Jenny Hyde

Here's the thing: tax returns

tax returnsWhen it comes to the HMRC, there are some things I find painful. Their user experience on their website. Communication. Trying to register as an employer (which took me approx 50 billion years. Twice.).

But I actually love their current radio ads which focus on the inner peace you get once you’ve submitted your tax return. They’re not wrong!

In my experience, submitting is half the thing. There’s also the emotional process and the financial practices that go with it.

What’s done is done

Working on your tax return is like stepping back in time. You have to look at business decisions from 18 months ago and remember what happened – good and bad. You get to celebrate successes, for sure, but it can also be challenging to remember the things you thought would work and didn’t.

So remember, what’s done is done. You did your best (and PLEASE make sure you celebrate an awesome year and all the things that went well), and you’ve learnt so much since 30 March 2016. I know you have.

You’re not the only one

Whether you’re looking at no tax bill because you made no profit, or you’re looking at a huge tax bill that you can’t pay because you haven’t put the tax to one side, please know that you’re not alone. Hundreds, probably thousands, of businesses have been in the same place as you.

If you can’t pay your tax bill, get in touch with the HMRC to sort out a payment plan. It’s possible. They just want to know when you’ll be able to pay it. No judgement. No shame. You’re not alone, and you’re not “bad”.

If you didn’t make profit, you probably laid some good foundations for the future. Again, no judgement, no shame. You’ve got this.

Love your business afresh

Tax season is a great time to review your current financial practices. I know I am! Here are some ideas:

  • Set a weekly money date to keep up with your bookkeeping. When this is part of my routine, I easily make better business decisions and worry less. Find a morning or an afternoon and put an hour or so aside – whatever feels good to you. Track incoming and outgoing. File the papers.
  • Calculate and put aside your tax. 25% of your income is a great number to put aside for tax. Disclaimer: I’ve done this for one year, and struggled to do it this year. I’m resolving to use my savings account to do just this. I’ll need a spreadsheet to tell me how much should be in there, so I’ve set this up, too. I’ll check it when I do my weekly money dates.
  • Re-focus your priorities. If making a profit is important to you this year, let it influence your decisions. Not at the expense of happiness or creativity, but there’s something very clear and intentional when you know what you need. (Note: most clients I start working with can put their prices up by 20%. Consider and start there.) If profit has been good, but creativity has been stagnant, re-focus towards creative time and freedom. If you’re somewhere in the middle, do a bit of one and then a bit of the other.

Get support

I can’t imagine not hiring an accountant to do my tax return. First, it means I have very little direct contact with HMRC, which helps my sanity. It also means it’s not on my shoulders and I don’t worry about getting it wrong.

My accountant and recommendation for creative businesses is Amy Taylor. She specialises in NOTHS and Etsy sellers – she knows those systems and how they work. She helps with my sole trader business AND my now big, limited company with VAT. Her team includes specialists, so I know I can email all my little questions when I need to.

She also invoices monthly, so I spread the cost of tax returns, VAT returns, payroll etc, rather than getting caught out.

If you need help, I recommend getting in touch. Tell Amy I sent you. (I’ll get a little gift if you sign up, but I’d recommend her anyway.)

And if you need support creating business plans, re-focusing, working on your marketing strategy, I’m here. One on one mentoring options open up again in February. Let’s crack this thing.

Jenny x

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The Big New Idea: the need for courage and clarity

courage and clarityHi, my name is Jenny, and I’m mostly tired and not entirely sure what I’m doing.

Not necessarily what you’d expect to hear from a business mentor and coach, right? Being mostly tired and uncertain may not sound like what you want from a person whose job it is to help you run your business better.

I have turned these truths – that I’m tired, and that that might not be my best ever marketing message – over in my mind many times in the last few weeks. I thought maybe I’d just have an unintentional break from blogging while I’m in the difficult, murky work of setting up Copper Boom Studio (LIMITED!!), and then re-emerge when it’s all shiny and functional and awesome.

But then I realised that it didn’t feel right.

So many of my favourite writers and people do it differently. They share while they’re going through The Hard Stuff, rather than just looking back at it when they feel sane again. Elizabeth Gilbert continues to do it so elegantly and evocatively. Glennon Melton Doyle warriors on through difficult times. Brene Brown talks about this as an important step in Rising Strong.

So I knew I had to write about my progress, even though I don’t feel clear or enthusiastic. I had to share this messiness, in order to be as authentic as I believe myself to be.

Since I last wrote (over a month ago), here’s what’s happened:

  • Copper Boom became a limited company (yay!)
  • I got a loan to grow the business by moving into premises and adding people to the business (yay!)
  • The process of commercial lease and lawyer and long waits began (yay, and also bleurgh)

I’ve been, in turn, wildly excited and amazed at what I’m building, and then completely overwhelmed by what I need to achieve.

There have been tears, and moments when I’ve said, “I just can’t,” and, “I don’t know what to do” over and over again. I’ve shouted at my partner, as he tries to help me figure out what to do next, “Everything is important. There’s nothing that I can de-prioritise.” Yep. Glamorous moments.

These moments are when I ask (myself? some mysterious higher power?) for courage and clarity. For glimmers of hope, and for the way ahead. Because sometimes that’s all I can do. The weird thing is, once I sit and ask for clarity on something, it usually comes. Not because I sit there puzzling over it like a Sudoku, but because I stop thinking about it and follow my instincts instead.

