This post was written by Heather Rast.

It’s that time of year again. The time where independent consultants think about this year’s work and how to move into the new year with sound footing.

Over the last three years, we’ve had several blog posts and Twitter chats related to reducing tax liabilities and managing expenses. Below are some highlights from the most-loved posts and the Solo PR Pro community.

Collecting on unpaid bills

Ensuring you’re paid for the work you do is a critical step to solo success. As you look to do this more effectively in 2012, a few top tips from our March 2010 #SoloPR Twitter chat on this topic include:

• Build collection term language into your contract
• Follow up repeat requests with notice that bringing in your attorney will be your next step to resolving the collection issue
• Screen new clients very carefully; request a deposit for services up front
• One accountant’s position: an LLC can write off tangibles, but not debts related to unpaid invoices for services

Tax and expense help

In a past post for for laid off workers, we shared these tips that apply to anyone:

• Be sure to track any and all expenses while performing work independently. Every parking stub, mile driven, and notebook purchased can help lower your tax liability.
• Be careful not to underestimate your taxes while solo. You’re now responsible for the full amount of FICA instead of half (when employed, your company paid the other half). This can be a rude wake-up call if you don’t set aside enough of your solo earnings for taxes when its received.
• Not sure how long you’ll stay solo, because it wasn’t part of your master plan? You can still earn income consulting if you operate under your own name and use a Schedule C when filing your taxes.

Passing along expenses to clients

During a recent #SoloPR chat, we discussed how to bill expenses to clients, and participants shared the following advice:

• Have a monthly “Administrative” line item for retainer clients that covers consulting-related expenses. Those expenses are built into the hourly fee charged project-based clients.
• Some advised that every expense is different. Some are direct billed, others split between clients, while still others are considered the cost of doing business (and accounted for within the rate).
• Consider passing expenses along as a clear, detailed line item on the invoice after pre-arranging in advance for the expense in the contract.

Accelerate Expenses

• Consider “accelerating your expenses” by buying things you know you’ll need (and can afford) now instead of early 2012. By doing so, you’ll enjoy the tax break of the expense now. Investments like desks, an ergonomic chair, a secondary computer, or new printer can be bought now so that the expense shows up on the 2011 ledger. If you pay for them in January 2012, chances are you’ll have incurred no interest on the credit card charge plus have received the tax break.

What are your favorite year-end strategies? Let us know in the comments!

1. How is crowd sourcing going to hurt solo PR types? Are you threatened by the “do your own PR” mindset?

2. What do you do when you’ve made a down payment to a vendor, but become dissatisfied with their work?

3. If I’m considering going solo in a few years, what should I do now while I work at an agency to prepare?

4. Yesterday posted on the Solo PR blog about PR & mobile: http://ow.ly/3RKyj – have you tried any new tactics?

Be sure to check out the transcript in PDF for the full discussion. How would you answer these important questions?

The #solopr chat – held each Wednesday from 1-2 p.m. Eastern – is a weekly ritual for some of the most savvy Solo PR Pros on Twitter. Anyone with a Twitter account is welcome to participate – see Join Us for the #solopr Chat on Twitter to find out how!

Thanks to Jennifer Spivak for compiling this post.

1. Have you ever worked on a pay by performance basis? e.g., a bonus if you hit X objective, or only get paid when the objective met?

2. When responding to an RFP, how do you keep from coming in too high (or too low) on budget?

3. In proposals, what percentage of a project do you allocate for planning and eval/measurement?

Be sure to check out the transcript in PDF for the full discussion. What’s your take on these important topics?

The #solopr chat – held each Wednesday from 1-2 p.m. Eastern – is a weekly ritual for some of the most savvy Solo PR Pros on Twitter. Anyone with a Twitter account is welcome to participate – see Join Us for the #solopr Chat on Twitter to find out how!

Thanks to Jennifer Spivak for compiling this post.

This is a guest post from Jenny Schmitt of CloudSpark.

With New Year’s Resolutions being quickly forgotten and with Tax Time still a few months ahead, I conducted a short survey of solo PR pros to see what our storage habits were when it our daily work – client communications and results.  Proper disclosure, I created the survey for two reasons: 1) to see if there is a norm in our industry for keeping materials and 2) to see if I fit the norm.

Why a survey? In six years as a solo PR pro, I’ve only had 2 potential clients ever ask for samples of my work. But looking at my office last Fall, you’d have thought I got 2 requests a day.

