Avoid These 5 Common Creator Business Mistakes

Speaker A00:00:00

Stop scrolling for a second. Seriously, put your shoulders down, unclench that jaw, and take one slow breath. Because I know what you're doing. You're creating.You're posting, you're editing, and you're uploading. You're even answering comments at the red light. And you're cutting clips at midnight. You're thinking in captions while you're brushing your teeth.And then in those quiet moments, you feel that little question. Not something loud, not something dramatic, just persistent. Am I doing the money part right? Not the make more views part.Not the grow your audience part. The behind the scenes part. That part that doesn't feel fun but decides everything.Decides whether this creator thing becomes freedom or just stress with a nicer camera. And here's what makes it worse. You're not even sure what you're unsure about. Is it taxes? Is it your spending? Is it those receipts?Is it the income streams? The AdSense? The affiliate payouts? The brand deals? PayPal, Stripe? Each one looking totally different.In one month, you've earned it, and another month you receive it. And your bank app just shows deposits with names that make no sense. So you stare at your phone like, okay, what am I supposed to do with this?And then you look online and it feels like everybody else has it together. Here's what today is. This is not some quick tip video. This is not some three hacks for a solution. This is not hype.This is a comm masterclass conversation, just you and me across a desk. I'm going to walk you through five common creator business mistakes that quietly cost you money.Not because you're lazy, not because you're dumb, but because you're just a creator. And you live, like all of us, in crater chaos.Uneven months, Random payouts, software subscriptions, gear temptations, the editors, the contractors, Brand deals that pay late. So if you've ever been thinking, I'll deal with it later. Or maybe I'm not big enough, or I don't want to spend money on help. Good.We're going to talk about that, too. And by the end, you'll know exactly what to fix first so you can create peace and find success. Sound fair? All right. Let's do this. Creator.A creator on fire. Hey, I'm Ralph Estep Jr. I'm a licensed accountant with 30 years in the game of this. And I'm not just an accountant. I'm a business coach.And I'm also a working content creator, just like you. So I know the numbers and I know the messy content creator reality.I know what it feels like when your month is amazing and then the next month, crickets.I know what it's like to buy a piece of gear because you needed it and also because you were stressed and you just wanted to feel in control a little bit. Man, I felt that many times.I know what it's like to see the payouts hit AdSense income, that affiliate income, that brand deal, a random PayPal transfer and think, wait, what do I do with this? So here's why this is safe. I'm not here to pressure you. I'm not here to judge you. I'm here to give you clarity.Because the truth is, clarity creates calm. And calm creates consistency. And consistency is what makes a creator business last.But before we go deeper, if you want me to look at your numbers, your specific things, and you want to get clean, simple and confident, I'm going to encourage you right now. Book a clarity call with me. Go to content creators accountant.com help me. Again, that's content creatorsaccountant.com helpme. That's it.No pressure, no weird sales energy. Just a calm conversation to figure out what's exactly happening and what your next best step is. If you want that relief, it's there.Again, that's content creators accountant.com Help me. All right, now let's talk about the mistakes so you can start fixing this today. And I know this stuff is confusing for creators for one big reason.Your income doesn't behave like a normal business. See, a normal business sells a thing. They get paid for it, they track it, and then they repeat it. But you, you get paid in batches.Platforms hold your money. Brands pay late, affiliates pay whenever they feel like it. Does that sound familiar to you?You might have seven income streams and none of them feel consistent. And the bank app just shows deposits with names that make no sense afterwards. So you're not disorganized.You're dealing with a system that was not built for creators in the first place. And this is why simple creator specific systems matter so much. Let's be calm and let's be honest with each other.Doing nothing at this point has a cost. It may not be today, it may not be tomorrow, but later it stacks up, it builds up, doesn't it?It shows up as a surprise tax bill when you thought you were doing fine. Those are never fun calls from your accountant.Well, assuming you've got an accountant, or maybe it's just the final screen on your tax software, then your heart sinks. It