Tax Returns

How has over a week gone by since I last posted? I feel like I only wrote that piece about the Machinist yesterday. I am really not managing to stay on top of everything at the moment, not helped by the fact I just had the last few days off to watch the horses in Cheltenham, pop over to Cambridge to have a debauched Easter and then see the point-to-point racing in Basingstoke yesterday. I think I might just pretend I was secretly networking to make myself feel better, or maybe 'gathering inspiration'. On the plus side, I stayed up yesterday to sort my tax returns out. Yes, I am one of those annoying people that has already spread-sheeted out all my invoices and expenses and is ready to fill out my return as soon as the tax year ends. The best thing is, this is my 4th year of being self employed so my spreadsheets are organised to work everything out for me as I go along. Nothing quite like the experience of surprise bills and disorganised chaos and confusion to make yourself iron out some seriously helpful short cuts. Now, I am well aware of what I have earnt, what I have spent and what I owe Monsieur Le Taxman.  If only it helped make paying the bill easier....

But anyway, this is important when you are setting yourself up, no matter what you are trying to set up, a craft business, artwork, architecture, teaching, ANYTHING. You need to give yourself a chance to get under-way which may mean spending more than you earn, but at some point you need to have a cut off to decide whether you can, or cannot achieve your goals. I have been lucky so far, but only because I rule my accounts with an iron fist, and I have a supreme ability to be tighter than an oyster shell in the bad months. Being so stringent with everything means I can also compare my freelance years together, and so far, I have done a little better each year. This is the ONE thing that keeps me going - it is getting better each year, a little more money, a few more sales, which to me means it is working, or at least could work. In the months when work is slow, bills are pressurizing and my bank account is looking in danger of floating away, the fact it is slowly getting easier, is the only thing that keeps me going.

It is all good though, what is life without a little bit of risk? I am lucky, I can just about get by, doing what I love best, so that is worth all the agro in the world.