Small business questions

[Brian Kent]

I have made wooden object for sale - turned communion ware and other altar pieces.
Currently I have a one-time large order of many communion pieces.
This may generated other requests for communion sets, and I want to me prepared.

I have a couple of simple questions:

Do you use a Small Business Accounting software, such as Quick Books or Excel templates?
If so, what?
Does it generate invoices?

What online sales platform do you use, such as Etsy, E-bay, or Go-Daddy?
Is it simple and Does it work?

Thanks.

[Jim Koepke]

Howdy Brian,

For my business a spreadsheet is sufficient.

In your case you may need features not required by me.

You will likely want to get a business license and figure out how to deal with the Tax Franchise Board in California. They will want sales tax and income tax from you.

You may want to have a resell permit. This will allow you to purchase materials without paying sales tax, but you then have to collect sales tax or include it in your price. Also do not buy things for your own use without paying sales tax. They have computers and lots of accountants paid to look for such things.

jtk

[Erik Loza]

+1 to Jim's comments. You may want to speak to an accountant about setting up something like an LLC or S Corporation, to shield yourself from excessive tax burden and otherwise make the tax laws work to your advantage.

Regarding the website, yes, I think you should do one. I brings visibility and credibility to your home business. I've only used Squarespace and though I don't do e-commerce through my site, it could easily be set up that way. Check out their templates some time. Best of luck with everything.

Erik

[Brian Kent]

I agree. I have a tax accountant who can handle the small business tax needs.

[Yonak Hawkins]

Setting up a corporation is something to consider. I have chosen not to. I have umbrella coverage on my homeowner's policy which covers my business and, in theory, increases limits to cover catastrophic events. The main reason is, the cost of filing two tax returns is much greater than the premium increase.

[roger wiegand]

There's a bit of learning curve associated with Quickbooks, substantial if you are learning accounting at the same time. I find the functionality in Quicken to be adequate to to my very small personal business needs. Once you start to have a lot of accounts payable/receivables, or employees it's probably worth tackling Quickbooks. I've been using the Quicken online payment/credit card system and found it to work well, with relatively modest fees so I can take credit cards with just my phone.

An LLC or S Corp will help shield you from liability. Only worthwhile if you have significant assets to worry about. You should absolutely have a business liability insurance policy. I'd read the fine print on any homeowner's insurance rider extremely carefully; they typically carefully exclude coverage of business activities.

Small business taxes are pretty trivial to sort through, I've had no problems just using the TurboTax small business version. I used an accountant the first year and they screwed up the depreciation tables something awful; I would have been much better off doing it myself, which I have ever since.

[Yonak Hawkins]

I'd read the fine print on any homeowner's insurance rider extremely carefully; they typically carefully exclude coverage of business activities.

Good point, roger. I have a rider specifically for my home business. I feel it's important to have an independent insurance agent to guide me. They provide a valuable service and the insurance companies pay for them.

[Rich Enders]

We chose MYOB as our accounting software. It is a inexpensive easy to use program that does all the things you will need and also includes things you haven't thought of yet. I had our CPA review the program when it first came out and he bought off and appreciated it every year since. Your question was will it generate invoices. Yes it will. But more important the invoices can be locked into the on board integrated inventory system, so... you will always know what you have in inventory, and the raw material cost of each item sold, and hence the gross margin of the sale.

It will handle payroll, sales taxes, project accounting, reports for quarterly estimates, 1099's that you may need to issue, and on and on and on.

[Steve Peterson]

Hi Brian,

California has a relatively simple process to go to the state board of equalization and apply for a sellers permit. I know it wasn't your original question, but anything that you sell within the state is supposed to have sales tax charged and sent to the state. My wife went through the process years ago and it was surprisingly easy. I don't even think you need a business license, just a sellers permit.

Steve

[Jerome Stanek]

I have been using My Invoices for invoices and estimates

[Greg R Bradley]

CA State Board of Equalization is easy for Sales Tax on selling items.

Quickbooks is silly easy for accounting software. It's basically garbage but they have flooded the market with advertising and simply own that market. FWIW, one of my businesses is a Quickbooks Pro Advisor and I am amazed at people that buy that crap. The problem is that most of the bottom end competitors are simply gone leaving few alternatives at the extreme bottom end. If you are simply selling a few item, not sure you need any software and could even word process professional looking invoices. Spreadsheet like Excel will even do the math for you on more complicated stuff.

The big issue I see for manufacturing in CA is the Prop 65 garbage. The liberals are trying so hard to drive all manufacturing business out of CA. One of my customers lost over $100K on product that he "manufactured" just from Prop 65 labels that seemed to fall off (or were removed) in the store. I own three businesses in CA and am partners in a half dozen more to various extents and I'm not sure I would suggest anyone have a small business in CA selling product.