Self-Employed & Sorted: The No-Jargon Financial Guide to Running a One-Person Business

Going self-employed means taking on a financial job nobody hired you for. Pricing. Invoicing. Bookkeeping. Taxes. The moment you sent your first invoice, you became your own CFO - whether you were ready or not. Most self-employed people figure this out the hard way: the first tax bill, the unpaid invoice that sat for six weeks, the P&L that turned out to be a lot less impressive than the revenue number suggested. Self-Employed & Sorted is the practical financial manual that should have been handed to you on day one. Eight chapters. Six systems. Plain English throughout. What the book builds for you: - A pricing method based on math, not feel - including the minimum viable rate calculation most freelancers have never run (and the result that usually surprises them) - An invoicing process with payment terms, late fee structure, and a three-step follow-up sequence that gets invoices paid without the awkward - Clean money separation - business account, personal account, and the automation that connects them - A P&L habit that takes 15 minutes a month and tells you whether your business is actually making money - A tax system covering SE tax (15.3%), quarterly estimated payments, and the $3,000-$5,000 in deductions most freelancers miss every year - A financial rhythm - weekly, monthly, quarterly, annual - that manages the whole thing for roughly 20 hours a year Written for freelancers, consultants, creatives, coaches, and anyone who has recently gone self-employed and discovered that nobody prepared them for the financial side. All figures are based on 2026 US tax guidelines. Includes a companion spreadsheet reference throughout. If you've been self-employed for more than six months and haven't run your minimum viable rate calculation, this book starts there.