We recently asked leaders across the creative and marketing space about their pain points, preferences, and everything in between. Here’s what they said about it all! 

Content, Trends, and More! 

Here’s what they said about content preferences. Even when not actively hiring, managers are invested in keeping on top of trends.

  • 51% percent of hiring managers engage with content about industry-specific hiring trends
  • 31% keep up with interview and retention tips
  • 29% focus on their local market’s data
  • 26% keep tabs on newly available talent

Takeaway: Managers stay current on the latest hiring trends in the creative industry to be prepared when a hiring need arises. 

 

Hiring is Hard (Is Outsourcing The Solution?)

Here’s what they said about their team’s biggest hiring, talent, and resourcing obstacles. Creative and marketing teams are understaffed — 67% of respondents agreed that their team has too much work to do given their current headcount.

  • 46% of creative and marketing teams need to outsource some work to an external agency in order to keep their team afloat.
  • 25% are considering building an in-house creative team to have more control over the process (and because of the price tag — 21% admit they can’t afford high agency costs).

These are the instances in which leaders turn to recruitment or staffing partners to find new folks:

  • 59% partner with staffing agencies to support planned, budgeted projects
  • 27% need help with emergency, unbudgeted projects
  • 21% want to replace existing contract resources
  • 17% need staffing help when full-time employees are on extended leave
  • 13% partner to find contract resources during a hiring freeze

Takeaway: Creative teams are carrying the weight of a heavy workload — without the necessary staff to handle it. Managers are exploring options to help lighten their team’s load. These teams work with staffing partners for a variety of hiring needs but primarily when tackling the large projects on their docket. Freelancers, gig workers, and contingent labor are in a good position to capitalize on these labor trends! 

 

 

Where Do Managers Look for Service Partners?

Here’s what they said about conducting vendor searches. How do marketing and creative leaders find new service partners? In a lot of ways, it turns out.

  • 24% visit the company’s website
  • 19% ask a friend or colleague for a referral
  • 16% rely on one-to-one email outreach from sales reps
  • 11% look to marketing emails
  • 11% search their social media feeds
  • 2% attend webinars or other informational events

Takeaway: There’s no wrong way to find a new service partner. Above all else, leaders want a clear, concise message and a low barrier to entry.

 

How Do Managers Even Find Freelancers?!?

Here’s how and who helps makes the decisions about sourcing contractors. When not working with recruitment agencies, hiring managers turn to…

  • Their professional or personal networks (67%)
  • Job sites (think Indeed, ZipRecruiter, LinkedIn) (40%)
  • Their internal HR department (38%)
  • Cloud labor sites (think Upwork, Fiverr, Toptal) (17%)
  • A web search for local contractors (14%)

When there is a vacancy on the creative or marketing team, this is who industry influencers say most impacts their hiring decisions:

  • The team’s director or manager (50%). They focus on defining the job requisite and evaluating potential hires.
  • The team’s senior leadership, from VP up to the C-suite (15%). They help their managers define the requirements and are critical to the final selection.
  • The company’s owner or partner (12%). They come in when it’s time to make a decision.
  • Other staff, including the new hire’s peers (8%). They play a part from start to finish.

Takeaway: Beyond partnering with staffing agencies, when seeking new contractors, nothing beats the assurance industry leaders receive from personal and professional connections. The bottom line for freelancers: your network matters.

 

Want to Learn More?

For the full breakdown of this year’s hiring trends, download the full report here.

As we start to think about summer, it’s a good time to look ahead to the rest of the year to set yourself up for financial success now and in the months to come. As freelancers, independent contractors, and digital nomads, being in charge of our time, money, and ability to work from anywhere we want requires a measure of fiscal responsibility that many of us fake till we make it.  

When you work for yourself, you’re in charge of every penny you make and as we all know, some months are busier than others.  A great rule of thumb is to live by the 50/30/20 rule—charting out a realistic plan for your needs, wants, and savings. While that’s an excellent rubric, the good news is that there are now many apps and tools that can help you budget your money—and many are free!  

