Light entrepreneurship is the easiest way to invoice for your work

What is light entrepreneurship?

Light entrepreneurship is an effortless and flexible form of work that enables you to start entrepreneurial activities easily. A light entrepreneur does not have to take care of the entrepreneur’s paperwork; the term lean entrepreneurship refers to an operating model that is lighter than traditional entrepreneurship, where paperwork is outsourced to an invoicing service. Running a light business does not require your own business ID, but we also offer a business ID option for running a light business.

As a small business owner, you get the freedom to operate on your own terms, while making sure that all payments and notifications related to your invoicing are handled. Since we take care of the paperwork, you free up more time. You can spend this time doing exactly what you love!

UKKO light entrepreneur does not need a business ID

Light entrepreneurship in its traditional form is an alternative to starting your own company, because light entrepreneurship enables entrepreneurial activity without your own business ID. The light entrepreneur independently arranges their work gigs with their own clients and invoices their work performance through the invoicing service. After the customer pays the invoice, we take care of the necessary paperwork and pay the remaining amount to your account.

UKKO Light Entrepreneur is Finland’s largest and most popular invoicing service for light entrepreneurs. In the UKKO Light Entrepreneur service, you invoice for the work you do as an individual, without your own company. We handle all the required paperwork, such as taxes, insurance premiums, payment reminders and, if necessary, debt collection for you.

As UKKO Light Entrepreneur, you can also invoice with a business ID

Originally, light entrepreneurship specifically means operating through an invoicing service without your own business ID. Recently, the term has also started to be used for such services, the user of which is set up with their own Y ID, but where there is less bureaucratic burden than in ordinary entrepreneurship.

This page describes UKKO Light Entrepreneurship. Please note that the term light entrepreneurship may also be used for other types of services whose operating model may differ from the UKKO.fi service.

For whom is light entrepreneurship suitable for?

Through the UKKO Light Entrepreneur without business ID -service, you can work in many different fields, as long as it’s about selling your own work. Small-scale selling of products is also possible through the UKKO Light Entrepreneur without business ID service. You can find more detailed information on our Frequently Asked Questions page.

Typical light entrepreneurs are e.g. graphic designers, photographers, journalists, bloggers, cleaners and construction professionals.

Light entrepreneurship is suitable for work gigs in contract relationships. Agree on work performance and prices yourself with your respective client. In accordance with the terms of use, UKKO.fi manages payment transactions based on the agreement between the small business owner and the client. There is therefore no employment relationship between the UKKO.fi invoicing service and the small business owner.

Is light entrepreneurship worth it?

When choosing a suitable form of operation, you should consider, for example, how regular the operation is and whether it requires a lot of initial investment. You should also calculate the price for your own work. If you start your own company and take care of everything yourself, the time spent on paper work is taken away from the time available for work billed to clients. Therefore, in the end, it may be most profitable to do what you do best and leave the paperwork to the light entrepreneurship service.

Both the light entrepreneur and the entrepreneur must know how to price their own work correctly. The costs arising from the work, such as supplies and travel expenses, must be taken into account in the pricing. With our income calculator, you can test how much of the billing amount is left for you, alternatively, how much should be billed to get a certain amount to the account. On our pricing page, you can find information about the pricing of the service and the side costs of a light entrepreneur.

As a light entrepreneur with a business ID, you also get the opportunity to benefit from the tax opportunities that come with your own company.

Why should I start light entrepreneurship?

Are you unsure of your own capabilities to act as an entrepreneur or the functionality of your business idea? Do you wonder if you know how to price your services correctly or if you can acquire enough customers to make your activity worthwhile? Does the jump to becoming an entrepreneur feel scary? Maybe you’ve dreamed of becoming an entrepreneur for a long time, but you haven’t managed to do anything concrete for it.

To get started selling your own services as an independent entrepreneur, you need an easy solution for invoicing and tax matters so that you can focus on developing your business in peace at the beginning of your entrepreneurship.

We want to encourage you to try your idea! We have developed our service package for light entrepreneurs both with or without business ID so that your initial foray into entrepreneurship is as easy as possible.

With us you can start your entrepreneurial journey safely and we will help you grow. You can get all the up-to-date information and support you need from us. From the entrepreneurship school, courses, guides and other materials, you can get tips for entrepreneurship, marketing and pricing your work. You don’t have to face new things alone, because our customer service is there for you.

As a light entrepreneur, you save on many fixed costs

Setting up a company often involves fixed costs such as insurance and accounting. Paying these expenses can cause challenges when there is no established income from entrepreneurship yet. Registering for our light entrepreneurship service and creating invoices is free, and there are no monthly fees for the service. We charge the service fee only after your customer pays the invoice, i.e. when you receive money for your work. So you can test your business idea and practice your entrepreneurial skills without pressure.

