Cazmanian_minx's MFi3 diary

cazmanian_minx

Hooray, it's mortgage payment day :j:j:j:j:j

Another overpayment of nearly £600 As long as the Bank of England doesn't change interest rates tomorrow and barring any disasters, we're on course to change that £14x,xxx into a £13x,xxx next month, which will really feel like we're starting to make progress.

I'm so busy with the beads that I've barely had time to breathe in the past couple of days - the last two days of transfers from PayPal into my business account have been £447 and £583 respectively, so add back fees and that's about £1,100 in TWO DAYS :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek: And this is supposed to be my quietest month!! Unless I take the next month off, I'm going to have to register for VAT before Christmas, so I think it's finally time to employ an accountant. It also probably means knocking the transcription on the head as well - they have a hard enough time paying me gross, I think adding VAT into the equation will probably be the final straw!

Caz

tsharp

cazmanian_minx wrote: »

Not sure if I get done for advertising if I tell you the title - I guess it's OK if I don't give you a link and since I've been paid a flat fee for the story, I don't profit from any extra royalties!

The book is called Ultimate Curves and it's published by Xcite Books, out next week. My story is the second from last, Painted Lady (written as Amelia Fox so my mother doesn't have to be embarrassed!)

Caz

Well done on the writing success. I had a short story published in an erotica magazine last year, and while I was chuffed and appreciated the small amount of money I was paid, I had to hold back from telling my parents about my success, for embarassment reasons alone!

cazmanian_minx

Whew! Transcription finished, invoices for £708 going out on Monday

Must, *must*, MUST pay the erotica cheque into the offset account - if I only do one thing this weekend, that's going to be it! I just haven't got round to digging out my paying in book and addressing the envelope.

Caz

setmefree2

cazmanian_minx wrote: »

Hooray, it's mortgage payment day :j:j:j:j:j

Another overpayment of nearly £600 As long as the Bank of England doesn't change interest rates tomorrow and barring any disasters, we're on course to change that £14x,xxx into a £13x,xxx next month, which will really feel like we're starting to make progress.

well done :T and well done on your success with your business

cazmanian_minx

After a productive hour's meeting yesterday, I now have an accountant and will be VAT-registered from 1st October. This is all getting scarily grown-up! :eek::eek::eek:

I'm really enjoying being transcription-free. I'm more productive because I'm not footling around on Facebook avoiding transcribing and I'm even writing regularly, which I'm chuffed to bits about! I've finished another naughty short story today, so that can mature on the PC for a couple of days before I print it off to proof read (can't do it on screen for some reason!) The accountant is checking what the situation is with payments to writers and VAT - she has a sneaking suspicion that it may be exempt, but didn't know off the top of her head. (That's what makes me think she's going to be a good accountant - she doesn't pretend to know everything but does know where she can find an answer.) She did say one way round it would be to sell to ex-EU markets only and since Harlequin/Silhouette is a north American company, that's definitely an option.

Beads-wise everything is ticking over nicely. I'm having a mammoth sort-out because I need to make sure my inventory is accurate for 1st Oct so I can claim back VAT on all on-hand stock. I've also downloaded Microsoft Accounting to see if I can get to grips with it - the basic version is free, but the professional version (£149.95 flat fee rather than a fee plus licence) has a proper stock control system, which I'm in need of as I'm making too many errors using Excel to keep track.

I've nearly finished processing the wedding photos and I hope the bride and groom will be happy with them - the money coming in from that is going straight into the offset, but I'm still dithering about what to charge, bearing in mind I'm not a pro.

Caz

cazmanian_minx

The offset is quietly ticking up again, which is good. Hoping that my payment for the last transcription work will come in before 5th September so I can get the mortgage under £140k, but it's not looking likely now. I'm also about to have a big expense because we're getting our own drive put in - our building contractor wasn't sure if he'd have time to get it done before the bad weather started, but now that planning permission has been granted, he's shuffled his diary a bit and is starting on Thursday. The deal is that I pay for his work on the drive and OH pays for the materials (100m of post and wire fencing, a gate, two strainers and about 50 tons of scalpings) plus the new bathroom, which is next on the hitlist.

I'm gearing up for silly season - I'll take about half my year's money in the next three months, so preparation is crucial. I've got two new suppliers with good margins; one lot of stock arrived on Friday and I'm in the process of listing it, the other should arrive towards the end of this week I hope and contains the boxes and kits I'm hoping to start selling at craft & Christmas fairs. First Christmas fair this year is a 2-hour coffee morning at the British Legion on 30th October for a practice run - then November and December will probably see at least one a week.

Caz

cazmanian_minx

Dropping in quickly to say there's another £50 on its way to the offset account - I've sold another erotic short story :D:o:D:o

gallygirl

you dirty hussy :rotfl:

tsharp

Under the same pen name as before?

cazmanian_minx

tsharp wrote: »

Under the same pen name as before?

No - on the grounds that a) my mother is never going to voluntarily pick up a book of erotic short stories and b) there's another, much better-known, writer of erotica and romance with the surname Fox, I'm being brave and using Caz Jones from now on.

And cazjones.co.uk and cazjones.com were free and now belong to me...

Caz