Hi, I’m Sarah Chetrit! I’ve been a travel and lifestyle blogger for five years, but I originally started my career as Certified Public Accountant (CPA) at the Big 4.

One year into my job, I got fibromyalgia, which includes widespread nerve pain, chronic muscle tension and chronic fatigue. Sitting for 10+ hours a day at a desk and in my car was too difficult so after a couple of career shifts, I went into travel blogging.

Since then, I’ve been able to put my health and family first and enjoy my life to the fullest, even with fibromyalgia and crohn’s disease.

In 2019, I got paid to travel 133 days. In 2020, that dwindled down to 30 days (pre-quarantine). 

Wanting to give back to the blogging community, I started using my extra time at home to teach aspiring bloggers how to blog so they can live their life to the fullest as well. Between my free blogging course, TikTok and Tuesday tips on Instagram, I plan on being the #1 resource for new bloggers.

The Underlying Problem that Content Creators Don’t Realize They Have

Between my blogging students and content creating network, for the past five years I noticed one glaring problem. Creators don’t recognize themselves as business owners. This includes myself.

As I went from being a CPA to a content creator, I didn’t view my new job as highly as I did when I worked at the Big 4. Even though I was making money from blogging a couple of months into starting, I had major imposter syndrome for years.

It took reframing my mindset and understanding that I own a business to feel truly empowered as a content creator. This in conjunction with my accounting background changed up the way I handled my business for the better. Here’s how:

I stopped letting brands push me into making risky business choices.

I used to let brands pay me through the Friends and Family (F&F) method on PayPal to save them money but I quickly stopped doing that.

Because of PayPal’s User Agreement stating that using the F&F method for business transactions is not allowed, every time I accepted a F&F payment from a brand, I held the risk for being penalized and getting my PayPal account banned or locked.

I also gave up PayPal’s dispute assistance that comes with the Goods and Services method. If anything went wrong with the brand, PayPal wouldn’t be able to help me, and as a one-person business, I need all the help I can get wherever I can.

I stopped letting brands pay me on their terms.

Once I stopped letting brands pay me through the F&F method, I had a new problem. Brands were pushing the PayPal fee on me, which added up quickly.

As a result, I now build this fee into my rate and add it to my invoice either as part of the overall rate or as a line item.

I also voice clearly to brands when I expect to be paid. I share this with them in the negotiation and invoicing processes but unfortunately, no matter how confident I am in my business, I still have the following issues.

I don’t get paid on time or I forget to follow up.

Despite how clear I am, I sometimes still have to chase brands to pay me on time. Every time I send that awkward email, I worry it’ll damage my hard-earned relationship with them.

I remind myself that I deserve my money, and as a one-person business, that this is part of my job.

I can’t blame the brands for everything though. Sometimes I have so many outstanding invoices, I  lose track of who I need to follow up with.

Luckily, there’s a must-have tool to solve all these content creating problems and more. Lumanu is an app that makes creating and sending professional invoices easy with their Venmo-like app, but even better, Lumanu will:

• Chase brands down to pay you on time (yes, that even means calling them),

• Handle the tax paperwork and any vendor onboarding process,

• Never hold your balance or lock your account,  

• & charge no convenience fees for your invoices.

See how Lumanu can help you get paid on time without hassle. Sign up today!