Through us, you can easily invoice even occasional gigs for which setting up a company would not be time or financially viable. As a light entrepreneur, you don’t have to think about accounting, because in the UKKO Light Entrepreneur without business ID -service, your invoicing goes to UKKO.fi’s accounting, and in the UKKO Light Entrepreneur with business ID -service, we take care of your accounting for you.

As an entrepreneur, you have to get the insurance yourself and agree on it with the insurance company. In the UKKO Light Entrepreneur service, your work is insured with UKKO.fi accident insurance and liability insurance. If you need YEL insurance, we also help with the related bureaucracy.

Light entrepreneurship is easy to start

Starting a small business is easy and fast. Registering as a small entrepreneur takes a few minutes and you can make invoices right away.

The entrepreneur usually has to acquire a separate program for invoicing. In the UKKO Light Entrepreneur service, you save yourself from this trouble and you can choose an online invoice, e-mail or mail as the invoice delivery method, and we do not charge separate costs for the invoices.

Many people start entrepreneurship side by side with paid work. However, this can create time challenges, because time should also be found for leisure and recovery. It is worth calculating the price for your own time and thinking about whether it would be profitable to let us take care of the paperwork, so that you can focus on productive work and what you do best. We are bureaucracy experts so you don’t have to be.

We’ve already helped more than 160,000 independent entrepreneurs get started and we’re here for you whenever you decide to try.

Light entrepreneurship and taxation in the UKKO.fi service

Light entrepreneurship without a business ID

The work done as a light entrepreneur through the UKKO Light Entrepreneurship service is earned income, on which you pay tax according to your own tax rate. UKKO.fi handles all the necessary statutory payments and notifications to the tax authorities related to payroll.

As a rule, UKKO.fi receives withholding tax information directly from the Tax Administration.

A small business owner can apply for income generation deductions in their own personal taxation, for example from YEL payments. However, please remember that the tax accountant makes individual tax decisions, and UKKO.fi cannot influence what deductions you get in your own personal taxation.

Light entrepreneurship of a person with business ID

Light entrepreneur generally pays two types of taxes, prepayment tax and value added tax. Our service handles these tax matters on behalf of the light entrepreneur.

Prepayment tax is paid on the company’s income. You can order a tax card from MyTax, on which both earned income and self-employed income are reported. Enter your tax rate in our service and we will deduct the portion of prepayment tax from the invoices you send and account them to the Tax Administration at the end of the year.

Value added tax, on the other hand, is a consumption tax that is added to sold products and services. This tax is therefore paid by the buyer and the seller forwards it to the Tax Administration. However, you don’t have to worry about this, because we will withhold the potential value added tax from your invoices and forward them to you.

So all you have to do is tell us your tax rate and we’ll take care of the rest.

Light entrepreneurship and unemployment

Light entrepreneurship is equated with entrepreneurship in unemployment insurance matters. The unemployment insurance of a light entrepreneur is affected by, for example, The TE office’s decision on whether entrepreneurship was a side or main activity. It is possible for a part-time light entrepreneur to apply for unemployment benefit from the wage earner’s fund, if the wage earner’s working condition has been met. It is a good idea for a full-time light entrepreneur to take care of joining the entrepreneur’s fund and YEL payments in order to protect his back in case of unemployment.

Light entrepreneurship and YEL insurance

In the specified situation, a light entrepreneur must take out YEL insurance, just like entrepreneurs.

We offer UKKO Light Entrepreneur service users who operate without a business ID a complete YEL service, where, if you wish, we handle YEL payments directly from your salary without separate payments or invoices, so you don’t have to worry about it separately. We help light entrepreneurs with a business ID to get insurance, but as a light entrepreneur with a business ID, you have to take care of the payments yourself.

Light entrepreneurship as a minor

You can also start a small business as a minor. The minimum age limit for the UKKO Light Entrepreneur without business ID -service is 14 years. A guardian’s consent is required from a minor.

In order to join the UKKO Light entrepreneur with a business ID -service, you must be at least 18 years old.

The pros and cons of light entrepreneurship

As a small entrepreneur, you can start entrepreneurial activities at a low threshold without getting familiar with the bureaucracy related to entrepreneurship. Light entrepreneurship is excellent for selling services and own expertise as a sideline alongside the actual day job, or when you want to test the functionality of your business idea before jumping into full-time entrepreneurship.

Full-time light entrepreneurship is also possible if you want more time for yourself to focus on productive work and your own specialty and let us handle the paperwork for you.

Traditional light entrepreneurship without a business ID is not the best solution if your activity involves investments that you want to be able to deduct in taxes, and it is not suitable for most licensed industries. So if you need your own business ID, you can join the UKKO Light Entrepreneur with a business ID -service, which enables you to operate in licensed industries as well as better tax opportunities.

Although small-scale product sales are possible in light entrepreneurship, the downside of light entrepreneurship is that light entrepreneurship is not suitable for retail.