7 Must-Know Financial Tips Before You Start a Side Hustle

Hey everyone. And thanks for joining me this week, depending on where you’re listening. I hope you’re enjoying some spring weather where I am in Southeast Florida. We had a few spring days, but it already feels like summer.

I recently had a fantastic restaurant meal with friends for the very first time since the pandemic, it was amazing. We sat outside and it was a really windy night, but a beautiful evening. And I’m looking forward to doing a lot more of that and taking a road trip to see family and friends, and a few weeks after my second vaccine dose kicks in. I hope you’re also feeling hopeful or seeing some bright spots in your life. And if you’re a new listener, I’m thrilled that you’ve downloaded the show and hope you’ll stick around by subscribing. My name is Laura Adams. I’m a personal finance and small business expert, author and educator. Who’s been writing and hosting money girls since 2008. My mission is to help you get the knowledge and motivation to prioritize your finances, build wealth and have more security and less stress. While there are still millions of people who are unemployed or underemployed due to the pandemic.

One upside has been a significant increase in the number of new businesses. Now, whether this is through necessity or opportunity starting a full-time venture or even working a part-time side, hustle comes with lots of benefits. Years ago, I broke away from the traditional nine to five world and started working for myself. I wanted to do fulfilling work without fighting layers of bureaucracy or having to attend hours of company meetings. But I started my entrepreneurial journey slowly by creating a business on the side. I mean, I did it for probably over a decade before I really went full time. Keeping my day job allowed me to test out my business ideas while maintaining my extra income. If you also want the freedom and flexibility to do truly gratifying work and wake up excited about being your own boss, you can do what I did even starting a part-time side gig to earn extra money is a fantastic way to create more security and accomplish your financial goals.

So on today’s show, which is number 679 called seven must know financial tips. Before you start a side hustle, we’ll review critical financial issues to consider before you begin to venture. And those tips will help you succeed as always you’ll find the notes for the show and the money girl [email protected]. All right, so let’s get into it. We’ve got a lot of detail on seven must know financial considerations before you become an entrepreneur. So tip number one is determine your business entity. When you work for yourself, there’s a lot to do. You might need to look for new clients, create deliverables for current clients, bill customers, search for contractors, or do a million other things. But one of the first tasks you should do is choose your business entity. This is so important because your business entity determines your business structure. According to the laws in your state, you need to know your business entity and the name of your business.

Before you can get a business bank account, business insurance, or even pay your taxes. However, choosing a business entity can also be a passive decision. If you don’t register your business with the state, you will automatically be a sole proprietor. That’s why many self-employed people start as sole proprietors by default. In fact, if you’re doing freelance work or you’ve got a small side hustle, you may have a sole proprietorship right now and not even realize it. There isn’t one best entity for a given business, and it’s not a binding decision as your business needs change. It’s possible to change your business entity. In addition to a sole proprietorship, some common business entities include a general partnership, a limited liability company, or LLC, a C corporation and an S corporation. As I mentioned, most small businesses start as a sole proprietorship, and then they may change into a corporation or an LLC as they grow.

The reason you may not want to remain a sole proprietor indefinitely is that there’s no distinction or legal separation between you and your business as a sole proprietor. You’re entitled to all the profits of the business, but you’re also responsible for all the businesses, debts and liabilities. That means in addition to your business assets, your personal assets, things like your savings vehicles and even your home could be at risk because you’ve got unlimited personal liability for all the obligations of your sole proprietorship. On the other hand, if you separate yourself from your business by incorporating or forming an LLC that protects your personal assets, but the downside is that it involves some administration and a little cost. The business entity you choose comes with significant financial and legal considerations. So it’s not something that you want to take lightly. Each type of entity has different pros and cons, including the complexity of formation and the annual requirements.

Your business entity affects the tax. You have to pay. What happens to you in a lawsuit, yearly paperwork you have to do, and the amount of personal exposure you risk. So always consult with a tax accountant or a business attorney to make sure you’re prepared for the unexpected legal and financial bumps in the road. As you begin a new venture, or you transition from one business entity to another, all right, the second tip is know what taxes you will owe. Once you’ve settled on a business entity, you need to know how to file taxes. That’s an area where most new entrepreneurs have a lot to learn because it can get pretty complicated when you start making money as your own boss, I recommend having a qualified tax professional, such as a certified public accountant or CPA for help preparing individual and business tax returns. These professionals have to meet education and experience requirements, and they can even represent you before the IRS.

