Dear Rob,
Thank you for your question and subscription to the Power Homebiz Guides
Newsletter.
How will you see the profits of your home business? It will depend on your
business.
If you are running a business as an authorized representative of another
company -- e.g. independent sales agent -- then your "profits" will
come in the form of your commission checks that the company will send you. This
is also true if you were running an online business and solely dependent on
affiliate programs, where your earnings will come from the check or direct
deposit issued to you by the affiliate marketer.
If you are operating as a Sole Proprietor, whether online or offline, you can
basically do whatever you want with the money that you earn from your home
business. You can decide to put back all your revenues into the business,
especially during the start-up phase when you need more capital to grow. You can
pay yourself a certain percentage or certain fixed amount each month as your
"salary" as the business owner, with the rest of the money plowed back
into the business. There are some home business entrepreneurs who do not collect
salaries for the first two years of their business, while many others collect
their paychecks within the first six months of business.
We recommend to new business owners to keep separate the bank accounts for
business and personal use. This will allow for an better bookkeeping system,
making it easier for the business owner to keep track of the ins and outs of
business funds. It is also easier to see whether you are making any money (or
not). Same is true with business and personal credit cards. Another benefit of
this strategy is that it allows for an easier tax preparation come April 15.
Just remember that any amount that you take from the business and transferred
to your personal account is taxable income and you have to declare all that in
your income tax returns. We suggest that you check out the IRS site and become
familiar with the tax laws affecting income generated by a business. Check out http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=98966,00.html
Good luck!
About
the PowerHomeBiz.com Guide:
Nach Maravilla is
the Publisher of Power Homebiz Guides. He has over thirty years
experience in sales and marketing of various products, which
covered as he jokingly describes, "from toothpicks to
airplanes" He also had extensive experience in
International trading and he always excelled in special promotional
ideas for retail outlets.
The opinions expressed in this column are
those of the author, not of PowerHomeBiz.com.
Users
should not treat the Guide's response as legal, accounting, or
professional advice as all answers are intended to be general in
nature. Such advice can only be properly given by qualified
professionals who are fully aware of a user's specific geographical areas or circumstances, such
as
an attorney or accountant.