Tag Archives: freelance money

freelance money

How Currency Exchange Rates Should Determine Your Marketing

tube_london_phone_269976_lby Yolander Prinzel

When the value of the dollar plummets compared to the Yen, Euro, Rupee, or any other foreign currency, it is generally a bad thing.

As a nation, the goods we import from other countries become more expensive because we have to use more of our dollars in exchange for the currency used by the exporting company in order to pay for them.

Travelers and currency traders find their dollars making less impact as well.

But for freelance writers, the declining value of a dollar is a great time to target your marketing to other countries.

As an example, in the beginning of March, the value of one dollar in Euros was .7896. That means an article you charge $100 U.S. dollars for would cost your British, German, Irish, etc. client $78.96 Euros. Today, that same article would only cost your overseas, Euro-using client $69.58 because the value of the dollar has dropped to .6958 Euros. It’s almost like offering a sale without changing your bottom line at all.

In order to capitalize on this, you should know both the historical value of the U.S. dollar as well as the current value. Now, go have fun with that marketing spin!

Yolander Prinzel, ACS is a financial writer as well as a series 7, 66 and 2-15 licensed financial representative. With a decade of financial industry experience, she was the National Director of Marketing and the Director of Operations for The Compass Agency USA and has also been a trader for Raymond James Financial Services and a life insurance underwriter. No matter what you may think, none of her posts are advisory, they are simply informational. Only an advisor with close, personal knowledge of your financial situation can offer advice.

freelance money

Should Freelance Writers Choose Cash or Accrual Accounting?

freelance pay issues

by Yolander Prinzel

If you haven’t already, you have a very important choice to make about your business. Eventually, you’ll need to choose whether your business uses the cash or accrual method of accounting. “But wait” you’re thinking, “isn’t accounting, accounting, accounting? What is this cash or accrual method you speaketh of?”

Well my Elizabethan friend, it is basically the timeline in which you choose to report your income. No, that doesn’t mean you can pay taxes on today’s income in five years (wouldn’t that be nice) but it is an extremely important decisions for all businesses, but especially freelancer writers.

When you choose the accrual method, you must pay taxes on money you haven’t collected yet. As soon as you invoice someone, you’ve accrued an income that hasn’t been collected and you must pay tax on that income even if the client stiffs you for 6 months. Anyone who has ever worked for a print publication has probably just broken out into a cold sweat—get your hanky and wipe off that wet, salty fear because I’ve got a solution for you. Continue reading Should Freelance Writers Choose Cash or Accrual Accounting? →

editorial

Thursday Bram Q&A: Finance, Credit and the State of Freelancing

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mug - Thursday BramIf you read FreelanceSwitch, you’re already familiar with Thursday Bram’s work. She covers personal finance and small business topics online–she writes for FreelanceSwitch.com and WebWorkerDaily.com — as well as on her own website, ThursdayBram.com. Thursday writes full-time and is based in Maryland.

First, a bit of history–how did you get started freelancing and where are you at in your career at present?

I started freelancing seriously in college. I was working on the college newspaper and I started taking on some assignments outside of it. After I graduated, I kept freelancing while looking for a job. I had less then spectacular results in my job hunt: while I actually found a job, I wound up quitting within two weeks. Since I was able to bring in the equivalent of a full-time salary freelancing, I stopped looking for a day job.

What was your biggest revelation as a freelancer in terms of protecting yourself financially, especially at tax time? Did you learn anything the hard way?

I’ve been lucky enough not to have any major problems in the way of taxes. The closest I’ve come is having a much better year than I expected, meaning that my estimated quarterly payments fell short of what I owed. I had to make up the difference in April and pay a small fee, but it wasn’t a major crisis

My husband and I actually have done our own taxes in the past. But my freelancing income is enough to turn a simple tax return into an ordeal — we hired a CPA last year, and won’t ever go back. It’s so easy to make a mistake when preparing a tax return, especially when you don’t get all of your income from one source. Many tax preparers will take responsibility for any errors in your tax return and I think it makes sense to reduce your risk, even if you have to pay someone else to handle your taxes.

In today’s freelance environment, what do you think is the biggest pitfall or challenge for freelancers to meet financially?

Health insurance is definitely the biggest problem freelancers face. Keeping coverage is expensive, especially for a freelancer who can’t be sure exactly what her income will be from month to month. But without health insurance, medical coverage is insanely expensive and you run the risk of a major financial crisis if you’re ill or injured to the point where you can’t work.

There’s no easy solution to health insurance, either.
Continue reading Thursday Bram Q&A: Finance, Credit and the State of Freelancing →

advice, freelance money, lifestyle

How the Time Value of Money Applies to Your Freelance Writing Career

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freelance finances

Yolander Prinzel is a finance and insurance writer/ ghostwriter. Her clients include The Savings Bank Life Insurance Company, Foresight Publishing, LifeTips and her own politically incorrect finance blog, The BIG Little Finance Blog. She also has a snarky community blog for freelance writers called Freelance Writerville

Did you know that the value of your money isn’t fixed? Your money has both a present value and a future value. The present value of your money is pretty easy to determine—just take that fiver out of your wallet and go buy $5.00 worth of something.

I’m sure you’ll have no problem. But what if you took that five spot and tried to buy something worth $6, we’ll wait…oh, you’re back—hey, why do you still have that five? Oh, they wouldn’t let you buy $6 worth of merchandise with $5? Well if you invest that $5 for 2 years in an account or investment earning 5% a year, that $5 will turn in to $6—let’s see them turn you down then.

This concept of the time value of money may not seem important to you right now, but Continue reading How the Time Value of Money Applies to Your Freelance Writing Career →

advice, resources

Negotiating Freelance Rates for 2009

freelance-writing-advice-3An interesting article at FreelanceWriting.com includes this quote:

“Many individuals who lack writing skills drive down rates, way below what professional writers can rightfully charge. If the true professionals do not keep up their prices, this will become an even bigger problem. Just because writers from other countries want to work for eight or nine American dollars per hour, this doesn’t mean you should.”

That by Brian Scott, who in the same article advises writers to list their rates on a website and collect a retainer up front. I disagree with both of these suggestions for two reasons. I never list my rates on my website–it prevents me from being flexible with small clients who work on limited budgets. Let’s say you find a non-profit you believe in and want to cut them a break–listing your rates up front could scare them away before they even get in touch. In theory, you’re also committed to those rates regardless of how labor-intensive the project winds up being. Continue reading Negotiating Freelance Rates for 2009 →