Kelly McClymer's Blog

We’ve done cash flow projection, balance sheet, and profit and loss statement. Those are the biggies. However, a good business will keep track of the money (mind the pennies and the dollars will grow, in other words). A writer is no different from any other sole prop business, and needs to keep a chart of accounts (payments due, payments made); an equipment list (computer, printer, fax, etc.); and sources and uses of non-business-generated funds. Here’s how that works for a writer:

Chart of Accounts: This can be a spreadsheet, an accounting program, or a simple notebook ledger. I prefer computer documents because they are not quite so easy to lose (despite the fact that I print significantly less now, and do more work on the computer, my office still gets overwhelmed by paper). I keep track of submissions, deadlines, payment due dates, payment receipt dates, payment amounts. I have kept these in separate Word tables, but am about to bite the bullet and design and maintain an Excel file to follow all of this. I’m considering a database, since I could  include query info and make notes to myself that might make life easier. But I’m not sure yet which way I’ll go. Ideally, a well kept chart of accounts makes updating the cash flow projection and profit and loss statement easy. Ideally.

Equipment List: this is pretty easy for most writers, consisting only of the computer, printer, fax, etc. Even though it can feel like I need a bulldozer and some heavy lifting equipment sometimes during revisions, that’s not actually true. So far. The point of keeping a list of equipment is that these are business assets, and sometimes it feels good to know if you quit and cashed out, you could get … ummm … at least $25 for all that equipment.

Source and Use of Non-Business Generated Funds: Businesses can generate income directly through the business (payments, advances, royalties, speaking fees, etc.). But they can also can get outside funds (grants, loans, investment, etc.). Writers almost never get loans or investment income (which come with headaches like interest to pay or pay out). However, writers can get grants. Those grants often come with specific “rules” that require the money be spent on what the grant proposal designated that it would be spent on. Very often, there is a reporting process to prove the money was used as agreed upon. Setting a finance sheet up for the grant(s) ahead of time can save many headaches.

And that’s it for the financial stuff. Not too bad, was it? After going through the business plan process for my writing business, I realized that if I had done this when I first began, I would never have neglected or discounted  the other money-generating opportunities that are available to writers. I can literally count the lost opportunities in almost every category. For example, I speak when asked. I never solicit speaking engagements. I have given many workshops. I have written none of them up and put them on my website to encourage interested groups to invite me to speak on that topic, or another. I do not have a press kit on my website, either, where I could list these workshop titles. For years I contributed free articles here and there, never thinking that I could aim for paying publications. Community building is important and beneficial, but like any business, the writing business needs both income and exposure to thrive.

It is going to take me until the end of the year to get everything in place that I’ve realized have been sadly neglected. Mostly because I learned a huge, unhappy, truth about myself — I have long harbored the belief that profit was an ugly synonym for greed. Much of my work will involve learning to accurately evaluate the worth of the various contributions I can make to the world.

Don’t make my mistake. Don’t neglect to value your business, and your contribution to it, properly. If you’re a beginning writer, you may still have much to offer other writers — after all, a writer needs to know many things intimately enough to write about them, including the secret lives of doctors, lawyers, administrative assistants and dental hygienists. And moms. I think I have some expertise in that subject!