Self-Employment

When you’re self employed, you have to learn how to treat yourself like a business. You pay a special tax, you have to claim working expenses and you have to put time, effort and even personal income into marketing and promotion.

In many ways, you are a business of one. When you act like one, not just professionally but financially, you can go further with your work at home goals…and lifestyle.

You Are Your Own Commodity

You’ve got the Web site. You maintain a pretty regular schedule. You have steady work at home jobs and gigs to keep you going; you even have a special space to work. What you may not have is a special, business-based bank account. You may not think you need one.

Whether you pay your taxes annually, quarterly or monthly, you will owe the government part of your income. In almost all cases, self employed professionals are also independent contractors who are paid not through a regular payroll, but through checks and payments with no deductions or taxes conveniently calculated.

You have to claim your income and then pay what you owe - and this can add up to a pretty penny. Keeping track of all the receipts and deductions you’ll need to claim your expenses can be a complicated affair.

Treat Yourself Like a Business

You probably already use a personal checking account to balance your home and work budget, but why not separate the two? Open a business account and put a portion of your income here. Take out expenses as necessary to have an easy record for tax purposes, simplifying claims that will save you income taxes.

If you use a pen name or pseudonym to conduct business, you can legally register your business account in this name, creating a DBA (doing business as) persona.