Freelancing is serious business. From finances to legal protection, there’s a lot to juggle when you’re self-employed.
The “Getting Down to the Business of Freelance Journalism” panel, held on Oct. 1, shared advice with journalists on navigating the nuts and bolts of finances and legal affairs when starting a freelance business.
Freelance writer Ruth Thaler-Carter, in the game since 1984, shared advice alongside Susan Rector, a partner at Peterson Law LLP specializing in intellectual property law and Dawn B. Hill, a certified public accountant.
“Being a freelancer means you’re in business,” Thaler-Carter said. “You are not just a journalist. In some ways, you aren’t a journalist at all; you’re a business owner.”
Thaler-Carter discussed expenses and resources freelancers need, such as office software, tax advice, business registrations, certifications and memberships in trade associations. “A lot of people go into their own business not realizing that there’s a lot of complicated stuff related to record keeping and business,” she said. “Those things really make a big difference in having your freelance business go smoothly.”
Rector broke down different kinds of intellectual property and shared how freelancers can secure the rights to republish their work. Authorship does not automatically denote copyright ownership, she said. “Authors are owners of their own work unless they are W-2 employees or certain independent contractors, in which case the copyright transfers to the hiring party. Any exceptions need to be made in writing.”
Owning and enforcing copyrights are not the same thing, said Rector. “You have copyright rights from the moment you create something, but to enforce it, you have to register your copyright,” she said. “Regardless, anything you do you should mark with your name, the copyright notice that you see in the circle, the date,and then the owner.”
Hill shared advice on being self-employed and tips for accurate tax reporting and tracking expenses. Freelance writers typically receive pre-tax income, meaning they pay taxes after receiving payments. This, she said, makes expense tracking important. Expenses are easy to forget in the moment, so she encourages having your own system to keep track of every receipt.
“You want to think: what are all of the ways that I spent money to generate that income that came in?” Hill said. “Having some type of system, setting that up at the beginning is going to be the best thing for you to do.”