In the business basics lecture with Steve Taylor I learnt a lot of the essential information about business and finances from an arts perspective.
Business terminology: by learning some basic business terminology, I feel I have taken a step towards financial literacy. It was useful for this to be tailored to the class as aspiring artists because Steve gave tangible examples of how each word could apply to us. For example, the term overheads was explained as regular business expenses and the example given was studio rent. As someone with no experience or knowledge of business, having the terminology explained in this way made it much more easy to understand.
Revenue streams:
Having multiple revenue streams/ sources of income is the main way artists can work creatively full time. Some of the revenue streams discussed in the lecture included; performing, commercial work, festivals, recording, installations, teaching, producing, and collaborations. By having multiple sources of income, it is more likely to have finical security from creative work, and also I think sounds quite enjoyable, to have a mix of projects on the go.
Tax, accounting, and insurance:
The first aspect of understanding how tax, accounting, and insurance work is understanding the type of employment I have is. The main types of employment are; working for someone else, working for yourself (which HMRC call ‘sole trader’), or working with others. Each of these types of employments comes with a different type of taxes. By working for someone else, taxes are done by the employer, by working for yourself taxes are done independently and sometimes with an accountant. Insurance is useful for covering yourself/ business in case of any problems, the types of insurance that were discussed in the lecture included; Professional Indemnity Insurance (covering things like mistakes that costs your client money), Public Liability Insurance (covering for if someone has an accident while working for or with you), and Employers’ Liability Insurance (only for if you hire an employee, covers employee injury).
Financial record keeping:
Steve showed a spreadsheet format that I have used as a template to keep track of my finances. The spreadsheet starts in April (as the financial year does) and so far has the pay from one commission broke down into how I have organised the money.
I asked Steve how taxes would be dealt with in a situation like mine, which is a main income stream (employed by someone else) with additional income coming from things such as commissions, grants, and gigs. He said that this is a somewhat complicated issue and advised I speak to an accountant about it, so within my finical planning I aim to save enough to afford this by early 2027, which based on a google search could start around £80.