Progress Report, This Patreon Going Forward, 11/06 -21 (Patreon)

Hello everyone and welcome to a brief progress report, mainly pertaining to the immediate future of this patreon.

Having been in the talks with the government tax agency and finally gotten all the information I need, I've come to the conclusion that, as of right now, full-time work on this patreon is unfeasible. The cut taken to my earnings here when factoring in stuff like pension savings, sick leave insurance and all the usual matters, on top of the ordinary tax paid to my municipality etc, makes the venture take a stark cut indeed. To begin to consider doing this full-time I would need to grow my following significantly, almost doubling the current earnings that I have to be able to scrape by economically.

So what does this mean going forward? For you folks, pretty much nothing will change. I will be looking to transition away from my current full-time job in order to find a part-time one in the hopes of finding a better work-patreon-life balance, as things currently are untenable and I'm physically feeling my body and mind unable to keep up with my day job and everything else. In other words, we're trucking along here just as usual, and you shouldn't notice much of a hiccup in terms of content or the likes.

The biggest change will come to commissions, on which I will have to raise prices, and all of which now will be subject to VAT. For those currently promised slots from the last round, the old price that was the case when they were promised them will persist, but will still be subjected to Swedish VAT, which means a 25% addition on the total price. If this makes you want to opt out of your current slot, I understand, but allow me to be frank here: paying the VAT myself in the past has simply brutalized what little economic compensation I get for my labor creating these, making the venture more soul-draining than it already is.

Thus, any future commissions that I do, if indeed any, will see an update to my terms of service that will reflect a price increase and VAT inclusion, so as to at least give myself minimum wage when working on them. I cannot emphasize enough what a stressor commission work is, and understand perfectly why so many creators opt to not rely on them or simply never do them out of principle, but since demand is high for them I'll try to see how I can incorporate them into my schedule of life and updates. More on this in the future - in the immediate, I will be contacting those remaining on the list to see their stance on the slot I owe them.

In regards of project work, I will admit that this week has been draining and I've gotten little done, where the time I usually reserve for skill cultivation and project work has been spent in many, long phone queues and email correspondences. The paperwork alone is hard, and getting clarification on matters not immediately obvious can sometimes feel like pressing blood out of a stone. But, at least now, I finally have all the information I need, and thus know how to proceed from hereon out.

Forgive this somewhat somber post - I'm just very, very tired right now, and it's not all doom and gloom! Updates going forward will continue as usual, and I'll keep working away at the larger projects just as usual, now with 2 Scenarios in the works that I want to do something interesting with, so look forward to that :)

Thank you, as always, for your continued support and for all of your kind words! I'll be sure to keep you posted on my day job matters, just as usual, so as to warn you in case a shift happens and it somehow briefly interferes with the update schedule. Things going forward should get better though, in particular for the longevity of my body and soul, which hopefully will translate into further growth for this patreon venture and all that entails :)

Take care of yourselves, and each other! Stay hydrated!
/DH