Starting own business

wizarddeath

Im interested in starting up a small business. My uncle has his own, and was telling me how, he doesn't really make money, but it helps quite a bit on taxes. Due to all the things he can write off as business expenses, plus the little money that does come in.

Anyone have any experience in this? Id figured I do mainly a run -n- gun computer repair service. Any links or articles?

BubbaJ

You should start with a book on starting a business in your state. It varies so much from state to state, and you could find yourself in big trouble in a real hurry.

Texas used to be pretty easy. I just had to get state and federal tax IDs so I could collect and pay the state sales and use tax. Now, you have to worry about things like a franchise tax. If you miss something like this, the state can be every bit as bad as the IRS.

garv221

Good point Bubba. Yes, get a book and read up on LLC's and taxes and 1099's. Every dollar you earn needs to be taxed. You might want to consider starting with a card and working your way into fully operating business once you gain some clientel.

JDMurray

I would advise getting an initial consultation from a book keeping and tax preparation specialist on setting up a small business in your state. Although you may be doing your own taxes and book keeping using Quickbooks Pro, you'll need to know how federal and your state's tax laws affect LLCs, SCORPs, and hobbyist businesses that only have a DBA.

I did this a couple of years ago with my own tax guy, and I quickly discovered that owning and maintaining a small SCORP business in California with employees is much more trouble than I want to deal with. I'm glad that I asked a professional business consultant before I found out the hard way.

darkuser

yes,

my brother-in-law wants to move his buisness to ariz for that very reason .....

blargoe

I sort of dabble on the side. I chose not to incorporate or form an LLC because of the added headache of doing to paperwork, etc. I don't have enough business to justify going that route yet. As someone else suggested, get some documentation on operating a business in your state. The federal and your state websites will have important information and advice on operating a small business.

I got started by accident. A co-worker of mine had an acquaintance who needed had a backup problem at one of her businesses and asked me to help her out. That has turned into a nearly 3 year relationship of weekly service visits.

Just make sure you keep great records and be honest about what you earn on the side. I try to keep mine as simple as possible, but it's still more paperwork than I like. Keep a separate checking account, and keep copies of any payments made to you. Keep receipts for any equipment you purchase for your customers and sell back to them, and create a formal invoice for work you perform and goods that you deliver. Deduct mileage, deduct your personal cell phone (or part of it) if you use for business, deduct expenses for hosting your web site, deduct expenses for advertising, etc.