TIPS60 - The importance of having long-term care insurance

Here is another of our videos offering tips and inisights into the business of photography. a transcript of the video is included after the jump.

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TRANSCRIPT:Here are a few thoughts on long-term care insurance. I'm John Harrington. Long term care insurance is a very valuable resource to have should something happen to you, you be debilitated or otherwise can't work and you need to go into skilled nursing facility or other location where you need to be attended to and there's daily or monthly costs to care for you medically. Long term care insurance should actually be a tax deductible business expense. I'm not an accountant so you might want to check with your accountant on that, but it's something that you should definitely be considering. It does give you peace of mind knowing that you're not going to have to sell off all your familial assets and essentially go into bankruptcy before medicare, medicaid will take care of you. Long term care insurance is kind of a form of life insurance that protects you or rather, your family while you're still alive from having to declare bankruptcy in order for you to be taken care of because of something debilitating that means you can't work anymore. So look into long term care insurance it's not that expensive and it's well worth it.

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TIPS60 - Switching to an S-Corp and what's involved with hiring a lawyer

Here is another of our videos offering tips and inisights into the business of photography. a transcript of the video is included after the jump.

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TRANSCRIPT:Here are a few thoughts on switching to an S-Corp from being a Sole Proprietor or starting out. I'm John Harrington. When you're a photographer oftentimes you start out as a Sole Proprietor, you're filing your returns on the Schedule C and someone gave you the idea that you probably should switch to an S-Corp. It's a good idea. Something we talk about in another segment. I'm talking to about that how you actually go about switching to an S-Corp. Switching to an S-Corp is really easy, frankly it's pick up the phone and call a lawyer there are lawyers who for you $500 $1000, my lawyer actually was $750, will charge you to switch to file all the necessary paperwork to file an S-Corp. Filing an S-Corp isn't a big deal. It's very easy, articles of incorporation are simple to write. They are fairly boiler plate for most lawyers who are familiar with doing that and they'll do it for you fairly quickly. So get a lawyer, a competent one who knows how to file S-Corp in your local jurisdiction, and you'll be all set. It's really very simple.

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TIPS60 - Should You Quit Your "Day Job" To Become a Full-Time Photographer?

Here is another of our videos offering tips and inisights into the business of photography. a transcript of the video is included after the jump.

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TRANSCRIPT:Here are a few thoughts on whether you, if you love our hobbyist photography, should become a professional. I'm John Harrington. The short version is, if you love what you're doing as a hobbyist, stick with it as a hobby. It's something that you do to relax, to entertain yourself, to blow off steam, to just kind of get away from the office. If you love what you do as a hobby stick with it as a hobby. If you're going to become a professional you're going to actually have to treat the business of photography like a business. You're going to have to treat it like you do your day job, your nine to five job. I strongly encourage you to consider that, when you switch from being a hobbyist to being a professional, that you really are starting a business from the ground up, from scratch and hopefully you will find that you can focus on staying as a hobbyist and not becoming a professional, unless that's what you want to do seven days a week. So before you consider making a jump from hobbyist to professional, recognize that it is a business and that's something that you need to stay completely professional on and not treat just like your hobby.

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TIPS60 - The Importance of Having Life Insurance

Here is another of our videos offering tips and inisights into the business of photography. a transcript of the video is included after the jump.

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TRANSCRIPT:Here are a few thoughts about the value of life insurance. I'm John Harrington. The value of life insurance can't be understated you definitely should have life insurance. In most cases it's tax deductible as a part of your business expenses. No, I'm not an accountant or lawyer so this should not be considered tax advice or legal advice, but look into getting life insurance because it will give you peace of mind. As someone who has life insurance I happen to use New York Life and think the world of them, they're a past and present client of mine, but I made my decision about going with them independent of that relationship. Life insurance lets you know that and let's your family know that if something were to happen to you, God forbid, that they would be taken care of in your absence. So strongly encourage you to look into life insurance. It should well be a tax deductible business expense as a part of what you're doing as a freelance photographer, whether an S-Corp or a Sole Proprietor. So look into life insurance, definitely worth having.

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Please post your comments by clicking the link below. If you've got questions, please pose them in our Photo Business Forum Flickr Group Discussion Threads.