I like being Self-Employed. It means that I can never be Unemployed again. It's technically impossible. If I have no projects to work on, it is because "business is slow".
I still have office hours, but I set them myself: 11.00am to 8.30pm, with a 2 and a half hour lunch break. I can work in my pyjamas and lick my plate with one hand while I type with the other. I can put Brel's Amsterdam on repeat and no one can object. I can scream curses out loud. I can give myself a pedicure while on the phone with a client. I can -and will- claim tax-back on any book or magazine I buy, and that includes OK!, Marie Claire or Harry Potter, because they are my "source material, my inspiration" as a publication designer... Hey, I can even claim tax back on bike mileage: 20p for each mile!
Including unpaid projects (and that accounts to 60% of my workload, but that's OK because they're great projects), I have never had as much work as when I stopped being employed with that demon... I am now working for a clothing label, three magazines, an insurance company (OK, curtesy of my father...) and a jewellery designer (SCHRmm, for that matter).
God damn, I loooooove paying my own taxes! Because they're mine! ALL MINE!!
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4 comments:
Rash,
just between us, do you really believe in this: "11.00am to 8.30pm, with a 2 and a half hour lunch break."
I mean come on, we're designers, inspiration only comes after midnight, in the wee hours of the morning while everyone else is "investing" in a good night sleep,
who are you trying to fool ;) ?
Yeah, you're right...
I had myself a little bout of insomnia last week coz my head was racing with ideas for 10,000 projects all at once... but I couldn't be bothered to get from under the sheets because the heating wasn't working...
zgood to be self-employed.
want a teeny tiny illustration project?
I was skeptical on being self employed mainly because of the tax calculations but after all it doesn't look so bad. I will start to fill my form in a while...
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