These tools help you track spending habits, budget your income, check your credit score, and make the task of budgeting simpler so you can make the most of your money and time. There are tons of apps for freelancers, but finding the best ones can be a bit overwhelming and can take time, so we compiled a list of the best budgeting and finance apps to set you up for success this summer and moving forward. 

1. YNAB (You Need a Budget)

If you want to become a serious budgeter, this is the app for you. Instead of using traditional budgeting buckets, you allocate every dollar you earn to something. Every buck you make is assigned to a “job,” whether that means it goes towards savings, bills, or investments.

YNAB connects to your bank account and can actually help you nix bad money habits and encourage you to adopt good ones. If you stick with YNAB you will be highly discouraged to overspend or take on additional debt. YNAB’s mission? To help you gain control of your money and stop living hand to mouth by making it easy to see and manage your finances in real time. You can see your financial data in graph form and lets you track investment accounts. While this is a subscription-based service, they offer a free trial month, and joining comes with a 100% money-back guarantee.

2. EveryDollar

Like YNAB, EveryDollar tracks spending, savings, and debt. It’s straightforward and simple to use for newly budget-minded freelancers who want to get a handle on their finances. There is a free version and a gratis trial for the paid version, which comes with more bells and whistles. You can connect your bank account if you use the upgraded version, though there is no bill pay feature, the app does provide additional help by giving you access to financial experts and does not bombard you with ads.

3. Goodbudget

Have you ever heard of the ‘cash envelope’ system for budgeting? The concept is simple—take several envelopes, write a specific expense category on each, like rent, credit cards, groceries, or student loans—and then put the money you plan to spend on those things into the envelopes. Goodbudget does this in tech fashion, allowing you to create digital envelopes for each of your budgeting categories to help prevent overspending and slipping into debt. If you overspend in an envelope, it allows you to transfer money. While there is a free version, the subscription offers more robust budgeting tools. While it doesn’t track investments, it does provide reports on your income and spending trends.

4. QuickBooks Self-Employed 

Say hello to the gold standard for independent contractors. This tool helps you separate personal expenses from business ones, making your quarterly and year-end tax times simple and easy.

QuickBooks Self-Employed has numerous smart features designed to make tracking your business expenditures a breeze. A great example is that the app can track your mileage automatically based on how fast your smartphone moves through space. It can also make your phone a defacto receipt scanner, perhaps less exciting but infinitely helpful, and more, once you categorize your transactions, the app can find tax deductions for you. QuickBooks Self-Employed can help you file taxes every quarter using TurboTax, taking a lot of the worry and working out what can be a major drag for many freelancers.

5. Bonsai

This subscription-based app was designed with independent contractors and freelancers in mind. Bonsai has a time tracker, which integrates with all your clients and ongoing projects—and once you’ve tracked your time, you can easily add them to a new invoice for billing. The app lets you track expenses by taking photos of receipts to bill to specific projects and you can add these to invoices along with your timesheets.

Takeaway

While budgeting may seem daunting, it can actually provide great peace of mind. Allowing you to live a more calibrated existence as a freelancer. Knowledge is power and understanding your finances more deeply can give you more freedom to live how you want to live.

There comes a time in every freelancer’s career (usually around tax season) when you wonder if it isn’t time to open a separate credit card to cover business expenses. Maybe it’s the hassle of trying to parse through business purchases on a single credit card statement and cross-checking with a budget to keep track of personal expenses and business expenses. Maybe it’s the prospect of scaling up operations with some bigger purchases or even hiring an employee. Maybe it’s about making the most of all the traveling you do for work by getting some serious travel rewards. Opening a credit card for your business comes down to understanding your work, your needs, and what direction you want to take your freelancing.

Do you need a separate credit card?

Opening a new credit card isn’t necessary for every freelancer. Plenty of folks who freelance use their personal credit cards for business expenses and use budgets and spreadsheets to keep track of and separate the expenses. If you’re only picking up a few small gigs a year, your business expenses are minimal, or if you’re only doing a bit of contract work on the side of your full-time job, a separate credit card for work might not be necessary.

