Small Time Operator: How to Start Your Own Business, Keep Your Books, Pay Your Taxes

Book Preface

You can be your own boss. All it really requires is a good idea, some hard work, and a little knowledge. “A little knowledge” is what this book is all about. Small Time Operator will show you how to start andoperate your own business.

Small Time Operator is also written for anyone who is self-employed: professionals, freelancers, artists, consultants, and independent contractors. You may not consider your occupation a “business,” but the laws, rules, procedures, bookkeeping, taxes, and most everything else you need to know to be successful are pretty much the same. And Small Time Operator is, hopefully, the road map to your success.

Small Time Operator is a technical manual, a step-by-step guide to help you set up the machinery of your business, the “business end” of your business, and keep it lubricated and well maintained. It is written in everyday English so anyone can understand it. You will not need a business education or an accounting dictionary to grasp the concepts or do the work.

Many people think that businessmen and businesswomen all come out of business school, kind of like Chevys coming out of a General Motors assembly plant. This just isn’t true. I know many people in business, and most of them had no formal business education and little or no experience. Some new small business owners are people who just got tired of the “9-to-5” life, tired of working for someone else, and decided to go into business for themselves.

Some are people—hardworking, talented people— who lost their jobs due to corporate downsizing and outsourcing.

Many new businesspeople are still holding on to their regular jobs but starting a part-time, sideline business, probably at home, to bring in some extra income, or to make a little money at something that started out as a hobby, or to experiment with their business ideas and learn the ropes before going at it full time.

And many people start their own businesses because they are the kind of individuals who want to control their own destiny, to find independence, to succeed on their own terms. Small Time Operator comes out of my experience during the past twenty years as a consultant and accountant for small businesses, and from operating three of my own small businesses. I’ve learned from successes, and I’ve learned from mistakes, my own and others’. Now I hope to teach you what I’ve learned.

Small Time Operator will show you things to do and things not to do. But like any book, it can’t do more than that. You’ve got to go ahead and do it yourself. Bilbo Baggins said, “One should always begin at the beginning.” That’s where you are now. Other people, many others, run their own small businesses. You can too.

Brief Contents
Detailed Contents xi
Preface: Be Your Own Boss xix
Chapter 1 Getting Started 1
Chapter 2 Bookkeeping 35
Chapter 3 Growing Up 65
Chapter 4 Taxes 93
Chapter 5 Home Business 137
Chapter 6 Your Business 153
Appendix The Ledgers 199
Index 215
About the Author 229