Today marks my 7th year anniversary of being self-employed! It seems almost like yesterday when I started. I remember the day of got laid off. June 12, 2003. I came into work and got called into the VP's office shortly after. The layoff conversation was kind of a blur. It was so surreal and I remember feeling blindsided. The next day June 13, a friend who was self-employed asked me to look after his client while he went on vacation. The rest is history and I still do work for that client today. The date also sticks in my head because it's my older brother's birthday.  He would have been 35 today, but he passed away at age 24. So these days will be linked in my mind FOREVER.

In these 7 years, I have fought and questioned God the entire way. I think it took me 2 years just to accept the fact that I wasn't working for a company anymore. I remember crying a lot during that time and sometimes working from bed because I didn't want to get out of bed. I didn't want to yield to anyone's will but my own. I wanted the stability that a 9-5 offered and I would often go on job interviews that never panned out. I was always able to find work to keep me busy though. It took me a few more years to accept that maybe I was MEANT to be self-employed. I started seeing a life coach and she helped me decide on a business structure and put some good habits in place. Throughout this time, I often thought that God had abandoned me, but looking back I have never been late on my rent or mortgage or missed a meal. My needs were always met. I definitely believe that I have been stretched to my limits sometimes, but things worked themselves out. I have to remind myself that this is my path until I reach the end of the road. I may never work for anyone ever again, or I may. Right now I don't see it happening anytime soon. I am starting to see that working for myself fits for my personality, so maybe this was meant to be.

I would be lying if I said that this 7th anniversary has no significance for me. I have high hopes for this new year! In the last year I created a new S-corporation in Chicago and began to phase out the AZ business. Having an incorporated business means that I now pay myself a salary to cover my personal expenses and that money is taxed upfront. Let's just say that I'm not accustomed to having my checks taxed. I've been learning a lot of things the hard way and at the beginning of the year I set myself up with a salary that paid me approximately $60K a year. At the time it seemed like a good number because it was a little less than what I made 7 years ago. I figured everything else would be covered by the business. I had friends who told me to pay myself less salary (but take profit distributions to supplement my income), but I thought it was a good number to attempt to live off of initially.

After much going back and forth and I went ahead tried it for the first quarter. The first month was kinda a shock and by month 2, I was struggling and had to take money out of the business. I forgot the my net salary would be much lower than my gross.  In addition to taxes I was also paying $1K in deductions (401(k), HSA) off the top, so I had less to work with. I increased my salary  in the 2nd quarter and although I would like ANOTHER raise, I'm going to learn how to make this work. I have figured out how much money I need to earn to keep my mortgage paid and my tummy filled. At the end of the year hopefully I have some profit left in the business to give myself a small bonus. This new way of operating is completely foreign to me, but hopefully it works out better. I was just getting killed at tax time and needed to try something different. I have established a self-employed 401(k) for this business and have my other benefits in place. I think I have this payroll process down and finally understand what taxes I need to pay and when. It's a lot of work, but I'll have to let you know how it turns out in my year end review.

Looking forward I'd like to do more of what I'm passionate about because that makes going to work more fun. Right now I do software consulting and it definitely pays the bills, but I'd like to do something more creative. Currently that is shaping up to be a lifestyle consultant or what I call a lifestyle maven. Basically, I would help people live a better life. I've been doing some journaling about how I want this business to be. Right now I want to focus on the areas of wardrobe styling, interior design, event planning and fitness. Presently I'm just giving friends advice in some of these areas, but I'm weighing the benefits of getting a part-time retail job to help me build some relationships. Like I said, it's only in the dream phase, but by the end of the year, I want to be doing something towards making this a reality. I may change up the blog a little to focus more on those type of things, but I doubt you'll notice much. Hopefully you all will take the ride with me.