Blog - Page 11 of 11 - Pajama Pants Finance

19Dec 2016 by Galen

What is your Stream’s Class?

Whether or not you believe it, as soon as you’re earning any money from your stream you’re running a business. Do you have a good sense of the type of business you’re running or the type of business you should be running? Have you made intentional effort to choose your stream's class? Just like in any RPG (and you can’t tell me life isn’t an RPG!) your class can have a big impact on how you play the game. So what are your options? Unless you’re a finance nerd like me or a seasoned business owner I’m guessing you’re more comfortable with the meanings of mage, warrior, priest etc instead of sole proprietorship, limited liability company, or S corporation. Don’t worry, we’ll cover it all in this article. One small…

13Dec 2016 by Galen

Be a Consistent Streamer

Stream Tips

This article came out a day late. I have good excuses. I had finals last week and my birthday was last week. Tutoring helped earn me some side income but ate up a lot of my time. I had a board meeting that took up an entire night. All true, but I should have gotten the article out on time. I needed a better schedule. In the grand scheme of things, that’s not a big deal if it happens once. The issue comes if it happens over and over again. Your viewers expect you to be on a schedule and there’s a good chance some of them watch you because your stream time matches their free time. So how do you keep yourself on a schedule as a streamer? Let’s…

05Dec 2016 by Galen

11 Ratios for Personal & Business Success

Personal Finances, Running a Business

We’ve talked about setting up your taxes and running your stream like a business, but how do you measure the health of your household and business finances? Clearly, each of us is different in our responsibilities and things we have to or want to pay for but my goal is to give you some good rules of thumb. It’s important to remember that since these ratios are rules of thumb there might be things in your life that make it so you need to track it slightly differently! Remember, you want to focus on increasing your income and protecting yourself from downsides- this article is a protect your ass article. Liquidity Ratios What's liquidity you ask? It's a measure of how available your money is for you to use,…

28Nov 2016 by Galen

Managing Uncertain Income

Personal Finances

Do you feel like life was a little easier to predict when you were getting a steady paycheck? You knew how much you were going to get and when you were going to get it. You were able to match your expenses to what was coming in. If you’ve moved to full time streaming I’m guessing those days are long gone. So how do you set yourself up to deal with the uncertainty around your income? Most of it comes down to establishing any control you can. We’ve got a couple tips and tricks that should make life a lot easier and help you focus more on streaming and less on managing finances. Track Your Finances First, you should set up your stream like a business. That means track what…

21Nov 2016 by Galen

Choose Your Own Taxes Adventure

Taxes

So you’ve read our basics on taxes for streamers article but came away scratching your head. That’s great, you say, but how does it apply to my business? Some of those things seem way too complex for the $100 I’m earning each month! Alternatively, you know that your tax headaches far outstrip the ideas we discussed and you’re really looking to optimize. Choose your own adventure! The next three sections have a bit more detail based on where you fall in your streaming life. The first section is if you’re just starting out, the second is if you’re transitioning to full time, and the final one is if you’re killing it and running a full time business. Just Starting Out You are probably safe to assume that you won’t have…

14Nov 2016 by Galen

Fight the Imposter Syndrome!

Stream Tips

You’ve gotten a good number of followers, there’s a healthy flow of chat within your channel, you’ve networked well and people are hosting you… so why do you feel like it could all come crashing down once everyone realizes you’re an imposter? Maybe it’ll be the next stream when they figure out. Maybe it’ll be when you get your sub button or add some merchandise. The anxiety is killing you and sapping your strength to keep streaming! That feeling that at some point it might all come crashing down because you’re a fraud is the imposter syndrome. You’re not the only one feeling it. I’m feeling it, doctors are feeling it, professors are feeling it, and there’s a chance that the streamer who you wish you were as successful as…

14Nov 2016 by Galen

Taxes: Not the Final Boss

Taxes

You’re happily streaming, building that view count, getting tips, maybe even trying for partner! After tons of work and months or years of low viewer count you’re finally turning the corner. You have a core group of dedicated viewers who welcome in first timers and you’re even considering starting your own Discord channel. You take a break and walk out to get your mail… weird, you don’t normally get thick envelopes from the IRS. You’re being audited! Ah crap! Did you know you’re supposed to pay taxes on the income you make from streaming, even if it’s a side gig? If you’ve got that under control, congrats! You’re way ahead of most streamers. If not, there’s a whole world of things you need to learn but we’ll walk through them…

13Nov 2016 by Galen

Define Your Unique Selling Proposition or Nerf Your Stream

Stream Tips

Riddle me this: why would someone watch you stream? If you can answer that, great! You know your unique selling proposition (USP). It’s how you stand out from the crowd, it’s what attracts people to your stream over all of the others. Being different is good! If you can’t answer that question you absolutely need to keep reading. Even if you don’t have a unique selling proposition right now you can craft one. I’m going to give you some tips for doing that. How to Get Started There are a lot of ways you can define your unique selling proposition. Here’s what you should ask yourself to help start the process: Who do I want watching my stream? Twitch viewers are overwhelmingly Caucasian, male, and 18-24 if they’re coming from…