How I Make Money as a Cozy Self-Employed Artist ✿ The BIG Q&A: Finance, Taxes, Small Biz, Confidence

I am 22 years old a self-employed artist and I make at least 8 000 a month today I'm going to try something new I'm going to be standing the whole video because my back really hurts a couple weeks ago I asked you guys on the YouTube Community tab to send me questions for me to answer I also asked all my Instagram followers so I got a ton of questions and I categorized all the most popular questions into these big sections so I will put Chapters at the bottom of the video so you can fast forward to whichever question is most pertinent to you so yeah let's just get started I think I should address the elephant in the room which is money how much money do you make regularly I've been thinking of starting an online shop in the future and was wondering how profitable it is understandably there's a large stigma against being an artist I got a ton of questions asking how is this profitable how are you making a living does your boyfriend support you so many questions like that and I just want to give a disclaimer that I'm no stranger to financial instability I'm not a nepotism baby I chose art because I knew I could feasibly do it on my own and I think that sentiment is very uncommon to see portrayed in mainstream media you see The Starving Artists you see the romanticized artist but you don't really see the artist that has a business mind the artists are super smart when it comes to finance and they're self-employed they're entrepreneurs I feel like artists aren't really given enough credit where it's due so I guess I'm just saying this to preface that if you are thinking about having a small business or having an art business you can definitely make a living wage out of it it just takes a lot of work like anything in life since last August I've been consistently making around eight thousand dollars a month just from my online shop and keep in mind this is gross sales so that's before all the taxes and the expenses of running a business but in the fall I started taking YouTube very seriously so since October I've been making at least seven hundred dollars in AdSense a month through Instagram reels I make around 150 a month and then throughout the month I'll typically take on a couple brand deals and each brand deal whether it's for YouTube or Instagram will pay me at least a thousand dollars so to summarize that I basically have two to three streams of income depending on how you see it I see it as three so the first one is my shop it's me selling my art the second one is social media which is YouTube AdSense and Instagram reels bonuses to me those are more stable than brand deals I know once a month I'll get a check from YouTube and once a month I'll get a check from Instagram so those are sort of fixed amounts I mean sometimes I'll go viral on Instagram and I'll get like 10 more bucks than usual but that's the second way I make money and I know other artists who are way bigger on YouTube so they make way more than me when it comes to AdSense and then the third stream of income is brand deals this can be integrated content for YouTube a dedicated Instagram reel or ugc videos and while each deal pays me about a thousand dollars I typically get paid 30 to 60 days after I submit that video so it's not something that I can Bank on every month it's just like that money will come eventually so yeah with those three streams of income I'm on track to make ninety six thousand dollars a year of course running your own business and being self-employed comes with expenses that a nine to five just wouldn't have like I have to save a chunk for taxes I have to pay for subscriptions like my shop website my Quickbooks membership my epidemic sound membership of course there's all the supplies and materials I need to run my business packaging supplies clay paint a computer I recently had to buy a new printer because my other printer broke down like all these things that I spend money on for for the sake of my business but at the end of the day I'm still making a living wage with extra to help support my family and I also have the freedom of being self-employed diversifying your revenue streams is one of the most important things that I've learned it's the same idea as not putting all your eggs in one basket so I'm not relying just on my shop so if my shop were to have a really bad month I could still pay for rent and food with my social media money and vice versa if I could focus more on revving up my physical shop and selling at markets and fairs and stuff like that and if all else fails I can always get a job and with my self-employed experience having a business gaining over a hundred thousand followers across all platforms I would still make a strong candidate for graphic design marketing Etc I do want to add a disclaimer that my cost of living is probably lower than a lot of other people my age I rent an apartment in the city but I have three other roommates to share the rent so I only pay about 750 a month and I also don't own a car so I don't have to pay any of the bills that come comes with having a car like Insurance parking maintenance none of that I occasionally help Mr uncomfy pay for the gas but that's about it before we get on to the next question I want to take a moment to briefly thank the sponsor of this video hellofresh so my roommates and I have a system where we take turns