Category Archives: Freelancing/Self-employed

Personal Finance Tips for the Freelancer/Self Employed

August 13, 2018 By in Freelancing/Self-employed Tags: , , , , , , 65 Comments

As a Freelancer/Self employed person, you have to remain on top of your personal finance to keep track of your money. Being your boss means you are in charge of everything, which means there is no one to blame when things go south. Focusing on your craft and ignoring your personal finance would only to money problems. And that is the last thing you need as a small business owner. Which is why you may find this personal finance tips post is useful.

 

Should You Take A Pay Cut To Advance Your Career image

 

The law here in the UK states you get yourself registered as soon as you start making money from your craft. So I got myself registered as self-employed when I started making money from my online gigs. I have been registered as a self-employed for over 3 years now, and I have been making a steady income from my business since then. For those who wonder what I do for money, I make money from this blog, my social media platform, and from my book – How to Cash in as a Blogger. I am also a copywriter, social media manager and blogger outreach consultant.

The personal finance tips that have help me as a freelancer and self-employed person are as follows –

 

Have a separate bank account for your business

Having a separate bank account for your business is the best way to stay on top of all transactions. Running your business from your personal bank account is not the smart way to go as you could easily get confused with your business transactions and personal spending from the same bank account. There are many bank accounts to choose from, one of them being Think Money basic  bank account so it makes sense to go for one of them and keep your business separate from your personal life.

 

Keep on eye on your money

Once you have a separate bank account, the next thing is to keep an eye on your money. You should keep track of all incomings and outgoings so there are no surprises. Having a spreadsheet where you record all incomings and outgoings helps. I have a simple sheet on Microsoft Excel, and it helps me keep an eye on my money. I update the sheet every month and that way I know where my money goes and how much I bring in every month just by having a quick glance.

 

Budget for your taxes

As a business, you most likely would have to pay some form of tax. It is best to get this sorted asap, and not wait until the last-minute like some business owners would do. Budgeting for your taxes would also help you pay it up quickly without any problems. I like to get mine books done and my taxes paid up once the tax window opens. That way I know it is done for the year, and I can focus on other things.

 

Don’t spend all you have in the period of feast

As a Freelancer, you would know all about how unpredictable the freelancing life is. Freelancing is a feast or famine career. We usually earn different amounts of money from month to month, depending on the number of jobs that come our way. So we need to be on top of our budgeting game in order to make it in the famine period. Don’t spend all you have in the period of feast. If you do, you would be stuck with unpaid bills in the famine period.

 

Are you Freelancer? Do you have any personal finance tips to share? Please sound off in the comments section. Let’s rub minds

 

Thanks for stopping by.

 

*Collaborative post.

How to make money as a writer

August 3, 2018 By in Freelancing/Self-employed Tags: , , , , , 48 Comments

Statistics show that writers and authors can make over $50,000 a year. This is approximately over £38,000 annually. But with a lot of hard work and well-structured systems, I believe freelance writers can make so much more than that.

Writers are always in demand for so many different projects like writing whitepapers, blog posts, copy or even to ghostwrite a book. You can increase your earning potential by combing different kinds of writing in your portfolio. This makes you more likely to be hired as companies would rather hire someone who is able to handle different kinds of writing to meet their needs.

 

Freelance Career Image

 

Although there are so many ways writers can make money, I narrowed them down to these 3 that you can use to start earning money right away.

 

  1. Start a blog

Blogging is one of the most popular ways of making money as a writer. It’s not surprising as many people spend time reading blogs for a variety of reasons. Many read blogs to get personal advice, read product reviews, or learn about what’s trending in the industry.

There are many ways you can earn money as a blogger. One of those ways is to have Google AdSense set up on your blog. This is the easiest way to make money from your blog. You get paid based on the number of impressions your ad gets. So the more visitors who come to your blog, the more money you make.

However, you can earn more money from ads when you collaborate with a company and offer to put up their ads on your blog for a fee.

Another way to make money from your blog is through affiliate links. You may write about products or service that you like and get paid every time your readers click on the affiliate link.

If you’re not a fan of having ads on your blog, you can create a membership platform where subscribers can have access to your exclusive content for a fee. You may also create and sell a digital product like an e-course, ebook or online workshop that people can pay you for.

 

  1. Dive into copywriting

If you’re great at writing persuasive content that motivates people to buy things, then copywriting is just for you. Copywriters create marketing content for ad campaigns, websites and social media. Copywriters are always in demand. Their job is to write content that sells.

As a copywriter, you may decide to work for yourself as a freelance copywriter. Or you can work as an in-house copywriter for a company or ad agency. In such a case you are stuck to a fixed salary, unlike a freelance copywriter who can determine their own income.

 

  1. Write for publications that pay

Believe it or not, there are so many publications out there that pay writers for their articles. Magazines, newspapers, journals and online publications are constantly looking for original content that will peak the interest of their readers. The rates for such publications vary between £50 to as high as £500 per article.

Most times such publications require that you pitch your article ideas to them. If they like it, they’ll give you the go-ahead to write the article. Some allow you to write a draft of the article.

 

Do you make money as a writer? Please sound off in the comments section below.

 

Working from home with the kiddies this summer holiday

July 26, 2018 By in Freelancing/Self-employed, Kids Section Tags: , , , , , , , 16 Comments

The kiddies had their graduation ceremony from pre school last week, and are finally off to Big School this September. We are looking forward to the exciting changes, and we can’t wait but for now, it is the summer holidays. I work from home, so working during the day with the kiddies are around is always very tricky. I do most of my work when they are in school and when they are asleep. But with the 6 weeks summer holidays, I have to be able to do some work during the day.

I love the flexibility of my work and being able to care for my kids while making living. So since I am unable to take 6 weeks off work, I have to make this working from home thing work for the next 6 weeks. My business grows and grows every year. Which means I am a lot more busy this year, than I was last year, which means more work.

 

Fashion Picture

 

So how do I plan to work from home this summer holiday, here are some ways –

 

Focus on what needs to be done

I am going to be focus on what needs to be done and make sure it is done. There won’t be any room for goofing around online when I am supposed to be working. Not that I do much of that, but with time being so precious these next few weeks, I will be focusing 100% on work while I work. There will be no room for distractions.

 

Plan my schedule

I will need to plan my schedule for the next few weeks in order to get work done quicker. Knowing what needs to be done well in advance helps me stay focused, which is why planning a schedule works extremely well. I don’t have to spend minutes/hours going through emails to decide on what needs to be done urgently.

 

Plan my outgoings

If you work for yourself, you have to keep an eye on your money. Keeping a watchful eye on my outgoings is very important especially in the next few weeks, as I can’t predict how much work I will be able to get done. Knowing where my money goes and having my money work hard for me is crucial. So no unnecessary spending this period. Like most families, we have important bills that need to be paid every month, like the mortgage, council tax, and other utility bills. Which means we have to watch every penny.

We own our home and that comes with a responsibility. Money needs to be set aside for unforeseen circumstances with regards to our home maintaimace. We have spent quite a few hundreds of pounds on home repairs already this year, which can be frustrating when money is tight. The only thing keeping me going is the fact that I know our home is definitely an investment, and every penny we spend on it goes towards our investment. Sunlife has a great calculator for home owners to check how much their property has increased in value.  I like to check the value of our home from time to time, just so I know money spent on home repairs and improvements are not in vain.

 

Do you work from home? Do you have kids? How will you be getting work done this summer holidays?

 

*Collaborative post.

 

 

 

error: Content is protected !!