After the “everything is important” conversation, I stomped out, walked around, had tea, and then realised that Ryan was right. In fact, he had given me the key to my mountain of work, my paralysis. He had used the phrase “Mission Critical”.

So I wrote up another version of my epic list. I labelled things Mission Critical, Very Important, Important and Less Important. (Because everything’s still important, y’know?)

It helped. It helped me see that having everything on the first day we move into our new premises (and I don’t yet know exactly when that will be) isn’t actually essential. We can survive without all the furniture for a week or so. We can borrow a vacuum cleaner from home if we need to, at the beginning. This clarity helps. Let’s keep it to absolute essentials: sign the lease, have a limited bank account, make a box of kitchen / bathroom essentials. Do the rest later. Keep the short term truly short term.

And, as we’re not even sure when the lease will be signed just yet, there’s no point buying furniture and booking it to be delivered. I can move quickly on that tomorrow or next week, when I have more information.

Which reminds me of something my mum says: “Where you have clarity, make decisions.”

Even today, this Tuesday, I have said I’m struggling. I have hoped, out loud, for some good news, because there are so many requests and questions. I have questioned whether this studio, this business is something I really want to do. Please understand. I am doing this. It is happening. But I want to show you that I, too, like all of us, question things even when I know that they’re good and will be worthwhile. It is always messy. There is always doubt. Even the best business plans require change and adapting to fit the reality. Because no one in the history of the world has followed an exact business plan. Predicting the future is still elusive.

This is courage. To continue, even when I’m not sure of every step on my path. To pivot in a direction I didn’t expect to take, knowing that it’s essential to do so, not a problem.

Do I feel like I’m failing? Yes. Am I actually failing? No.

I actually feel like I’m developing experience, resilience, and empathy that’s going to help me mentor clients and support others in the future. It’s already helping. My existing clients (who have had more patience and understanding for me than I could ever have expected) have already said that they know I get it, because I’m going through it. (“It” being the challenge of business, of decision making, of juggling conflicting priorities all the live long day, of desperately wanting a conversation that isn’t about money.)

So I have hope that this is the essential middle. That this is part of the purpose of Copper Boom – to teach me how to get through this building phase.

Two phrases spring to mind:

This too shall pass

and

The only way out is through

I will keep going. I don’t yet know what I’m going to do once I post this, but I know that one small step after another will get me through.

Before I sign off, it feels important to say, if I’ve let you down recently, I’m truly sorry. If you’re waiting for me to get back to you about something, please accept my sincere apologies, and nudge me if I can still help. I will, at the very least, let you know when I’ll be able to respond properly.

Courage and clarity, my friends, courage and clarity.

Until soon

Jenny x

 

Here's the thing: slowing down

Slowing downSo, it’s nearly a month (already!) since my 2016 retreat. As with last year, I found that the retreat weekend is an eye-opener for me as well as for the attendees, and this year, having moved house and had some time off, I’ve been left with some revelations.

One of which is: it’s time to change gear and slow down.

I know for so many of my clients, this is counter-intuitive. For so many of us, especially creatives and visionaries, we want to be changing UP a gear, moving forward faster and moving up as high as we can. Don’t get me wrong, I have a whole heap of ambition. And a whole list of projects (including my Big New Idea).

And so much of my ambition and inspiration comes from within me and within my work. I get inspired by the clients I work with. I listen to them and their challenges, and I can think of lots of ways I want to help. Or I simply have a growing need within me to do something new.

But there’s also part of that ambition and inspiration that is driven by fear or comparison, and that doesn’t feel so good to me. First of all, I don’t need it. I’ve got enough ideas and scope without needing any more fire behind me to get me moving. Second, I don’t want to be driven by fear, or by what other people are doing.

There are people and businesses way ahead of me – people who’ve been building their businesses for years and years.

There are people who started out (or have since received) way more financial backing or other support than me.

There are people who have a team, even of just two, to carry the load of running a business.

I cannot expect myself to live up to what other people are doing. I don’t know the truth of what’s going on in their business, anyway, no matter how shiny and amazing it looks from the outside.

For me, it’s really the people further down the road than me that get me. I want to be there already! I’m impatient, and like many creatives, I am visionary, so I can see myself further down the line, even when I’m many years (probably) away.

So here’s the thing: I’m slowing down

My ambition and vision aren’t going anywhere and, rather than push myself to the limits, I’ve decided to trust that they’re sticking around. This is what’s going to keep me going in the long run.

That means cutting back on the number of projects I’m trying to plan, launch, and think about. It means I’m going to let business run as usual (rather than pushing it to grow, fast) while I work on the Big New Idea. And it means that I’ll be planning way more time around each activity, so that I can do things slowly.

This is not easy for me. At all.

I like working fast. I like doing things. I like calming the fear that says, “If you don’t do this now, someone else will.” Sound familiar?

But more than anything, I want to be sat in two, five, 10, 20 years’ time able to say: “I built this my way, and it has stayed the distance. I’m so glad I built it right. I’m so glad I didn’t burn out along the way. It’s such a pleasure to live this life, to do this work, and to bloom in my own right timing.”

So. Who’s with me?

optin-cup

Enter The Forge

Life's too damn short to chase someone else's definition of success. I'm here to give you the courage and tools to forge your own path.