Making Your Freelance Business Pay…Literally

This post is sponsored by Outright — Your Livelihood, Right Now.  Getting your taxes right with free bookkeeping.

There are plenty of ways to handle your freelance income, but once you start getting out of the 30K range it might be time to start thinking seriously about structuring your cash flow more like a business rather than as something you earn as an individual. One of the oldest maxims in the freelance book is to treat your freelance business AS a business; paying yourself a salary is a very good step in that direction.

Once you start making this kind of money as a freelancer, chances are you’re already being tempted to incorporate or set up an LLC–if you’re thinking along these lines it’s even more important to consider giving yourself a set salary even–if you haven’t drawn up the paperwork for the LLC or S-Corp.

There are two good reasons to do this, aside from goal setting and keeping yourself motivated. For starters, you’ll have a much cleaner paper trail between your business expenses, your pay, and other deductions. Anything you do that makes it clear to the IRS exactly how and where you paid expenses for your business is a good thing.

The second reason to pay yourself a salary even before you file your LLC or S-Corp papers? Discipline. Depending on which formal, legal arrangement you choose you may be required by law to pay a salary to yourself. S-Corp filers have a whole set of payroll concerns to deal with and while we won’t argue the merits of choosing an LLC over an S-Corp (or vice-versa) here, suffice it to say that getting in the habit of paying yourself as an employee is definitely a good thing if you want to go the S-Corp route.

Giving yourself a set paycheck also allows you to properly budget for the future. How much are you able to dedicate towards other tax-deductible expenses such as travel, equipment replacement, and insurance? Without a fixed paycheck to factor into your budget, deciding on those amounts may be more like guesswork than careful planning–and no serious business survives long on guessing.

This post on the business of freelancing is sponsored by Outright — Your Livelihood, Right Now.  Getting your taxes right with free bookkeeping.

Freelance Writer Savings Plan

by Yolander Prinzel

I have a super simple plan for you that will help you get disciplined about retirement, tax and emergency savings. It’s so easy, even a nano-armored baboon could do it.

Of course, being easy in execution does not mean it’s doable without discipline. You have to want to save in order for this to work.

1. Set up a personal savings account.

2. Set up a business savings account.

3. Set up a SEP IRA through Scottrade, Ameritrade, Schwaab, whatever.*

4. Whenever you receive a Paypal payment from a client, transfer 5% from Paypal directly into your personal savings, 15-20% (depends on your tax bracket and deductions) from Paypal directly into your business savings to cover taxes, and up to 25% (not to exceed $49K total or 20% of profits for Sole Proprietors and LLCs) into your SEP (you may need to transfer to a bank account first, but don’t let that distract you from your ultimate goal).

5. When you get a check for payment from a client, deposit it into your business account and then make the same allocations as above.

6. Live on the remaining 50-75% of your income.

Now, how hard it that? And if you balk at saving 25-50% of your income, then you have some serious thinking to do.

• If your roof leaks, pet, self or spouse gets sick, car breaks down, air conditioner breaks, etc. you will need some savings to fall back on.
• If you plan to ever retire, you’ll need some retirement savings to support you.
• If you would like to keep the IRS happy, you need some tax money set aside.

*Please remember that an IRA is not an investment in itself–it is just an account that allows investments to grow on a tax-deferred or tax-free (ROTH) basis. After you deposit money into your IRA, you will need to use the money to buy equities, bonds, annuities, mutual funds or CD’s.

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.

A Secret Source For More Freelance Work Between Gigs

by Joe Wallace

A good post at FreelanceWritingGigs offers some advice on how to scoop up some extra freelance writing jobs when you are between gigs. But there’s a little secret you might not find mentioned in other posts that could put you in a completely different place financially when you find those freelance projects scarce in your favorite places.

I’m talking about signing up for creative temp agencies like Artisan, or FILTER. These agencies are often regional–Artisan serves a select group of major cities only, for example. They are also highly selective in some cases, but for those who make the cut, the pay can be phenomenal.
… Continue Reading

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

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

Freelance Jobs, Getting Paid, and Getting Burned

by Joe Wallace

One question I get asked all the time about freelance jobs goes something like, “How do I know I won’t get ripped off by my client?” Everybody wants protection from wasting precious time working on a project that turns out to be a non-paying dud, but when you’re going out for freelance jobs you do have to accept some level of risk. After all, you don’t actually know your new client…but then again, they don’t know YOU either. The best tactic to use if you are THAT worried about not getting paid? It’s pretty simple, really … Continue Reading

Managing Your Freelance Finances

by Joe Wallace

Earlier today I wrote a finance blog entry about the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act, signed into law by President Obama. Some hail this as a victory for consumers because the act forbids predatory interest rate changes that were business as usual for some credit card companies in the past. Under the new law you could face an interest rate hike if you’re 60 days late on your credit card payments, but that rate hike must be cancelled out if you make on-time payments for six months.

