I suppose in the end it comes down to how much stuff you can (or want) to hold in your head at the same time. My limited company has cost about £50 in administ

I suppose in the end it comes down to how much stuff you can (or want) to hold in your head at the same time. My limited company has cost about £50 in administration and set-up fees so far. But the cost of learning enough stuff not to get myself in trouble has probably been tens of hours of otherwise billable time, plus the ever present risk of doing something wrong. The problem is that it can be hard to know what is actually difficult, and what is easy but just expensive because not many people know how to do it. It would be nice if somewhere there was a definitive guide to what is worth doing yourself for any given hourly rate. E.g. if your time is worth £50/hr then doing your own company set up is worth it, but you should hand off pay roll taxes to a professional. If your time is worth £100 an hour, then you should do these three things to cut cost a little, then outsource the rest.