Max I get your point. However I must nitpick this, as I've done actual research on it.

a 300lb man can stand on an empty coke can and it won't collapse unless someone dings the side of the can with a spitball.

see here
Soda cans crush around 80-120lbs.

 

Max I get your point. However I must nitpick this, as I've done actual research on it.
see here
Soda cans crush around 80-120lbs.

I'll pick your nitpick nit.

I can stand on a single soda can balanced on one foot with no problem (well, not "no" problem -- it can take me a few cans to get fully on the can without crushing it) and I'm much closer to 400lb than I am 300lb. Now, I don't need any spit balls to get it to collapse, all I have to do is shift my weight a bit (i.e., tilt my foot from side to side).

 

I'll pick your nitpick nit.

I can stand on a single soda can balanced on one foot with no problem (well, not "no" problem -- it can take me a few cans to get fully on the can without crushing it) and I'm much closer to 400lb than I am 300lb. Now, I don't need any spit balls to get it to collapse, all I have to do is shift my weight a bit (i.e., tilt my foot from side to side).

you must be drinking those mexican sodas in tin cans .

 

I can do it too and I'm 260.

 

Really though Stantor if it only takes a bolt or two move it. If not don't worry about it. We'd just hate to see you get hurt in a crash.

 

I'll pick your nitpick nit.

I can stand on a single soda can balanced on one foot with no problem (well, not "no" problem -- it can take me a few cans to get fully on the can without crushing it) and I'm much closer to 400lb than I am 300lb. Now, I don't need any spit balls to get it to collapse, all I have to do is shift my weight a bit (i.e., tilt my foot from side to side).

Yeah but he's talking about an OPENED and EMPTY soda can. A >350lb man can stand on a full soda can, gingerly.

 

I have been working a few (maybe 5 at most) hours per week while going to school. Since I took my last final I have had more time to work, and in the past week I have made $1560 profit and still not put in a full 40hr. I might get have another job coming up later today as well; if so, I will break my record for most money ever earned in a single week. I can make more money working for myself in an 8hr day than I could in my "big money" world travel job where I was working 16hrs, and getting paid per diem + hazard pay.

Sorry for tooting my own horn, but I had to let it out.

The down side is that all this work came from one customer. This customer lost their electrical maintenance technician some months back and so work has been piling up. They say that they are looking to hire someone full or part time to replace him. They offered me the job (more than once), working 5hrs/day (my terms) for half of what I currently charge them (their terms). I am reluctant to accept the offer in light of how much I'm making as a self employer, but if I don't accept, and they hire someone else, then they might not need me anymore and I might lose their business entirely. So I am inclined to accept the pay cut as a trade off for the "sure thing." Still it would feel like "giving up" on my business. I want to go out and get more customers and see if I can get this thing moving, but it's a risk. Decisions, decisions...

 

Way to go, Strantor!

 

Way to go, Strantor!

+1 Well done, pard.

BTW, I just got back from a few days in Houston. Economically, that place is rockin'! Good time to be you down there.

 

Stanton,

Why not set up a contract with them for the maintenance. Point out to them that if you "set your own schedule" and respond promptly to repair failures, they are not controlling your schedule and they won't have to pay the employers SSA and Medicare for you. Now you can negotiate the Preventatve Maintenance pricing and charge an hourly rate (with 1.5 or more times for corrective maintenace after a certain hour of the day and a minimum of x hours so you don't drive out there for a five minute problem).

Your bill would be a total "write off" as a business expense to them, lowering their taxes in the end.

They won't have to pay your health insurance, per se', as you would be handling that as well as part of your business expenses.

Oh yeah ... congratulations on the earnings.

 

...
They offered me the job (more than once), working 5hrs/day (my terms) for half of what I currently charge them (their terms). I am reluctant to accept the offer in light of how much I'm making as a self employer, but if I don't accept, and they hire someone else, then they might not need me anymore and I might lose their business entirely.
...

It's a common dilemma. Maybe you could try to straddle the fence? Offer to do say two 5-hour days a week at their rates, or a fraction over their rates, but it has to be some commitment there for a time period and always a fixed 2 days a week.

That would mean reduction in your pay per hour from that customer, but a possible increase in $ per week total from that customer. It lets you have time to keep trying to build your business with other customers and also gives you a small fixed income you can rely on and plan your scheduling of other customers around those two days.

That customer might go for it as they will see it as paying you less per hour than they do now, and it gives them some security knowing you have to be there twice a week to keep things going. It alleviates them from that nervous position where they might need to employ someone to ensure the plant keeps running. Obviously that becomes a benefit for you too as they will stop looking for someone else.

 

Yeah but he's talking about an OPENED and EMPTY soda can. A >350lb man can stand on a full soda can, gingerly.

So am I (talking about opened and empty cans). I can get up on unopened cans all day long, no trick to that one.

 

Congrats on the good week! Hopefully there are more to come.

Be sure to take into account all your costs in determining that profit, including taxes and benefits. We in the self-employed world have a real bad habit of not taking overhead costs into account.

