Welcome to Deep Dive with Darkwave, where we answer your questions about tax quirks, business perks and how it all works. Meredith Fannin is a fully qualified Chartered Accountant, specialising in creative and performing arts, music, film, television and fashion. She’s here to answer your questions and help you get the most out of your creative pursuits.
In this episode, Meredith breaks down the importance of budgeting and forecasting for creatives. Listen to an overview of what should be taken into account on the financial side when planning and running creative projects:
Have more questions? Want to get more out of your money and focus your time and energy on creating content, making music or building businesses? Darkwave is a boutique Chartered Accounting Firm, led by directors Meredith Fannin and Andrew Elmore, who bring a combined 40-plus years of unrivalled experience to the business. Darkwave’s Business Management arm for busy mavericks also offers a virtual CFO service for artists, creators and creatives.
Not had a chance to listen? Read Darkwave’s tips below.
Individual Projects
When it comes to preparing for individual projects, one of the most important things to consider is budget flexibility. It’s easy for creative businesses to run into trouble when costs for a particular project end up changing on the fly due to circumstances you haven’t planned for. That’s why it’s crucial to break down how much money a project will need up front to advance to make sure you don’t run into cash flow problems while the project’s going.
There can be a vast array of variables that can impact forecasting and budget for any given project too. Are you paying a fixed rate of income? How many attendees will there be at a particular show or event? All of these things need to be taken into consideration, and Darkwave can help get you started.
Full Business Overview
Some creative projects run into trouble due to fundamental and broader issues with how the business is being run financially. Darkwave can help provide a full overview of your business where necessary, breaking down what their overheads are as a starting point. A lot of the time it’s about sitting down and breaking down what your fixed costs are, and what your more variable costs are.
It’s also about asking tough questions to make sure those running creative businesses fundamentally understand things like current rates for their crew, the cost of insurance, how much you are spending on advertising?. Once you have a handle on these fundamental issues pertinent to the business more broadly, budgeting for individual projects more realistically becomes straightforward.
Have more questions? Want to get more out of your money and focus your time and energy on creating content, making music or building businesses? Darkwave is a boutique Chartered Accounting Firm, led by directors Meredith Fannin and Andrew Elmore, who bring a combined 40-plus years of unrivalled experience to the business. Darkwave’s Business Management arm for busy mavericks also offers a virtual CFO service for artists, creators and creatives.
