Why Every Creator Needs to Know About Accounting & Taxes with Sabrina St. Peter

As self-employed creators, we need to learn to handle our money in a much more strategic way than a classic W2 employee. BUT finding out how to do this and be prepared for these types of situations is hard. Most of us don’t have someone to guide us. We look on the internet, but the information we find is confusing and lacks clarity for someone who doesn’t understand legal jargon.

This week, we’re here with Sabrina St. Peter, who is an established bookkeeper, and the owner of Smart Spark Business Solutions, where she remotely assists small business owners in the marketing space - including content creators - with their bookkeeping needs. She strives to make bookkeeping accessible to all businesses no matter if they are just starting out or have been around the block.

Today we’re answering all of the questions you have about money management as a content creator. How can you prepare for taxes? What’s the best way to keep track of your income and expenses? Can you count travel, beauty services, and meals as business expenses?

Listen to Episode 26 — Apple | Spotify | YouTube

Find this episode’s guest:
Sabrina St. Peter
Instagram | TikTok | Website
*Use code SCOOP for 30% off the Easy Small Business Finance Tracker.

In today’s episode, we discussed:

• Instagram will now be ranking content by originality

  • “Creators are so important to the future of Instagram, and we want to make sure that they are successful and get all the credit they deserve." - Adam Mosseri

  • “We look at things like who’s in the video, and if we’ve seen the video before.” - Adam Mosseri

  • You’ll also be able to tag the original creator of a concept if you’ve recreated it.

  • If you’re reposting a lot of stuff from other accounts on your feed, you’ll likely see your Reach decline.

• Instagram launched a test for the “Use as Template” option for Reels

  • You’ll be able to click the ... on someone’s Reel, and click “Use as Template”. Then, it’ll prompt you to choose your own photos/videos, and Instagram will essentially put together the video FOR YOU based on the times for each frame of the Reel you’re using as a template.

• Instagram launches live test of pinned posts on user profiles

  • If you’re selected for this test, you’ll be able to go to a post of yours and click “pin to your profile” for the post to be pinned at the top of your feed.

  • We chatted about this in a previous episode, but if this feature eventually goes live for everyone, it’ll be a great add-on for a brand.

    • For ex: You charge $500 more to have their ad that you posted live in their pinned posts for 30 days.

• Instagram is working on a new option to help creators monetize their Reels

  • “Reels Overlay Ads will allow you as a creator to earn money by showing ads on your Reels. Ads appear as banners on your eligible Reels. Eligible Reels must follow our monetization policies” - Instagram

  • When this feature releases, you’ll be able to toggle it on or off in the Ads menu of your Settings screen.

• Instagram tests removing the “Recent” tab from hashtag searches

  • In a post by Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, it was announced that Instagram launched a “small test” of removing the “Recent” tab from the hashtag search results.

  • Instead, you’ll be able to see only the “Top” and “Reels” tab.

  • Adam Mosseri mentioned that they’re trying this out to “make hashtags as valuable as possible for people.” He went on to say that Instagram wants “to see if this helps people connect with more interesting and relevant content on hashtags, while also keeping them across what’s current.”

  • This will make it more important than ever to ensure that you’re choosing low competition hashtags so that you can quickly make it to the “Top” section of the hashtags you’re using.