by May Monten

Created on: November 09, 2010

Freelancers are often creative people. You may have chosen to freelance because you wanted to make money from your creative talents.  Freelancing, though, is also a business.  As the owner of your business, you have to take care of administrative tasks.  While these tasks are seldom as enjoyable as the creative work itself, they have to be done.  The most important thing you need to do is to keep good records.

* You must keep track of your submissions

If you are sending out work "on spec" - that is, sending it to publishers and waiting to see if they will accept it or reject it - you must keep good records so that you know where your submissions are at all times.

For example, say that you write poems and that you are sending them to magazines that don't allow simultaneous submissions.  If you don't keep good records, you might accidentally send a poem to more than one magazine at a time.  Even worse, if you are selling a lot of your work, you could accidentally send out a poem that you already sold!  Don't rely on your memory alone for this.

There are many ways to keep track of submissions, from a simple list in a spiral notebook to a spreadsheet on your computer.  There are also online submission trackers.  Whatever method you use, the most important thing is to be consistent and always record when you send a submission out, when it is returned, and what happened.  It's also useful to make a note about any comments you received from the editor.

* You have to be prepared for taxes

Figuring out taxes is bad enough, but it's worse if you can't find your records or if you never saved them in the first place.  You should keep taxes in mind all year round, and set up a system to record your freelance income and any expenses that might be deductible.  Save receipts, when possible, for the expenses.

Depending on your preferences and how much work you do, your system could be as simple as a notebook or a spreadsheet, or you could buy a software accounting package designed for small businesses.

* Good record-keeping can help you strategize

If you do freelance work for different companies, you probably want to know where your efforts have been the most fruitful.  By keeping good records of what you sell to each company, you can compare one company to another.  If you are interested in learning what kind of work has been paying you the most per hour, then you'll need to keep records of your time, and what you used it for, as well.  Once you see where your work is best paying off, you can make solid choices about where to concentrate your efforts - choices that are based on actual data, not on wild guesses.

By keeping good records, you can also motivate yourself by finding out if you are meeting any goals you set, and whether you income is increasing as time goes on.

For some highly-creative people, record-keeping does not come easily and is something they would rather avoid.  However, it's essential when it comes to taxes and submission-tracking, and very helpful for making future plans.  The best way to make record-keeping less of a hassle is to take the time at the beginning to set up systems that will be easy for you to follow.

Learn more about this author, May Monten.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.