The other night I spent 4 hours straight pulling together documents and doing calculations in Excel for last year’s taxes.
Partly this was funny, because I’m supposed to hate this work and complain about it a bunch. But, it was so mindless (I’ve setup a recording system that helps me out a lot) that I was listening to podcasts and happily plugging in numbers while I got closer and closer to the end.
So, in that sense it also gave me time for reflection.
Because honestly, even a few short years ago – I had no idea what I was doing in terms of running a real business. A “real” business meaning, dealing with accountants, lawyers, understanding tax and business law, making sure everything I do is properly recorded and completely legal so nobody comes to my door at 3AM and hauls me off for tax evasion over $20 I missed in the early 2000’s.
Keep this in mind too – I’ve been self-employed either full time or part time every year since 2009. So it’s taken me a long time to “understand what the heck I’m doing”.
If I’m honest, in a few years I’ll probably look back again and laugh at how dumb I’m being right now too.
Thus, today’s lesson.
You Have to Start Somewhere
If you’re anything like me, you want everything to be “perfect” before you put out any work.
You don’t want to give anyone room to find anything to critique and you also want to put your best foot forward. Simultaneously, your ego is super fragile and you want people to see how good that you know you are.
It’s a weird combination. Quite frankly, that’s just not how the world works.
I think most of you know this even if you’re afflicted by what I just described – but people will always find something to criticize or dislike, and you can also always learn and grow. The antidote to this mental madness creatively-speaking is to just pump out more content. Pump out stupendously bad stuff if you have to, just keep putting things out fast enough that you quit worrying about it and in enough volume that you start to get better rapidly and publicly.
Believe it or not, a very similar thing applies when it comes to getting on your feet and dealing with clients, money, and the government.
Just as on the creative side – where you have no choice but to start at the bottom when you don’t know anything and you’re just learning – you do the same with business.
My All Time Low
One of the first few years I was on my feet – specifically my first year in Seattle – I paid my rent one month from the money I got via my tax return check.
To those of you who don’t know the American tax system, that means two things happened:
- I made a ridiculously low amount of money
- I overpaid in taxes on said money, or qualified for tax breaks based off of how little I made
Either way, I knew what I was doing with business so well that the government bailed me out of homelessness or bartering a rent payment.
I’m serious. That’s not a joke, that actually happened.
Meanwhile, some of you look at me like I’m a “guru” or a super genius. Oh… if you only knew…
But now, this story comes in handy – because I think even you can do a HECK of a lot better than that.
So how did I go from so much failure to now having a very successful audio career, working on big game titles (and plenty of other things), and also bringing in a decent side-income online and running everything legally with way less stress?
One Step at a Time
Knowledge and understanding didn’t come overnight. Most likely, it won’t come that way to you either. This is what I want you to take from this email:
You don’t have to know how to do everything perfectly, you just need to start!
That is exactly what I did.
Initially I got hooked up with an accountant that was a friend through my family. He answered some of my dumb questions, but also left me fairly well in the dark (I was a small peanuts client). But the experience taught me the basics – when taxes are due (yup), how write-offs work, why to write things off, how to keep receipts, if I needed to file a formal “business entity”, etc.
I did so well that I stopped getting bailed out on my rent, and I had to start paying taxes.
Then I got into books about business, money management, taxes, and how legal business entities work. Those books fleshed out my knowledge even more and I stopped freaking out about whether I was “doing it right” or not.
Plus, I paid more taxes!
Eventually, I decided to take my side-gig much more seriously. So, I built myself a team of legal and accounting professionals.
(For the record, they don’t know they’re “on my team” and we don’t have jerseys or hats or anything – I just pay them and in return they have to answer all of my dumbest questions! It’s literally the best, I’m not remotely kidding.)
I built this team by contacting people who I:
- Trust
- 100% know are successful – to me, this meant they run a business, make more than me, and are regularly teaching me
Then I asked their recommendations for professionals to work with. I got those recommendations and immediately reached out with a “warm” contact by being able to name-drop the person who made the recommendation.
Consequently, 2018 is the last time I’m doing bookkeeping by hand and I now have instant contact to super smart people who can answer my questions at any time. Some of you who know what you’re doing are laughing at this right now – and that’s fine because I’ll eventually get where you are!
The important thing is this – I didn’t start here.
You don’t have to either
Here’s What You Do
You should take away 3 things from this email:
- I was once more of an idiot than you. So, it’s safe for you to admit what you don’t know.
- I left my childish idiot ways behind and learned. So, you’ll get there as well! Even if it takes a while.
- You just need to get started.
Don’t let the “I don’t know enough” or “I’m not good enough” or “I’m not sure if I’m doing this right” feelings stop you from doing the things that will help you achieve your dreams.
(Obviously – but I’ll spell it out – don’t do anything illegal either. I’m not advocating any form of lying, cheating, or stealing.)
You can simply put your best foot forward right now. Do now what you best understand to be “good”, and correct yourself later when you find out that wasn’t so good after all.
Build your first few clients, which will help you learn the beginnings of doing business well and legally. Pull in money to read books about how to get better and make your business more formal. Once you’re stable and can afford it – then build a team around you to help you succeed more.
In other words – build LEGO brick by LEGO brick. Don’t try and make the Hogwarts Castle set all at once, on your first time building LEGOs, all by yourself.
Okay?
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