shows up as missing write offs because you can't prove the expense.It shows up as a cleanup project that steals your weekend, then steals your month. Then it makes you resent your own business. And here's the wild part. Most creators don't get in trouble because they made too little.They get in trouble because they grew and their systems didn't grow with them. Have you ever felt like that? Like your content leveled up, but the back end stayed? Messy. Yeah, real messy. That's what we're fixing today.So let's talk about five common creator business mistakes, but even more importantly than that, how to avoid them. All right, let's get to mistake number one. You're mixing your money together. You got business and personal all in the same place.And you tell yourself, I remember what that was. But three weeks later, you're not going to remember that. You definitely won't remember come tax time. Because creator life is fast.And here's the pain moment. When money is mixed together, you don't have any clarity. What you have is anxiety. And guess what? Anxiety sucks.You open up your bank app, and it feels like fog. And when you live in fog, every decision feels dangerous. You ask yourself these questions. Can I really afford this editor?Can I afford to take this trip? Can I afford this lens? Oh, it's a beautiful lens. I need to have it. And you ask yourself, should I say yes to this brand deal? And it's a big one.And then you ask yourself, am I actually profitable, or am I just busy? Let me give you a real creator story. A creator came to me not too long ago. Good audience, solid content. They were making about $6,000 a month.They had AdSense, affiliate income, and two brand deals. They were doing all right, but it all hit one checking account. It was mixed together like a salad, all in the same bowl.They had their rent, their groceries, the software, even their kids stuff. They paid their editor. They bought gear. All mixed together. And they said something that hit me.r. All mixed together. And they said something that hit me.They said, Ralph, I don't know why, but I feel broke all the time. Well, guess what, friends? That's That's not a money problem. That's a clarity problem. I see these all the time because they didn't have a scoreboard.They just had a pile of transactions. So we did one simple fix. We separated the money. It wasn't complicated. It was just clean business. Money lives here. Personal money lives there.Within two weeks, they texted me. They said, Ralph, I can breathe again. And it wasn't because they made more money, but it was because the fog lifted.It's amazing what you can see when the Fog lifts. So here's my one step fix for this mistake. All you got to do is this. Open one separate business checking account. That's it.And when income hits, it hits the business account. When business expenses happen, they come out of the business account. Now, you have truth, and truth creates calm. Let me ask you a quick question.If I opened your bank app right now, could you tell me in 10 seconds what your creator business actually made this month? Or would you have to guess? All right, let's move on to mistake number two. You're trusting the platform dashboards more than your own tracking.And I get it. Those dashboards feel official. They look fancy. They've got charts, they've got numbers. They look clean and nice.But the problem is, dashboards don't show everything. They show their version of the truth, and creators get paid in weird timing.And I gotta be honest, when I got into the creator game, I was surprised by this as well. You might earn the money this month, but receive it in another month. And tax time cares about what actually hits your world.The fancy term there is cash basis. Now, I promised I wouldn't use jargon on this show. What matters is when it hits your bank or when it hits your PayPal or hits your stripe.And here's the pain moment. This mistake creates the worst feeling ever. The thought of, I had more. You think you earned $4,200, but you only received 3,700.And those differences are hard to manage. Your actual payout is less. It's less because of the fees they take. Maybe you had some refunds.Maybe somebody did a chargeback or because the platform held money on you. And that gap. That gap messes with your brain. It makes you feel like your business is unstable when really your tracking is incomplete.A creator showed me this on their dashboard. They said, look, Ralph, I made $8,000 this month. But the problem is their bank showed $6,400 in deposits, and they were panicking.They thought, Ralph, did I lose money? Is something wrong? Did someone steal it? No, it wasn't that at all. It was timing, plus the fees. Basically, they were reading the wrong scorecard.It's really confusing if you don't understand this. So to correct this, we created one simple rule. Don't track what you earn. Track what you