cooking for each other and I'm gonna be honest since we moved in together five months ago I only cooked dinner for us once with running my business and going to school at the same time it seems so exhausting and intimidating but thanks to hellofresh today I decided to surprise my roommates and cook dinner for them eating healthy and filling meals gives you the energy to achieve your goals and so comforting to know you always get top quality ingredients with hellofresh these ingredients travel straight from the farm to your door in less than seven days and I love that my delivery came to me carbon offset cut back on your expenses and get started with hellofresh it is the fastest easiest and most affordable way to whip up a restaurant quality meal right in your own kitchen this meal that I'm cooking right now took only 30 minutes to make and it made cooking seem so simple and fun again the biggest Plus for me is that there's no more stressful trips to the grocery store on this channel we're all about saving our energy and time so we can do what we love so go to hellofresh.com and use code uncomfyco21 for 21 free meals plus free shipping how did you learn all the finance and behind the scenes stuff to run a business and do you have any advice or can make a separate video on it for beginners love your work by the way thanks I think before I answer this question I am not a financial expert this is just everything that I've learned from my experience and I've made many many mistakes so yeah take everything I say with a grain of salt so regarding how I get my information is I follow a ton of other small businesses and I see what they do and I learn through observation and of course you want to Google everything double check everything look up small business finance videos that are made by Financial experts learn from people you can trust like literally pay for a CPA if you feel like you cannot do the research because it's better to spend money hiring an expert than messing up and losing a lot of money but just for beginners let's say you've been selling on Etsy for a while and you've been ramping up sales and you think wow I could do this for a living I want to make a business out of this I think once you get to the point where you can imagine yourself quitting your day job and pursuing this business full-time that's when you should get a separate bank account for me I did this pretty late I was selling on Etsy for whole year I made over twenty thousand dollars I finally switched to my own website and got a separate checking account you can literally go to any local bank your chase Your Key Bank I opened an online checking account through Novo just because it was like on nerd wallets list of best checking accounts for small businesses and from then on every purchase I made for my small business I charged it to that checking account and not my personal account this makes things way easier for yourself when it comes to tax season because on tax forms there will be sections where you can put in all the expenses that you had all the things that you spent money for your business and so much easier looking at your business checking account rather than your personal regarding expenses a lot of people like to keep receipts I'm not the type of person to keep receipts I'm the type of person to Chuck them in my pocket so that's why it's extremely important for me to keep everything in my business banking account so I can categorize them I use the Intuit QuickBooks self-employed app you can categorize expenses based on the different categories there are on your tax forms so that way when you file your tax return you can get some of your money back through deductibles now looking a little more into taxes I think all beginners should start with Etsy just because they provide you with the form they give you a 1099 format at the end of each tax year and it's the same form that all contractors get like if you do doordash or ubereats they'll provide you with a 1099 to file your taxes because technically you're a contractor for them same thing with patreon and YouTube I think but let's say you want to forego Etsy because they take a huge cut of your money and you just want to go straight to Shopify or Squarespace that is your own shop so you have to file your own taxes and that is why being diligent about keeping track of your expenses is super crucial if you're way more diligent about it then it'll be way easier for you to file my taxes I use Free Tax USA they do a free federal income tax return and it's 15 to file for your state tax return I just realized if you're not in the US all this tax stuff does not make any sense um I think I'm gonna move on from that I did file for an LLC because I just wanted uncomfit to be separate from me if something bad were to happen and each state has different rules for that like when I filed for my LLC I also filed for Colorado sales tax license so it's just things like that that you really have to Google what are the requirements for your state or the country that you live in I know this section may have been super confusing and anything around money can sort of be anxiety inducing so I just really want to end with this taxes and getting certain licenses to selling your state everything that comes with being self-employed is confusing but you'll get used to it so yeah don't let taxes stress you out I think that was all the questions relating to money so now