Good Morning Friends,
Welcome to the latest Soapbox newsletter!
Our next gathering is on January 30th at Sierra Metro (one week today!) where you can come and meet like minded folk who freelance or are employed in culture, creative, tech & digital for a morning of blethering and sharing news and opportunities over a cuppa. Soapbox events are free, and you’re invited to pop along any time between 8am and 10am. Whether you stay for 10 minutes or the full 2 hour duration is totally up to you!
We’d love to see you there!
Updates:
Did you know that if you come to a Soapbox gathering you get an 80% boost of happiness? It may not strictly be true, but we’re very much looking forward to welcoming you all back - or welcoming you for the first time(!) - through the doors of Sierra Metro next week! After our last gathering took place pre-Christmas and this event isn’t happening until the end of January it feels like it’s been an age since we all caught up! How have you been? We hope that however you were celebrating that you manage to have a restful break.
Over the holidays we got quite a few new subscribers so we wanted to take this time to share a little bit about Soapbox incase you are new here. Our main goal is to help rebuild communities that were fractured due to the pandemic with welcoming in-person events. This newsletter is our long form content home, from us to you. We’d love to share more stories of what is happening in our community along with who makes up our community. We not only want to create Soapbox for you, but with you.
With that said this is our call out; do you have something you’d like to share with the Soapbox community? A project, a passion, are you hiring or looking for work? We’d love to shout out about it! Please send us an email to soapboxforcreatives@gmail.com
And lastly, this March will be our 1 year celebration! One whole year of Soapbox events, and while we have some ideas up our sleeves for the future of Soapbox, we’d love to hear from you. We’ve put together a short typeform for some feedback which will really help us. If you have 10 minutes, it would be really great to get your (anonymous) thoughts. Please click this link to fill it out!
Sponsor Section
FreeAgent
FreeAgent is award-winning online accounting software designed specifically for UK small businesses - and based here in Edinburgh. The folks at FreeAgent are all about making business owners and freelancers happier and more successful by putting them in control of their finances.
This month, FreeAgent is highlighting some great resources to help you, our community, with all your business and accounting questions:
Plan your tax year ahead with FreeAgent’s accounting calendar - download the essential dates for businesses in 2024 and add them to your favourite calendar app
Answer those last-minute tax questions at a live Self Assessment Q&A on 23rd January with FreeAgent’s Chief Accountant, Emily Coltman FCA
Clear up the rules on side hustles and find out whether you’ll have to pay more tax for selling on platforms like Vinted, eBay and Depop
Everyone in our Soapbox community can give FreeAgent a go with a 30-day free trial and get 50% off their first six months. Click here!
With Jack
With Jack is changing. Whilst we'll continue helping freelancers stand up to bad clients and get paid, we're bringing our community together with AMA's from industry experts and educational content to help you be a confident freelancer. Keep an eye out at withjack.co.uk for details of our launch.
Check out these screenshots for a little taster of what is to come!
The Edinburgh Minute
The Edinburgh Minute Newsletter is a quick summary of local news, events and community vibes that lands daily at 7am. It’s free and has bonus add-ons including the weekly Edinburgh Culture Minute, containing local creative industry jobs, funding opportunities and grants. Here are some reader testimonials:
"Hi Michael, I'm really enjoying my daily Edinburgh Minute and weekly Culture Minute dropping into my inbox. Thank you for taking the time to collate all news and events around the city! I hope my subscription goes a little way to support you in keeping this going, many thanks, Suzanne"
"Really enjoying the Edinburgh Minute. I don’t tend to read the news (mostly for mental health reasons), so it’s really great to have a balanced “whats’s what” from my city. Really love the Culture Minute, some great tips and also jobs info which could be useful to many folk. Hope this keeps going for a good long while! Thanks Michael and Happy 2024!"
To celebrate our partnership, founder Michael is giving all Soapbox Newsletter subscribers three months of subscription for free! That includes 12 editions of The Edinburgh Culture Minute, which normally costs £5 per week. The offer is open for Soapbox Subscribers only and ends at the end of December so be sure to sign up using this special link: https://edinburghguardian.substack.com/soapbox
Something inspirational to end our January newsletter:
If you would like to stay up to date with more events, jobs and opportunities, do consider following us on Instagram!
If you have something you would like to share with the community please feel free to message us!
We hope to see you at our next event if you’re local, and in the meantime please feel free to share The Soapbox Newsletter if you enjoyed it.
Until next time,
Ellie & Janine