receive.You track what hits your world, what hits the bank, what hits PayPal, what hits Stripe. And now the numbers match reality. And what does that do? It leads to the anxiety dropping. So here's my one step fix for this mistake.Pick one Payout tracker. It can be a simple spreadsheet or bookkeeping software. We talked about options in a different episode.There are some great options out there, but once a week, you record what actually landed. Not perfect, just consistent. Let's look at mistake number three. You're treating taxes like a future problem. And listen, I live in a tax world.I see this all the time. You're thinking, oh, you know, no big deal. I'll handle it when I get bigger. But taxes don't wait for you to feel ready.If money is hitting your PayPal account, guess what? Taxes are already in the room. And here's the pain moment. The mistake creates one specific day. It's that stomach drop day.It's that day you realize, oh, oh, that money I spent wasn't mine. It was future tax money. And now April feels like an ambush. But it's not an ambush. It's just math showing up late.And I can still remember Crater had their first great year. That's what they called it. They made about $48,000, which I think is actually good money for a content creator.The problem is they didn't set aside any tax money because no one told them to do it. This is another thing I see all the time. So April came and they owed thousands. Yeah, you heard me right. Thousands.And they said, I didn't do anything wrong. Why does it feel like I'm being punished, Ralph? And I explained to them, you're not being punished.You're being introduced to what I'll call adult business math. Yeah, adult business math is no fun at all. And that's why you need a better system. And you deserve a system that makes it peaceful.So to help this creator, we created a tax set aside. It was automatic. Every time money came in, we move a percentage to a separate savings account. And suddenly when we did that, guess what?The fear disappeared. Because the money was sitting on the sidelines waiting. It wasn't hunting them. So here's my one step fix for this mistake.Set up a separate tax savings account and just choose a simple percentage. Start with a range. Now, I'm going to give you a range because it depends on your situation. Maybe 15 to 35%.And that's why you might want to book a call with me, because we can talk about that later. But move it automatically, because if it's not automatic, usually it doesn't happen. So let me ask you this question.If a surprise $4,000 bill hits you next month, would you pay it calmly, or would it wreck your peace? Maybe wreck your Day or your weekend. See, that answer tells you what needs to change. First, let's look at mistake number four.You're buying in the wrong season. Has anyone ever told you that content creation has seasons? Listen, creators do this constantly. You have a big month, that brand deal lands.AdSense finally pops affiliate commission spike. Everybody's loving your stuff, and you feel euphoria. And sometimes you say to yourself, finally, I can upgrade some of this.So you buy that new camera, that fancy new amazing lens, the lighting so you no longer feel like you're sitting in the dark. The laptop, you know, the latest one with the latest stuff on it, and the new software stack.You buy all of it, and then the next month, the income dips and you're living in that stress again. Because the upgrade wasn't planned. It was emotional timing. It was an emotional thing. And I want to say this gently.This mistake again isn't about math. It's about relief. I've heard it called Gas Gear acquisition syndrome. You buy gear because you want to feel like you're moving forward.All of us want to do that. But if the purchase steals your piece, that's not an upgrade. It's a pressure weight. Wait until you hear this one. A Creator had a $12,000 month.Great month. They spent $7,500 on upgrades and subscriptions. Then the next two months, crickets. $3,000 one month, $2,500 the next. Super flip.And they said to me, Ralph, I don't understand. I had my best month ever. Why do I feel broke? They felt broke because the season changed, but their spending didn't adjust. In fact, you are broke.That's why I had to tell them. They didn't want to hear that, but that was the truth. I work with another creator, had a similar pop month. About $10,000.Yeah, that's a good month for sure, isn't it? But they had one rule. They paid future RALPH first. They actually listened to what I told them to do. The taxes were set aside. They paid their editor.They paid themselves steadily. Yeah, they had a plan. Then upgrade money went into a separate gear fund. So when they bought gear, it wasn't panic. It was planned.And when the next month dipped, they didn't spiral out of control because their system caught them. So here's my one step fix for this mistake. Create what I call