Here’s the rub–the new laws don’t take effect until 2010. Between now and then you should pay strict attention to your credit card accounts because all sorts of shenanigans are likely depending on your credit card company. I fell victim to one credit card company’s dirty tricks–and this was long before the new law–simply because I made the wrong assumption.

I set up an automatic payment on a credit card bill designed to put me above the minimum payment while keeping my monthly budget reasonable. I set my payment date several days before the credit card bill was due. I set this all up, then forgot about it and let the payments roll.

What my credit card company did was to wait until a consistent pattern emerged–I never used my card and never paid anything but the automatic payment. Once the company was satisfied I wasn’t paying attention to my account, they simply switched up the payment due date so that my auto deduction was paid late instead of early. They charged me a $30 finance charge every month for late payments until I caught it.

Folks, this was no fly-by-night credit card company. This company is a very well-known name and advertises itself as being by veterans, for veterans, and working on behalf of vets like me.

Fat chance.

If you rely on credit cards to stay afloat during the tough times in your freelance career, now is an absolutely critical time to pay attention to your finances and those credit cards in particular. Don’t get taken in by the fun and games bound to happen between now and when Obama’s credit card reform bill takes effect. Watch those statements and changing terms like a hawk. You’ll be glad you did.

Five Stupid Mistakes Freelancers Make

Before I launch into this, understand that no single freelancer experience triggered my urge to write this entry. Instead it comes at the realization that every single freelancer I have ever hired has made some of these mistakes. 99% of the time, they are completely avoidable.

Editors have precious little time and it costs every time we have to stop and tell a freelancer stuff like this. If you want to become an editor’s favorite–and quickly–all you have to do to get started is make sure you aren’t doing any of the following:

5. Submitting Copy Full Of Mistakes. I can’t tell you have many times I’ve regretted yoking myself to people who seem to have a pathological fear of spell check AND who can’t tell the difference between a possessive and a contraction. Folks, the apostrophe has been abused enough, don’t you think? Can you please make some DIFFERENT mistakes from now on? A little variety would be nice. Here’s the trick. If you don’t know how to properly use the apostrophe, DON’T GUESS. Stop using contractions, for a start. The contraction for “it is” is “it’s”. The reason it is called a contraction is because it is an abbreviated word–the apostrophe has a SPECIFIC purpose.

4. Not Telling The Editor If A Deadline Won’t Work. When the editor says “This piece is due in 14 days,” and you accept, the editor assumes that you understand the deadline is firm and will live up to it. The freelancer who has trouble along the way does well to let the editor know as soon as it’s apparent the deadline won’t be met. Letting the deadline fly by and THEN explaining that your sick cat had a pedicure that went horribly wrong is bad for the editor, but it is worse for YOU. Always try to establish yourself as a reliable “go-to” person, even when you have to blow a deadline. Anything less, quite frankly, means you get less work from that editor.

3. Not Listening To Specific Direction From Your Editor. I have worked with writers I specifically told, in no uncertain terms, to stop using specific personal cliches in their copy. The “personal cliche” is a line that appears in a writer’s work again and again. For some, it’s the phrase, “You can’t go wrong.” For others, it’s stuff like “Additionally, the xyz is an ABC.” How do you think it makes me feel about your work to see those cliches coming back a week after I told you to edit them out of your copy? Yeah–you guessed it–it makes me think you’re a moron who can’t follow instructions. I can forgive it once or twice, because people forget in the beginning. You have to re-emphasize it a few times before some people get it. But folks, if you KEEP DOING the stuff your editor tells you NOT to do, you get branded as an idiot.

2. Not Submitting “Stand Alone” Invoices. I can’t tell you how many freelancers send me invoices in e-mails that discuss other business. Sounds petty and insignificant to complain about that, doesn’t it? But folks, remember that every editor in the business is swamped and has six different issues that all need addressing at once.  When you send along an invoice in an e-mail that is cluttered with other issues that need taken care of, it’s VERY easy for a distracted editor to overlook the fact that your invoice is in there. Don’t delay your money–send that invoice ALL BY ITSELF and clearly marked as such. Otherwise you WILL have to go back and remind the editor to pay you–it’s just a matter of time before it happens.

1. Not Submitting Your Payment Address In Your Invoice. You would NOT BELIEVE how many freelancers have sent me invoices with no payment address. What the hell? How am I supposed to pay this? What’s more, if it’s a larger operation with an accountant, how is THE ACCOUNTANT supposed to know? Don’t make this mistake–it slows down your pay, and in this economy who can afford that? Here’s the kicker–EVERY SINGLE FREELANCER I have EVER hired has sent me an invoice with no payment address. Usually it’s the first one, too.  Even if we have paid you a hundred times in a row, send that address in your invoice.  You never know when the person who pays the freelancers gets sick or goes on vacation and hands the job off to somebody else.

