My two worst mistakes, plus a Visual Guide to Deductions

This last year has been hard. I’ve learned a lot, and gained a lot, but I’ve also lost a lot. (Hair, sleep, and 4 employees)

I want to tell you a brief and vulnerable story about my business, as a way to frame my gratitude to you, dear reader.

During the pandemic, Sunlight Tax grew a lot. There were 3 new tax bills passed, and I got busy making courses, writing articles and offering workshops on how these bills would affect you - the creative person doing that important empathy-building work. My audience grew as a result, and a lot of people joined my program, Money Bootcamp. These things are wonderful.

But I made some mistakes.

Mistake #1:

My pricing was based on working alone. And this was fine when I worked alone, but once so many people joined my program, and I could no longer serve everyone by myself, I needed to hire people to help. And once I did, I quickly realized that my prices could not support my employees and myself. And that entered me and my employees into a cycle of overwork and then burnout. Feel free to take notes, because I don’t want this to happen to you. I see this all the time in other small businesses, and it only really crystallized for me once I did it myself.

Mistake #2:

Another mistake I made was projecting revenue into the future. I thought my growth in sales would continue the way it did in the height of the pandemic.

It did not.

This was not just disappointing. This left me with too much work to get done, and not enough sales to cover payroll. I lost sleep, I lost hair. Obviously, I also lost money. My husband shook me, looked into my eyes and said, “I cannot be the only one you talk to about this. This is too much. You need to get a therapist.” And once my employees burned out, which they quickly did, I lost employees.

So this year, I launched my program a lot. I know that my program is excellent, and I know that it is valuable to the people who are the right fit for it. But launching is exhausting both for me and for you.

People got a lot of emails.

And if you got all of them, and you’re reading this now, you’re still here.

So, I just want to say, thank you.

(But also: it is 100% ok to unsubscribe if you want to! And if you don’t like my emails, you absolutely should)

Some of you write me to tell me how my work has been meaningful or helpful to you, and that is what keeps me going when things get this hard. It’s you.

I am a creative person first and foremost, and being in community with creative people like you, and helping you figure out the tax/money part so you can make more of your work in the world - that is the whole reason I do this.

So today I want to give you a gift of thanks.

I often talk about artists, but my creative family is much bigger than art per se. So, I decided to expand my Visual Guide to Tax Deductions to help those of you who are in adjacent fields.

Below, you can download a Visual Guide to Tax Deductions for:

Designers
Performers
Artists
Makers
Creators and
Online Business Owners/Creative Entrepreneurs

These are updated for 2022, and each is tailored to the needs of your field. Makers has the rules for COGS. Online business includes things like coaching and retreats. You can print it out, and post it by the spot where you do your numbers.

Thank you so much for being here with me. You’re making the world better, and I'm glad to be in your company.

Warmly,

Hannah