we're gonna go on to the next topic I'd like to know if you could explain how you got started what really compelled you to begin your own business I have the worst time with inertia and I'd like to know how you overcame that especially since you are a self-confessed nervous personality um yes I'm pretty uncomfy like this whole filming experience is very uncomfortable for me still I guess it all has to do with my background and my experiences with having a regular job I started working since I was 15 years old my first job was at a baseball stadium and I worked at a Barry Kebab stand my job was to stick strawberries and bananas on sticks and drizzle them with chocolate and sell them to drunk people at a baseball game my second job after that was a hostess at Zoe's Kitchen and then I worked as a cashier my parents business they had a nail supply store I also worked as a server and that same year was also my first year of college so I was working a work study job on campus I worked at a center of identity inclusion basically helping run events for POC on campus designing posters for it then I had my first job as a designer I worked at an interdisciplinary Design Center on campus I was basically a ux UI designer working with engineering students to make these Community projects come to life and while I was doing that I worked at meow wolf Denver I was an intern there I helped build a lot of the sections and like stick flowers on the walls and stuff while I was doing all that stuff I did a bit of freelance graphic design nothing huge just like friends and family asking me to design logos or art for them but yeah all this to say I had a lot of work experience working with a boss with co-workers on a set schedule but finally during the pandemic when me and my friend started selling polymer clay charms and making a business out of it I just knew this is what I wanted to do because it was all I could think about I was pretty obsessed with growing on comfy and I'm the type of person who has to do something that they're passionate about I'm not the type of person that can just work a job that I don't care about I can't not like what I do you if you're having trouble starting something I would say start it as a hobby something with really low stakes start something with your friend even start something with your mom or your dad just have it as a passion project and I think the best small businesses that I've seen has always started off from something that they truly loved but as a nervous or uncomfy personality of course you're gonna be scared to do it and I think that all comes back to a fear of failure or a fear of being seen and a fear of being judged but what you need to realize is that life is short and I truly don't care about any of the people who follow me from high school make a new Instagram account don't follow anyone that you know just follow other small businesses that you want to be friends with and grow on your own terms without any shame because when you first start off No One's Gonna See It Anyway so just have fun with it dealing with anxiety and life stuff and starting a small business can feel very overwhelming how do you manage to take it one step at a time without putting too much pressure on yourself your art and your videos are so comforting thank you for that I'm so glad you find them comforting that's all I want these videos to be funny you ask because I put way too much pressure on myself for example when it comes to money I put a lot of pressure on myself to take care of my family and to take care of my parents and I take pride in being able to pay their phone bills stuff like that it got to a point where I was putting so much pressure on myself to make more and more money because I thought if I didn't give them money they wouldn't love me and obviously I wouldn't admit it at that point but I think when you're growing up and you have the responsibility of taking care of the finances taking care of yourself taking care of others it becomes really really taxing especially when you're self-employed the amount of money you make is dependent on how much you work really so if I just work harder I'll make more money then I'll be more worthy but it's never enough I really had this conversation with my parents and I finally understood that they still love me no matter what that I'm I'm worthy of Love even if I'm not exceptional and and even just saying that makes me choke up so I've been doing a lot of work on myself and like writing down my affirmations and listening to affirmations and really really reassuring myself that everything will be okay sort of along the same lines of that is how do you balance all the work you do with school do you function best when you schedule or plan everything out or when things are more open-ended or unscheduled I get really I get really anxious and overwhelmed with a high level of schedule and order I need space to be intuitive but also I'm not always very productive how do you balance that with all the work you do both in and out of school I can really really relate to you when it comes to just wanting to be intuitive about your day Rowena actually had a really good video about this when she was talking about how she plans out her weekend but the way I function best is when I get all the junk out of my head onto paper or onto my phone I set my biggest priorities like the things I absolutely have to do down on my planner so I