You've gotten some good advice already, here's my $0.02. There is something to be said for trying to strike a balance between income sources that are stable, but less-per-hour, and ones that are more speculative, but more-per-hour. What I would recommend is to sit down and make a budget and establish your "must-make" revenue level that will keep a roof over your head, your lights on, and your family fed. Trim as much from that as you can to get that number as low as you can realistically get it. Use that as a guide for your "stable" sources (either contract customers or outright employers) and be a bit more willing to accept those kinds of situations until your must-make income is more-or-less assured. Try to keep the hours needed to achieve that to a minimum and use the rest to go after and build up the more speculative sources. As some of those speculative sources settle down and turn into reliable customers at better rates, you can start counting them as "stable" sources and retire (or renegotiate) the lower-rate income sources.

When comparing income sources, don't forget to make fair comparisons. If you have a part-time employer, be sure to include whatever costs they are incurring that you would have to bear if you were being paid as a self-employed person. This includes self-employment tax. But it also should take into account costs that you aren't getting to deduct, for instance non-deductible commuting expenses as an employee that, as an independent contractor, become deductible transportion expenses.

 

UPDATE:
I met with a friend of the family CPA a couple of days ago and he advised me to do my own bookkeeping and taxes for the time being, because I am not making very much money. Basically he said that my taxes are not that critical because there is very little chance that I'll be audited because the IRS does a cost analysis before perusing an audit. If it costs more to perform the audit than they're likely to recover then they don't audit.

I made ~$40K in the first 9 months of 2012 when I was working for my previous employer but those taxes should be fairly straight forward (1040). I only made ~$3000 in the last 3 months of 2012 from my business and that's the only part that the CPA and I discussed.

QUESTION:
So I've went out and bought Quickbooks Pro and am currently entering all my invoices and receipts from last year in preparation of filling out my Schedule C form. I am little confused about how to account for small consumables. Stuff like wire nuts, electrical tape, nuts & bolts, etc.

The way quickbooks is set up lends to the way the Schedule C form is set up, and neither of them seem to want me to account for these things in a logical way. I buy the stuff, so it should be that I can claim it as a deduction, right? But the only way I see to enter it is as a "Cost of Goods Sold" which requires me classify them as inventory items and remove them from inventory as I use them, presumably not claiming the parts sold as deductions.

Well I'm not going to divide the cost of a 100ct box of washers into per piece price and charge my customers per washer and keep a record of exactly how many I washers I use on a job, and then subtract that from how many are left in the box at the end of the year.

So how do you small business owners deal with these little consumables?

 

Yes, I owned my own business for 15yrs, I'm now employed at a University.

I during the good times was making 4000 a month. But, it eventually did the same thing.

I was pulled in for an Audit by the IRS. I was clean at the end the man said, Sir is this a business or a Hobby.

That day I put a (Gone out of Business sign on the door) and mailed my last tax check, with a letter of my intent.

I grabbed my fishing pole, stuck it in my truck and drove away.

6 thousand square feet of junk that I would never use again. (Bet the landlord had fun with that) hahaha

kv

Edit: Good luck to you, no matter what!

 

So how do you small business owners deal with these little consumables?

I believe you can put them into either line 38, or 22, but don't quote me one that...

 

I believe you can put them into either line 38, or 22, but don't quote me one that...

Line 38 is the "Cost of Goods Sold" thing that I am trying to avoid.

Line 22 doesn't seem to have a parallel in quickbooks, and the IRS instructions for line 22 are very vague. I'm afraid to use it. Well, I suppose I shouldn't be this year, but I'm afraid to get used to using it.

 

For a small business you can waste a lot of time counting beans. I would put it all into "Cost of goods sold". But to be sure, ask a CPA.

 

Line 38 is the "Cost of Goods Sold" thing that I am trying to avoid.

Line 22 doesn't seem to have a parallel in quickbooks, and the IRS instructions for line 22 are very vague. I'm afraid to use it. Well, I suppose I shouldn't be this year, but I'm afraid to get used to using it.

Ah, section III, not line 42... why name the section after one of the lines?
Thanks IRS, for making this easy on us...

Anyway, according to this from the IRS, it seems line 22 might be a reasonable choice...

 

Anyway, according to this from the IRS, it seems line 22 might be a reasonable choice...

Yessir, that's the PDF I had open. Maybe I'm just over(or under)thinking things, but I'm really confused by their explanation of line 22:

In most cases, you can deduct the cost of materials and supplies only to the extent you actually consumed and used them in your business during the tax year (unless you deducted them in a prior tax year).So I can only deduct the 44 washers that I used this year out of the box of 100? Or am I to deduct the 66 that are left? I'd like to deduct the whole box and be done with it. However, if you had incidental materials and supplies on hand for which you kept no inventories or records of use, you can deduct the cost of those you actually purchased during the tax year, provided that method clearly reflects income.What?
You can also deduct the cost of books, professional instruments, equip-ment, etc., if you normally use them within a year. However, if their useful-ness extends substantially beyond a year, you must generally recover their costs through depreciation.