Opening up a separate card becomes handy when you are regularly spending money for work like paying for gas to get to and from jobs, paying for software subscriptions, memberships, phone and internet plans, other office supplies, needs for client meetings, etc. The most important thing here is a separation of church (personal expenses) and state (business expenses). Sure, there are certain items like internet use that occupy a gray space (technically you can only write off a computer as a business expense if you use it for business purposes more than 50% of the time!), but if you’re taking the time and credit to open a separate card for business, avoid using that card for your personal pursuits and vice versa.

Personal Credit Card or Business Credit Card?

If you’re at the point where a separate credit card is necessary, it’s important to understand the difference between a personal credit card and a business credit card to decide which one will suit your needs and goals better.

While personal credit and business credit are separate types of credit, having a good to excellent personal credit score is often necessary to open a business credit card. By the same token, a business credit card that goes delinquent can be detrimental to your personal credit score.

Your business doesn’t have to hit a certain benchmark for you to qualify for a business credit card: you don’t have to have employees, you don’t have to make a certain amount of money, you don’t need to be incorporated, and you don’t need an employer identification number to open a business credit card, although the application process is a bit more involved than a personal credit card. There are plenty of advantages to having a business credit card, but a few main ones stick out.

Higher Credit Line

Business purchases can be steep, and business credit cards take business revenue into account, so business credit cards tend to allow for more spending power than a personal credit card if approved. This might not feel relevant if your freelance work doesn’t require big purchases, but if you’re expanding your business, having access to a higher credit line can be just the thing you need to take your business to the next level.

Building Business Credit

The biggest pro for going in on a business credit card is future-focused. Do you eventually want to expand your freelance work? Do you want to be able to take out business loans? Having excellent business credit is crucial, and a business credit card is the perfect first step in building that credit—as long as you make your payments in full and on time like any other credit card. Even if you don’t plan on taking out loans, building your business credit can help qualify for other business credit cards that have stronger rewards and perks or can work with your needs for payment terms.

Rewards Rewards Rewards!

Business credit cards can have higher rewards earnings and perks compared to personal credit cards. Some cards like the Chase Ink Business Preferred Credit Card and Blue Business Plus Credit Card from American Express offer big welcome bonuses that kick in after spending a certain amount of money upfront, so if you know you have a big business expense coming up, it could be a good idea to look into a card with a good welcome bonus.

Business credit cards have bonus categories that are suited to running a small business like travel, internet and phone services, tech social media advertising, etc. The U.S. Bank Business Triple Cash Rewards World Elite Mastercard offers a 5% cash back on prepaid hotel and car rentals that are booked through the card’s Reward Center.

The popular Chase Ink Business Unlimited Credit Card (different from Ink Business Preferred) has no annual fee and unlimited 1.5% cash back although they do not specify any bonus categories.

Other cards like The American Express Blue Business Cash Card offer 2% cash back on eligible purchases capped at $50,000, at which point the cashback rate is 1%.

The Bank of America Business Advantage Customized Cash Rewards cash back structure offers a customizable option, allowing the holder to choose from six different categories to receive 3% cash back—and you can change the category from month to month, which is helpful if you know you’re going to have a month that’s heavy on a certain category like consulting or big tech purchases.

A helpful tip with the type of card you go for: make sure the rewards are something you actually use (if you work from home and prefer staycations, maybe skip the travel points) and strategize to take your personal credit card perks into account so there’s no redundancy in benefits.

Cons of a Business Credit Card

As nice as these perks are, there are things to be wary of when it comes to business credit cards as well.

Fees and Interest rates:

Business credit cards (including the aforementioned Chase Ink Business Preferred) tend to have annual fees that can range from about $100 to a few hundred, so be sure that the money you’re making from your freelance work at the very least can recoup that cost or use a card that doesn’t have an annual fee.

Interest rates on business credit cards also tend to be higher, so it’s that much more important to pay the cards off in a timely manner. Check out the APR and double-check how the intro APR (the rate offered for the first roughly 12 months) compares with the actual APR (after the intro period ends).

