Helping Tattoo Artists Get Their Money Right
You're not like other people - you don't work a regular job that offers benefits and retirement accounts.
You're a tattoo artist.
This means you're self-employed and you have to track cash flow and expenses, maintain tax records, acquire proper insurance coverages, and more.
This can be overwhelming, especially when trying to fit it in between tattooing, maintaining your schedule, creating designs for future clients, and everything else that comes with being a tattoo artist.
Often times the financial aspects get pushed aside to be dealt with later.
That's where I come in.
I help tattoo artists organize their cash flow, reduce their taxes, and save for the future.
Does This Sound Like You?
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You make good money tattooing but you aren't sure where it goes.
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Your personal and business expenses are comingled, which causes a nightmare when it's time to file taxes or apply for a mortgage.
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You know you should be saving for retirement but you don't know where to start.
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You have debts but you aren't sure of the best way to tackle them while also trying to live and save.
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You recognize that your income is currently tied to your time spent tattooing and want to put that money to work but you aren't sure where to start with investing.
If you're tired of stressing about money and wondering if you're making smart decisions...
Who Am I?
My name is Colton Etherton. I'm a Certified Financial Planner™ practitioner and the owner of Out of the Office Planning.
I've been working in finance for over 8 years.
I started working at a bank before transitioning to financial planning.
Prior to starting my firm, I was an advisor and managing principal for an independent advisory firm. And before that I worked as an operations associate supporting multiple advisors.
I enjoyed my work at the independent firm, but I grew tired of working with the same clients as most other advisors - retirees or pre-retirees.
Other advisors primarily focus on working with people who have created a decent sized nest egg and need help turning it into an income after retirement.
I wanted to do something different.
I wanted to help people build wealth and achieve their goals in the earlier stages of life.
And I wanted to help people that aren't the typical advisor client.
So I launched Out of the Office Planning.
After a few months, I decided to narrow my focus.
I wanted to help a profession that I have come to love but is completely underserved by my peers.
Tattoo Artists.
In all of my time at the other firms, I can't recall a single client that was a tattoo artist.
So I made the change and decided to become The Tattoo Artist Advisor.
Personal
I was born and raised in Chandler, Arizona but eventually escaped to Portland, Oregon after my wife, Bri, finished nursing school. We currently live in Beaverton, Oregon with our two kids and two dogs.
In my spare time I enjoy exploring the PNW, running, paddle boarding, reading, and spending countless hours cooking on my Traegers.
What I Do
I help tattoo artists like yourself gain confidence with their finances. We work together to align your spending with your values & goals, set up systems to build wealth and make sure we have a system to protect your growing wealth.
We do this by asking 5 important questions:
Why is money important to you?
If you had a client come to you for a tattoo and they provided zero direction on style, size, placement, color or black & gray, you would likely have a hard time designing something for them.
This is no different than making money decisions without knowing why money is important to you and what you want.
Do you want to buy a house? Open your own shop? Start a family?
You're working hard to make money for a reason - so let's figure out why that money is important to you.
Answering this question is the key to everything we do. It will help us determine what we need to prioritize in our work together.
Are you using your income wisely?
If you break it down there are only four things you can do with your money.
You can spend it.
You can save it.
You can pay off debt.
You can pay taxes.
We work together to understand how each of these four areas impact each other and create a plan to align how you're using your money with your answers to our first question.
Do you have the right mix of assets?
As you start building wealth it's important for us to align your investments with your goals. This means choosing the right mix of assets, like stocks, bonds, real estate, and cash, to help us achieve those goals.
We can think of our investment mix much like we would think of color theory - our assets represent the hues and each has it's own value and saturation. By picking complimentary colors (assets) we can create color schemes (investment portfolios) to match our goals (desired image).
Are you taking the right amount of risk?
We want to make sure we take the necessary amount of risk to achieve your goals. This applies to not only your investments but also ensuring you have proper insurance coverage and an estate plan in place. This is a significant, and often overlooked, area when reviewing finances because it helps protect the rest of our work together.
How much wealth do you need to make work optional?
This is an updated take on the traditional retirement thinking. Rather than picking a random age to stop working, we figure out what you need to make work optional.
This amount will vary greatly depending on the person. There is no universal "retirement number."
How much wealth you'll need for a work optional lifestyle will depend on the answers to our previous four questions.
The Services
$750 Onboarding Fee
When we begin working together we will have a series of weekly meetings. These meetings help us discover why money is important to you and how we can align your money with your values, learn how you've been managing your cash flow, and develop our first steps to building wealth.
Annual Fee Paid Monthly
$2,400/year for individuals & $3,600/year for couples
What's included:
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Monthly check-ins
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Unlimited phone/video calls between check-ins
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Unlimited email support
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Access to financial planning software to track important financial health indicators
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Coordination with your other professionals (CPA, Attorney, Bookkeeper, etc.)
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Investment management
Common Topics covered:
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Cash flow planning - personal & business
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Retirement planning
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Investment management
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Tax planning
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Estate planning
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Risk management
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& more
Tax Preparation & Bookkeeping
Available as an add-on service only for financial planning clients
Rent a booth - $150/mo
Private Studio - $200/mo
Own a shop w/ multiple artists - $250/mo+
Tax preparation - We help gather the required documents, review your income and expenses for the year & coordinate with the preparer to get your federal and state tax returns filed. You can now have one point of contact rather than having to translate between your financial team.
*We utilize a team of 3rd party tax preparers to offer this service. The fee covers client's personal return including schedule c. Must be a client by January 1st for the fee to apply to prior year tax preparation.
Example - sign up by January 1st, 2023 for 2022 tax preparation fee to be included.
Bookkeeping - Bookkeeping is key to understanding your business. Proper bookkeeping helps you budget, prepare for taxes, make better business decisions, and more. We understand it's likely not your idea of fun and not something you want to do after you've been tattooing all day. That's why we decided to offer this service for our financial planning clients. We'll review your books monthly to make sure they are accurate and up to date.
An Important Note
While I strive to take as much off of your plate as possible so you can focus on tattooing and enjoying your life, our work together is a collaborative process. There are tasks that you will need to do for this to be successful - this includes providing financial information (income/expenses), statements, etc. Some of these tasks will be timely and will need to be completed between meetings.