Small Business Thoughts for Artists and Creatives

Good morning!


For anyone who doesn't know, I run a small bookkeeping business called Silver Anchor Bookkeeping out of Victoria, BC. I've been running my company for a bit over a year and a half now, and it's doing fairly well. I'm pretty sure I have the best clients in the world, and there's a great feeling to being self-employed.

There is also a lot of extra work that goes into being a freelance *anything*, as I'm sure every small business owner will attest.

This month, I launched my art shop, Chris Vivier Art and Comics as well. I didn't think much of it. This might sound ridiculous (or relatable, depending on what you do for a living) but I didn't think anyone would actually buy anything. I had some postcards and stickers printed, and posted my commission prices.

I haven't been drowning in my success or anything, but I was definitely wrong about nobody wanting my work. This has been a great feeling, and I'm really surprised and grateful for all of this! But now it means it's time to do this right. I thought it might be useful for others to know what steps are involved in starting a small business account - especially for artists and illustrators who might not be doing any of these things. (I live in BC, so this info will be specific to there.)


If you run a small business, it's really important to keep track of all of your earnings. When you do your taxes at the end of the year, you will be asked a multitude of seemingly random questions (How big is your office space? How much did you spend on bank fees? How much did you spend on office supplies?) and if you did not keep track of this, these are charges you're not claiming. Don't do this! Keep your money. You worked hard for it.

Step 1: Get a business number. 
This is super easy. Go to the CRA website and apply online. It doesn't take long at all, and it's free.

Step 2: Register with your local professional organization (if applicable)
I did this for my bookkeeping business, but it wasn't relevant for my art company.

Step 3: Tax Accounts 
This can be quite confusing if you aren't sure what you're doing. There's a lot of information online.
For me, I don't need to register for these for my art account, because my earnings are quite low. I would recommend reading up on the GST and PST rules (or HST, if you aren't in BC) for your province regardless.

For my bookkeeping business, I got out a GST number fairly early on because I knew I would be making more the minimum within the first year.

Step 4: Register your name
This can take a while, sometimes a few weeks. Do it early. If you are just running your account under your own name, I would still register. It costs around $30.00 to do this. You'll need this or a business licence for your area if you want to open a bank account in BC. (I did not get out a business licence for my arts company as all my work is done online.)

Step 5: Open a bank account
This is the easiest way to keep track of your work expenses and income without mixing it into your main bank account. If you're worried about monthly fees, I'd recommend going to a local credit union. (I use Coast Capital). Usually their fees are very low or non-existent.

This is also a good time to link your Paypal or merchant accounts to your new bank account! This will open up the possibility of printing statements for your bookkeeper at the end of the month. (Or just keeping things clean, if you want to do it yourself.)

If you are doing books on your own, I use Wave Accounting. I know a lot of other sites exist that let you keep track of your own finances, but Wave is my favourite because the costs are very low and they allow you to email receipts to yourself. (And if you need help, I'm a Wave Apps pro! I can always help you set up your accounts there if you need it, and my rates are very reasonable.) A lot of people swear by Freshbooks as well, and I know Quickbooks Online is absolutely amazing.

If you are in the market for a bookkeeper, or need help setting up your small business accounts, please email me at chpvivier@gmail.com. 💛


This is for informational purposes only, and should not be considered financial advice. If you require financial advice, please contact an accountant in your region who is an expert in the fields listed.

2018 - Buy Nothing Challenge

Hello blog I have neglected for seven years!

I just finished Cait Flanders' book 'The Year of Less' and I've decided to try to take on my own 'buy nothing challenge'.

As many people know, I got rid of over half my things before I moved to Victoria a few years ago. This was inspired by Marie Kondo's book, 'The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up'. (Ironically, I bought that book on a whim with very little thought on a trip to Portland. It's one that I refer to frequently.) The book was great, even if sometimes it got more sentimental than I was ready for in terms of things. I'd never really considered why I bought things, and realizing I went shopping as a sort of retail therapy hit me hard; (To be honest, I wasn't really happy in my job, and Vancouver was a bit too big of a city for me) .