Less Protection

Business credit cards are not covered by the Credit Card Act of 2009, meaning the fraud and theft protection that most personal credit cards offer are not necessarily available (or a legal obligation) to business credit cards. While many cards tend to offer protection anyway as a courtesy, always check with your issuer about their protection against fraudulent activity.

Consequences for mixing business and leisure

Once again, the most important part of opening a business credit card is that you do not make any personal purchases on the business card, but that’s especially true for business credit cards. Not only does it defeat the purpose of opening a business card, but it could potentially violate the terms of the business credit card and could even lead to consequences like termination of your account depending on the card issuer.

Opening a new credit card might not be for every freelancer; it just comes down to your needs. But if you understand the work that you do and have a clear vision of how you want your work to grow in the future, investing in a credit card could be just the thing you need to take your work to the next level.

 

About the author.
Sam Mani writes about work, creativity, wellness, and equity — when she’s not cooking, binging television, or annoying her cat.

Is the cover letter dead? Yes, no, maybe so! From hiring managers and HR professionals to candidates, we called for all the gripes, best tips, and positives about cover letters being on the decline. Here’s what they had to say about the dreaded cover letter. We wanna hear what you have to say, join in on the conversation here!

1. 

Thank you notes > cover letters.

 

2. 

Yes! Say it louder for the hiring professionals in the back!

 

3. 

A “portfolio” is worth a thousand words.

 

4. 

We (candidates) are begging, please listen to this!

 

5. 

 

6. 

This.

The 2023 job market has been a bit of a rollercoaster ride, see-sawing up and down—so it makes sense if you’re looking for a way to gain an edge over your peers. Recent research from ResumeBuilder shows that Chat GPT may be the latest in-demand job skill companies seek when hiring creatives. According to data gathered from a survey of 1,000 American business managers, 90% said that having ChatGPT experience listed on a resume is a plus for jobseekers.

Chat GPT is part of the burgeoning generative AI tech taking the world by storm. A 2022 study by McKinsey found that businesses had doubled their use of AI in the last five years. If that scares you, it may be time to reframe your thinking (though we will get into some of the controversy around this tech a bit later).

Generative AI can augment the capability of workers by doing tedious tasks that would otherwise take up time, freeing one up to do work that is more creative or conceptual. You are still in charge, you just have more freedom to dream, think big, and create.

Nearly half (49%) of the companies surveyed by ResumeBuilder already use ChatGPT to draft meeting summaries, write code, create content, or assist with customer support. Of the companies surveyed that are not yet on the generative AI bus, 30% plan to start using it, and a whopping 85% will begin within the next six months.

One way to look at this new tech is that it’s the same as other in-demand skills, like PowerPoint, and candidates familiar with this emerging field will have a leg up on those not yet comfortable using the latest tech tools. Generative AI will continue to entrench itself into the fabric of our professional (and personal) lives, making it an increasingly important skill. Layering knowledge of generative AI into your arsenal of creative skills will help you stand out today.

Since its launch in late 2022, ChatGPT and other generative AI technologies have swept the tech world by storm. Companies like Microsoft and Canva have incorporated this type of AI into their products, opening new possibilities. But this new technology has also raised some concerns for creatives that their expertise may become obsolete with the rise of these new tools.

48% of the business managers surveyed by ResumeBuilder shared that ChatGPT has already replaced workers. With companies like Canva augmenting their creative AI offerings, job displacement is a fear for designers as these new AI design tools proliferate. There is growing concern that some creative jobs may become increasingly automated and that the threat of decreased creativity looms for those still employed.

So, what can designers and creatives do to protect themselves from the potential challenges of generative AI?

One way to stay ahead is to master this new tech and use that knowledge as a differentiating skill on your resume. Staying ahead of the curve and keeping current with emerging developments in the AI space, particularly as they relate to design and creative endeavors, will allow you to grow your skills and expertise and figure out how to leverage this tech to work for you.

Hiring managers want to see what you can accomplish using this new tech—so play around and create a small trove of work generated with ChatGPT and other generative AI tools. Employers want to see that you are on the vanguard of what’s new and are excited to explore what’s possible with new tech—which is valuable no matter your industry.