In December, some switch in my head flipped looking at the files, boxes, binders, cabinets full of past work filling my office. It triggered a massive sort, store, shred spree for me. No more 20 copies of creative, yet dated, press kits (I kept 1), no more copies of campaigns from 7 years ago, you know before social media, no more plan drafts and trade show launch plans, no more conference name tags (why was I keeping those and am I the only one who saves this many?), no more hard copy media lists, no more logs of client approvals saved in binders. I was almost maniacal for 10 whole days determined to get my office back. It was a whirlwind that produced 7 bags of shredded paper, 4 bags of trashed materials, and about 15 3-ring binders ready to donate to a local school. To be clear, I kept the big media hits like USA Today, the Wall Street Journal and Good Morning America. I kept samples of good creative work (limit to 2 samples each). I kept the thank you card from my first client after I went solo. I kept the hard copy of the published study I co-authored for a major foundation. I kept things that mattered to me professionally, near everything else I tossed or recycled.  While I felt great, I wondered if I was all alone or part of the norm for solo PR pros.

With the help of SurveyMonkey I went about my unscientific, 5-question survey (to which 45 solo PR pros answered) to see just how long we keep the professional “stuff.” Here’s what I found: we’re pack rats.

Question 1: How long do you keep traditional media clips?

Would you believe that nearly 65.7% keep these indefinitely – it’s true.  Most offered that they now scan in clips and store electronically and a few ventured that they only keep big clips.  I fit the 25.7% who keep clips for 1-2 years. I’m not in the majority, but I have company.

Question 2: How long do you keep client communications? (E.g. emails)

This I found shocking – 42.9% keep them indefinitely – even after the project is over, after years go by, they’re still holding on to emails, faxes, and the like.  Now, I understand if you work in a legal area or by law are required to keep records for say, seven years, but indefinitely? Interestingly, the majority fell into two answers 1-2 years (25.7%) and until the project is completed (22.9%). For me, I keep things one year post-project. Unless it’s a rather lengthy explanation or witty retort, then it goes into a special folder in my email storage.

Question 3: How long do you keep notebooks or records of client meetings, calls, brainstorms, and the like?

This question showed a more even distribution among the options. It seems this one goes more to personal styles of organization.  While 30.4% keep notebooks, records indefinitely, 20% keep them until project completion and 20% keep them for 1-2 years.  Now I used to keep client notebooks for years, until this past December, when I realized I hadn’t looked at a single one in more than 3 years (and for those more recent, I simply hadn’t needed them). I do keep my brainstorm notebooks, my ideas folder indefinitely. I just never know when a great idea that didn’t fit Project A, might work well for Future Project B.

Question 4: After you’ve completed a project or campaign, how long do you keep all related materials?

Now here, 40% said 1-2 years which reassured me that I fit some norm and wasn’t about to regret throwing out my healthcare media list from 2004. But do you think that was the largest group though? No way, 57.9% said they keep it indefinitely. A few brave souls, 4 of them, actually said they keep those materials no longer than 6 months. Those 4 are now my mentors.

Question 5: How frequently do you review your storage and archives to determine what to keep and what to toss?

This was the question I wanted to lead with – but saved it for last. I wanted to know if my deep-purge was going to be a big mistake or if I was somehow going to be validated, supported, maybe even lauded for being able to throw things out.  But what do you think the results were? From all the ‘indefinite’ answers above I thought I would have a majority of folks who never throw anything out. I was wrong. Most folks do a purge of some sort every year, with some PR pros reviewing what’s in the office (and in the inbox) every 3 months.

Whew, at least some part of my sort, store, shred spree seemed perfectly normal. How about you, how often do you do a sort/purge of your office?

The Bigger Question I Didn’t Ask

While feeling somewhat reassured, this whole survey led to ask a bigger question: just why are we holding on to this stuff? Is it proof of our accomplishments? Is it comfort to see what we’ve produced? Is it validation that we have professional value? Or is it a basic concern legal coverage or for ‘having the backup just in case a client would come back in say, 5 years, and want to work on another project’?

For me, I think keeping hold of things was a way to validate what I did accomplish and proof that I could achieve great things for my clients. I realized I didn’t need the paperwork anymore; I didn’t need to clutter my space with past efforts.  I opened up space for new projects, new work, new efforts and I honestly feel the better for it. But for a lot of us, we may be harboring ineffective habits of storage for some unhealthy need.

