. HOW TO TURN YOUR BLOG INTO A BUSINESS: GETTING A GRIP ON FINANCES .
Turning your blog into a business isn’t quite as simple as just doing what you love for a living, naturally blogging for business also means you have to deal with the business side too, and with that comes finances. Whether it’s setting up your business, managing your accounts or working with partners, there’s definitely a financial side that needs good management if you want to succeed.
Today I wanted to share 5 financial things you need to consider and some tips on how to manage the commercial and financial side of a business blog.
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. 5 FINANCIAL THINGS TO CONSIDER WHEN BLOGGING FULL TIME .
#1 SET UP COSTS
First of all, whilst most of us bloggers run our blogs as a hobby, there’s no denying there are a lot of costs attributed to running a blog. Whether that’s the finance required to set up your blog from a web design & hosting part of view, or the cost of your kit from a laptop to camera, or even the cost spent on developing the content to write about (clothes, products, etc).
Before embarking on blogging full time, be sure to consider your regular AND irregular outgoings and set up costs. They probably come to a lot more than you might think.
#2 SAVINGS
To that vain, it’s pretty important to have some back up before taking your blog full time, some savings in your back pocket for quiet or slow months, to cover your living costs & rent and to make sure you’re keeping everything balanced cost wise. Blogging full time sometimes can be very fruitful, but as with most freelance & self employed businesses, there can be months where income is very low, if not non existent, so you need to be prepared & have some savings to call on in these moments.
#3 REGULAR INCOME
That leads me to my third point, a regular income. Working for yourself means a monthly salary is pretty much non existent, your salary will come from affiliates, client collaborations & advertising, but there’s no guarantee month by month that what you earn will be enough to cover your living. So being proactive in managing your finances, securing regular clientèle (or being fortunate enough to have an agency backing) and ensuring your monitoring your projects and project flow is really key.
#4 TAXES
Don’t forget taxes. I’m not going to go into the details of this in too much detail, it probably warrants a whole post on it’s own. But don’t forget to keep track of your income, accommodate taxes in your project rates & be ready for the tax man each year!
#5 EXPENSES
And finally, as well as tracking all your income, be sure to keep note of all your business outgoings too, don’t forget that some costs are tax deductible, and therefore should be tracked in your balance sheets too. Income, minus outgoings, equals profit. The profit of your business is what you’ll be taxed on, so make sure you keep track of this. Whether it’s a train ticket to a business meeting, lunch with a client or repairs on your camera, these are all things which contribute to the running of your business and therefore should be deducted from your overall income sheet.
The finance side of running your own business is clearly complicated, and I’ve only briefly touched on some key elements to consider here. It’s really worth exploring each of these more thoroughly if you’re thinking about going full time, to ensure you fully understand what’s required of you. You can read a few more of my tips here, all about what to consider before blogging full time.
Are you finding my blogging for business tips series helpful? I’d love to get your feedback?
