As an online creative, you’re no stranger to seeing rapid growth. When it comes to gaining likes and followers your content is making waves, bringing in over $500k a year. It’s turning into a serious, viable business with brands knocking at your door offering five figures for a single brand partnership deal. This sudden growth can feel overwhelming – but it doesn’t need to be. By surrounding yourself with the right support, you’ll save yourself a lot of headaches down the line.
View your content creation as a business – not just a hobby
It would be great to sit back, relax, and let the money roll in, but while these deals are coming in you’re conscious of whether you’re paying the right taxes, and factoring in significant outgoing costs as your business scales. The fact you’re reading this blog already means you’ve started to think about these things through a business lens.
You’re investing in new equipment, and planning trips to capture the kind of content that keeps your audience and brands coming back for more. You’re thinking how to budget for all of this, and wondering whether these trips are tax-deductible. You’ve got to bring more people onboard. A camera operator. An editor. Someone to manage your responses and brand deals. You wonder if you can find one person to handle all these things, or whether you need different people. As you grow, you’re experimenting with different platforms – TikTok, Youtube, Patreon, OnlyFans. Should you start a podcast? How are other content creators managing all of this? And how do they stay on-brand while growing so quickly?
Start leveling-up your team
As more opportunities come your way, you’re finding you need support to ensure this growth doesn’t self-destruct. You might have a manager at this point – or you may be holding down the fort on your own. Either way, we’ve found the best thing you can do in this situation is to level up your team. The complexity of your brand deals are increasing, your monthly expenses are growing, and you need someone to give you a clear answer of what is and isn’t tax deductible.
We recommend a team made up of a:
- Lawyer
- Financial advisor
- CPA/accounting firm
- Manager and/or agent
You’ve done the hard work – you’ve turned being a digital content creator into a legit business. Now’s the easy bit.
Your team needs to be personalized to your industry and circumstances
The right team will ensure your tax returns are air-tight as well as strategizing to make sure you’re paying out the smallest amount possible while keeping everything legal. Getting these things right now will save you from the IRS knocking at your door in a few months or years, asking questions and causing you longer-term costs.
Most importantly, you deserve a team who not only knows their stuff, but who really gets what you do. The last thing you need is an old-school accounting firm made up of a bunch of guys in gray suits who scratch their heads when you mention TikTok or Patreon. You need a team well-versed in working with creative professionals and the unique challenges a business like yours faces. In our experience we’ve found even other creative industries might not understand the specific circumstances influencers and content creators deal with.
The Revel difference
At Revel, we specialize in working with online creatives and influencers. We speak your language. Let us take the stress of finances off your shoulders so you can get back to focusing on what you love: creating great content. Dealing with the worry of taxes and budgeting shouldn’t have to be part-and-parcel of being a content creator, so start building your team today by getting in touch with us.