a gear fund. Separate savings account, and decide this rule. And this is a tough one.You can only buy upgrades from the gear fund. You can't spend any other money. Not from the main account. Only from that gear fund. And then what happens is upgrades feel safe again.Let me ask you this question. Do your good minds create peace or do your good minds create spending pressure? That's a tough one as well. Okay, and now we have mistake number five.You don't have a simple money rhythm. Creators love workflows for content. As a creator, just like you, I love these. I love doing my batch filming, my editing days, my posting schedules.But for so many of us, the money side, it's random at best. So you react instead of review. And unfortunately, most of the time reacting is too late. And here's the pain moment.That reaction creates shame because you only look when you're scared. Think about this for a second. You only check the numbers when you feel behind.So money becomes this thing you avoid because you don't do it until it jumps out and bites you. And when you don't review it, those small leaks become big problems. And I'm talking about big problems like subscription creep.We've talked about on some of the other shows. Software renewals. You weren't expecting those editor invoices piling up.They want to get paid, taxes not being set aside and spending decisions made on feelings. I never forget, I was working with one creator and he told me, I don't even want to open my banking app anymore, Ralph.And see, that's not laziness, that's anxiety. It was anxiety because he was scared to look at it. See, that's what happens when you don't have a rhythm. So for him, the simple solution was this.We built a 20 minute monthly check in just one day, same time every month. We had the same simple questions. So here's what I questions I use for all the creators I work with. Here's what I want you to ask yourself.What came in? You know, how much actually landed in the account?Not what you thought you were going to make, not what the platform said, but what actually hit your bank account. Next question. What went out? What did you actually spend and put on credit cards? Yeah, it's not just what you spent.How much debt did you incur last month? Next question. What got set aside? Maybe you're doing the RALPH thing.You're putting the money in that tax account or that Gear savings account, or maybe just a savings account. What are you actually putting aside? And then this question. What's safe to spend? See, that's the hardest question of all. What's in that gear fund?What's in that tax fund? And then the final question is, what needs your Attention. And that's the critical part.But see, if you don't do that, you're never going to get to this. But when he did it, the money stopped being scary because it stopped being random. So here's my one step fix for this mistake.I want you to pick one money day each month and put it on your calendar. This is a sacred appointment. You don't need a lot of time, just 20 minutes. And you review that same five things.What came in, what went out, what got set aside, what's safe to spend, and what needs your attention. You notice it's not complicated. It's not a master's thesis. It's just simple consistency.So let me ask you, how many of those five mistakes can you identify with? I don't know about you, but I can identify with a bunch of them. Now listen, here's another thing. You don't have to fix all five of these today.You just need to push that first domino. Let's be honest, if you do all five at anyway @ this point, you're not going to do it. So let me share my system.And this system is simple, basic things to do. Separate business accounts, track your real payouts, set taxes aside automatically, use that gear fund and do that 20 minute monthly check in.And if you want help to install that, you can go to content creators, accountant.com help me. And by the way, this is exactly why creators reach out for help. Not because they're failing. Because they want to know what matters most right now.So before we move on, three quick snapshots. You can place yourself in one of these. These aren't labels, these are and not judgments. Just a quick way to recognize where you are right now.So think about this one. Are you in snapshot number one? You're an early creator. Maybe you're earning under $2,000 a month. You're starting to prove that this can work.You're building that consistency. Well, your goal here is simple.Stop mixing your money together, track those payouts as they land, and set aside something for taxes, even if it's small. That's snapshot number one. But maybe you've moved into snapshot number two. You're starting to grow.Maybe you're in that 2,000 to $10,000 a month range. Yes, a lot of creators do get to that point. Some months pop, some months dip.Maybe you've got that editor, maybe you've got a contractor or two, you