Entrepreneurship – Raihanaty A. Jalil

Tax record-keeping tips

Hey everyone! Welcome back to the next instalment in my blog series Mastering Money for Writers. As discussed in my previous post, we’ll be focussing on the topic of taxes for the next couple of months (something that many of my writer friends have asked me about, since it has been tax time in Australia).

So today, I’ll be discussing tax record-keeping tips.

The key principle I’ve learnt about taxes is, the more you can prove to the government that you have legitimate expenses in your “writing business” (the more examples you can show), the less tax you will pay. Because in fairness, you should only be taxed on your net profit (i.e. income minus expenses), not on your revenue (income before expenses are accounted for).

You might not be a true entrepreneur – and that’s okay

I listened to a podcast series more recently by Seth Godin that really struck me and helped me realise a few things. He prompted us to ask the question:

Do I want to be a Freelancer or an Entrepreneur?

It made me realise, I’ve never actually been a true entrepreneur and I think this is why I felt uncomfortable about continuing the businesses I had started: event coordination, admin support, life coaching etc. Because these are freelance ventures where I’m tied down and stuck working on the ground. I realised for the first time that I prefer the idea of being an entrepreneur, being the director, working “on” the business, not “in” the business.

Then an opportunity unexpectedly presented itself for me to start a business for my family that wasn’t necessarily something I was passionate about but as I’ve begun, I’m discovering a mindset shift, a different and exciting vision I’ve never experienced before.

Why McDonalds is the Best Business School in the World

A year ago today, unbeknownst to even my closest friends, I excitedly (and secretly) submitted applications to work at McDonalds around my existing full–time role. You may think of me as a bit crazy, and I am sure you may ask, “What would be exciting about working at McDonalds?”