Business Manager vs Talent Manager: Who Handles What for Creators

A talent manager helps you earn: they vet and price brand deals, negotiate terms with brands and plan the content and income lines that grow your career. A business manager handles what happens once the money lands: paying bills, keeping the books, budgeting, planning taxes with your accountant, and coordinating insurance and investments. Which one you need first depends on where your hours go.

If you spend them chasing brand emails, start with the talent side. If you spend them chasing receipts, invoices and tax deadlines, the money side needs help. This guide splits the jobs task by task, shows how each role is paid and covers when a business manager starts to earn its fee. For the talent side in detail, see what a talent manager does.

What does a business manager do for a creator?

A business manager runs the financial side of your career. They pay bills, keep the books, build budgets, plan taxes with your accountant and coordinate insurance, investments and big purchases.

Bobby Borg's 2022 guide to business managers for Music Connection, written for musicians, lists the core jobs: bill paying and bookkeeping, taxes, investment planning, tour budgets and accounting, insurance, big purchases like homes and cars, monthly financial reports, royalty checks and estate planning.

For a creator, that list maps onto everyday problems. Payouts arrive from several platforms and brands on different schedules, editors and contractors need paying, and every payment needs tax set aside.

Tax is where mistakes get expensive. The IRS says you owe self-employment tax if your net earnings from self-employment are $400 or more, at a rate of 15.3% (12.4% for Social Security and 2.9% for Medicare). It also says individuals generally have to make estimated tax payments if they expect to owe $1,000 or more when they file, spread across 4 payment periods a year. Keeping up with both is work a business manager and your accountant share.

What does a talent manager handle?

A talent manager handles the work that brings money in: which brands to work with, what to charge, the terms of each brand contract, and the content and growth plan behind all of it.

In practice, that means pricing deliverables, usage rights and exclusivity as separate lines, keeping campaigns on schedule through to posting, and following up when a brand pays late. It also covers the longer game, like new platforms, products, licensing and live events.

Collecting from brands is where the 2 roles meet. A talent manager often invoices the brand and chases the payment, and a business manager records it, reconciles it and sets tax aside. Decide in writing who does which part, so nothing gets invoiced twice or missed.

Some management companies cover part of the business side too. Legal & Business Affairs (contract negotiation, IP protection and business entity strategy) is 1 of the 10 disciplines on our services page, and we'd still tell any creator to keep an independent accountant on their books.

Who handles what?

Split the work by direction. Money coming in sits with your talent manager, money going out or being saved sits with your business manager, and specialists handle tax returns, legal review and investment advice.

If a single person sits in both columns, the checks in the last section of this guide matter even more.

How are business managers and talent managers paid?

Talent managers usually take a commission on the income they handle. Business managers charge a percentage of gross income, an hourly fee or a flat monthly retainer.

Our management commission runs 10% to 30%. For business managers, Borg's 2022 guide describes 3 models. The percentage model is typically 5% of gross income, leaving out investment income, tour support and recording costs. Hourly rates run from around $30 for a file clerk to $300 or more for a firm partner, and a monthly retainer runs $500 to $3,000 for new artists, with more for established ones. Borg adds that some business managers agree to an annual cap on what they collect.

Here's how the 2 costs can stack. Say a creator grosses $200,000 in a year, with $150,000 from brand deals. A talent manager at 20% on brand deals takes $30,000, and a business manager at 5% of gross takes $10,000. Together that's $40,000, or 20% of everything the creator earned, before tax.

Run that math on any offer, and ask each person what they'll add that's worth more than their cut. Our breakdown of how much influencer managers take covers the commission side in more depth.

When does a creator need a business manager?

You probably need one when managing money takes real hours every week, or when mistakes have started costing you. Before that point, a bookkeeper and a CPA can cover most of the work.

These are the signs it's time to start interviewing:

• Payments arrive from several brands and platforms, and you can't say what you earned last month without digging through statements.
• You're guessing at your estimated tax payments each quarter.
• You pay editors, assistants or other contractors every month.
• You've formed an LLC, hired staff or started weighing an S corp election with your accountant.
• You're buying property, investing or taking equity in brands you work with.
• A missed bill or late filing has already cost you a fee.

If 2 or 3 of those fit, it's time. If only 1 does, a good bookkeeper may be enough for now. Our guide to content creator income streams shows how quickly the number of sources can grow once you add products, licensing and memberships.

If the earning side is the part that's outgrown you, you can apply for representation with 1DS.

How do you vet a business manager?

Vet a business manager on credentials, access and reporting, because this person can see, and often move, your money.

1. Ask whether they're a CPA or work with one, and confirm the license with your state's board of accountancy.
2. If they'll advise on investments, look them up on the SEC's Investment Adviser Public Disclosure site and FINRA's BrokerCheck, which show registration and disciplinary history.
3. Keep every account in your own name, and have statements sent to you as well as to them.
4. Set a dollar limit above which you approve every payment yourself.
5. Require a monthly report covering income by source, spending, tax set aside and cash on hand.
6. Get their fee in writing, along with any commission they'd earn on insurance or investments they recommend.