FreelanceFolder: "Now that I’ve been freelancing for well over a year, I’ve dealt with my fair share of expenses, taxes and other terrible money sucking things we have to deal with as the self-employed. There are several ways to manage these of course, and ways to save money doing so.
Unfortunately, just because we stay at home it doesn’t mean that we save more money than someone who works outside of the home. Yes, we have to pay for less gas, we don’t have to pay to eat out, nor do we have as many car expenses. But if you’re not careful, you can actually spend a lot more than someone who does drive 30 minutes away to work.
Here are ten of the ways I’ve found to save money for everything we deal with as business owners.
9 comments:
So the saving on insurance expenses is very helpful. I can honestly say I would not have thought of either of those. When I needed insurance and did not have a company to get it from, I used and insurance broker. The insurance companies pay him and it cost me nothing. I got to look across a lot of great plans and chose which one worked for me.
Saving on home expenses, not having internet to work at home. Get real. There is no way to avoid this cost. You are going to have internet at home if you work there or not cause you are going to work from home anyways. And who needs a land line anymore. If you do, its probably cause you use a fax machine... which you can do with your computer, so cut that cost.
And we are freelancers, deduct EVERYTHING!!! duh
Not the most enlightening article.
Oh god. Insurance. Bookkeeping. Being a grownup. I'm mortified. This is a good article for those of us starting out and in need of an intro to the world of self-employment.
There's nothing novel in this article. But it lays out the ground rules. And those are helpful.
While I found this article interesting, I'm not sure it was exactly relevant to the kind of "freelancing" a lot of us will be doing once we leave here. While designers and SMs who go from show to show are freelancers, Equity and USA have various benefits that help with things like insurance and other expenses associated with not working one job 9-5 one's whole life. In addition, it would be pretty impossible for a freelance designer to maintain a home office or studio with nothing but a lined pad of paper and a pen-our craft does call for some nicer accessories. All that being said, this article did have some smart things to say, and made me consider (though it is VERY FAR AWAY) how I might go about setting up my life once I leave here and start my "freelancing"
Yeah, I'd love to read an article with this title that is more helpful. I didn't read anything that I think I need to write down for the future. Cody and Becca's comments combined are more helpful than this article. I think the area that you'll really be needing to save money will be frivolous expenses, not necessities. Don't buy new boots each fall, get the 42" tv instead of the 60", buy that couch on craigslist instead of IKEA. These are the things that you should be saving on, not you're internet.
The tricky part about being a freelancer is that you need to be able to safely predict you're annual income even when month to month, and maybe year to year, it will be inconsistent. You have to be sure to live under your means and save incase you hit a rough patch. You have to figure out how to determine what you're means is.
This article had its good points and its bad points saving on insurance is very helpful. I hadn't really thought of that, of course, I'm still young and on my parents insurance but once I'm older I'm going to be on my own and its nice to start thinking about that now rather than later. And I agree with Cody about the internet, not having internet at home I think is a little crazy. You need internet now a days its kind of a requirement to live. Of course you can get rid of land lines no body uses them anymore. This article had some valid points and others were a little silly but it was helpful in some ways.
I think that at a basic level, the tips given are great tips and apply to a good amount of freelancers. I think that the tips about insurance and taxes are great. I don't know what it is, but there's something nostalgic about having a landline. I don't know why, but I feel like I'd still want one. I'd also like to separate my calls based on work/play, but I might feel a little bit differently when I'm paying for both a landline and a cell phone.
So useful to anyone who is attempting to market themselves as an independent professional, such as a designer...
Theses steps do seem as though they could be hard to abruptly begin to follow, but i think that i might keep this list, and go over it every few weeks in an attempt to improve one aspect or another.
One thing about which i am hopeful is that involvement in some form of theater union will reduce how much literal free lancing is actually being done, but this is also not guaranteed, especially because those unions come with complications of their own.
I think most of these tips were no brainers really. I mean they weren't even really directed at freelancers everything they said was just very basic general saving tips. I agree with Hannah that Cody and Becca's comments were more helpful than the article itself. Its disappointing because I though the article might have some relevant information that was specifically directed at the freelancer but instead it just parroted basic saving practices, and some that made no sense. It talked about cutting back on office supplies and the internet which are 2 of the most essential things you need. While at the same time it says nothing about maybe cutting out the cable/satellite bill or other frivolous purchases. Of course cutting those things first is also a no brainer. All and all disappointing article with no real relevant information.
This lady should have proof read her article before sharing it with the world. Nothing like taking life advice from a person who spells things wrong.
Tip #11: Double check your work or people won't want to hire you.
All that tax and insurance stuff is what I am most concerned about after getting out in the world... the other things are pretty straightforward and make a lot of sense. All in all though, these are a lot of good things to consider.
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