Cash is king when it comes to building out a runway for you to transition from a full-time, regularly-paid employee to a consultant with money coming in sporadically. Make sure you take the time (without spending too much money) to build up the systems you no longer have now that you're self-employed. Research what your rate should be when you start charging clients, and then learn to state your price without apologizing or feeling guilty.
A national survey of artists, commissioned by the Mellon Foundation, in partnership with NORC at the University of Chicago, has revealed a closer look at the livelihoods of US artists. The 102-page report takes into account 2,618 artists' work and jobholding, earnings, health and wellbeing, and personal identifiers such as age, marital status, gender, and race. The comprehensive study considered artists across five artistic disciplines: performing arts, visual arts, writing, craft arts, and other arts that were broken down into in 37 artistic subdisciplines;
The labour market continues to present a gloomy picture. While not as bad as some have feared, most of the important indicators are negative. Employment and vacancies are slightly down, inactivity remains a problem, and unemployment is up again. One particular issue is entirely predictable. The hike in employer national insurance contributions, plus the Employment Rights Bill threatening to bring in unfair dismissal from day one and the clampdown on zero hours contracts, all mean that employers are extremely wary of taking on untried
As a self-employed artist, Ginny doesn't receive sick pay and will not be able to earn anything over this time (if you don't do the gig, you don't get paid). This is already a challenging time to be an artist - gigs are less frequent and funding is scarce. Ginny is a working-class disabled queer artist with no financial support to fall back on - and the worry about how to cover their mortgage & bills during this time is real.
COVID-19 forced a shift in career considerations, leading to a move from Washington, DC to a self-employment friendly town in Arkansas, inspiring a new restaurant venture.
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