The numbers downfall of the arrogant writer
My very first 'how hard can it be' moment of full-time freelancing š
Welcome to the first installment of Failing Publicly, and thank you all for subscribing! I got a lot more interest in my first week of promoting this newsletter than I anticipated - as Iām writing these two more sign-ups have just dinged into my inbox. Iām hoping that means thereās a whole lot of freelancers out there with embarrassing fails who want a community of fellow failers to commiserate with. If not, youāre all just here to laugh at my fails, which is also okay.
I started this newsletter to be more honest about life as a freelancer. If you donāt know me IRL, I am a freelance writer and journalist and Iāve been freelancing full-time since March 2020. I share my wins along with the rest but my LinkedIn feed is not representative of what actually goes on behind the scenes.
I think we need to let ourselves be human, as well as Professional Freelancers, and realise that itās okay to mess up sometimes. Freelancing can be tough and anyone making a go out of it must be doing something right. Letās stop hiding our mistakes away in the dark and start laughing at some of the pitfalls we fall into along the way.
After all, seeing success after success can just get dull after a while. Letās have a little fun when things donāt go according to plan.
If youāre a newcomer but are keen to hear more of my own and otherās freelancing fails, subscribe now to have more Failing Publiclyās drop into your inbox each week. Otherwise, enjoy!
So, without further ado. My first major fail. Itās my first to be shared here and it was the first big one to mark my freelance career. As a humanities student, I have never been good with numbers. I did get an A in my Maths GCSE, but more because I wanted to prove a point to my snarky teacher who said I would be lucky to pass. Whenever I see numbers on a page, literally anything else will suddenly become far more interesting.
But with life as a freelancer comes the need to be a Business Person. I had to at least know how to do my taxes: this I could handle, I told myself. Itās basically just percentages, how hard can it be?
I started a spreadsheet (love a spreadsheet, I have one for literally everything in my life) and started tracking my income and expenses. I knew that I needed to save each month and that at the end of the year I could deduct all my business expenses before calculating the full sum.
āAha,ā I thought. āI could do this a smarter way. I know what expenses Iām incurring each month. I can just deduct them now and then save the exact right money. Of course, Iāll err on the side of caution and save a bit more, just to be safe. The last thing I want to do is come up short.ā
Note that this idea did actually enter my head. I didnāt want to come up short.
Three months passed and I was merrily on my way to building the freelance career of my dreams. I was entering my expenses into my spreadsheet at the end of the month when I had a sneaking suspicion something was wrong.
I frowned at my formula. Cogs were whirring in my head, like they always do when I try to do maths. My mathematically-incapable brain was grasping at a problem, unable to even identify it at first, let alone solve it.
Then the penny dropped. I had been calculating the percentage of my income that I needed to save for tax, then deducting my expenses from that number. āOh no,ā I thought. āHow big a difference can that actually make?ā
When you work from home and have some decent-sized monthly expenses in the way of rent, internet costs, etc, it can actually make quite a big difference. Well done, Rach.
Luckily, I did notice the fatal flaw in my immaculately colour-coded spreadsheet after just a couple of months, one of which was my first where I didnāt have a huge amount of income. I was able to top up my tax savings quickly and rescue Future Me from being the worldās stupidest tax fraudster.
Learn from me, kids, and donāt try to overcomplicate your taxes. Theyāre tough enough as is; just save the recommended amount of 30% each month and use accounting software or a real-life maths whizz (aka accountant) to do the tough bit for you. The heart-sinking moment when you think youāve just spreadsheet-ed your way into tax fraud is really, really not worth it.
I was incredibly nervous sharing my story about accidental tax evasion but now itās out in the world, I feel like it was a cathartic experience. If youāve got a past freelancing fail that you feel like the world should know about, this is your opportunity to share it with the class. It can be anonymous if you prefer and it also does not have to have a shining lesson of redemption. Sometimes, we just do stupid things - and thatās okay!
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