Christy's Income Breakdown 2023-24
Financial report for increasing financial literacy for freelancers/for all you nosy nerds
Before we get started - catch me at the Science Museum this Friday!
There’s a FREE guided tour of the Zimingzhong exhibition and creative writing session with the Science Museum on Friday 10 May 2-4pm. Tea and cake will be provided, writers of all levels are welcome for some gentle generative writing prompts!
The Science Museum are very keen to boost engagement from the East & South-East Asian community so please do come along, bring friends, family and parents!! Full info and tickets here!
We’re a month into the new financial year (for creative freelancers who need help with understanding what that even means, here’s an accessible guide I made on taxes)!
To be honest, I feel like I’ve spent most of my freelance career in a fugue state, just trying to get through each month, panicking when nothing’s been coming in for a while, panicking when money does come in and working out how far that sum will go to patch up the damage caused by the last drought.
More recently, I’ve been better at gathering and sorting my financial data. It’s allowed me to reflect, break down my income sources and get full clarity for the first time.
What I did was look over my invoices spreadsheet, categorise everything and then exported some graphs. Let’s get into it.
Overall Income Source Breakdown April 2023-24
The absolute majority of my income is from being a supporting artist (background/an extra on film and TV). This allow me to sporadically get major chunks of money to supplement my income. This is also kind of terrifying as 2023 was HORRENDOUS due to the SAG-AFTRA strikes that shut down the industry for just under 4 months. You can imagine my overall income took a big hit!
In second is my poetry work, then “Other” (stuff that falls outside of my usual creative practice). I also work as a personal assistant/access support worker for
who secured a DYCP grant from the Arts Council last year - I help with admin, access requirements, organising etc (I’m looking to take on more clients as a PA, short term or longer, so do get in touch!)Acting being 0.3% of my income is deeply humbling I’m not going to lie (I’m laughing really ahahahah) and that was only for a recall fee - so when you do a self-tape/first in-person audition and you get called again for another round, sometimes they’ll pay you a very small fee.
Poetry Work Breakdown
So as you can see, running poetry-related workshops makes up most of my poetry-related income. People just want to learn how to write poems and I’m very good at helping them apparently!
Hosting poetry events is new for me but something I really enjoy, so hopefully I’ll land some more.
Workshop breakdown
I’ve been a workshop facilitator for about 4 years now - mostly in poetry but I also help run anti-racism workshops. The educating side of things is a big deal in the creative world, so I would advise folks to learn how to run workshops!
For General, that’s things like a one-to-one session I gave on public speaking, taking part in a research workshop etc.
Where Does It All Come From??
This was the most critical piece of information I gather from these data crunches!! A lot of freelancing feels like you’re either doing absolutely nothing, waiting for an email to land in your inbox or desperately rattling out applications and cover letters whilst trying not to sound like you’re begging.
I always feel like I wait around too much and need to “look for opportunities” more often. How we look for opportunities is a challenge I’ll cover another time.
It was SUPER interesting to see that most of my income opportunities really do just come to me*, and only 16.2% comes from me actively applying for it. The vast majority comes from people approaching me via email or DMs on IG, or someone recommends me for a project (I love and adore and am eternally grateful to everyone who has referred me and will continue to uplift you anyway I can).
*(I took out supporting artist work because that’s consistently just agencies asking if you’re free, ticking a box to say yes and then they either ghost you or accept you the day before - so it’s not useful data)
What Does It All Mean? What To Do With This Info??
This has really helped me strategise, think about where I want to put my time and energy. It also helps me see what do I really enjoy, and what I want to increase if that’s in my control.
For example, I want to increase my photography, poetry work, writing and acting. I can post more about these subjects on social media to increase attention, I can look for more acting workshops and training, I can also find people who work in these areas and ask them for advice.
Knowing that creative writing workshops are such a big proportion of my creative income, I’m looking to run workshops myself without the commission of an organisation. Normally, a company would get in touch, I would create the materials and then run that workshop for their audience. I’m summoning the courage to create, sort the logistics and advertise it myself (on top of running the workshop itself).
With sources, I’m not going to stop applying for things but I’m going to focus on my current relationships and building new ones (yes, it’s networking time). My next post will probably be about how to network so if that’s a subject you really struggle with, feel free to reply to this email with any questions!
That’s all from me this month, thank you for reading! Let me how you reflect on your income sources, I’m curious! See you next time (or hopefully at the Science Museum!)