Freelance photographer Rob Perkins gets a $15,000 check and weeks later feels broke. He spends it on overdraft fees, clothes, and apartment upgrades without a plan, then panics when work slows down. The problem isn't making money, he says. It's that he has no system to manage what he already earns.
I could get a $15,000 check from a shoot and still feel broke a few weeks later. Well, because I was already behind, maybe $5,000 behind. So the check would hit and at first I would pay the overdraft, then buy some new clothes, or then something for my apartment because I'd been working so hard and I felt like I had the money to do it. And before long, it felt like the check had never arrived. The problem was that I was using today's check to pay for decisions I had already made. Every dollar arrived without instructions. When you're busy, The checks can feel like they're coming and they're coming forever. Then when the work slows down and suddenly you are trying to support a busy season lifestyle with slow season income, I thought I needed to make more money, but I was already making good money. What I really needed was a system for the money I was already earning.
