#hobbites

List 3 of your guilty pleasures.

I have four, and I am assuming that it would be alright to give you one extra even though the question did not call for it.

Cooking/Trying new recipies

Reading for pleasure rather then for work or class

Playing Video Games

This weeks bite is a top tip! Want to buy beautiful unique fabric for costumes? Want to go somewhere with lots of choice that's reasonably priced? Then you need Goldhawk Road, London! A veritable Aladdin's cave of fabric shops, this street is an invaluable location for sourcing good quality material. Its on the tube and you can either come out of Goldhawk Road station and turn right or go to Shepard's Bush, cross the road and turn right. Happy shopping!

A practical post this week on invoicing. Most professional jobs and venues will require an invoice before they pay you, but it can be hard unless you have been told to know what you need to include to get your money. So here to help are some general checklist points:

1. You need to put your name at the top of your invoice and your current address along with the date you are sending the document - which is best sent as a Word Doc or PDF.

2. You also need to include what the event was, the date, the job that you actually did and the agreed fee.

3. Tax Declarations - this is very important, you need to state that you understand that you are being paid freelance (which is generally the case as a burlesque performer) and are therefore responsible for your own tax and national insurance contributions. You may wish to include your UTR or NI number on your invoice too.

4. If you have already been paid for the gig (i.e cash on the night) then you should note this on the invoice with words such as 'Funds Received in Cash (Date)'

5. Otherwise state how you are happy to receive the funds  - usually by BACs in which case you need to include your bank details.

6. Some people include the payment terms i.e 'Payment Due within 30 days' on their invoices. In my opinion this can be useful when invoicing larger companies or agencies so if they are late you have a reason to approach them. 30 days is a pretty standard and reasonable length of time, unless you have previously agreed a shorter payment cycle I'd avoid writing things like 'Payment due within 3 days'.

7. Check where you need to send your invoice to - it may not be to the person that booked you especially at a larger venue who usually have their own finance contact.

If you are not sure about the invoicing requirements of the people you are performing for then feel free to ask, they really shouldn't mind and it's in their interest to receive a document fit for their accounting. For full information HMRC is a good source of guidance and also can help you with becoming Self Employed which you need to do if you are being paid for gigs freelance: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/sa/self-emp.htm

Ah the dreaded cover letter or email to a producer to introduce yourself and hopefully get a booking is always a source of stress - you want to sound interesting and funny but not like an idiot, be professional but not boring!

Below are 10 helpful tips to make sure you dont make common mistakes and also give the information thats needed to make a good impression.

1. Remember Burlesque is an industry and you are asking for a job so make sure you do the basics you would for any other job - be polite, use a spelling and grammer check, use capital letters where needed and write in proper sentences not text speak. Terms of endearment such as hon, babe and lovey are a major no-no too. This may sound obvious but you'd be surprised!

2. A producer wants to know some basics that must be easy to find: where you are based/happy to travel to, what style your performances are and what you actually do, your experience, what makes you unique.

3. You want to associate yourself with a particular type of performance, that way when they need to cast that type of artist you will spring to mind so use direct language and make sure you know what catagory you fall into - if in doubt ask around.

4. Finding something nice to say about the night/venue/show you are applying for costs nothing and will go a long way!

5. Always attach 2 good quality photos - one studio and one live is ideal and make sure they are a lower res so as not to clog up inboxes. Also its good to include with a link to an online presence that isn't Facebook.

6. Never say your fee to a producer in an email unless they have asked for it. Chances are they have a fee in mind already and you may offend them or do yourself out of a job by trying to sound expensive.

7. Keep your emails short, friendly and factual, if you have other information you'd like to include - your acts, full credits etc attach a biog for them to look at.

8. If you have press quotes or professional stage training do mention them, breifly.

9. Remove 'sent from my iphone/ipad' from your footer

10. Lastly remember producers and venues get lots of emails everyday from burlesque and cabaret artists. If you don't hear back don't take it personally they are probably just busy or not looking at that time, just change your wording slightly and send a follow up email a few weeks later reintroducing yourself.