How To Take care Of Your Finances As A Freelancer

It is a respectable decision to earn income from your art, but to think that you can turn a blind eye to your finances and it will sort itself out is a “big fat lie” you have been telling yourself.

As a freelancer, you are also a business owner, and you need to tend to every facet of your business to ensure that it’s a sustainable operation – not just the creative department.

Here are five tips on how to take care of your finances as a freelancer:

1. Create and follow a budget

As a freelancer, you are also the accounting department and you need to keep track of every business related expense.

Creating a budget will make the expense more traceable and trackable, what this means simply is that – you would be able to control how you spend money and also know where you’re pumping money into.

Remember when budgeting, keep a record of all business receipts to track all business expenses.

2. Get Insured

In a place like Africa, we hardly pay attention to insurance simply because we believe we can control and do all things ourselves.

But this is not true you need to get insured to take some certain burden off your shoulders. Going without coverage can lead to financial distress.

3. Plan for the unexpected

Freelancing is a feast or famine career: you likely earn vastly different amounts from month to month depending on the number of jobs that come your way.

To ensure you’re not just staring into the winds when the famine time comes, make sure you have a budget and spend according to it.

4. Set aside your tax funds

As freelancers do not have a regular paying job whereby taxes can be deducted at the end of the month it is advisable to set aside some of their earnings to make tax payments.

One easy way to ensure you have money set aside for taxes is to create two separate business savings accounts. One account is where you can deposit money received for your freelancing services. Then, you can take a percentage of your earnings out and move it to the second account to act as an estimated quarterly tax account.

5. Lastly, Have confidence in your finances

When you are a freelancer and business owner, your finances will never be predictable or steady. Despite the inconsistencies, it is possible to take charge of your finances and build wealth. With smart money moves, prioritization of saving money you can master your money as a freelancer. It is then that you can truly enjoy all the benefits of freelancing.