Why do you think solo PR pros keep so much work-related materials at hand, even long-after the project is over and the market has changed?

Jenny Schmitt is a professional unstucker at CloudSpark, an award-winning communications strategy company based in Atlanta.  She can be found on Twitter (@cloudspark), on LinkedIn, or reached via email at jschmitt(at)cloudspark(dot)com.

1. How do you decide what method to use when contacting media/influencers (email, social networks, phone, etc.)?

2. How do you handle personal emergencies (illness of yourself or family, etc.) that take you out of the office? 

3. Have you ever had a client ask about your backup/succession plans?

Be sure to check out the transcript in PDF for all the excellent insight shared in this week’s chat. Do you agree with the answers given?

The #solopr chat – held each Wednesday from 1-2 p.m. Eastern – is a weekly ritual for some of the most savvy Solo PR Pros on Twitter. Anyone with a Twitter account is welcome to participate – see Join Us for the #solopr Chat on Twitter to find out how!

Thanks to Jennifer Spivak for compiling this post.

1. What tools do you use for group collaboration- not just conversation, but also a place to store documents or links?

2. Do you enter awards programs- why or why not? Do you include the client in entry decision or preparation?

3. In today’s #solopr post, @3hatscomm shares an opp she got thru social media. What are your success stories?

Be sure to check out the transcript in PDF for all the excellent insight shared in this week’s chat. As a PR pro, is there anything you’d like to add?

The #solopr chat – held each Wednesday from 1-2 p.m. Eastern – is a weekly ritual for some of the most savvy Solo PR Pros on Twitter. Anyone with a Twitter account is welcome to participate – see Join Us for the #solopr Chat on Twitter to find out how!

Thanks to Jennifer Spivak for compiling this post.

1. How do you make all of your clients feel important and valuable with your limited time?

2. How do solos fill the void of group brainstorms (e.g. whiteboard sessions)? Co-working? Internet conversations?

3. How do you handle year-end planning/forecasting?

4. Are clients OK’ing social media because they think it’s of long-term value, or they’re scared?

View the downloadable transcript in PDF for advice and wisdom from the #solopr community. If you weren’t able to join us, how would you answer these questions?

The #solopr chat – held each Wednesday from 1-2 p.m. Eastern – is a weekly ritual for some of the most savvy Solo PR Pros on Twitter. Anyone with a Twitter account is welcome to participate – see Join Us for the #solopr Chat on Twitter to find out how!

1. Do you have a business plan? What format, and how did you develop it?

2.  What do you think about NEWSBASIS (the PR/journo networking site)?

3.  Do you take rush jobs? Any guidelines or suggestions?

4.  Summer is hot, but we don’t get to be “lazy.” How do you stay motivated during these months?

Download the transcript in PDF to find out what the chat participants had to say. And don’t forget to add your two cents – let us know how you handle these situations in the comments!

The #solopr chat – held each Wednesday from 1-2 p.m. Eastern – is a weekly ritual for some of the most savvy Solo PR Pros on Twitter. Anyone with a Twitter account is welcome to participate – see Join Us for the #solopr Chat on Twitter to find out how!

1) How do you know when it’s time to start hiring staff and turn your solo practice into an independent agency?

2) How can I demonstrate my value/sell myself as a PR consultant without giving away all my secrets?

3) Any tips for how to think and act like an entrepreneur?

To find out what top independent PR consultants had to say on these important issues, download the transcript in PDF. What would you add?

The #solopr chat – held each Wednesday from 1-2 p.m. Eastern – is a weekly ritual for some of the most savvy Solo PR Pros on Twitter. Anyone with a Twitter account is welcome to participate – see Join Us for the #solopr Chat on Twitter to find out how!

1)  How do you handle vacation, maternity leave, sick days, etc.?

2) What do you do when you get TOO much work? Touchy subject given the economy?

3) Do most solos have their own logo?

4) Would you enjoy a Solo PR Pro Facebook page?

See the full chat transcript in PDF for key insights from top solo PR pros on how to handle these situations.

How have you handled issues related to your own downtime or workload? Any additional bits of advice you can share?

The #solopr chat – held each Wednesday from 1-2 p.m. Eastern – is a weekly ritual for some of the most savvy Solo PR Pros on Twitter. Anyone with a Twitter account is welcome to participate – see Join Us for the #solopr Chat on Twitter to find out how!