Small Time Operator: How to Start Your Own Business, Keep Your Books, Pay Your Taxes, and Stay Out of Trouble

This is coming from someone who wants to start a blog/online/home business. Let's start with the positive: lots of extra and detailed tax write off information for sole proprietors. I'm using this book mainly to reduce my taxes since I have a relatively high income with high income taxes and this book seems to contain the most detail and various ways I can deduct my taxes. I'm using this book more as a reference than a read thru - which brings me to the negative side of this book . . . it's hard to read chapter by chapter. I feel like there's a lot of fluff, but with a few really good legal/tax points throughout the book.I don't own or plan to own a brick and mortar business - so a lot of the advice is not for me. I want to keep my operations really small, strictly staying online, collecting no sales tax, and not employing anyone (my main motive in business is to get tax-deductions for following my true passions - something I would do for free and in fact spend and lose money on). If my passions are profitable in some way, then HOORAY! But if not, at least I got tax-deductions doing something I enjoyed. Therefore, I still meet the criteria for my intention to make a profit. But as we all know, profit is not guaranteed in any and every business.The getting started chapter goes over business types (service, retail, manufacturing), business success info and advice, business location (mall, home, rural, industrial, zoning), financing (business loan types, grants, raising capital), legal structures (sole proprietor, LLC, etc.), legality of business names and trademarks, licensing permits, and liability insurance. I never plan to go in debt for business unless expansion would guarantee massive profits - in this case taking a loan is justifiable. I want to keep my liabilities naturally low and stay smart about risk to avoid buying insurance and avoid any catastrophes. Besides info about business names and trademarks, this chapter was a wash for me.I hate the bookkeeping chapter because it's too complicated. I was hoping for a simple and easy solution to keep track of everything. But there are a few useful tips and pointers if you're willing to dig through all the words.The growing up chapter explained the details in hiring employees and solidified my opinion that hiring employees is never worth it and if I were to ever hire, I would use contractors.The taxes chapter is the main reason I bought the book and it didn't disappoint - the gold is here. Unfortunately for me (but fortunately for you?), I just found out he wrote a different book that only covers tax deductions - had I known this, I would have bought that book. I'll probably check it out at the library. I advise you to look into it too if you're like me. There are so many deductions that are explained, I'm glad that I bought this book so that I don't have to hire someone to tell me and do my taxes for me. LOTS of tax intricacies I never even guessed existed were explained. Now I can and will deduct things confidently.The home business chapter is my second favorite since it also has tax-specific advice about home business.The only things in the last chapters which caught my eye are the legal aspects of publishing and trademarks. Also talks about websites and the internet.This is a great book for people who already have a pretty solid traditional small business and hope to improve upon it by expanding their business through expanding sales and hiring employees. It does have good nuggets for sole proprietors as well. Taxes are a headache, reading this book is a headache - but that is mostly because taxes are a complicated issue for most laypeople trying to start a business.

All of it

If you're considering starting a business but you don't know the first thing. This is the book for you. It breaks everything down into layman's terms and it's a very easy read. It also explains to you how to start up your business without needing a lot of expensive computer programs or even a computer. Many of the business startup books out there over complicate how to start a business. This is a perfect book.

This is a good book to get you thinking about what you need to consider in starting a business. No one book is going to give you all the answers but I have found this one has got me thinking about things I had not considered. Best of all it is an easy read, covering the highlights and letting you drill down to the areas you don't know enough about and seeing some of the things you don't need to consider. Where it covers thing about health inspections and you are not selling food you can skim over and may pick up something useful but again this is not the only book you will need but it will provide the ideas.

We purchased this book for my husband's friend and co-worker that is a welder who is interested in possibly branching out and starting his own business. The reviews appeared to be mixed on this book so I was a little hesitant to place the order, but per the description the book seemed to contain everything that we were looking for. Once the book arrived I flipped through and read a few snippets and to me, someone who is not a welder but does have a great deal of background in small business, the book seemed to give sound advice. We gave this to my husband's friend a few days ago and he was thrilled with the gift. If you know of any welders that are interested in learning more about having their own business opportunity then I would say this book is the perfect gift for them. We are very pleased with our purchase.If you like my review, or found it helpful, please click the " Helpful " button below.

This book covers all of the basics of small business accounting and will give you enough information to start things without having to hire an accountant. It also does a good job of letting you know your responsibilities to Uncle Sam and gives you some good advice on easing that blow.It isn't exhaustive, though. You'll still need to do a lot of research on the local level. As Kamaroff points out, some localities are conducive to business and some are intensively regulated. This is where a lot of your problems are likely to happen. While I appreciate the size of the scope necessary, I would have liked to have seen a state-by-state list of resources, or hints for more local information.Of course, being a New Yorker, that could have been a whole book in and of itself. (hint, hint)

Absolutely in love with this book. I bought it as a present for my (at the time) fiancee, who was starting his own towing business. Although he had 20+ years experience in the field, he didn't have any business owning experience- and avoided bookkeeping like the plague.When this book came, a curious peak turned into reading and re-reading, constantly referencing, and basically devouring this book. I was VERY impressed with the thorough and straightforward explanations in the book. I learned a lot from this book (even though I knew absolutely nothing about owning as business). When something wasn't explained to the degree either of us needed, the book provided resources on where that could be found.I think this book had a big impact on the success of his business today, and for myself- I finally learned how to do my own personal taxes/etc. Big thumbs up!

I highly recommend the book if you are thinking about starting a small business. It is chocked full of advice about records you should keep and how to stay out of trouble with the IRS. The book is an excellent reference to use again and again.

Very thorough book, fully recommended