The Future of Freelancing: 2009 Beckons

In our current economy, more and more people are being driven out of the traditional workplace and into contract positions, freelance gigs and other arrangements formerly the exclusive territory of the full-time freelancer.

What’s going to happen to freelance writers in 2009? From where I sit, it will be a combination of  “more of the same” and a major shift to the Internet from the newsstand.

I remember when the dot com bubble burst back in the late 90s, and many net workers were out of a job after being paid staggering sums by overvalued .com companies. The dot commers killed themselves inthe late 90s because companies that had nothing to sell were getting mad startup money, tricking out their offices with pool tables and video games, and basically driving themselves into the ground.

Now we see the inverse happening damn near exactly ten years later–solid companies with much to offer are being pulverized while companies selling dollar electronic widgets (see the iPhone App store for a great example) are thriving. What does any of this mean for US?

Two big things spring to mind. If your website still looks like a web 1.0 dinosaur, you’ve got trouble coming. What is the sound of no mouse clicking? That zen riddle I just made up is something you’ll be pondering next year unless you get into web 2.0-land. Things are shifting to the net so completely that some people are actually discussing the “death of bookstores”.

The second thing–which is already happening to my fellow freelancer pals in some quarters–is that there will be a larger tidal wave of ridiculous freelance clients out there who actually expect you to take the penny-per-word rates they offer. Folks—one cent per word is what NOOB FICTION WRITERS make. Not freelancers who deal in non-fiction, e-commerce, SEO writing or other skilled areas.

There are plenty of people who will settle for these rates. I strongly urge you to re-evaluate your rates NOW and tell clients who want you to accept their peanuts for your hard work a polite version of the following:

“I understand your need to keep your overhead low and I am happy to work with you on a volume discout basis, but I also want to explain someting to you: with today’s SEO environment, you GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. You will find a writer willing to write for a penny per word, I assure you. I can also assure you that NOBODY WILL TAKE THAT WRITING SERIOUSLY. You may get the right attention from Google, but when HUMANS read that crap, they will click away from your page.  Today’s market is not just about Google placement–it’s about CONVERSION. What good does 10,000 unique visits do you if you have 0% conversion from those visits?”

I could rage on about this, but why bother? Everything you need to know (in this context) is in those last two sentences.

Strategic Tax Write-Offs

First things first: this is NOT tax advice. I am simply telling you what I do to protect myself. Use this info at your own risk and don’t say I didn’t warn you to get the advice of a tax expert before committing to a financial strategy like this. I take no responsibility for…anything every anwhere. Nyah nyah.

Onward.

One of the best things in the world any freelancer can do for themselves is to–this Monday–gather up all the year’s receipts and tally them up. Compare your deductions to how much you think you’re going to owe on your 2008 tax form.  If you don’t know how to do that, consider how much money you made this year, calculate approximately 22% to 28% of that sum as your taxable income. If you made 30K this year, chances are you’ll be closer to 22%. If you made more than 50K chances are you’re edging closer to 28%. (These are guesstimate figures, folks. Do your homework.)

Once you have a number, take a good look at your office equipment, your desk, your phone, and anything else that might need to be repaired, replaced, upgraded or purchased as a legitimate enhancement to your business. Do you have a resume website? Are you conducting business on your home phone instead of a dedicated line? Does your computer have a date stamped on it older than 2005?

If you are in dire need of some additional deductions, consider making some FY2008 last-minute purchases that legitimately apply to your freelancing business. You have two choices–you can pay the money you’d spend (and legally deduct) to the government, or you can take any deduction you’re entitled to by law and improve the state of your freelancing business in preparation for 2009. … Continue Reading

Freelancer-to-Freelancer Marketing

See all those empty office chairs? Offices like these could get even more empty if freelancers take my new bright idea and run with it. Let me state for the record that I should NOT be telling you this right now, I SHOULD be developing it MYSELF and making a cottage industry out of it. But I’m obviously not as smart as I should be, since I’m going to spill it now… … Continue Reading

The Art of Freelance Fee Negotiations

In my mind, one of the worst aspects of landing a freelance project is the point where it’s time to talk money, and the client says “make me an offer”. For those of us who have experienced this over and over, it’s clear that this is–in some cases–a shameless attempt to get you to bid yourself down out of fear of pricing yourself out of the gig. In other cases the client simply doesn’t know what your time is worth and looks to you to set your own value. In one or two situations I’ve had clients who had gotten bids from others and wanted to see where I fell in the price wars. Any way you look at it, these are tricky waters to navigate.

Here are some of my strategies for dealing with negotiations over my fee:

… Continue Reading