As a business owner, one of the things you have to keep on top of at all times is your finances. It’s always good to know how much is coming in, and even more so, how much is going out. Thankfully I have always been financially conservative, meaning that I prefer to earn more than I spend, so at least this is not an issue. Last month has proven especially fruitful.
For the first time, my company’s earnings have exceeded my personal spending. Not that those two numbers have anything to do with each other directly, since I have to pay myself a salary in any case, but it still nice to know that I can support myself with my earnings. The next step will be to earn more than my salary, but this is not that easy.
Unfortunately I must confess that business is very slow, and that I am far from making enough money to make this viable. I am now applying left and right as freelancer for all sorts of jobs that are within my expertise, but even though I now have a visa that allows me to work in Japan, my other major deficiencies have not gone away: Not being a native English person who knows perfect Japanese. That makes things just as difficult as they were before. I am trying to get some online freelance jobs from abroad now, and I am making some money there, but by far not enough. I still have a few more months to go before I need to start panicking though. And as we all know: Hope springs eternal.
And hope is not always betrayed: I told you about working on my German tax return just before Christmas, right? Well, I have already heard back from them, in fact I have received money back, a total of almost 3000 EUR. Well, bothering some of my old friends in Germany about this has certainly borne fruit. I am very happy about this windfall!