Build a Successful Creative Business
I was engrossed in this blog post about why creative businesses fail written by Jason Aten. I work in a creative field (magazine publishing) with many creative people (writers, photographers, and graphic designers). If you work in the creative industry and are looking to start your own business—listen up!
Jason Aten, the owner of the blog Starting Out Right, is a wedding photographer. He quit his career in marketing and sales management with FedEx to start his own business—something many creative freelancers decide to do.
His photography business took off, and his work has been featured in many national wedding publications. He also spends a lot of time speaking, educating, and writing about the business of photography. Jason knows that, no matter how talented you are, if you don’t have a head for business, you aren’t going to make it far.
A creative business isn’t unlike any other business. You have expenses and revenue. The successful businesses have more revenue than expenses. Anyone that starts a business should love what they do—because they are going to spend an awful lot of time doing it. But just because you are passionate about art, music, photography, etc., doesn’t mean it’s enough to build a business around. Continue Reading
How To Create Multiple Income Streams
What do you do if you have one main client and for some reason the work from that client dries up? Perhaps the client goes out of business or goes in a different direction or just has a lull in business?
Your main source of income is then gone. Which is why it’s crucial for anyone who relies on their freelance revenues to have multiple streams of income.
That’s easier said than done, of course, as many freelancers have two or three main clients and are happy to focus on those alone. But as many experienced freelancers will tell you, that’s a mistake.
Today we’ll look at a few different ways to set up multiple streams of income to make your freelancing business more stable and ensure that you’re living the freelancing good life for years to come. Please note that the following are just different options you can choose — I’m not recommending you do all of them. Continue Reading
Have You Heard of Peer-to-Peer Lending?
Have you tried getting a small business loan from a bank for your freelancing career only to be turned down? You are not alone.
Some freelancers who need access to cash have turned to something called peer-to-peer lending. It’s an interesting model that both Prosper and Lending Club, the two leading peer-to-peer websites, are using. Here’s how it works:
Peer-to-peer lending, or social lending, it is a way for investors who have money, to lend directly to borrowers looking to borrow money. It is a win-win for all parties. The investor gets a better return on their money than a traditional savings account or CD and the borrower gets a lower interest rate than they would likely pay for a credit card advance or bank loan. —Peter Renton from SocialLending.net
Whether you are looking to consolidate debt or set yourself up with a home office for your new freelancing career, peer-to-peer lending cuts down the wait time and administrative fees from banks.
Give Yourself a Raise in 2012
I really liked this article on Mashable.com’s business page about giving yourself a raise in 2012. With the economy being what it is (and has been), the thought of raising your freelancing rates might make your heart rate increase and sweat collect on your forehead. Before you go ballistic, ask yourself this question: when was the last time you adjusted your rates? If it was a decade ago—it’s time to give yourself a raise.
Whether you are a writer, photographer, or graphic designer, you need to make sure your current freelancing rates match your abilities.
With the rise of the Freelance or Gig Economy, more professionals are shifting from full-time positions to self-employed, freelance or contract roles. And often, for company employees accustomed to regular raises and pre-determined fee hikes, the notion of being in charge of one’s own prices is challenging. —Nellie Akalp for Mashable
How long have you been in business? If you are still charging the same low rates you started out with to get your foot in the door, you are shooting yourself in that same foot.
Review: I Will Teach You to Be Rich
For freelancers, managing money comes with some unusual problems — beyond the typical issues that someone managing their personal finances might face. There are books and tools out there that make the process easier, including I Will Teach You To Be Rich, by Ramit Sethi.
The book focuses on solutions that you can put to work helping you with your personal finances immediately, unlike many personal finance books that are more about the theory of what you might do to change your current situation. In addition to writing an incredibly reliable book, Sethi agreed to answer a few questions about personal finances for freelancers.
And while Sethi’s book focuses on personal financial decisions, it’s clear that the techniques work just as well for the finances of a freelancer’s business. He says, “Absolutely. Freelance income can be more sporadic than job income, but the tools I recommend are still applicable.”
Simplify Your Bookkeeping
When keeping your books is hard, it doesn’t get done. When you’ve got lots of work on your plate, your bookkeeping doesn’t get done. If you have anything more appealing to do, your bookkeeping doesn’t get done. Many freelancers struggle with keeping their records up to date, whether it’s because the task itself is difficult or we have better uses for our time. Anything we can do to simplify the process means that we won’t be stressing out over our books when tax time comes around, when there’s a lost invoice, or when anything else goes wrong with our financial records. Continue Reading
Getting Equipment on a Freelancer’s Budget
There isn’t exactly a checklist of equipment you must have as a freelancer: for some freelancers, an old computer is more than adequate as long you’ve got chairs and a table where you can meet with clients. For other freelancers, a laptop loaded with the latest software is crucial, but everything else in the office is negotiable. No matter what end of the spectrum you’re on, though, there are some ways to make getting equipment and furniture a little easier on a freelancer’s budget. Continue Reading
Automate Your Bookkeeping
As a freelancer, it’s important to focus as much of your time as possible on the work you have or getting the work you need. And that means minimizing administrative tasks. Take bookkeeping, for example.
Bookkeeping is critical for maximizing tax deductions and monitoring the overall health of your business, but it’s a royal pain. In this post I’ll show you how to automate bookkeeping tasks so you can stay focused on existing jobs while marketing your talents.
Solving 1099 Problems
If you work with clients based in the U.S, you’ve probably received a Form 1099-MISC. That’s the form that a business uses to report money paid to contractors, as well as to report other income. You should receive a copy of the form from your clients by January 31 of each year. Your clients who issue Form 1099s also send a copy to the IRS, letting them know how much income you really ought to be reporting on your taxes.
But this system is notoriously full of problems. Maybe you didn’t actually receive your copy of the form. Or maybe your client reported a number to the IRS that had nothing to do with what they paid you this year. Or maybe your client went out of business before they could even get around to filing their taxes. Whatever the circumstances, if you’re a U.S. taxpayer, you need to get that paperwork straightened out so that the IRS doesn’t hassle you about incorrect numbers.
Continue Reading
Preparing for End-of-Year Accounting
This post is a guest post from Allan Branch, a one time freelancer who created LessAccounting for freelancers who need to keep track of money or send invoices.
If you’re reading this you’re probably not an accountant so bookkeeping is painful, boring and no one likes it. Let’s see if we can make this as painless as possible. Let’s remember that the reason to keep tidy books is to maximize your tax deductions. I make more on an hourly basis when I do my taxes than any other time of the year. If I spend a few hours properly putting everything together I can save (earn) thousands of dollars in reduced tax payments.
9 Tips For Tracking Project Expenses
When you’re working on a project for a client, you sometimes have to spend a little money in order to get to the point where you can invoice your client. Maybe you have to register a domain name. Maybe you have to pay for a stock image. Maybe you have to subcontract part of the project. No matter what expenses are a part of your project, it’s important to keep close track of them so that you can report them on your invoice and get your client to cover them.
Doubling Your Rate: A Thought Experiment
What would happen if tomorrow I forced you to double your rate?
If you bill hourly, your rate just doubled. If you bid by the project, you have to bid twice as much as usual. If you sell a product on the side (WordPress theme?), you have to double its price too.
For the sake of exploration, let’s ignore the understandable backlash from existing customers. Instead, let’s focus on the more interesting question:
What would you have to do to justify the rate?