If you want to enhance your Chat GPT and generative AI skills, there are various training and certification courses available online from Coursera and other e-learning platforms.

________________________________________

Takeaway

Learning to use Chat GPT and generative AI may offer you a smart competitive edge over your peers. Consider staying ahead of the curve and positioning yourself as an early adopter of new tech to ensure you can be noticed and succeed in this dawning age of AI.

Tis the season…unfortunately. Happy Tax Season everyone! For many creatives, this season is filled with last-minute scrambling, hair-pulling, and general 1099 frustrations. If you’re tired of filing 1099s, come work with us. W-2s only over here! And if you are still living that 1099 life, here are our best tips for navigating this tax season. We wanted to have a temperature check to see how our network is navigating this season, read more!

1.

Note to future self: save more.

 

2. 

All W-2s over here!

 

3.

 

 

4. 

This was too real.

 

5. 

None!

It’s that time of year again: the time when you realize taxes are around the corner and proceed to forget about it again until April 14. Just kidding – because you are a hard-working, organized, and on-top-of-it freelancer! Filing 1099s might be one of the most miserable parts of freelance life, however, there are a few basic, but important things that can help you stay prepared and make the most of your tax return.

Before we jump into it, a refresher: everyone pays taxes. While W2 employees get their 7.65% automatically taken out of each paycheck (and their employers pay the other 7.65% for a total 15.3% tax), freelancers have to pay their 15.3% themselves. And while Tax Day is the deadline for everyone to file their returns, full-time freelancers (anyone estimated to owe over $1000 in federal taxes) have to pay estimated taxes on a quarterly basis! Come April, most freelancers will fill out a 1040 Schedule C to report profits and losses related to their self-employment, and the more info you have, the easier it will be to file.

Stay organized and double-check your information!

1099s start coming in from your clients as early as January (January 31 is the deadline for employers to file 1099s), so as soon as you receive your 1099, do yourself a favor and cross-reference the income listed on the 1099 with the invoices that you have just in case there are any mistakes. If there are any discrepancies, the earlier they are resolved, the better. If you receive a mixture of paper and digital 1099s, ensure you either have all forms in one format or another.

Write-offs done right

As a freelancer, tax deductions are the name of the game and make a huge difference in determining how much you owe the feds. A deduction is an amount of money you can subtract from your income, thus reducing the total taxable amount, and yielding a lower amount to taxes. You can claim the Standard Deduction, which for 2023 is $13,850, or, if your itemized deductions related to your business expenses are greater than $13,850, you can go that route.

Business or Personal?

Telling the difference between business expenses and personal expenses can be tricky. For example, typically the costs related to someone’s commute to work are not tax deductible, but for freelancers who work from home, travel expenses directly related to business including lodging, meals, and even laundry are deductible.

On top of that, business deductions can be knotty particularly for freelancers because many times our business and our personal lives overlap. Ideally, you want to have separate credit cards and bank accounts for your business and personal financial dealings. But there are certain things that are unavoidable.

Deduct Proportionally

Not all freelancers have a separate phone line dedicated to all things business, but if you use your personal phone number to conduct business, you can calculate how much of your phone use is dedicated strictly to your business and deduct that proportionate amount.

Same with the home office deduction: if you use part of your home to run your business, you can calculate what percentage of your home you dedicate to your business, apply that ratio to your rent or mortgage, and deduct that monthly amount. One important detail about this is that the part of your home you claim you use for business must be separate and exclusively used for business. Separate office rooms or even clearly segmented parts of a room qualify, but if you are freelancing from the couch, unfortunately, that does not qualify.

The key is to be honest. Did you buy a computer for work but watch Netflix on it in your free time? Try to calculate how much is dedicated to the business and write off that amount.

Other business expenses that you can write off can look like:

  • Tech: A computer, monitor, graphics tablet, etc.
  • Website Hosting
  • Software: Photoshop, InDesign, Final Cut, etc.
  • Art supplies
  • Storage: Dropbox, IDrive, etc.
  • Advertisements: Digital or print (unless it’s for a political party or candidate)
  • Assistance: If you paid someone to assist with your work
    Educational courses
  • Self-employment tax: Because W-2 counterparts split that 15.3% of taxes equally with their employer, you can do the same by writing off 50% of your self-employment tax.

