“Yeah, it’s tax time!” - said no creative ever

The start of April inevitably means it’s time to do your taxes. Love them or hate them (I’ve yet to meet a maker who really enjoys this annual ritual), taxes are critical to keeping any small creative business running successfully, so for this week’s Maker Monday Motivation I wanted to pass along some words of encouragement and simple tips, to help you as you take on the accounting tasks in your week ahead.

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Tips to turn your tax time into an empowering (and possibly even enjoyable) part of running your creative business:

Shift your mindset:

• Look at tax time as an opportunity to really see how your creative venture preformed.
• Consider doing your taxes as a great chance to get organized.
• Be grateful you’ve chosen a creative pursuit instead of crunching numbers all day ;)!
• Is your studio in your home? Running your own creative biz allows you to write off a portion of your bills such as your rent, utilities, internet...that’s pretty cool!
• Make your tax prep hours more enjoyable with this Spotify playlist by Billboard.

Prepare throughout the year:

• Track the miles you drive for business purposes with the MileIQ app.
• Set up an accounting software to track your income and expenses year round. (I’m a big fan of Freshbooks)
• Save receipts! Your creative business (even as a side-hustle) allows you to deduct many of the things you spend money on each day (ie: that coffee date where you talked about your products; your design magazine subscriptions; visiting museums for “research”). The Shoeboxed app is a great way to insure you never lose a receipt.

Get help:

• Taxes stress you out? Hire an accountant and let someone else do the number crunching and tax preparation for you.

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Need some help getting organized so tax time isn't so stressful in the future? I’d love to support you. Schedule a free 30 min intro coaching phone-session.

We’re in this together,

Ashley