Get a piece of the Government's pie. Believe us three of us have received money from grants and commissions when we were starting our careers and now that we look back these grants were a big push to putting our careers on the fast track. With a little bit of knowledge and now guidance from us take advantage of all this money the GOV has to give away. Even music artists like Madonna, and Sting have received grants....why not you. It's business
The amazing part is its FREE money. Believe us it really is!!
Click here to get the full scoop.
Showing posts with label Personal Finances. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Personal Finances. Show all posts
Your Credit Report/Score
Most artists we encounter and talk about personal finance we are always shocked how little emphasis they put on having a good credit report and good credit score. No matter what any artist is planning on doing, a time hopefully sooner than later will come when you'll need a loan from the bank either to grow and expand your business, invest in a home (very cool!) or even just a loan to get by while we wait for the big check.
Specially now a days with all the identity thieves out there, you should be staying on top of this to make sure there's no wired things on it. The good thing about checking it is that you will be able to report any discrepancies and get these erased by the credit report companies. Most of the time even if you have a bill oon collections you can report it, pretend like you dont know about it and they'll erase it.....
Check your credit. Dont be silly.
Click here to do it for FREE
Tax Tips for Artists
If you're a working artist looking to keep more of your income in your own pocket rather than it going toward taxes, here are
some helpful organizing tips.
Create a business log
When doing your taxes (or in case of an audit) the most useful documentation you can have as a working artist, besides receipts, is to keep a business log book. You can use a notebook or a computer spreadsheet, a calendar or a date book for this purpose. Each time you travel anywhere or purchase anything that is tax deductible, make a notation in your log.
Just click on the pic and you can
read the complete article.
7 Important Money Saving Tips For your home office
You don't need me to tell you that the economy is in dire straits; it's heavily covered on every news channel and website. More and more, people are scratching and clawing to improve their personal finances whether it's new techniques to save more money or creative ways to earn extra cash.
Artists, thought of as 'the isolated many' aren't isolated from the economy. Contrary to what many might think, Art isn't a zero investment job; there are some significant costs associated with it. Since they are living in the same world and a part of the same economy, it's important for them to gear up and tackle the situation in a way that can cut costs without hurting their business.
If you are a web worker, consider starting with the following tips and then see if you need to cut more on certain other aspects of your work.
Identify Expenses
It sounds crazy but it's common for most artists to not have an organized way to calculate total income and expenditure. When you are taking projects and small jobs from dozens of people or companies, much of your time could be spent as bookkeeper, and well, that is not increasing earnings.
Hence, the first thing you should do is sit down and make a detailed account of your income and expenditures. Either hire an accountant or do it yourself, but make sure it is crystal clear what your home and business expenses are. You will find people you forgot to bill and you will find expenses you forgot to write-off.
Isolate the Absolute Essential
Saving money doesn't mean that you will ditch broadband and go for dial-up internet; . There will be other such absolute essentials depending upon the type of work you do. Identify them and isolate them from the cost cutting process. And yes, be prudent in picking the essentials.
Go Paperless
Believe it or not, going paperless could save you a great deal of hassle and money. It will make your home office clutter free and will keep you from spending hours searching for that important file or notepad. There is some great software and tools available and they can easily replace your paperwork.
Use Freeware
Since I talked about software, I'd say freeware is the way to go, unless of course there isn't a great alternative (like for photoshop). But for most of the paid software out there, there some cool open source alternatives available. Sites like Osalt will help you in finding them.
Use Skype And Reduce Phone Bills
Phone bills could turn out to be a major cost for most artists, especially for those who have local clients. If you are one of them, I'd suggest you suppress the urge to use your cell phone to make a call every time and instead, use a tool like Skype to make calls.
Look for Free Learning Material
Self-study is an important thing that absolutely shouldn't be overlooked. There is no doubt that paid courses could be of better quality but the web is full of free, quality ebooks and guides. Try to find such stuff and use them for gaining knowledge. Free pdf search engines like PDFGeni could help you in this search.
Swap Books & DVDs
You'd love this tip. Did you know that there are services like SwapaDVD to exchange DVDs with others and PaperBackSwap or BookMooch to exchange books ?
Smart Year-End Tax Moves
Quicken Online
Simple, and smart way to manage your personal and business finances. Set up automatic bill pay options, and text message reminders of upcomming bills Quicken online does it all for FREE.
Mint
So easy you’ll actually use it
Mint.com shows you what you and others spend, so you can set an achievable goal. Then we stay by your side, alerting you to your progress.
Mint.com allows you to keep track of all your bills, and bill payment reminders. Never pay a late bill again or allow creditors to charge you late fee's.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
