Home Business Tax Savings
This course includes his ebook that has helped me with my own tax savings in recent years, four hours worth of audio on CD to help you reduce your taxes, access to live Q&A calls for three months and more!
He has some special introductory prices going on now. I’m not sure how long they might last.
You can find it here.
Sidenote: I hope you like the new look I’ve got for the site. I needed a change 
Before I start explaining how to build your own website, I thought it might be helpful if I explained how websites came into existence. This won’t be a very technical explanation. For really technical stuff, you should head over to my other blog – just starting it so there’s not much there yet.
To better understand how websites came into existence, it helps to know a little about computers and how they work. Again, nothing too technical, just sort of a very general approach to how computers work.
Long, long ago, in the 1950′s, 60′s, and 70′s, computers started becoming more and more popular for processing information. Before that, man used more primitive equipment such as pencils, paper and filing cabinets. It is often argued as to when the first computer was actually invented. Some argue that it was the abacus. Others argue that it wasn’t really a computer until it became more electronic. I don’t think it really matters. We are only interested in the computers that now sit on our desk. I do find the history of computers a very fascinating subject though, especially since I feel like I’ve lived through most of it.
For our purposes here, the computers we are talking about, the personal computer, started popping up in the 70′s and early 80′s. IBM, Apple, Radio Shack and many others started making computers that could be used at home. There were already gigantic computers used in companies, government offices, and universities.
Most of these computers were all created differently. They all basically did the same things: convert information to 1′s and 0′s, manipulate that information, and then return that information in some way back to the person (or machine) that started the whole process. Although they did basically the same things, the way they did it could be VERY different. The architecture and microchips that were used were many times very different. The instructions that these microchips needed were very different. They essentially spoke very different languages.
Computer programs were written to control the computer and the hardware (physical pieces of machinery such as the hard drive, floppy drive, monitor, etc.). These computer programs were called Operating Systems. Windows is an operating system. So is Mac OS X and Linux. As you probably know, these operating systems can be very different. They use different commands and instructions to talk to the hardware connected to the computer.
Programmers then wrote computer programs to work inside the operating systems. These programs are also called software. They ran ‘on top’ of the operating systems to help the computer user process information faster. Programs such as word processors, spreadsheets, accounting software, and many others were created. These programs have to be written in a way that will work with the operating system where the software will reside.
If I want my software to work on a Windows computer, I must write the code in such a way that it speaks the same language as my Windows computer. As many of you know, you can’t use software written for a Mac Computer on a Windows computer and vice versa. I must buy software that is written for my specific computer.
When the internet first began it was basically just text that was sent from one computer to another. It wasn’t until the World Wide Web came along and ‘sat’ on top of the internet that the addition of graphics and websites as we know them came into existence.
When our computers started making friends and wanting to pass information back and forth, they couldn’t communicate very well because they all spoke different languages. If I created a word processing document on my Windows computer, I couldn’t read it on my Mac computer. The language barrier was just too great.
Along came the browser and standards for the WWW. Today our browsers are written so that information can be read from the internet and ‘translated’ to our computer’s language. For all computers to connect together seamlessly, we needed a common language. These were not easy times. You may have heard of the browser wars. Eventually, a common language was agreed upon and all browsers were supposed to comply with those standards.
Some browsers complied more than others. The fight for dominance in the browser/operating system/computer arena still raised it’s ugly head occasionally, but today, for the most part, browsers comply with the standards. Some browsers go above and beyond and add other features, but they all (or most) maintain the essential standard. The common language, HTML or HyperText Markup Language, was born.
HTML made it possible for computers to now speak a common language. All computers, through the use of the internet and a browser could now ‘get online’ and connect with the world. They could see and understand the text regardless upon what type of computer it was created.
HTML allowed people to create web pages. These pages could then ‘link’ together to create web sites or interlinking pages. It helped us to pass information back and forth across phone lines.
HTML is not necessarily a programming language. It is a markup language. It allows us to take regular text documents and format them to make them easier to read as well as link to other text-based documents.