got more subscriptions and you realize, welcome to the game. Your goal at this point is stability, clean separation. Some simple tracking again, tax set asides and that monthly check in. So that's snapshot two.Let's talk about snapshot number three. This is what I call your operating mode. Maybe you're over $10,000 a month. The business is real. It feels real. You've got that team.You're operating on multiple platforms, you're landing bigger brand deals. Your goal here is protection. This is where you're building cleaner systems, better decisions, and fewer surprises.Because at this point, running your money like an early creator doesn't just feel messy, it gets expensive. So let me ask you, what, which snapshot feels like? You. And if you're not sure, that's a signal. See, here's the moment I see all the time.A creator is winning. Online views are up, comments are up. Brand deals are starting to roll in. But behind the scenes, their bank account is in a fog.We talked about that fog earlier. They don't know what the profit is. They don't know what's tax money. They don't know what they can even afford to spend. And then something happens.And.And usually these aren't dramatic, but they're things like you get an email from a platform, you get one of those dreaded IRS or state notices, you get a form you don't know how to complete, or your account or somebody like me gives you a tax estimate, you go, oh, my God, I can't believe this. And then your stomach drops because you realize something. I built a content machine, but I didn't build a system behind that.And that's where I come in. I'm the system behind the content guy. I translate taxes into creator language so you can stop guessing and start moving with confidence.So let's do this right now. I want you to answer these out loud. Yes, out loud. Everybody's going to think you're strange, but just do that. Here's question number one.Do you have business money separate from personal money? If not today, that's when you need to start. That's your first quick fix. Question number two.Could you tell me your real monthly average income from the last three months without digging for an hour? Another tough question. If not, guess what? Your tracking is too unclear. You gotta fix that. Here's question number three.If your taxes were due next week, do you already have the money set aside? Now that's getting to be a big issue here as we're getting closer to April. If not. What did I say earlier? You're borrowing from the future. You.And question number four. Do you know what you can Safely spend on gear, on software, and help without hoping next month saves you.If not, let me tell you something right now, creator. Your business needs a rhythm. Now, listen, if any of these questions made you uncomfortable, that is not shame. That's a signal.It's a signal that your creator business is ready for structure. But now, let me guess the thoughts in your head. You're thinking, yeah, Ralph, I hear what you're saying, but I'm not big enough.Let me tell you right now, if money's coming in, you're big enough for clarity. Or maybe you're thinking this, you know, yeah, Ralph, I'll do it later. I'll get to that eventually.Later is how small messes become expensive cleanup. Or maybe you're thinking this, I don't want to spend money. Hey, neither do I. I don't want to spend money either, but that's why we do this now.So you stop paying for mistakes later because they cost more later. And this one, I hear this one all the time. I'm overwhelmed. I'm glad you're overwhelmed. Overwhelmed means you need simpler steps, not more steps.And here's the truth. Clarity pays for itself, not always instantly, but consistently, because it saves you future pain and panic.Now, if you want this cleaned up without guessing, I want you to book a clarity call with me. You can do that by going to contentcreatorsaccountant.com helpme and when we do that, here's what happens.You book a time with me, you tell me what you're dealing with, and I look at your situation, your specific situation with you, and guess what? You leave with a plan. Not pressure, not confusion. A plan. Just a plan. So go to content creatorsaccountant.com helpme. So let's get you calm again.Look at me. You're not behind. You're building something real. And the fact that you're watching this means you care about doing it right. And that matters.So take the next step. Separate the money. Track those payouts, set aside taxes, stop buying in the wrong season, and create a simple rhythm.And if you want help, you know where to go. Now, if this helped you, I want you to subscribe and follow the show, because this channel exists for one reason.This is my big, hairy, audacious goal for this show, helping creators turn passion into profit with smart, simple financial strategies. I'm Ralph Estep Jr. And I'm the content creators accountant, and I'll talk to you next.