Archive for January, 2007
For all you eastside workers and dwellers…
Thursday, March 29, 7:00 p.m.
Author reading
Parkplace Books
348 Parkplace Center (at Third Street South), Kirkland, WA
Attention scribes: I hear this store has a fantastic writers’ section. And for all you mompreneurs, word on the street is the parenting and kids’ sections rock. Besides, I wanted to read at this store to support the owners post-December flood. Happy they’re up and running again!
January 31st, 2007
Actually American teens, boomers, and seniors are, according to today’s Christian Science Monitor, which ran an article called “Why volunteerism has reached historic high in US.”
It’s encouraging to see that 29 percent of Americans are lending a hand these days, no doubt driven by the realization that there’s more to life than staff meetings and stock options. Check out these excerpts:
…companies, including CVS, Best Buy, and The Home Depot, are giving employees time to volunteer and are rewarded with more productivity and higher retention rates…
Also:
“Americans want something more than a 9-to-5 job,” says Annmarie Emmet of Washington, who joined the Peace Corps at age 71. A retired government banker who never married, Ms. Emmet began volunteering at the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial Wall 18 years ago. In 2002, she journeyed to the African nation of Lesotho, where she spent two years helping those affected by the AIDS crisis. Her reason for volunteering is simple: She enjoys helping people.
“So many people sit in front of a computer in an office, and I feel sorry for them,” Emmet says. “I think so many people go to real 9-to-5-type jobs and don’t find a lot of reward in it, and I think maybe being able to help someone or maybe being able to offer something that is not expected, that can make people feel good.”
Yeah, but this woman is retired. I do wish the article had focused a bit more on recent grads who’ve just entered the workforce and want to do something other than park their rear in the cube for the next several decades but also need to make a living. Because merging service and commerce can be done, by starting your own social enterprise, doing paid work overseas, taking a volunteer vacation, etc.
You don’t have to look far to find younger women blending service work with a paycheck in the US and abroad. Sites like The REAL Hot 100 and There’s More to Life Than Shoes are filled with ‘em. And I interviewed many women for the book who have made a full-time or side career out of helping others, on just about every continent, too. If you have the book, check out chapters 7 and 8, on work that helps people and/or feeds your wanderlust.
January 30th, 2007
I get asked this a lot — by friends, students, people on the street — so I’m posting my answer here. For the sake of this post, let’s assume we’re talking about you running a sole proprietorship, which is legalese for “one-woman business.” You’re not an Inc. or an LLC; you didn’t pay a lawyer to “get incorporated.” You’re just someone who woke up one day and decided to start selling your creative talents in exchange for cold hard cash. (Let’s also assume you’re not embarking on a venture that requires a professional license and letters after your name — MD, DC, ESQ, and the like.)
The IRS defines a business (as opposed to a hobby) as a venture you’re trying to be profitable in. So if you’re trying to make money, land customers, promote your enterprise, then, yes, Virginia, you are a business owner. And if you’re a business owner, depending on what city and state you live in, you may need a business license. Check with your city and state’s Department of Licensing websites to see what their rules and regs are.
For instance, I live in a burb of Seattle. I have a state business license for my freelance writing and editing business, which cost me a one-time fee of $15 almost a decade ago. In exchange, I get to file an annual tax return (by January 31st) with the state, whether or not I owe any taxes. (Kindly, Washington state doesn’t start collecting taxes until you clear “making a pittance” level.)
When I lived in Seattle proper, I had a city business license that ran me about $80 a year (though I believe it’s since gone up to $90). I had to file an annual return with the city, too, but appreciated the fact that Seattle didn’t tax you on business income if you grossed under $50,000 that year. In my new little town, there is no business license required for freelance writing, so that’s one less bill and form I have to worry about for the time being. That said, if I wind up doing any business in Seattle, the city of Seattle will expect me to have a business license and pay any taxes owed there.
I realize this may not answer your question if you’re, say, only making $5,000 a year in freelance income. I asked my Friend the CPA about this 15 years ago when I was just starting out and had no money to spare for a business license. While Friend the CPA couldn’t legally tell me that there was a decent chance no one would notice if I didn’t get a business license at that point in time, he seemed to imply it. But that was 15 years ago, and I’m not giving you actual legal or accounting advice, remember?
If you’re equally baffled by the whole business license question, run it by your tax preparer and see what s/he thinks. If you don’t have a tax preparer, get one. Also, call your city and state’s Department of Licensing and see what information you can glean from them. To license or not to license when you’re just starting out is very much a gray area, so it may just come down to what you feel most comfortable with. Even in my lean years, I was most comfortable with getting the damn license so I didn’t have to worry about whether the city was going to “catch me” and charge me fees retroactively.
Some other stuff to be aware of:
- If you work from home, you should also suss out what your local zoning regulation is — especially if you have clients coming into your home, which the neighbors are likely to notice. If you live in a community with a particularly militant local government and your reside in a building zoned as “residential,” you may have a problem working from home. Again, your tax preparer or a friend in law school may be able to advise you on this.
