Not having a boss to answer to, managing your own working hours and being able to conduct business wherever you want are some of the biggest perks of becoming a freelancer. However, acquiring enough money to sustain your business can be a struggle at times in the freelancing world, not mentioning the fluctuating income that can also impact the sustainability of your business.
If that is the case, here’s a refresher on how you can keep on top of your finances and become astute with your home business.
Backup Funds
Sadly, in the freelancing game, you can’t always rely on clients to pay by the deadline. You should always have emergency funds ready to support you in case any payments fall through. Adding a small portion of your profits to your emergency fund every month will put your mind at ease and you’ll be surprised how much it reduces stress during the slower periods of your career.
Having a business account makes working out your funds a lot easier, it’s important to have for tax and other business expenses. Its best to keep business and personal finances separate as it will help you avoid spending your tax payments on novelties!
Insurance
You might not think it’s essential from the beginning, but likely, that’s the most important time to buy insurance. There can be situations when a client becomes unhappy, and you can be unfairly accused in a copyright claim, if it does happen and you’re not insured, it can destroy your business. To save yourself from this potential fate, you should invest in professional indemnity insurance.
The insurance will pay for the professional defending services of the claim, and if you were to lose, it’ll also cover the costs for the client. It has a low chance of happening and the insurance doesn’t cost a lot, so it’s worth having for your own protection. It’s also known as professional liability insurance if you’re considering different options available. Business insurance can also help with keeping your freelancing essentials insured, laptop, mobile phone and other home products you use daily, sometimes home insurance can cover it but it’s worth discussing to give yourself assurance.
Double Up on Clients
Traditional employment gives you the peace of mind that you are receiving a wage for a reliable source every month, with freelancing work you shouldn’t rely on one client for payments. If you rely on one source of income each month and there’s a late or non-payment, your entire business becomes in jeopardy! Either take on more freelancing work from multiple clients or have a part-time job elsewhere, more than one income whilst being a freelancer is always suggested to relieve stress if work becomes slow.
Avoid Unnecessary Spending
In the beginning, you can easily overspend on luxury items without even realising. Do you need a coffee from your local café? The likely answer is no, if you spend the day in a café writing, you’ll likely spend a fair portion of you profits on something unnecessary whilst starting up.
It’s all important if you’re in a slow period of your career, so cut costs at every point until you start earning more money and have the ability to treat yourself.
Invoice Clients
A freelancer’s biggest headache, a client that hasn’t paid for your services. Whether it comes during a period of feast or famine it becomes a stressful matter to approach, making sure you put every step-in place to get paid is essential.
Financing software is available to everyone who wants to make the accounting section easier, after all, freelancers are known to be more creative rather than good with numbers. There are different paid and free software to pick from and the programmes send reminders to non-payers to keep them informed so you don’t have to. Wave and Due are both easy and free software options to try, they’ll make your life a lot easier during the busy periods.
Its great advice for everyone whether you’ve been freelancing for years or are just starting up, healthy advice that won’t steer you wrong. You can read a lot of scary stories about what has happened to some freelancers and its likely happened from not following some guidelines.