Budgeting Time and Money as a Creator

For many people, budgeting is simple. You take your income, subtract your expenses, and figure out what to do with the rest. Do you save? Invest? Splurge?

As a creator, your life is your business. And that makes budgeting, investing, and managing your money more complicated. The questions you ask yourself aren’t simply, “can I pay my bills and save for retirement this month?” But also, “how much will I owe in taxes?”, “how do I scale my operation?” and “is this a smart business investment?”

While everyone’s business, financial situation, and money mindset are different, there are guiding principles to help answer the tough money questions as a creator, and even help determine if you should be putting a penny down in the first place.

In this episode, Charli, Haley, and Miguel discuss how to get comfortable investing as an entrepreneur, which side hustles to consider if you’re worried about an upfront cost, and the three important questions every creator should ask themselves before spending a dollar.

Key Takeaways

• [00:42] - Have you heard?
  • [01:56] - Instagram will be prioritizing NFTs as an additional place for creators to share their work.
  • [04:13] - In the U.K., it is now illegal for clients to have payment terms longer than 30 days.
  • [07:50] - Meta will continue not to take a financial cut from creators.
• [09:10] - Today’s main topic: Budgeting your time and money as a creator.
  • [10:53] - As a creator, you have to determine what will happen if you don’t see a return on your investment.
  • [12:54] - It can take time to get comfortable spending money on your business. Some wait to invest in their business until they know they’ll see a return or until they’re financially stable.
  • [15:44] - Losing money is a part of entrepreneurship. You have to be comfortable with a little risk or your business will never grow.
  • [18:56] - Just like your retirement investments, you’re in entrepreneurship for the long game. Don’t stop just because you had a down month.
  • [20:03] - On the flip side, you shouldn’t invest in your business irresponsibly. There has to be a business justification behind every investment decision.
  • [24:56] - A business that relies on physical products is financially riskier.
  • [28:24] - Psychologically, people tend to justify escalating their commitment to something based on how much they’ve already invested. To avoid that trap, don’t spend money on your business that you’re not willing to lose.
  • [31:12] - Remind yourself of milestones that your investments have helped you reach. Those milestones help you rationalize future investments.
  • [33:20] - Don’t let perfectionism stop you from launching a business or side hustle. Your business is something you can grow into.
  • [36:02] - Ask yourself what type of business model works for you financially and emotionally. Not all businesses require massive upfront investments.
  • [40:18] - A creator’s money strategy depends on the creator.
• [41:29] - Today’s listener shoutout: ConvertKit writer Isa Adney recently published a wonderful story.
• [42:49] - A sneak peek at next week’s episode.

Quotes

[19:28] - “That’s something that entrepreneurs have to get comfortable with, they just have to get comfortable with being able to zoom out and say, ‘ok I might have a down month this month but it doesn’t mean I should panic and throw in the towel.’ If you can’t do that, then you should not be an entrepreneur.” ~ @haleyjani

[32:58] - “That’s exactly what a psychologist would tell you to do is say, ok, you’re going to spend this amount of money and you’re going to try at it for a year. And if in a year you haven’t passed this threshold, then you need to reassess and not keep escalating your commitment to it. Because at some point it’s just a money pit.” ~ @miguelp.img

[36:37] - “That’s the beauty of being a digital content creator or doing any sort of thing digital online is you really can do it all yourself to get started with. There’s not anything that you have to spend money on in order to get started.” ~ @charliprangley

[40:18] - “Don’t let anyone tell you there’s one right way to budget or one right amount you should be spending on your business as a creator.” ~ @charliprangley

Links

• Watch The Future Belongs to Creators on YouTube
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