Are you an expert on a subject that you’re also passionate about?  You can impact people’s lives and turn that expertise into cash with Great Pro Speakers,  a new online training program that will teach you everything you need to know about becoming a paid public speaker — and it’s Black-owned too!!  The program is a little pricey at $97/month, but much less than college tuition and well worth it if you can book even one speaking engagement, which can land you anywhere from several hundred to several thousand dollars for a few hours of your time.  Also they’ll be offering a discount of at least 66% off through Ujamaa Deals at the beginning of January, so sign up here to be notified when it starts.

The new year is here.  If you’ve been thinking about being a speaker or trying to figure out how to get a side hustle going, it’s a good time to make that resolution and get started.  You can make a little extra income (or a lot if you’re good), but there’s another benefit that’s not immediately apparent and you’ll really appreciate it in about 2 to 3 months as that April 15th tax filing deadline starts to creep up on you.  Yep…tax write off.

See, before you get started as a paid professional speaker, you just file an Articles of Organization/Incorporation with your secretary of state to set up a legitimate business for your public speaking efforts.  Usually you can do this online.  Talk to your accountant/tax person to make sure they can handle the extra work with your tax return and keep you in compliance with any local tax regulations (companies like ThePinkBoss.com or LegalZoom can help get your legal paperwork in order too).  Then after all that’s done you can start writing off everything on your taxes such as miles on your car, flights, meals, supplies, and even get a deduction for having a home office.  If this is your first time starting a business I would definitely seek professional help instead of trying to do everything yourself, but you can figure most of it out with a few Google searches.