I am just a guy that started a window washing business in 2015. Great with customers and a hard worker but I don’t have some degree in business. I am an Owner/Operated 1 man show as there was things with employees I didn’t like. I am very curious how you pay yourself, pay for business things how many accounts you have, how you decided funds for advertising etc. One of the things I struggle with is how hard it seems to manage money when your money is always different. My girlfriend is a nurse and it’s pretty easy to go okay every 2 weeks I make X and my taxes are paid and my 401k is taken out. It’s not very easy to manage money when your income changes every year, month, week, day etc.
I have a personal checking account (day to day bills)
I have a Business Checking account (ALL THINGS CLAIMABLE TO THE GOVERNMENT/Expenses.
-I have a Business Savings account ( I have no clue how to use)
I have a personal savings account with no money, very very little invested outside of a couple grand of crypto and no emergency fund.
I have no clue how to manage funds. It’s easy to say 7% for advertising but what 7% is one month is not the next month or one week is not the next week. I just wake up and am like I guess I’ll use send jim or throw some cash on facebook today.
Also how are you paying bills and managing money and please please I mean specifically not broad stroke. So I have personal bills come out automatically threw my personal checking routing/account number. I have considered having bills all come out one week and then stocking up for 3 weeks. Seems like it’s easier to track bills if you know 3 k comes out the 1st of every month than if every 4 to 9 days you got a new bill coming out.
So here is my biggest question if you drew me an arrow drawing of money coming in/out how would it look.
Business checking and once a month you log in and transfer 25% to business savings for taxes. Then you transfer you monthly expenses to personal checking. Then you put a dollar amount or % to emergency fun/personal savings. Then you take an exact amount or % for investing.
I know I am going to get ALOT OF read profit first answers lol. I have seen an audio version and am not against reading the whole thing. Outside of profit first how are you figuring out your advertising $ or % when money is always different. My gross income for 2020 was 149 k and 60 k net cuz my accountant depreciated lots of shit for personal reasons. My 2021 was 95 k gross and 65 k net and somehow im broke as a joke.
I pretty much do something similar to this , but I make my deposits every Friday . After I allocate the funds to my other accounts and pay what ever bills I have . I think that’s the key , most bigger companies do their deposits every 15th and last of the month , then allocate and pay every bill .
Everyone is different, we all pay a different tax bracket . I’m married with 3 kids and a mortgage. So I will pay less in taxes than someone single with no kids.
I struggled with this too at first, but then I read the book PROFIT FIRST and modified his way that suits me and my tax preparer likes it.
I also do a PROFIT LOSS STATEMENT with a template I downloaded from S.C.O.R.E. that easily calculates income and expenses. My tax preparer also loves that.
Everything is deducted in percentages as you see in the graphic. I keyed in $1,000 just to use an easy number for example.
I suggest get the book, get a tax preparer who knows small business deductions, take the stress out and go earn money, then plug in the numbers.
If your actual net take home after taxes is roughly 60k, then that’s $5k per month.
Let your business account build up to at least $10-15k and try and keep it above that amount (except maybe letting it draw down some during your offseason, if you have one)
Pay yourself a monthly salary of maybe $4500?. Pay all your bills once a month. Set aside money in virtual accounts for weekly expenses like groceries, etc. Also setup a virtual account within your personal account to cover less frequent expenses: car repairs, quarterly bills, yearly bills, etc.
Put as much as you can that’s leftover to build up an emergency savings. This should be at least 3-6 months worth of living expenses. Also keep in the back of your mind things you could do to tighten your belt if you were suddenly out of work, allowing your emergency savings to stretch as far as possible.
As far as allocating business funds, it sounds like you might need a marketing plan. Or maybe you’re at the point where winging it to some extent seems to be working ok for you. $149k gross is nothing to sneeze at.
You might also want to consider making the S-corp election. I’ve written quite a bit about it before, so I won’t go into detail here. But it could save you thousands on your tax bill.
Also ask your cpa about retirement investing and what kind of fund would work best for your scenario. Regular IRA’s are good because they’re tax deferred; you only pay tax when you withdraw from it, and you’ll likely be in a lower tax bracket during retirement.
I’m gonna check this out , thank you Garry . I’m also on the profit first model , been doing it for the last 2 years . Been finally able to save some money since then . Gonna put my son on the books this year so I need tool like this .
One good point I found on profit first is that
As human beings we tend to spend what ever we have . So the model is made to allocate the money as soon as you make your deposits . This allows you to not spend money that’s intended to be saved
My accountant told me an LLC is not the best idea for me cuz I’m not the best with my books and as an LLC you have to have your crap together more frequently
What is the difference between Owners pay and Profit lol. Also how is your taxes 17% instead of 25%. Lastly 3% Operating expenses that seems insanely low. Appreciate the response but the numbers threw me for a loop.
Right off the top “owner” takes 16%, plus 27% for payroll (me and an as needed helper). I’m in it to get paid! lol
3%? 4% operating + 7% marketing = 11% available quarterly. Some quarters I spend it towards that, some quarters it is applied to next quarter; helpful if the expenditure is needed at certain times of the year - just depends on what is going on and what is needed at the time. It works by allocating funds to different areas so I am not tempted to spend it where it doesn’t belong.
everyting i see here is way too complicated for me. i have operated successfully for 40+ years with a business account, a personal account, and one credit card. i also have a line of credit.
i got profit first but never finished it , it is so needlessly complicated. if you like complicated great i don’t.
one business account receives all business income and pays all business expense.
if you have employees and use a payroll service set yourself up to receive a draw every payday if you’re not using a payroll service set up an auto transfer from your bus acc to your personal.
the amount of your draw. your draw is based on a reasonable amount based on the work you personally over the course of the year it does not vary from week to week or month to month and must. put everything you can on autopay and pay all bills and taxes asap. your account will grow throught the year but think of the money as other peoples. at year end once everything is paid you leave the balance so your draw and expenses are covered during the slow periods. you have my number.
No she acknowledged an LLC is great just that if you’re not the most organized bookwise and you have more communication with the government you can end up penalized in other words until you I have my s*** together she thinks I should not be an LLC lol
I’ve just always read that you should put 25% away for taxes. But it sounds like write-offs are bringing that number down am I understanding that correctly
Then you have your marching orders. Time to get your **** together.
It’s not as hard as you imagine. And your cpa may be able to refer you to a good bookkeeper who can help you get quickbooks setup and organized properly.
Write offs bring your net lower and hopefully takes you low enough to a lesser tax bracket. That’s the beauty of owing a business , pay taxes on your net not your gross.
If you feel like you’ll be around the same 95k gross , I would continue to put away 16% in a savings account every time you make a deposit . You can nickname accounts , business taxes , long term saving , short term savings or down payment on house . Try and only make your deposits once a week , this makes it easier to manage. Make sure you put away at least 10% in your personal savings . You don’t need a business degree to do this , just disciple .
I started 4 years ago and immediately paid myself the same as I made as a teacher. It was hand to mouth for a good while. I’m working on implementing profit first.
I definitely interested in the info above. Good stuff from guys that are smarter than me and been doing it long enough to know what to do.
