http://inkredient.posterous.com/
Shweta Jain

As DesignLovr said, get the legal stuff sorted, and make sure there’s a family support structure in place also.

I’m lucky in that my wife has decided to learn web development so can a) work with me which is nice and b) I know that if I wasn’t around she would have the skills to pick up my work and make a living from it.

I think it is also important that you name your spouse/partner as your legal successor regarding business affairs in your will.

Then I suppose where to find my receipts or end of year info and CPA info….i would imagine, that even if i’m dead, the IRS would still expect me to pay taxes on what i’d earned that year

Thanks for the insightful comment. I appreciate it.

With my situation, my girlfriend cannot work outside of the home, so if she were to take over my business, it’d be the best solution, since she’d be able to build off of the foundation I’ve already got as well as do it all from inside the comfort of the home.

The underlying thing I noticed when reading the article back again today is that, if you’ve got any time of management skill and/or are organized, you could outsource the entire business and build it without learning how to design anything.

And thanks, I hope I never have to use my packet either, but like a will, it’s just there for ‘just in case’ purposes. I’d much rather know she’s taken care of if something happened.

Perhaps your spouse/girlfriend (referred to as both in your article) could learn Photoshop, coding, and invoicing–but this will take some time. Not to insult her, but with her anxiety, do you really expect her to go to school to learn your trade, and then take on your role after your death? If so, why not now? As I was reading the article, I kept thinking, “Just let it go.” Why, unless she needs the money, and this is the only way to get it, wouldn’t she just move on to something she has experience in?

This article is interesting to me (a print designer) personally because my husband is the main breadwinner now that I’ve lost the non-freelance job I had, lost a client, and can’t manage to get another non-design job. Tough market. However, we can’t survive on just his income. I have a degree of anxiety that I deal with, too — not severe, but limiting.

I would say if you have a bigger company, with employees to think of and possibly entrust the company to, this is something to consider—but not if you’re just one person. I just think that there’s no way I would try to make my husband continue what freelance work I’ve started, especially if he were reduced to a coordinator position. It sounds like what you have in your packet is a freelance agency in a box. You’re concerned with finding jobs and then finding people to do the jobs for you, just to keep the name of your business alive. Is that really going to help it grow? Personally, after the obligations to clients were taken care of, I would prefer my little company to just fade away.

I do apologize if this is out of line; I am often grateful that my family is not dependent on my freelancing income, as I have no retirement plan, health insurance, or stock through it. For that I look to my husband. I hope you feel better about the future with this post, even if it’s confusing to me. Ultimately, it is a series of decisions for you and your spouse/girlfriend. I sincerely wish you and her the very best, and I hope you don’t have to use your packet.