Back it up

The most important part of deductions is to have those receipts. Always be sure to have documentation of the purchases and costs you are deducting! No record, no write-off. And if your itemized deductions are less than the standard, then just go standard!

Hire a Tax Preparer

One of the best gifts freelancers can give themselves during tax season is hiring a tax preparer. You’ve already done so much work yourself anyway, so you deserve to take a load off (and not stress yourself out trying to decode the American tax system with 60 tabs open across 4 windows)! And just in case you think hiring a tax preparer is too bougie, over half of all tax returns are filed on behalf of the payers by tax preparers.

Because nothing about taxes is simple, there are different kinds of professionals who can help you with your taxes in slightly different but overlapping ways. When it comes to basic tax filings, Certified Public Accountants (licensed by the state to offer accounting to the public), Tax Attorneys (licensed by the state to practice law), Enrolled Agents (licensed by the IRS to prepare taxes), and non-credentialed tax preparers (not licensed by the state or IRS) can technically file taxes on your behalf but in all cases, the preparer legally must have a Preparer Tax Identification Number or PTIN, which is an identification number given by the IRS.

CPAs have to undergo rigorous education and licensure, but not all CPAs specialize in tax preparation. While tax attorneys are typically best suited for dealing with tax disputes with the IRS, some offer basic tax preparation. Enrolled Agents specialize in taxes and can interface with the IRS easily, but the certification doesn’t guarantee experience. Be sure to do your research and read reviews while cross-referencing with more official databases like state accountancy boards! As you are navigating this web of professionals and how they might be suited to your specific needs, here are a few tips to consider:

  • Ask your network for referrals. Talk to friends, family members, fellow 1099ers, or trusted people you’ve worked with about who they hire for tax prep.
  • Meet in person. Many high-quality tax preparers offer remote services across states without any issue, but for that added layer of reassurance, it can be helpful to go local. Set up an in-person appointment at an established accounting or tax practice that is open year round, not just during tax season.
  • You’re not totally off the hook. Hiring a tax preparer doesn’t mean you can put your feet up. You still need to provide all the information and documentation about what you earned and what you spent and be available with your preparer to answer questions.
  • Remember: Nothing about taxes is too good to be true. Unfortunately, scams do happen in the world of tax prep. One of the biggest red flags to keep in mind is the promise of a huge refund. Of course, a big reason to work with a tax preparer is so they can navigate deductions and save you money, but big returns can signal shadiness—especially if the preparers are getting paid a percentage of your return rather than a flat rate. Hopefully, this goes without saying, but if you get a sudden text from the “IRS” demanding you pay your taxes in Amazon gift cards and crypto, please don’t.

Final Tip: Get started last year

The most important part of preparing your taxes is being prepared (imagine that!), and that means getting started early. This might be a bit counterintuitive, but the best way to set yourself up for success in April is to put in the work in January of the previous year.

Doing your taxes is all about being able to clearly track and categorize incoming and outgoing money, so it’s important to set up the infrastructure for that early. Whether you are using an old-fashioned spreadsheet or a project management software like Airtable or Notion, you can create a system that clearly identifies the movement of your projects and your money. The only thing is you have to stay on top of things and keep updating them for the rest of the year.

Other good habits to start early: As soon as you get paid, put at least 25% of the invoice in a separate account for tax purposes. If you have a lot of business expenses, open that separate credit card and make your life that much easier. Consider starting a self-employed retirement plan. Don’t wait til the day you file taxes to calculate how much you owe—start projections early so there are no surprises!

As we all know, nothing in this world is certain except death and taxes, but if you’re a freelancer, how those taxes work can be very uncertain. But by tracking as much as you can in a consistent, organized way, getting a handle on the deductions available to you, and working with an official tax preparer, you can make filing your tax return a little less painful.

 

About the author. 
Sam Mani writes about work, creativity, wellness, and equity — when she’s not cooking, binging television, or annoying her cat.