can connect with like-minded individuals, protect themselves for peace of mind or engage with the wealth of tools, content and advice to thrive as self-employed.

Doing It For The Kids

DIFTK is for freelance and self-employed parents who balance work, kids and life.

The Facebook group is super active & supportive as a community helping each other out. Founder Frankie, a freelance Graphic Designer and parent to two, also posts insightful blog posts, podcast and organises real-life meet-ups.

The Doers: ‘We Don’t Do Lonely Days'

Laura and Jess, our brand and marketing consultants, have their fellow freelance collective - The Doers.

Each month they host a ‘We Don’t Do Lonely’ get together day for small business owners, freelancers and self-employed folk to join us. It’s a great opportunity to simply work with other people or to bounce ideas around if you’re feeling a bit stuck.

Being Freelance

Being Freelance started with a podcast in 2015 and grew into a vlog in 2016 and a full-blown online community in 2019.

The community was started by Freelance Video and Audio Creator Steve Folland, join today for some laughs and to network.

Freelance Heroes

Freelance Heroes, by Ed Goodman, started as a Facebook group for UK Freelancers to chat and swap tips. It is now a UK-wide network of over 8,000 freelancers who support, network and share knowledge with each other.

Check out their Facebook group here.

She Can She Did

We met Fi through TheDoers network, and from the get-go we were excited to work together. Fi hosts panel and mingling events for female entrepreneurs and creates amazing podcasts with them. Go check out these podcasts here for some business tips & giggles!

Underpinned

Underpinned is an app platform that offers end-to-end admin management for a freelancer's career.

It offers a virtual office, and online magazine with a freelance community to network, socialise and work alongside.