Tips for Business Travellers
In a former life, I spent more than twenty years working internationally. I spent more time in airports, railway stations and hotels than I did in the office. If you…
You MUST Read This? I Don’t Think So
I came across an astonishing outburst on Facebook the other day. OK, so this is Facebook, where astonishing outbursts are two a penny, but this one took my breath away….
Business of Writing: Sources of Advice
[No sooner has November (and NaNoWriMo) faded into history than we are in December and the long, slow run up to Christmas. Except that it’s not slow at all. In…
Too Busy To Write?
I am lucky enough to write for a living. It’s my full-time job. So that means I have at least thirty-five hours a week when I can be sitting at…
Planning a Writing Project
Writers are creative people; we work when the muse visits us. We don’t have to worry about working to timetables or plans like people with ‘proper’ jobs. Right? Wrong! Whether…
Another Change of Direction
I’ve been trying out a few different approaches to this blog over recent months. Firstly, I finished my year-long series on Writing as a Small Business. This was partly because I…
Who You Gonna Call? The Professionals
Last week we talked about informal networks and especially the support we can get not just from the writing community but also from other small businesses. Today, we’re going to…
Who You Gonna Call? Informal Networks
I’ve just returned from a packed weekend at my first Winchester Writers’ Conference. This event, which has been running for the past 33 years, was the brainchild of the wonderful…
Risk Management
All businesses are subject to risk and our business as writers is no exception. These days, risk management has become a huge topic: the subject of whole books; the purpose…
Cash Flow Planning: Expenditure and Dealing with Deficits
Having looked at income, we now turn to expenditure. Here, there is tends to be more certainty, especially with regard to fixed costs (the costs we incur whether or not…
Cash Flow Planning: Income
Like the P&L and balance sheet, cash flow can be looked at historically. In this context, it is used to show how changes in the balance sheet have occurred over…
Accounting Statements: Profit and Loss
As I said in the introduction to accounting statements, the profit and loss (P&L) statement provides an historical picture of how our business has performed over a given time period….
Accounting Statements: Introduction
In the past two articles, we’ve looked at what records we need to keep in our small business; records both of income and of expenditure. Now we’re going to start…
Keeping Financial Records: Expenditure
Last week, we looked at how to keep records of income; now we’re going to look at recording our expenditure. Then we’ve got the two sides of the equation: we…
Keeping Financial Records: Income
Back in January, we looked at the common types of financial system used by small businesses, whether paper-based; a simple spreadsheet; or commercial software. Now we are moving on to…
Finanical Systems: Keeping it Appropriate
A belated Happy New Year to you all. It’s been a while since I’ve written one of these Business of Writing articles. A lot has happened in the meantime, not…
Tax Matters
[This week’s post is specific to the UK; the principles apply in most countries but the specifics vary, so non-Brits need to review the requirements with your national authorities]In my…
Business Structures
One of the questions to be resolved when setting up any small business is which structure is the most appropriate? There are a number of options including: self-employment; partnerships; limited…
Giving It Away: Should We Write For Free?
[By pure co-incidence, fellow-writer Patsy Collins has also been blogging about the same topic this week, although she is talking about the provision of free books for Kindle. Read her…
Thinking About Finances
One phrase that is often quoted by experienced business people is: turnover is vanity; profit is sanity. The long-term objective of any small business is to be successful, otherwise why…
Business Start-Up: Getting Paid
We’ve talked about finding the customers; we’ve looked at getting the work (i.e. the writing) done. Now we’re going to focus on the third element: getting paid. Talking about money…
Business Start-up: Doing the Work
[There was no post last week, due to long weekend in Paris, and just a quickie today, as I’m in the middle of extended celebrations for a BIG birthday. Normal…
Business Start-up: Reaching the Customers
Setting up a successful small business is a major step — and is not one we should take lightly. It’s also a huge topic, so I’m going to cover it…
Business Plans for Writers
The starting point for every new business should be a good, clear business plan — and our writing business is no different. It’s an important tool, for example, in talking…