Yesterday I got to send an invoice. A really nice one: I didn’t have to do any extra work for it. I received additional compensation for the broadcast of an event I previously presented. You would think that it would have been an easy invoice to create. Because in theory I could have just copied the invoice I had already sent for that previous presenting gig and adjust a few numbers.
Unfortunately, that sort of adjusting doesn’t easily come to me. Numbers are my number-one enemy – they always have been. As soon I catch sight of them, my brain explodes – I can never remember or understand them. It’s why I ended up having to resend that invoice three times; each time I managed to get something wrong.
As a self-employed person, I have to deal with a lot of administrative work. Work that takes up hours and hours of my time because I make so many mistakes that I have to double-check everything. It’s not just that though – this stuff also makes me angry, plain and simple. I lose my patience when I have to calculate things. So, it’s a simple … calculation (ha!) – I shouldn’t do any administrative work!
My great advantage is that I don’t have a boss and that I can delegate the parts of my work I don’t like to someone else without so much as a blush. It’s why a significant chunk of my paperwork goes straight to my accountant. When a letter to do with my taxes arrives – merely spotting the tax administration’s logo makes my blood boil – I scan it for my accountant, knowing that he’ll sort it out with his wealth of knowledge, patience and a smile, i.e. all the things that I cannot muster.
My accountant takes care of the stuff that I don’t like to do and that I’m also not good at. So that I can focus on the things I am good at and that people pay me to do. It’s why I pay all my accountant’s invoices with great pleasure, no matter the amount.
It’s these invoices that came to mind when I read Linda’s last newsletter, in which she hit the nail on the head by pointing to the absurd incentives that push self-employed people to buy things they don’t need just so they can expense them. I’m really bad at calculating things, yes, but even I could tell that I did not make enough expenses at all in 2020. Because of corona, I had zero restaurant and travel costs, and conducted all my meetings and interviews over Zoom, while slurping on coffee I had poured myself. And like Linda, I refuse to replace my five-year-old MacBook, just to have an extra business cost. Which of course means there aren’t a lot of things left for me to expense.
It’s why I’ve been reflecting on how to spend my money in a more useful way in 2021. I want to get more invoices like my accountant’s, invoices that I pay with a smile on my face. Invoices from other freelancers who, by doing what they’re good at, make my job … hell … my life easier.
I want to outsource even more paperwork. I want to fill my summer with online workshops by professionals who can help me get better at what I do. I’ll have an American journalist read my pitches more often, someone who can help me tailor my English-language pitches to an international audience. And I can probably come up with more useful things to outsource, while letting my fully “depreciated” MacBook continue to do its job.
Tell me: what are the tasks that you prefer to outsource? And did you also adjust your spending as a result of corona? Let us know at freelancerthefriendly@gmail.com
Speak soon,
Selma
What I’m reading, watching, listening to this week:
I finally updated my website and my LinkedIn page. Thanks to photographer Sarah Van Looy, someone with whom I love to work, I have new professional photos. And of course I had to use those photos somewhere too, a good enough reason to update my socials!
I’m currently reading journalist Sarah Jaffe’s book Work won’t love you back. Here is a thought provoking article she recently wrote for The Guardian, with a must click headline: ‘Married to the job: how a long-hours working culture keeps people single and lonely’.
Brussels Explained is back! I can’t wait to explore questions like ‘How did the Grote Markt become a pedestrian zone?’, ‘Why are there so many foxes in Brussels?’ and ‘Where do Brussels sprouts come from?’. Join us online on May 4 and May 6.
This newsletter was written by Selma Franssen, a Dutch author, journalist and presenter living in Brussels. In two weeks, you’ll hear from Linda A. Thompson, a Belgian journalist, content writer and translator.