creative machine funding ideas

Pat of TN said:
Hmm, I see... now that is interesting! Would one have to be "officially" a business - thus paying for SS taxes and Medicare and such for the sole employee...?
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As owner of an unincorporated business you are not an employee. You would have to pay self-employment tax but you would not have to deal withholding (though you might need to make estimated payments if you did well).

? Hmm... I suppose I should research this on my own, but... that is a fantastic thing indeed. Sell $1000 worth of stuff, and every time you save up some profit - purchase something of the same or greater amount for that - material, tooling, machines... hah. With no visit from Mr. Tax Man...
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Sorry. It's not that easy.
 
Pat of TN said:
Hmm, I see... now that is interesting! Would one have to be "officially" a business - thus paying for SS taxes and Medicare and such for the sole employee...? Hmm... I suppose I should research this on my own, but... that is a fantastic thing indeed. Sell $1000 worth of stuff, and every time you save up some profit - purchase something of the same or greater amount for that - material, tooling, machines... hah. With no visit from Mr. Tax Man...
Click to expand...

Look at the rules for sole proprietor in your state. You may not have to form a business entity to operate and can use the standard 1040 form to file your income. There are additional forms for state sales tax and others I'm sure. Your EIN (Employer Identification Number) will likely be your SSN. There are certain reasons why you would want to form a business entity and incorporate, but these would be based on your income level and the taxation that occurs. As always: always verify with the IRS laws or tax lawyer for how to operate the small business and report taxes.


@bosephus, any consideration on selling the plans for your dies? I don't know if that will net any more earnings, but selling PDFs can be a lot cheaper than machining metal!
 
Pat of TN said:
Hmm, I see... now that is interesting! Would one have to be "officially" a business - thus paying for SS taxes and Medicare and such for the sole employee...? Hmm... I suppose I should research this on my own, but... that is a fantastic thing indeed. Sell $1000 worth of stuff, and every time you save up some profit - purchase something of the same or greater amount for that - material, tooling, machines... hah. With no visit from Mr. Tax Man...
Click to expand...


As a sole proprietor or a single member LLC, filing as a sole proprietor you would only pay SS and Medicare on the profits. I think you can expense out up to $125K for tools and equipment in a given year under the current law, I have never gotten close enough to that number to worry about it.

Now if you take that same $1 that I used in the example above and go buy a cheese burger off the dollar menu at McDonald's, then you have to pay taxes on it.

EDIT: I agree with John above, it's not quite that simple, but not too bad. Every year I buy TurboTax Home and Business and let that figure it out.
 
master53yoda

that makes sense , and i am going to take your advice .

compsurge

i almost hate to admit this , but both die's are so embarrassingly simple i'd be ashamed of myself for even thinking about selling a pdf mechanical drawing .
well not so much on my little neck sizing die ,.. with it i am just amazed i can not find where anyone else has made the same thing .
and it really is not a perfect solution , more of an adequate work around for a reloader to avoid having to spend a fairly substantial amount of money on a set of actual factory made reloading dies and possibly a new press that will accept the larger then standard dies .

i made mine because i just could not wrap my cheapskate head around paying anywhere from $100-$300 for a set of dies

the intermediate case forming die on the other hand i cant take any credit for , plenty of guys before me have made the exact same die .
and it is not absolutely necessary to have , it just makes life a bit easier and faster to make the cases with a standerd full length size die .
buying actual case forming dies for the 577-.450 is god awfully expensive ... rcbs form dies are well over $500 and are an oddball size as well
 
Do more with less
I found I did not need a big shop just think out side the box was lower in cost use very old tools work just as good new
Yes I have had new lathes and mills must later and found I wish I had the old back. No payments and low over head there will be lean times

Dave
 
good news on the funding front , chalk up another $ 42 after fee's for a neck sizing die . if my memory serves that should put me around $275 .
i have decided to stop and take deep breath for a week and listen to some sound advice from master53yoda .and re-adjust my marketing strategies a bit .
i am also going to expand into the wide world of gunbroker ... the fee's are a bit less and i have an account already .


i am also learning a bit of a lesson on how easy a hobby can snowball into a small business quite quickly . so far about half of the people who have bought my die's have contacted me asking about other things they would like to have made , things are looking quite good .
if things keep moving forward like it looks they will , it is almost going to be a shame to shut it down once i fund my mill
 
on vacation and the requests keep rolling in ... follow up requests from some that have bought my dies have trickled in ,... once i get back home and can spend a day or so working i'll be able to add another $260 odd dollars to my machine fund .


is it to soon for a happy dance
 
back home .. and way to soon at that .

but anyhoo i just spent a few hours taking care emailing and confirming all of my currant requests for dies i can see i am going to be a busy guy for the next couple days.
i also had to make a material order from enco for drill rod .. holy carp it disappears quickly .

i also rethought my pricing .. and raised them just a wee bit i didnt have a single compliant so i do think i was working to cheaply .
now i should have a happy meduim hopefully .. customers still get good value for their hard earned bucks and i make enough to be very happy .. win win

once everyone pays up and i deduct my material order from enco i should be at around 25% of my $2000 goal ... not to shabby
my ebay and gunbroker listings should resume end of the week once materials show up .


thanks for all the support and encouragement
 
great work Steve, glad to hear of the success!!!!
don't be afraid to charge for your expertise.
you are providing a good that is in demand and produced by very few.
it puts you in a good position.

don't forget Ebay will take their money from your sales.
make sure you cover your expenses and get paid for doing the work.
excellent work!!!
:man:
 
on the cost of doing business side of things that Ulma Doc brought up, i use a spread sheet to track my costs, any tooling, including the lathes etc. is included. My EBay and PayPal cost is 13% of the total, shipping is 10 to 15% of the total. In my case i have fuel costs and upkeep on the furnaces that I add in. They all come into play at tax time but they also are a direct cost against your profit. When i was working i used a labor rate based on what overtime pay would have been for my time, don't forget to ad another 20% to your actual time to cover chasing materials etc. and finally if you are not working on a precash basis you need to add another 5 to 10% for collecting money time. Add all this up add your profit and then you really know what you should be charging for what you are doing. It appears to me that you may be charging to little for what you are selling based on the demand. Take a look at what a normal Die would cost from a manufacturer and then you should be selling it for 150 to 200% of that price, because you a are providing an item that isn't available any where else, it is called a niche market.

"DON'T PROVIDE ANYONE YOUR DRAWINGS UNLESS THEY ARE WILLING TO PAY WHAT TEN SETS OF DIES WOULD SELL FOR."

That may sound like a hard line but... in my case if I had your drawings I could make those dies at about 35% or your costs with my sons CNC lathe and make 100 of them and flood the market at 1/2 your cost and then I would control the market. Don't think that someone wouldn't do it.

I'm glade to see you moving forward

Art B
 
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