If you get audited, if you’re unsure where to find a tax professional, maybe ask other business owners, you know, for recommendations, or you might want to check out the American Institute of certified public [email protected]. With most business entities you automatically get, or you’ve got the option to elect pass through income for tax purposes, pass through income simply means that the business profit or loss goes directly to you. Then you report that income on your personal tax return. For instance, sole proprietors must file form 10 40. That’s the individual income tax return. And they also file form 10 40 schedule C, which is profit or loss from business as a sole proprietor. A regular C corporation is the only entity that must pay taxes separately from the owners. A C corporation must file form 1120, the U S corporation income tax return. However, there is a variation on this.

If you elect to become an S corporation, you can choose pass through income. Instead, an S corporation must file form 1120 S that’s the U S income tax return for an S corporation and furnish copies of form 1120 S, which is called schedule K one to the shareholders. And if you’re an LLC, you can elect to be taxed as a sole proprietorship. If there’s just one member, you can elect to be taxed as a partnership or even as a corporation. So an LLC gives you a lot of flexibility when it comes to the way that you pay taxes. Since self-employment income is not subject to tax withholding, like it is when you have a W2 paycheck, you must pay estimated taxes quarterly, and you do that using form 10 40 E S that’s estimated tax for individuals or 1120 w which is estimated tax for corporations.

And by the way, there’ll be links to all these tax forms that I’m mentioning in the notes for the show they’re in the money girl [email protected]. Additionally, when you’re self-employed, you’ve got to also pay the self-employment tax or S E tax. When you’ve got passed through business income, this is similar to the social security and Medicare taxes that get withheld from most workers’ paychecks. You pay this using form 10 40 schedule S E. Remember that when you’re an employee, your employer pays half of your social security and Medicare taxes for you. A lot of people don’t even realize that, but when you create your own income, you’ve got to pay the full amount of tax. And that can take some new entrepreneurs by surprise. Again, working with a good accountant is essential to pay the right amount of estimated tax on time. All right, the third tip is separate your business transactions because you have to report business income and expenses on your taxes each year.

It’s critical to keep your business and personal transactions separate. For example, if you don’t know which expenses were personal or business, you might forget to claim a qualifying business expense as a business tax deduction. That would cause you to overpay taxes and lose money. Although it’s not against the law to mingle business and personal finances, it makes filing taxes, monitoring the status of your business, working with an accountant and even selling your business down the road, much more difficult. So to stay organized, you could combine your personal and your business finances and just be meticulous about categorizing them using accounting software, such as QuickBooks, or you can open a separate business bank account and run all your business, income and expenses, including payments to yourself through that business account, to open up a business checking, you’re going to need documentation for your business entity, for instance, with a sole proprietorship, you need a social security number, or even a tax identification number, which is a T I N with an LLC. You’ll need your T I N. And your articles of incorporation. If you’re a sole proprietor and your business name does not match your real personal name, a business bank typically requires you to register a DBA name that stands for doing business. As you register that with the state, and this process is also known as filing a fictitious name or registering a trade name. It simply puts the public on notice that you are using a different name for your business than your personal name. And again, it’s required to have a business checking account

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That’s P I N N a dot F M slash promo, and use the code money for two free months. Okay. Tip number four, understand business deductions. I mentioned that tax deductions allow you to pay less tax. So you got to get familiar with which expenses are partially or fully deductible and claim every legitimate tax break possible. In addition to paying less tax qualifying tax deductions can give you nice perks, like having a meal at a terrific restaurant with a potential client, combining a business trip and a vacation and making a home office costs less. Here’s a list of some common business expenses that you might be able to claim as deductions there’s advertising auto expenses, business books, magazines, educational materials, and conferences, business losses, computer equipment, and software fees to professionals, such as an accountant or a consultant, office supplies, equipment, and furniture travel, including transportation, lodging tips, and 50% of your meals.

The IRS allows you to deduct any ordinary and necessary expense for conducting your business to earn a profit. When in doubt, what you want to do is categorize a cost as deductible and then consult with your accountant about it at tax time, moving on to tip number five, create a financial safety net. While you might’ve heard some entrepreneurs encourage you to just quit your day job and start working from a beach or while traveling the globe. That’s not a successful strategy for most. The more you can shore up your finances before starting a business, the more options you will have, even if you have income from a day job, you may have substantial expenses getting your side hustle off the ground. You may also have customers who pay you more slowly than you’d like, or seasonal opportunities that cause your business revenue to fluctuate a bit part of creating healthy business and personal finances is building safety nets that protect you and help reduce stress because life and money are unpredictable.