So, that’s a very basic explanation of how websites started. Hopefully, that helps you to understand the importance of HTML for connecting with the world.
My list of disadvantages:
I can’t think of any
One of the biggest reasons I believe that you need your own website is because I believe everyone could benefit by having their own home-based business. Not only would you personally benefit from having your own home-based business, but our economy as a whole would benefit as well. The more money we have trading hands, the better our economy will get. But, that’s another post.
Today I want to focus on the reasons I think everyone should have their own home-based business. I started making my list this morning on paper so that I could put them in order and I quickly realized that there really isn’t an order. Most of the reasons are equally important. So, here’s my list in no apparent order.
Since my passion is computers, books about computers and software, many of the things I buy for fun are actually used in my business, so they can be deducted for my taxes. One of my biggest expenditures is for computer related items. This was also true long before I started my home-based business. Now that I have an home-based business, I can deduct all those things from my taxes.
If I understand our tax laws correctly (don’t take my word for it, ask your accountant), the only thing you have to prove is that you consistently work on your business (3-5 hours per week could be enough) and that you do it with an intent to make profit. That’s an INTENT to make profit, it doesn’t necessarily HAVE to make a profit. The profit is a nice side benefit.
Again, I’m not an accountant nor do I play one on TV, so, you should check with your accountant. I do have a great resource that I consult often so that I know what questions to ask my accountant. You can find this resource here. All I really know is that having my own home-business for the last 7 years or so has tremendously helped with my tax bill. Apparently, the US government realizes the benefit to our economy when more people have home-based businesses and so, they reward them for their efforts.
I’m not sure how it got planted in our minds that working for someone else full time equates to ‘job security’. Long gone are the days when you could expect anyone, including your employer, to take care of you for most of your adult life and to watch out for your best interests. You are a liability to your employer. You cost him/her money and they are most always looking for ways to cut their costs.
If you are your own boss, then YOU decide how much you will get paid. YOU decide your salary and when you will get a raise. The sky is truly the limit when you are in control of your income. You have your own best interests at heart and you don’t have to depend on your employer’s good will toward you.
Even when I had my full time job, I kept the attitude that I was working for Cindy Cullen and my best client was my current ‘employer’ at the time. We can’t depend on keeping the same job for the majority of our lives anymore. And when things aren’t going as well, or I’m not advancing as fast as I’d like, it’s time to move on. With a home-based business to fall back on, this certainly becomes easier.
Being my own boss has taught me SO much about myself and about my past bosses. It’s taught me self-discipline, time management, and self-control. But, it’s also very fun to get to make my own decisions – good or bad!
And since my business is an online business, I can work from most anywhere I want as long as I have access to the internet. I personally have a laptop and a wireless verizon card so that I can have internet access most anywhere I go. I didn’t start out with these because I couldn’t afford them. But, even then, I could access a computer from the library or a friends or even an internet cafe.
These are just a few of the benefits for having my own home-based business. If it’s sparked an interest with you, let me know and I’ll try to help you get started with your own home-based business. The possibilities are truly endless and the sky is truly the limit. The only thing holding you back is you.
My friend, who now works at Apple, recommended that I read Aaron Hillegrass’ book COCOA Programming for Mac OS X to get a good grasp on iPhone programming. I started working through the book today. Oh, how I have missed you, c! Objective-C is a bit different than the c++ I used years ago, but wow it’s fun!
I made my first (lame) application in about 5 minutes. Yes, it was very lame but it was a fully functioning application. I can’t believe how much Xcode does for me now. I don’t have to worry so much about the graphics or the user interface – it’s so much easier than it used to be! I’ve still got a long way to go to get the syntax and terminology down, but I really look forward to learning and playing around with it!
This is really going to make the iPhone and iPad programming much easier once I get a better understanding of COCOA. It’s certainly a nice break from php/mysql after all these years. So, for those of you interested in getting started in iPhone programming, maybe this is the book for us to use? I’ll keep you posted on my progress. Just wish I had more time to work through it!