- If you live in California, you may want to read this. While I believe this article is a couple years old, I would still want to suss this situation out before doing business in the Golden State. Oakland-based Media Alliance, an excellent advocacy group for freelance media types, will likely have more information on the matter.
- If you work with food, kids, construction materials, or people’s health, you will certainly need to scope out your local licensing situation. You may also need to brush up on local requirements for permits and insurance in your line of business, but that’s a whole other can of logistical worms.
Moral of the story: When it comes to your livelihood and all the legal crap that goes with it, don’t linger in the dark, or denial, or rebellion too, too long. It may come back to bite you in the ass, in the form of retroactive fees and taxes, plus interest.
If you, too, have a question you want the Cubicle Expat to answer, send it my way. Let me know if you want me to use your name and link to your site, or if you want to remain anon. I’ll try to answer at least a question a week.
January 29th, 2007
The Freelancers Union, a national nonprofit that advocates for independent professionals, weighed in on The Anti 9-to-5 Guide last week. Here’s what they had to say about the book on their blog:
“…blessedly free of the ladder-climbing ethos of Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office and its ilk. The Anti 9-to-5 Guide may offer just the inspiration you need if you’re trying to overcome your trepidation about going freelance — or just the advice you need if you already have.”
That’s right, you won’t find any advice on corner office mongering here — unless of course it’s the corner office of your own company.
January 28th, 2007
I’m speaking at two career events in the Seattle area this Friday and Saturday. While I won’t be reading from my book, I’ll be doling out wise and witty advice on working as a paid freelance writer. And who can resist that?
The first event is for University of Washington students and alum only. (Sorry, Husky wannabees.) The second event is part of a larger two-day career conference for artists, writers, and other creative types that’s being held in the north Seattle area. Here’s a bit more info on each.
1. University of Washington Career Discovery Week. I’ll be on a panel called “Careers in Writing” with Scott Driscoll (UW Extension instructor), Jasen Emmons (director of curatorial whatnot at Experience Music Project), Nicholas O’Connell (founder of The Writers Workshop), and David Stoesz (Seattle Weekly’s “Uptight Seattleite” columnist). Happy to represent the female segment of the writing population. Curious that I’m the only one.
When: Friday, January 26, from 1:30 p.m. to 3:20 p.m.
Where: Savery Hall, University of Washington, Seattle
Deets: Event is free but only open to UW students and alum. For more scoop, see the official UW Career Discovery Week website.
2. BizArt Conference 2007. I’m leading a one-hour workshop called “Care and Feeding of Your Editors” at this two-day weekend conference for artists and writers looking to boost their business savvy. Looks like there are a couple dozen workshops on the schedule. My class will cover ten easy ways to dazzle editors, based on feedback from editors I’ve polled in the past year. We’ll also discuss how to contact editors cold, when to do multiple submissions, and whether you should submit a pitch letter or a finished manuscript.
When: All day Friday, January 26, and Saturday, January 27 (my workshop is Saturday at 10:45 a.m.)
Where: Everett Train Station, 3201 Smith Avenue, Everett, WA (i.e., downtown Everett)
Deets: Event is $129 and open to the public. To see the list of workshops and speakers, or to register, check out the official BizArt Conference website.
January 25th, 2007
OK, time for a new site feature: Ask the Cubicle Expat. Since friends, family, and former students call and write me all the time asking all sorts of questions about self-employment — from paying their taxes to nixing procrastination to firing nightmare clients — I thought I’d start sharing my answers with you. If you want to get in on the asking action, drop me a note with your question.
Today’s question recently appeared in my inbox from a friend who’s brand new to freelancing. It went something like this:
Freelance friend in distress: I’m about to negotiate freelance rates for the first time. I was hoping to make $[insert decent pay here] per each of the articles I agreed to write for this rinky-dink publication, which is what my friend, who also freelances for said rinky-dink publication, makes. But now the editor is talking about paying me a third of that amount, which is way below what anyone else in town pays for this sort of work. Help me Obi-Wan, you’re my only hope.
Cubicle Expat to the rescue: First breathe, then pick up the phone and dial. Then tell the editor you normally make however much you want per article, which you know the publication can pay, as your friend is getting that amount. (Subtext: By comparison, Dear Editor, you’re offering me peanuts, and clearly the other editors that I work with think I’m worth far more.) Dear Editor doesn’t need to know that s/he is your freelance first.
I wouldn’t say, “I know you pay so-and-so this much,” because that might ruffle Dear Editor’s feathers. Plus, there are laws against price fixing (i.e., conspiring with other businesspeople to charge a predetermined rate). And don’t bother mentioning how you need the money for your electric bill because Dear Editor won’t give a whit. It’s unprofessional to cry poverty. The only way Dear Editor is going to pay you more is if s/he feels you bring some value to the table, and I’m not talking about your paid utility bill.
In the future, don’t agree to the assignment or project (which it sounds like you you may have accidentally done) until you’ve agreed to a price. I mean, you can make it sound like you’re game for the proposed project by saying “Yes, I’m interested in that…” (which most editors or managers will want to hear). But don’t agree to get into bed with them until the money’s worked out.
