On Freelancing 1: Surviving your first year
Three things I wish I had done in my first year of freelance, and three things I did do.
Happy Thursday all!
To launch this mini-series, I’m first revisiting a guest video I did for Work Show Grow’s The Interval in June last year, where I spoke about surviving your first year of freelancing.
Today, I’m expanding on the points I made and will talk through three things I wish I had done in my first year of freelance and three things I’m glad I did do.
A quick reminder: I’m trying something new with this series and things may or may not work. Honest feedback is essential for me, so let me know what you think and leave a comment at the end!
Let’s get started…
Things I wish I did
1/ I wish I’d put my eggs in more than one basket
It’s a tremendous challenge to make a living solely from photography. It’s not impossible, and it’s certainly not a pipe dream - but it is hella difficult.
This is most true early on and one thing that can really help circumnavigate, not just the ups-and-downs of that first year but a freelance career generally, is having multiple income streams.
Having more than one income stream simply means having more than one way of making money. If one thing fails then you’ll have something else, or several something elses, to fall back on.
Consider different types of income: for example, it could be supplementary part-time work or passive, self-generated income like an online shop where you can sell products - prints, crafts, workshops, e-books... Think about what else you can offer and think openly; it could be something related to your main freelance business or it could be something completely different.
While I always had plans to invest in ways to make money that wasn’t freelance photography, I wish I’d done it much sooner. When the pandemic hit in early 2020, I had no other work to fall back on - not even print sales, which many of my peers had set up long before.
I only began to get back on my feet much later in the year when I was forced to look outside my usual boundaries and luckily found work in other areas. At first, that was social media and now I’m looking at pursuing freelance writing more deeply - thanks, somewhat, to this newsletter! I also finally opened up my very own print shop, a slow but very welcome source of passive income.
2/ I wish I’d built myself an emergency fund
If you can afford to, having an emergency fund set aside is a big help; should the shit hit the fan you’ll know that you have enough to live on for a while.
The general advice is to put aside six months of living costs, but for many that could be an unattainable number - especially if you’re renting in an expensive city (cough-London-cough). If putting a lump-sum away isn’t possible, start small. Even if it’s £10 you’re putting into a pot each month, it’s better than nothing. Of course, the earlier you start the better - but it’s never too late.
I went into freelance life with exactly £0 savings thanks to my own bad choices. I made things incredibly difficult for myself early on and when things finally looked to be getting better, along came the pandemic and it only got worse.
Now, I put away around 15% of any income into an emergency fund, whether it’s a £50 job or £500 job. It’s no way near being 6 months living costs, and sometimes it’s literally only a few quid, but I rest easier knowing that I have anything at all to fall back on.
3/ I wish I’d organised my financial records better
I’ve just filed my first tax return and let me learn you a thing; record your expenses as you go. Your future self will thank you.
I mention this in my next point, but I was pretty pleased with myself for being fairly organised from the start. I missed something though and I didn’t even realise I had until now - I’d procrastinated with an entire section of my expenses and it ended up being a huge issue which almost cost me a good couple of Gs in claimable expenses.
PSA: London Oyster Cards only keep up to eight weeks history, so log your travel as you go and don’t do like me and wait until the whole year has passed 🙃
Now I’ve changed my system so that I’m logging expenses on a monthly basis, meaning that when it comes to the end of the year, it’ll already be done.
Another PSA: The mobile Google Drive app has a scan function which allows you to scan receipts directly into folders super easily.
Things I did do
1/ I (mostly) organised the shit out of everything
I was never a naturally organised person - in fact, I’m quite naturally chaotic, messy and a mega procrastinator - but I’ve grown to love a good spreadsheet, especially a colour-coded and automated one (I know I know).
One of the first things I did was organising my workflow and financial systems before I even got started as a freelancer and it helped a great deal later on. Of course, there was a lot of trial and error and finding what works.
As soon as you can, before you think you even need to, get to grips with your finances. If you're like me, it could take some time to get your head around it all - your workflow, how you’ll record everything, how you’ll store receipts and when (weekly, monthly?), what do your invoices look like, your contracts? How will you organise your tax bill? How will you pay yourself and how much? How does tax even work? National insurance? PenSiOn!?
Happily, almost all of this information is available online and lots of accountants offer advice and templates freely on their websites - many will even offer a free initial consultation and are happy to answer questions like the above. Pinterest is an especially good resource for finding templates.
A popular tip is setting a fixed percentage for your tax, national insurance and pension which you then take out of every single incoming payment. This means that when you come to tax time, the money is already there.
When you come to set the percentage, figure out how much you need to be paying - then add extra on top. This way, any mistakes or unpleasant surprises will be covered - or you’ll have calculated everything correctly and have something left over for a treat!
I also do this for savings - my emergency fund, business expenses, a “general” savings pot and some other pots for specific items; for example, I have a pot for my car bills and another way more fun pot for travel.
2/ I committed to the grind
Don’t fear the grind. Freelancing is, more often than not, a long game and in most cases you’ll get back only what you put in. Opportunities are usually a combination of hard work, luck, and the right timing.
When I was starting to think about going freelance, I spoke to several freelancer friends and peers to find out how they got their start, and as soon as I went freelance I knew where to begin. I spent time every single day constantly looking for work online, constantly contacting people, often being turned away or never hearing back again… and it paid off.
After around four months of this, I began to get some really exciting work and commissions. Unfortunately, Coronovarius came along and put a stop to that, but you get my gist.
At the same time, work smarter, not harder. If it’s not working out for you, or you’re not happy, change your approach, direction, and try something new. Just keep going, especially when it seems useless.
3/ I carried on making personal work
All throughout this mental year, I’ve been working on all sorts of personal projects. Sometimes I simply needed something to fill the time when I couldn’t get any work, and sometimes I tried things to stay active, creatively and mentally. It’s ended up a year of experimentation and trying new things, mostly out of necessity.
This is something that’s essential at any time of our creative lives though, not just during a pandemic. Had it not been for the pandemic, I’m not sure I would have worked on any of these things. I wouldn’t have launched this newsletter, or relaunched my online journal Black River, and I wouldn’t have made a project about my hometown, Croydon, which led to a sold-out zine and an even more exciting thing that I can’t tell you about yet.
All these things have been incredibly beneficial for me and my creative practice. If I ever get back to freelance photography, it will be beneficial there too.
So this final point is a reminder: don’t forget what you’re truly passionate about. Keep playing, experimenting, failing, trying new things!
Stay tuned for the second chapter of the On Freelancing mini-series: A sustainable way to manage your social media, dropping next Thursday.
A little about me
I’m a photographer and writer based in south London who enjoys telling stories about adventure, the outdoors, and our relationship with the natural world.
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