Money money money - how to manage it as a group ex instructor

When I first started teaching, I just left with a stack of fivers. It was great. I had a part-time job anyway so those fivers were my going out & food money, the job covered the mortgage and the bills and my credit card was fun for everything else. Plus I was in my twenties, the future seemed a long way away and I was 100% sure everything would be fine in a few years time and I’d just suddenly be great at managing it all. 

I f**ked up SO BAD the first year I had to prepay my tax. I didn’t know it was a thing. I just thought I’d carry on doing it retrospectively… and then I royally shafted myself and cried for about a week because I had zero money. Because of that, I decided to get my act together… it’s been a slow process but I’m definitely more organised financially than I ever have been before. 

So these would be my top tips:

1 - Use a banking app like Mettle which is free and powered by Natwest so all above board - it’s designed for sole traders and small limited companies and it has 3 things which have saved me money - free access to Freeagent, built in invoicing (goodbye Quickbooks) and also the ‘Pots’, so I can automatically put money in there… for hall hire, tax, socials, marketing, pension contributions etc etc. This has been a game changer for me, rather than shunting it all into other accounts which I can easily access when I’ve had a pint lol. Ps. Use this code to get £50 for free if you move your business account to Mettle (and I'll get £50 too)… 9YXSS - will only work for the first 5 people to use it and you’ll be able to do the same to your self-employed mates when you get your own account set up…. Free £300 altogether. Bonus. 

2 - Get rid of the fear - it doesn’t make it more or less true if you don’t know about it. It’s better to be in control and able to make some changes than it is to pretend it isn’t happening. 

3 - Love a bit of spreadsheet life. Know which classes you make the most money from, which need some promo, which retain the most people etc etc… busy classes are AWESOME but sometimes it’s the slightly quieter ones which keep people around for longer, so it’s good to know what the deal is for you and your clients. 

4 - Put your bloody costs through on your tax return. All those little Amazon purchases for batteries or tape or notebooks for choreo, they are all business costs. All your subscriptions, for music, for software, for phone apps. Plus any home office costs. Make sure you get everything on there. Plus anything branded merch you’re stocking, wearing or gifting. If it’s got your logo on it, it’s exclusively for work therefore it’s tax deductible. 

5 - Use your skills. There’s loads of different revenue streams available to us in this job - online, corporate stuff, birthday parties, hen dos…. And the great thing about things like that is they are ad hoc… so you don’t need to commit to them on a weekly basis. And if you need a hand with choreo, you know where we are!

Happy Halloween classes everyone! Got mine tonight and I'm buzzing for it!

 Anna

Xx

If you want access to tons of choreography ideas as well as a LOT of business support videos come and check us out - the Fitness Library has tons of stuff in.