Starting Bravely has been the most inspiring, educational, and stressful experience of my life. Since the idea of a financial literacy event company occurred to me, I have spent my time learning and trying all things related to freelance business in my life.
Bravely encompasses a lot of things; my freelance writing, our live events, our online products, speaking opportunities, and our weekly online content and social media accounts. Figuring out the right business designation to cover all these things, let alone how to afford to put them together and then to charge for them, has been a part of my every day life for the last year and ten months.
I’ve learned how to find clients and how to negotiate with them. I’ve learned what kind of email format is seen as professional and what is seen as immature. Learning how to open a freelance business in Texas was a month long ordeal. Figuring out how to build and design this website took almost two months.
Suffice it to say, I have earned my business savvy the old fashioned way- by trying, failing, trying again and seeing a little success. It’s been a hell of an experience, and one that I believe has shaped me into the person I am today. I know how to start and build a freelance business that works, and I want more people to know that too. So I created a freelance starter guide.
Why I Wrote This Freelance Starter Guide In The First Place
One of the most common questions I get as a freelancer and entrepreneur is ‘how did you get started?’ and the answer is as much a business lesson as it is an inspirational story.
We’re living in the age of the entrepreneur. People want to work for themselves. They want to take their lives in their own hands and control more of how they spend their time. People want to exercise their passion and use it to craft a life they love.
Thus, the boom of freelancing. Over 57 million Americans freelance in some capacity, and it looks like the number is only growing. People want to pursue their dreams, but there’s one gigantic flaw: there’s not enough clear information out there about how to do it legally and tidily.
Technically, anyone can start earning money as a freelancer at any time. And there are roughly a million articles that will tell you all about the good times you can have doing it! No pants, work the hours you want, and did we mention there’s no cap to how much you can earn? ‘Become a freelancer and become a millionaire’ may as well be the personal finance world’s slogan.
But in all these articles about income reports and finding clients, there is precious little information about how to set up your business legally in your state. There’s precious little information about what the hell quarterly taxes are, how they work, and how freelancers should prepare for them.
While you can find about a hundred articles about landing your first client as a new freelance business, you’ll be harder pressed to find first person accounts about how to open a business bank account and why that matters.
The Bravely Freelance Starter Guide
I get asked about the nitty gritty of owning a business and being a freelancer all the time. And much as I’d like to answer everyone’s questions one on one, I only have so many hours in a day.
So I did what entrepreneurs do. I condensed the information into one spot and I’m putting it up for sale. The Bravely Freelance Starter Guide takes you through opening a successful freelance business from start to finish.
You won’t just find glossy stories about how people started earning 10k a month and you can too. Here, you’ll find clear, actionable information on how to legally set up your business, open a bank account and get financially organized, set your rates, find your clients, and pay those pesky taxes.
You’ll find a guide on how to write an effective invoice, and tips on how to maximize your profit.
You’ll get two spreadsheets to track your income and your monthly profit and loss statements.
The Bravely Freelance Starter Guide helps new and seasoned freelancers get their businesses organized, get clear on their finances, and get to earning their freelance money in an efficient and profitable way.
Freelancing Rocks…When It’s Done Right
It’s my wish that future entrepreneurs and freelancers don’t have to endure as many stressful nights as I did. That they don’t have to spend so much time frantically Googling terms they don’t understand. And that above all, it doesn’t take them as long to hit financial stability as it took me.
Because freelancing can rock. But it can also suck! It can be stressful and hard and isolating, and you can feel lost in the sea of information out there. Plus, most freelancers are a team of ONE. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the amount of stuff there is to do. Learning it all on the go as you try to pay your bills and live your life is possible, but frankly, why do that to yourself? I did it to myself, and the first year of my business was one of the most mentally unhealthy years of my life.
I read a ton of articles on freelancing before jumping in. And none of them broke down what my tax obligation was going to be as a freelancer. I didn’t know I needed to save for my own taxes because no one else was. If I had known, I wouldn’t have gone to tears from an email from my accountant that told me I would owe $4,000 when I had nothing saved.
If someone had told me that you can add a late payment fee to invoices, I would have made literally hundreds of more dollars.
This guide is honestly more of a vindication of my first year freelancing than anything else. It’s also a wish that readers don’t have to go through the same bull shit that I went through. It’s a hope that freelancing becomes an easier business to thrive in.
So check out the Bravely Freelance Starter Guide if you’re interested in pursuing your own freelance business dreams. Because I’d love for you to join me out here, but I’d love it more if you were prepared when you took the freelance jump.
Thanks for information