I didn't even realize how much crap I had accumulated. My closet was full to bursting, and so was the dresser I'd purchased to take in all the extra stuff. Our cupboards were full. I couldn't find anything. It was stressful. 

The things I passed on spanned several rooms in my house, but it was mostly clothes I didn't wear, games I didn't play, or books I had no intention of reading again. It was nice to have a clean home and space in my closet. The goal wasn't ever to just 'have less' or see how little I could get by with. I did this for my own sanity - I could never find the small selection of clothes I actually wore. I would lose my favourite book in the stacks of books I haven't read. I'd enter my office and feel uncomfortable there because there was just *so much stuff* on my desk. At the time I was working as an Accounting Clerk for a mid-sized company in Vancouver, so finances weren't on my list of things I was worried about, but if I'd actually been reasonable I would assume I was spending a lot of money on all the fast-fashion and new games that I insisted on having (Again, things I either barely or never used). 

This purge was done in a weekend. It's ironic to me that my husband and I had so much more stuff when we lived in our 500 square foot basement suite in Vancouver than we do now in our 1200 square foot townhouse in Victoria. I felt guilty for giving away things I spent good money on - but the fallout was amazing. My home felt clean and fresh, and was only made up of things I actually cared about. It was great. 

Flash forward to today. 

I was shocked when I realized it was happening again. I was a mindful consumer! I only bought things I wanted, right? My house was clean. I didn't have a pile of nicknacks and books I wasn't going to read. 

Except, I did. Not from shopping in stores. I've more or less stopped that. But from Internet shopping. 

Amazon is the biggest culprit for me, but there are other stores too. My Visa bill has been higher than it should be, and I'm embarrassed. I don't make a lot of money right now, and I work for myself as a bookkeeper. Shouldn't I be better at this? What am I doing?

The goal here is to save some money, stop buying things I don't need, and try to appreciate what I have.

I am late to this 'Buy Nothing 2018' challenge, clearly. But fuck it, better late than never.

So, here are the guidelines for my amended 2018 Shopping Ban. 

I am allowed to buy: 
- Basic Cosmetics and hair products - only when I use up what I have. (Nothing I don't already use already.)

- Groceries, Cleaning Supplies, etc
- If something breaks and we need it, I can replace it.
- Sketchbook and drawing pens (if they run out and I need new ones)
- Supplies for my art shop.
- Patreon rewards (but I can't add any new ones) and charitable donations
- Gifts for birthday parties or holidays

I am not allowed to buy: 
- books of any kind
- art supplies that I don't need, including new markers
- office supplies (I have enough)
- toys or games
- electronics, DVDs, video games
- clothes and shoes
- household decorations and appliances
- takeout coffee (unless it's a coffee 'date' with a friend.)
- fast food

So I've done another purge. Donated another huge shopping bag of books. Given away a few bags of clothes. And I will not be buying anything for myself until the end of the year (possibly longer). We have a great local library in Victoria where I can get out books, and I have enough to make art for probably ten years. I don't need to buy more. 

I'm posting this to keep me accountable! Please tell me off if you notice me buying things I don't need.

Some links to useful information on this topic: 
https://caitflanders.com/start-here/ (The Year of Less)
https://konmari.com/ (The Life Changing Magic of Tidying up)Thanks!

Chris

A drawing of Faith

The comic is back up. I'll write a blog post soonish. I'm working on some entries for a micro-fiction contest, and the ones I don't use will go up here.

- Chris

I wish Canadian sterotypes were true.

When I was around ten or eleven years old, I was living with my mother in Ontario. I don't remember where exactly. It was probably Kingston or Ottawa. It might have even been Gananoque. We moved a lot, and it's not that important.

