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.

Starting my own business, and being a first timer, I needed clear, understandable information on how to establish and setup my business. This book is by far the easiest to follow. The author interjects some great insight and humor throughout. It's down-to-earth, easy to understand and follow. Do yourself a favor and get this book - you won't be disappointed.

This is the first book that I have been able to really understand tax wise.
It is explained so that someone like myself can get a good handle on how to move forward in a small business.

I recently started my own small business and this was the perfect book to understand the business side of what I do. As the only member I have to basically do all functions and the business part was my least favorite, mainly the tax part of it. The book is easy to understand and I can still refer to it if a question pops up. The tax section is especially helpful and allowed me to have questions for my accounting buddies so I wasn't completely lost!

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is considering starting a business or who already has one. It is updated annually. Easy to read, well organized and to the point.

The is The Book.

Many years ago, I had to learn--quickly--the basics of operating a business, and this book was a Godsend. I thought of it again nearly two decades later when my son got involved in a business with a friend. They both know their product and work hard, but have no experience with accounts receivable, payroll taxes, and all that other vaguely business-y buzz that inexperienced people fear they should know about but don't really understand.

This book is the way "in" if you didn't grow up in an entrepreneurial culture or spend years in business school. So helpful--yet painless!

I'm a business consultant and I repurchase this book every few years as a primary reference when dealing with small new startups. It's one of the bible's of the industry. Simple, concise, and a good read.

Comprehensive coverage of all aspects of starting a small business. It's especially helpful for new online sellers. The tax topics clarify this very confusing area.

I started driving for Uber as a contract worker, which means I have to pay my own taxes and Social Security. This book helped me out on what to do with taxes, but there wasn't much info on how to file quarterly reports to Social Security for FICA (Social Security/Medicare). It is OK, but not the go-to book I was looking for to assist someone with no business background. I guess I'll pay an accountant to spend an hour explaining to me what gets filed and when. This book is OK for an overall perspective, but really wasn't helpful regarding Social Security/Medicare payments and how I make them, how often, and where I send the 15.3% I'm setting aside.

I have purchased a lot of books about business, accounting, taxes, etc. by far, this is the best one. I read this book in one day - approximately 230 pages and I obtained a wealth of information.