Artist Tax Prep – A Resource and A Lesson

Artist Tax Prep is a resource founded and run by my best friend and actress, Farrell Parker. I am undoubtedly proud and biased but with good reason as there’s more to glean from this resource than meets the eye.

First, Farrell has created an affordable, artist centric tax preparation service. Taxes, of course, are a subject we get questions on every year and I like to send folks her way.

I know she’s worked hard to understand the codes and laws, deductions and processes for our industries. She works efficiently and is available when you need her to be. Alright, alright — enough selling — the real genius here is the *passive income job she has created for herself.

Creating passive income streams is a huge part of the work we do with our creatives. We tend to introduce it slowly as the notion of creating an entirely other business is overwhelming at the outset. We don’t always believe we have the capacity to take on “more” when we’re already climbing Mt. Olympus.

However, more than likely, your current survival job is not sustainable when paired with your primary gig as an artist. Even if you are lucky enough to periodically have a creative job that is bringing in money, it very well could be nowhere near enough to pay the bills. In fact, I know many artists who have to turn down potential opportunities because they just can’t “give away” that 6 weeks of income for an “experience”. Or they’re afraid to go away for a job because they may lose their restaurant or babysitting side hustle altogether.

Your passive income stream could also be soul sucking or very schedule prohibitive. We believe it needs to meet these four criteria:

1. Income Flexibility – giving you the control to bring in more or less money depending on what you need and what time you have available to you.

2. Mobile – Even if your side gig starts out as an in person effort, the plan could (should) be able to bring on folks in the future allowing you to take a potential percentage of the work if you need to be away or done digitally (i.e. Artist Tax Prep)

3. Scheduling Freedom – you set the days and hours. Period.

4. Soul Fulfilling – this is big. The number of times we hear from artists who are getting killed at their restaurant gig is nauseating. You need to find something that will keep you going even when you don’t want to. It may still be work but it has to be work you appreciate.

Farrell’s business meets all of the above criteria. Before you come to me with “Well – did she want to be a CPA? How’s that soul fulfilling?”, she smartly chose a passive income stream that would keep her hooked into her industry while creating clear lines of delineation from her work as an actress all the while deepening relationships with worthwhile network contacts.

I chose to write about this now because I’m constantly asking how her business is going because of how excited I was by the idea at the outset and sure enough, even during this crisis, she has business flowing for those trying to file their taxes to get their refunds as soon as possible.

On top of working non stop as an actress she has an additional 10 months of work she can make time for as she sees fit every year.

And while she obviously had to learn to become certified and while your passive income stream will probably take the same effort, the payoff is worth it. Pun intended.

*We purposefully use the term “passive income” outside its traditional sense in order to empower our creatives to think of their art as their primary source of income even if that’s a bit down the pike.

Also by Artist’s Strategy:

Artists: When Money is Tied Into Your Validation

Freelance Life is One Giant Paintball Fight

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