In any case, my Dad was living right across the border in Quebec. Or on the border. I don't know. I always thought Hull was in Quebec, and I remember lots of license plates on cars that read Je me souviens so I know we were in Quebec, anyway.

It was all over the news at the time that Quebec was talking about separating from Canada. I didn't completely understand what this meant. To my small, confused mind I took it to mean quite literally what I'd heard; that Quebec would literally be removed from Canada.

This concept terrified me. You might wonder why. Well, I've made a diagram to illustrate why this is a problem, and I think if you look at it yourself you'll understand:


For those of you who are not from Canada, I drew a frowny face where Quebec is supposed to be.

Now, let's examine the issue here. I'm sure it's clear now why Quebec being shoved into the middle of the ocean or wherever the grown-ups wanted to put it seems completely unreasonable to everyone else too. What would happen to PEI, Newfoundland, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia? They would probably float away, or sink or something. And what if Quebec was relocated to some other place? What if they put it up near England or something? My Dad would need to fly a plane to work every day just to go to work in Ottawa. That is ridiculous.

And most importantly, I wouldn't be able to take the train to see him anymore, which would suck massively since the train is awesome.

Anyway, this misconceived understanding of my country's politics is what led me to my actual topic for this thing. (Hopefully nobody's just closed the window at this point because they've finally realized how vapid I am and how much time you're wasting. Thanks for staying here. There are cookies and pie at the end of this post, I promise.) It led me to thinking of other peoples' misunderstandings of our country, or even just stereotypes that people find funny. I wish most of them were true, because I think my life would be so much better.

For one thing, I would love to be a lumberjack and 'just not care'. That would be awesome. Think of how lax that job would be? We could just hang out with the beavers in the woods and cut trees sometimes. Not too much, though. Because we are relaxed.

For another, I wish I lived in an igloo. I also wish I had a polar bear. I would name him Frosting and he would be my best pal. We would frolic through the wilderness (which would constantly be covered in snow because Canada is freezing all the time and never stops being freezing) and I would keep him fed on a steady diet of timbits and ketchup chips.

He'd look something like this:


I also wish that we all sounded like Americans seem to think we do. I've only heard the word 'aboot' from a few people in my life, and it's always someone insisting that I sound like that or from someone who isn't Canadian pretending to be one. I wish we were all overly polite like the media says we were. That'd be so cool. But we are not.

I actually think the American stereotype for how Canadians sound sounds a lot like Sarah Palin.

On second thought, I don't want to sound like that. :( Let's just move on.


I wish maple syrup came on everything. I freakin love maple syrup. That would be so sweet. We could have maple syrup candies, and everything, but instead of selling them just to tourists who think all we eat is maple we could actually have them ourselves! It would be so awesome. As it stands I usually just use 'Aunt Jemimah's' when we have pancakes because maple syrup is like twenty dollars a bottle or something. I think it should be free. Just because we're Canadians. All Canadians should have free maple syrup.

It would also be awesome if we just spent all day skating around playing hockey (when we weren't frolicking with polar bears, of course). After a two hour shift of lumberjacking (kinda) we would all go down to the rink and drink the best beer ever and just play hockey. Whenever someone got angry, the disputes could always be solved by just saying sorry, because Canadians are unable to refuse an apology.

This is the Canada the rest of the world thinks we live in. Why don't we?

EDIT: There totally are no pie or cookies. I tricked you. I know, life is full of disappointments.

...I'm sorry.

Improvement or something

I already put this up in like two other places so hopefully I'm not annoying yet.

I'm going to try to spend more of this year drawing serious things, focusing on backgrounds and character development in comics. I'm selling art at two conventions (but one is J-Fest and it's only a day so it isn't a huge deal) and I'd like it very much if I could do some things that are more geared to my interests, like maids who are also mermaids or silly situations instead of just cute faces.

I got two great pose books for Christmas, and I intend on using them until the pages fall out and my fingers fall off. :)

Happy New Year!

Chris