I’ve been dying to share this news all week but have been too busy to post. (Me, busy?! Doing what?)
Well, I’ll tell you. I landed my first freelance writing gig last Friday. Yes, you read right. I am a freelance writer! I get paid to write. I have a job. I get to work from home. I was beyond excited when I got the job. And then I jumped right in and started on Monday. What I’m doing right now is creating web content for school websites in Arizona. And the pay isn’t bad, not to mention that I am building my portfolio.
I’m working to find more clients, though, because I have officially decided to pursue a freelance writing career and make it a profitable business for me. (So if you know of anyone looking for a freelance writer, let me know.) I’ve been working on this for the past couple of months, trying to make it a realistic thing. I think it can be. Our finances aren’t awesome right now because I don’t have a full-time salary, but John has been more than wonderful in his support and encouragement. (He’s the best!)
I’m not at all sure about the legal and ‘business’ aspects of this, like whether I need to register my business, how the taxes thing is going to work, how to get myself some health insurance – you know, just the important stuff! But I’m trying to educate myself as I go along.
I’ll try not to bore you too much with this new freelance writing thing (I’m still so excited to be able to call myself a freelance writer), but writing has always been my passion. And now it’s my job, too.
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My other blog: Evolving Blueprint
As a freelance writer you are an “independent contractor”. So what that means is you are in charge of your own taxes. When you get paid you will have to save your own taxes out of your pay check, unless you are having the people your doing work for do that–ask the payroll or HR person to verify.
As for creating your own business–you can be a sole proprietor, which means there is no seperation between you as a business and you as a person. This is the easiest route, as there is no legal stuff involved.
You could incorporate, which would take time and $$, but then you as a person and you as a business would be two seperate legal entites, which has it’s benefits, but since I don’t think you’re ever going to get sued by someone you do work for, it’s not really an issue.
Good luck with the writing, and let us know how it goes!
Yeah — incorporation is not a great choice for a writer. People incorporate if they do things people can get hurt by (physically or financially), to keep their businesses separate from their personal lives in case someone sues. There are other reasons, but that’s the main one. If you incorporate, you have to keep separate sets of records for you and the business, and you have to file taxes separately for you and the business. It’s a huge amount of work — plus there is a minimum tax you pay if you’re incorporated, even if you didn’t make enough money to cover the tax. So remain an independent contractor/sole proprietor. Then you just have your tax person file a “self-employed” form along with your regular taxes, but that’s no big deal.
Then, if you do well, next year you pay quarterly estimated taxes. That means you send the government a little money every three months so you don’t end up with your entire tax bill due on April 15.
The National Organization for the Self-Employed offers health insurance, as do several organizations. Or, depending on your health and age, you might find it cheaper to just go with a medical discount situation for a while — the warehouse clubs, such as Sam’s, offer these — kind of like joining a medical warehouse club — pay a small fee and get discounts on medicine.
Good luck with the freelance writing. It’s not always easy, but I think it’s always worth it!
Thanks to both of you for the useful information! I am so new at this, so everything you’ve shared has helped me out. 🙂
Hi,
Hey read your blog and happy to see that you have a great job which you enjoy doing
I am a crafter and want to write craft tutorials…and yah also want to make some money out of it…can you help me with that…
Khushbu