know I have to do it that day and then on my phone recently I've been having like this like crazy Psychopathic list of everything that I do like wake up brush teeth workout shower eat breakfast check emails the list goes on and on and I like having that list because when I check that off it makes me feel accomplished for every little thing I do like it adds just as much importance to eating breakfast as there is to do my homework or submit a video so that's like one side of my personality who likes everything planned out but I realized that nothing goes as planned if I plan on sculpting but it's a super sunny day and I want to film then I'll film and then I'll sculpt my orders later at night and that's what I love about being self-employed is that I have so much freedom to rearrange my schedule I don't have any annoying Zoom meetings to attend or anything can you show a behind the scenes of how you Vlog and get the great detailed shots sure this is my vlogging setup I use the Amazon Basics tripod um it's pretty good I love this like cranky lover thing it does this is the camera that I use it's the Canon EOS 80d and it's like the creative kit that came with a ton of adjustable lenses but the main lens that I used to get all the detail shots is this really big lens it's the 18 by 35 millimeter lens and it has the capability to zoom a lot so this is what it usually looks like when I'm filming myself sculpt polymer clay and I also use this lens to Vlog I feel like with the bigger dslrs like these you can get a lot of depth of field that like the smaller vlogging cameras just like wouldn't have for the longest time I did want to buy the Sony zv1 or something like that the camera that I have the 80d it actually came out in 2016 so it's seven years old does not shoot in 4k it only goes up to 1080p but I'm actually really happy with this camera I also just use my iPhone this camera on the tripod it stays here I do not take it outside it's way too big for that but my iPhone is perfect I film on 4k on my iPhone 13 Pro honestly the picture quality is amazing you can still get depth of field like in my sculpting in a cafe video I was just filming on this phone on a small desk tripod and it worked great as far as audio video I recently upgraded to the rode mic Pro but yeah that's how I film my videos so now these are just some random personal artsy questions how did you know you wanted to be a clay artist do you have any other hobbies that you're planning to turn into a business or have you tried making other types of art before coming to realize clay artists is what you want it to be I come from a family of Artisans my grandpa is an amazing artist he loves to engrave things on wood and my uncle is also a skilled miniature artist he made like little ships and my cousin was an amazing painter and I just come from a family of artists it's truly heartwarming when I think about it growing up I had never met my relatives and I only found out when I was 20 years old that I'm just like them like my whole family in Vietnam loves art it was just like something that was meant to be so when it came to medium I think my first love is actually drawing and painting and I still want to explore more oil painting because I took an oil painting class last semester and it's really really fun but Palmer Clay was something that I had done since I was nine years old I still stop doing it because I grew out of it and then I found it again as a 19 year old and I still love it eventually I want to make bigger pieces I want to start throwing on the wheel and making Ceramics but I think there's something so special about polymer clay about how accessible it is but you can make something in your home kitchen oven the people in the polymer clay Community who make Miniatures are so so talented and you can make anything you want with polymer clay it's amazing just for fun do you know any of your personal Theory types learning about types that are similar to me as a still fully original and unique human has been really helpful for me in finding more comfy and less uncomfy as of now I only know my 16 personalities results and according to that test I'm an assertive Advocate or infj a assertive Advocates are introverted intuitive feeling judging and assertive they approach life with thoughtfulness and Imagination Guided by their principled version of humanism INFJs may be the rarest personnel type of all but they certainly leave their mark on the world idealistic in principle they aren't content to Coast through life they want to stand up and make a difference for Advocate personalities success doesn't come from money or status but from seeking fulfillment helping others and being a Force for good in the world I really hope this video helped you a lot whether or not you're thinking about starting a business or becoming an artist have confidence in yourself trust yourself trust the universe and any time you spend on your craft or your business none of that is wasted you will bear the fruits of your labor in time thanks for watching [Music] Rusty red on her shoulder I was cleaning her shoe when it clicked on I tried over [Music] Lee brushed and we braided dandelions [Music] it wasn't Mutual Arrangement people saw into [Music]

Channel: Uncomfy

Views: 2,639,872

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Id: DjW5v9XPdAM

Length: 21min 1sec (1261 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 28 2023