If Dear Editor won’t come up in price and you haven’t already promised you’d do the job, you can always turn down the project. Nothing wrong with that. Happens all the time.
If you, too, have a question you want the Cubicle Expat to answer, send it my way. Let me know if you want me to use your name and link to your site, or if you want to remain anon. I’ll try to answer at least a question a week.
January 24th, 2007
My friend Angela is offering a class I wish I could attend this weekend, called Fiction in a Flash, at Seattle’s Richard Hugo House. If you’ve always wondered what it takes to write good short-short fiction, now’s your chance to find out.
The scoop: Short-short stories don’t take up much space, but they pack a lot of punch. And they can be written in one sitting. What is a short-short? Part short story and part prose poem, or part zebra and part salmon. It’s what you make it, actually. In this workshop, we’ll read shorts from Flash Fiction Forward and write a bunch of our own. Between sessions, you’ll polish a piece and swap it with some classmates on day two for feedback. We’ll also talk about the elements of fiction and the writing process. So, pack some snacks and spend two days writing up a storm. (5 students min., 15 max.)
Instructor: Angela Jane Fountas
Dates: Saturday & Sunday, January 27 & 28 (2 sessions)
Time: 12-5 p.m.
Place: Richard Hugo House
Cost: $180 / $165 (Hugo House members)
Register: Call Hugo House at 206-322-7030 or download a catalog
January 24th, 2007
This comment thread reminded me that I had yet to post about a cool study released last week from the Simmons School of Management in Boston, about working moms who successfully negotiated flex jobs without giving up any pay. An uplifting excerpt:
A full 88 percent said flexible work arrangements allowed them to continue working full-time despite managing complex personal lives.
Contrary to accepted wisdom, researchers said, employees using flexible work arrangements tended to earn the same as those on regular work schedules. About 85 percent of the survey’s respondents were responsible for at least half of their household incomes.
This is great news. Even better would be if such fair, workable flex policies trickled down to the lower-paying, lower-level jobs so many lower-income mothers fill.
The study also reiterated a key point that groups like Moms Rising have been saying all along:
…more than 60 percent of the survey’s respondents said they were more loyal to employers offering flexible schedules, telecommutes, and other options.
Are you listening Wal-Mart?
January 23rd, 2007
First Barack. Then Hillary. I cried, then I cried some more. Could we really have an African-American president or a woman leading the White House who isn’t just a thinly-drawn TV character? I sure hope so. And what about a woman of color president? (Only not Condi.)
Could it be that the times, they really are-a-changing, albeit ever so slowly? (Fantasy political football: Hillary and Barack become running mates! But who would be top dog? Hil or Bar?)
Wonky friends in DC, do you think any of this is possible?
January 21st, 2007
Apparently we’re no longer circus freaks. Or at least the minority. In case you’ve been living in a yurt, allow me to direct your attention to the New York Times report everyone has been talking about this week, the one that says 51 percent of American women now live spouseless, for what is probably the first time.
What does this have to do with work, you say? Plenty. As historian Stephanie Coontz, author of Marriage, a History: How Love Conquered Marriage, points out in the article, “…it is simply delusional to construct social policy or make personal life decisions on the basis that you can count on people spending most of their adult lives in marriage.”
In October 2006, Coontz beautifully made this case in her Philadelphia Inquirer piece about how social policies revolving around the “married with kids” family unit should change. Here’s an excerpt:
Giving special privileges to married-couple households and denying them to the unmarried made some sense in the days when marriage played the central role in regulating sexuality and childbirth, redistributing resources to children, organizing the exchange of men’s wages for wives’ household services, supporting youth until they could move into jobs that provided health-care insurance, and caring for the ill and the old.
But marriage is not the only way people organize these tasks any more. Many of our assumptions and expectations are based on the world of the 1950s — a world that no longer exists. It is no longer possible to pretend that marriage is the only institution in which children are born and raised, the elderly and ill are cared for, youth are supported until they gain living-wage jobs, and interpersonal obligations are incurred. We can no longer design work schedules, leave policies, and housing complexes on the assumption that every worker has a wife at home to take care of “life.” Unmarried people increasingly are likely to have care-giving obligations, whether for children, aging relatives, or a live-in partner.
In other words, yes, give us those coveted flex policies in the workplace. Hell knows, parents and caregivers sure need it. But don’t stop there. Change workplace and government policies across the board to reflect the fact that most Americans spend half their adult lives unmarried. Singles and those in domestic partnerships of any sexual orientation deserve the same health benefits and tax breaks afforded married peeps.
Let me personalize it for you: If I was a single employee who suddenly found herself taking care of an ailing parent, I’d want my family of two to receive the same health benefits as my “legally” married coworkers. In fact, I know people in their thirties in similar situations who could certainly use the same health and tax perks their married coworkers and neighbors get.
What say you? Go on, dish. But play nice or I hit Delete.
January 20th, 2007
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