The best financial safety net is a cash reserve. If you don’t have any savings, take advantage of your day jobs, steady paycheck to build a cash cushion. Now, having as much financial resilience as possible will allow you to leave your day job sooner or increase the investment you put in your business. A cash reserve keeps you safe and prevent you from going into debt during a rough financial patch in your personal or your business life. Having a cash reserve becomes even more critical. If you plan to quit a W2 paycheck and rely entirely on your business while no one can predict the future, I recommend having enough to cover your living expenses for at least three to six months. Now these are just the basics such as housing utilities, groceries, insurance, and loan payments, not necessarily a full replacement of your monthly income, since you don’t know if you might need a cash reserve next week, next year, or in three years, I recommend that you keep it in an FDI.

See insured bank savings account. So it’s completely liquid and completely safe. Tip number six, ditch your debt. Another financial safety net. That’s important for many self-employed people is to reduce what you owe. Having fewer debts can take the pressure off. If your pay gets cut or you lose your job or business income, it can also be the key to living within your means. If you tend to overspend for some people owing any amount of money can be a source of stress. Even if you’re meeting your expenses and diligently saving for the future. In some cases, having additional income from a side hustle could be the answer to paying down debt or building a cash reserve. If you’re using credit cards and loans to finance a lifestyle that you truly can’t afford, consider the consequences. You may be paying for a life that you don’t genuinely want plus having little or no discretionary income can hold you back from building the business and life that you do want.

One way to analyze your debt level is to calculate your debt to income ratio or DTI. This is how much you’re paying for debt compared to how much you earn a healthy DTI ratio is less than about 35 to 40%. For example, let’s say the total of your mortgage payment car loan, student loan and minimum credit card payment is $2,500 per month or 30,000 per year. If you earn $80,000 a year, your DTI is $30,000 divided by $80,000, which is 0.3, eight or 38%. That puts you in the range that most lenders like to see. You can use the DTI ratio to monitor your finances over time. So you spot trends, pat yourself on the back. When your DTI ratio goes down and your cash reserve goes up. If you’d like to get a handy tool to help you calculate your DTI, I created a free calculator for you.

If you want to get it, simply text the phrase, my debt, M Y D E B T to the number three, three, four, four, four, and you can download it for free and begin tracking your DTI. It’ll also show you what the healthy ranges are. Again, just text my debt to the number three, three, four, four, four. If you don’t have any financial safety nets in place, don’t beat yourself up about it instead of dwelling on what’s wrong with your finances, just get started today, building a cash cushion and whittling down your most expensive debts. First tip number seven, get professional legal and financial help. As you can tell, there’s a lot to know about the legal and financial aspects of running a business, especially as you get started, or you begin to scale it instead of running in the dark, reach out to professionals who have answers to your questions.

It’s well worth your time and money to seek advice and make sure your business will be successful. And in many cases, consulting a tax or legal pro ends up saving you money in the long run. My new book, money smart solo preneur, a personal finance system for freelancers entrepreneurs and side hustlers offers a lot more information on building a business and your financial future. It gives step-by-step details for getting your side hustle or full-time venture off the ground and avoiding expensive mistakes. Not only does starting a side hustle protect your income, but it may allow you to widen your professional network and improve your career skills. If you enjoy your entrepreneurial work and find that it pairs well with your day job, the benefits and personal growth of doing both can really pay off hanging onto your day. Job may give you the financial security to try out new business ideas.

Especially if you have a spouse partner or kids, depending on your income, you have a lot to offer. It’s never too late to put your skills, ambition, knowledge, and relationships into an exciting new venture. What questions do you have about starting a side hustle or managing your personal finances? I would love to hear from you. You can leave me a voicemail by calling (302) 364-0308. You can also send me an email by using the [email protected]. And while you’re there consider signing up for my weekly newsletter. It’s a short update filled with tips and tools that I think you’ll enjoy for saving more growing your money and becoming an amazing money manager. You can get on the [email protected] or by sending me a text message, text the phrase, get updates with no space to the number three, three, four, four, four. And if you’re not an email, another great way to stay in touch is to join my private Facebook group called dominate your dollars. Just search for it on Facebook or text dollars, D O L L a R S to the same number three, three, four, four, four. I hope to see you in the group. That’s all for now. I’ll talk to you next week until then here’s to living a richer life. Money girl is produced by the audio wizard, Steve Ricky Berg with editorial support from Karen Hertzberg. If you’ve been enjoying the podcast, take a moment to rate and review it on apple podcasts. New episodes are released every Wednesday.