Emergency Reserve Fund: What You REALLY Need to Have on Hand
If you’ve ever hired a financial planner or read a financial planning article or overheard a financial planner talking at a bar, you probably know how much you “should” have in your emergency reserve fund. It should be enough to […]
Four Ways NOT to Blow Your Tax Refund
Congratulations! You received your tax refund. Want to know how not to blow it? Use it for these four things instead of whatever your reptilian brain tells you to do with it. Pay Off Debt One of the smartest […]
Changing Times: When and How to Increase Your Rates
You’ve quantified your costs. You’ve researched your competition. You know your customers inside and out. You’ve even figured out exactly how to describe your competencies in an authentic way. And you realize you’ve been undercharging. A lot. How can […]
April 2017 Tasks
April showers bring May flowers… But really, all we want to talk about is how to make it rain, cash style. Managing cash flow is a challenge for any business, but it is particularly challenging in creative industries. So this […]
To Discount or Not to Discount… That is the Question
“I got a great deal on it!” “It was on sale!” “Thanks! It was a steal.” You’ve probably heard variations of that theme on more than one occasion. And most of the times I hear those types […]
Range Pricing: Buying Wiggle Room
I love quoting a range for a custom project. Whether you deal with flat-fee projects or work on an hourly rate, quoting a range of total dollar value (or total hours) can help your client immediately understand the scope. If […]
The Art of the Punt
At the risk of overusing a football metaphor, let’s pretend you have a goal. (It can even be an actual goal if football is your thing.) You want to keep moving toward it, unwaveringly, without detour. But to get there, […]
March 2017 Tasks
“What will that cost?” is one of the most challenging questions to answer for a creative entrepreneur. Mostly because “it depends” isn’t really an answer. But in fact, it does depend. It depends on how long the work will take […]
5 Ways to Be Kind to Your Money
Sometimes it’s hard to think about being kind to money. We think of money as a powerful adversary, rather than a potential ally. We aim to conquer it, rater than support it. And we certainly aren’t kind to it. But […]
Top 5 Creative Income Tax Questions
Everyone loves a list, right? Even a list about taxes? I didn’t think so (although BuzzFeed would tell us otherwise). Nevertheless, this month we’re talking all about taxes, and in that spirit, we thought it would be interesting to […]