Tell us about your business or freelance work

**zetta** · 02-08-2009, 06:53 AM

I'm not exactly a freelancer (I'm an independent software contractor working soley through a contracting firm that has 8 people), but I'll answer anyway...

1. How and when you got started?

August 2007. I was looking for part-time freelance work, and contacted a former coworker who was working part-time to ask how she liked it. She offered to forward my resume to the contracting firm she was with.

2. What you do?

Linux-based software for telecommunications and medical clients. I work from home and can limit my hours to 20-25 hr/wk.

3. How do you deal with taxes, accounting, office management and payroll if you have employees

No employees. I send an invoice every week, and get 1099 statements from my firm. I have to estimate and save for my own taxes.

4. How's your business doing now

Seems ok. Many companies hire firms like ours to do projects instead of taking on permanent employees.

5. Would consider going back to employment after being your own boss?

The president of our firm keeps us up-to-date on his efforts to bring in new business. Listening to this, I realize I have nowhere near the contacts that would be necessary to do this on my own. I love the flexibility of setting my own hours and working from home, but I would prefer to be doing a different sort of work (project management instead of writing code) that would require me to go back to being an employee. I haven't decided yet which way to go when my son starts kindergarten in 2010.

**maat55** · 02-08-2009, 09:10 AM

Mine is a small service business, but also builds new products. I custom build and reupholster furniture for interior designers.

Began working for my uncle at 14, went out on my own in May of 1989.

I have two employees at this time, I use Quickbooks for my books and Pensoft for my payroll.(pensoft imports to quickbooks) I do my own federal withholdings, statewithholdings and OESC reports. I pay quarterly for my personal taxes.

Business is slow at this time. It can be feast or famine. I have jobs waiting for fabrics that will send me into feast soon.

I've thought of going to school longterm to change my career, but probably won't. I have every reason to believe my business will be viable longterm. I have no problem with having a boss, in my business, the client is a boss so to speak. If my 110% is not good enough for someone, I would work somewhere else.

**TBH** · 02-08-2009, 12:06 PM

1. How and when you got started?

I've always been a writer (fiction, poetry, essays, kids books, you name it) but it generated almost no income from that, and instead worked FT in other fields. I won a couple poetry contests, but that was about it. Started writing a PF blog in 2005, and after reading my blog for a while, my friend who is an editor asked me to write for the newspaper where she works. I started doing that in 2007. Now I write a biweekly column for her. My other main client also came in through the blog. I wrote a site review for one of his websites and we got to talking, and now I do a few articles for him every year. He owns a bunch of websites and hires me to write content. He makes his money through ad revenue.

2. What you do?

Freelance writing and research. Areas of expertise are insurance, real estate, and personal finance, with a little bit of other stuff thrown in as the need arises. I also very occasionally do something else publishing-related (editing, the occasional book index).

3. How do you deal with taxes, accounting, office management and payroll if you have employees

No employees. I save about a third of my income for taxes and do them myself (pencil and paper method). In addition to Federal and State, I have to pay a hefty city tax because I'm considered a small business.

4. How's your business doing now

So far so good. I only have the 2 clients, which is plenty. Both fell into my lap, so I was very lucky. I really should be looking for more clients so my income streams are a little more diversified, but I don't have time for more work because I also have a part-time dayjob, not to mention a young family. Both my main clients rely heavily on online ad revenue, so that makes me feel a bit vulnerable. I can see the recession having a bad impact on ad revenue, which would then mean they wouldn't be able to keep hiring me.

5. Would consider going back to employment after being your own boss?

I do still work in my old field part-time because it gives me benefits. I hope I never have to do that full time again. I would consider being a staff writer somewhere, but only if it was part-time and allowed me to still do other things. Really, as long as I was able to do it on my own time (with deadlines, of course) and write for other places too, it wouldn't make much difference to me if I was on the payroll somewhere versus being a contract worker.

**rizzmo** · 02-09-2009, 08:15 AM

1. How and when you got started?

It all started in early 2008 when my wife and I started trying to perfect an old family recipe for a spicy type of popcorn. How it was made was time consuming, yielded unpredictable results, and could only be made in small quantities. At first improving the recipe was just a hobby, but as the complexity of the tasked increased so did our time and capital investments.

2. What you do?

We are a manufacture that produces bottled oil. Companies use the oil to produce healthy, spicy, gourmet popcorn.

3. How do you deal with taxes, accounting, office management and payroll?

I use Quickbooks for the bookkeeping, and we use an accountant to help with taxes. My wife handles payroll, HR, and staff management, while I handle the purchasing, research and development, and process improvement.

4. How�s your business doing now?

Our sales have been growing and we are getting ready to hire one full time employee, and two more come this summer.

5. Would you consider going back to employment after being your own boss?

Sure would the boss is a real tyrant, unreasonable hours working for peanuts. Ha! Actually, we are both still working in our fields, so really can�t answer that yet.

**Russell** · 02-09-2009, 09:03 AM

I really appreciate everyone taking the time to respond to this post. It's truly inspiring, thanks and please keep it coming.

**mdcrim** · 02-09-2009, 09:03 AM

1. How and when you got started?

I had been working for a local government for over 6 years, making very little money in exchange for job security and flexibility. I got a new boss and my flexibility went away which was a HUGE perk to the job. It became a deal breaker for me and I took the plunge to become self-employed in 7/06.

2. What you do?

I am a consultant to the federal government. I either subcontract to government contractors or solicit contracts directly from the feds.

3. How do you deal with taxes, accounting, office management and payroll if you have employees

No employees, I pay estimated quarterly taxes (first year just guessed and ended up overpaying the state by almost $3000...). I use turbotax for the April taxes. I basically document all my mileage/ tolls/ parking expenses on my calendar and have envelopes for different receipts. At the end of the year, I add up the receipts in each envelope. It's not nearly as hard as I had originally anticipated, although it is time consuming.

4. How's your business doing now

Okay-one large contract I had pretty much dried up out of the blue in November and it has taken some time to get other contracts, but when it rains it pours. I have had to turn down work and am able to pick and choose what contracts are the most beneficial to my bottom line.

5. Would consider going back to employment after being your own boss?

Not unless the money were great and the security and benefits were excellent (maybe for a high paying federal job). The thought of going back to work for "the man" does not appeal to me at all. I was offered a full time position with a competitor of mine within 2 weeks of my contract drying up in November but it just didn't feel right. There is something to be said about having the flexibility to be your own boss. And in my situation, I am making a lot more money than I would be if I were working for someone else.

Tell us about your business or freelance work