Meet Creative Entrepreneurship Consultant, Sazi Mbalekwa
Sazi Mbalekwa, who is a producer, production manager and freelance career consultant is taking her advice and tips for freelance creatives from URL to IRL with one-on-one consulting to assist independent creative contractors in securing the bag.
Having worked on the sets of major motion and commercial productions, Sazi Mbalekwa is a budding young expert in her field. Using her now four years of experience in full-time freelance creative projects, Sazi is inviting more young South Africans to explore the over-mystified yet highly gratifying world of freelancing with her career consultancy offering.
With the hopes to clarify what is often misunderstood about freelancing in the creative industries, Sazi produces easy-to-access educational and advisory videos for new and prospective freelancers through her over-20 000-strong combined social media platforms, including Youtube, Instagram and Twitter. Content covered by Sazi includes pitching yourself for opportunities, quoting, negotiating with clients and navigating creative entrepreneurship amongst others.
Clients can look forward to practical tools that will aid in legitimizing their freelance operations and attracting new clients.
Below Sazi offers 3 must-know items on navigating finances as a freelancer:
“We do not earn what we are worth, we earn what we negotiate.” – Sazi Mbalekwa
TAX
Put money away for tax! Unfortunately, due to the fact that SARS cannot place freelancers into a certain tax bracket (because our income fluctuates), they charge us 25% of all our earnings. On top of that, unlike people who work 9-5 jobs, freelancers have to do taxes manually, ourselves. A smart solution to this is to have a separate savings account where you put away 25% as soon as client payment arrives. Come tax season, you should have enough money saved up in order to pay SARS.
CASH FLOW AND EXPENSES
Reduce your monthly expenses! As a freelancer, income fluctuates quite often. Some months are good, but some can be really bad, that is why you want to reduce your monthly necessary expenses as much as you possibly can. This will assist in limiting money going out of your account and maintain a healthy cash flow.
RATES
Learn to negotiate your rate well! Learning to negotiate effectively is absolutely vital to the success of your freelance career. Ask for too much, and you might scare the client away. Ask for too little, and you could leave money on the table or appear to be unsure of yourself. Be firm, maintain professionalism but always look to negotiate your fee or higher.
For further creative entrepreneurship and freelance consulting, connect with Sazi Mbalekwa via email, [email protected] and on Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.
